Els Verstrynge

Els Verstrynge is an Associate Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Science, KU Leuven. Her work focuses on the durability of brittle construction materials and structural resilience of existing buildings, particularly those of architectural heritage. She leads interdisciplinary research projects utilizing multi-scale numerical modeling, advanced non-destructive testing (NDT), and 4D X-ray tomography to study concrete and masonry degradation.

• Research emphasizes reinforcement corrosion, fatigue fracture, and climate-induced degradation
• Develops Bayesian updating techniques for corrosion assessment and AI-driven structural analysis (CHAI project)
• Supervises PhD research on fracture mechanics and degradation processes

Her work bridges experimental and computational methods, contributing to conservation strategies for aging infrastructure and innovative reuse of building materials.