Doctoral School

Reading date: 08/09/2026

• BELLAFIORE, GASPARE: Résidence Le Parc à Meudon-la-Forêt. Tectónica y decoro urbano en la obra de Fernand Pouillon.
  
  Author: BELLAFIORE, GASPARE
  Programme: DOCTORAL DEGREE IN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
  Department: Department of Architectural Design (PA)
  Mode: Normal
  Deposit date: 13/07/2026
  Reading date: pending
  Reading time: pending
  Reading place: pending
  Thesis director: PEÑIN LLOBELL, ALBERTO
  Thesis abstract: This research examines the relationship between compositional procedures and construction methods in the architecture of Fernand Pouillon, taking the complex of Résidence Le Parc in Meudon-la-Forêt (1959-1962) as a paradigmatic case study. The study begins with a diagnosis of the condition of contemporary architecture, marked by a growing fracture between the act of designing and the act of building. It notes a drift toward a production that entrusts its expressiveness to the image, the authorial gesture, or technical sophistication rather than to the internal reasons of the work. Faced with this displacement, the research recovers the concept of tectonics—not as a stylistic category or a synonym for technicality, but as the syntax through which construction becomes architectural language. It argues that Pouillon's work in Meudon-la-Forêt constitutes a privileged material verification of this hypothesis. The theoretical framework articulates two critical traditions often treated separately: Anglo-Germanic tectonic analysis (Bötticher, Semper, Sekler, Frampton) and the Latin theory of analogical decorum developed in France by Quatremère de Quincy and Julien Guadet. The research argues that a conjunction of both is necessary to read Pouillon's work, reconstructing the genealogy of French constructive rationalism—from Philibert de l'Orme to Auguste Perret—as the cultural horizon that makes his choices intelligible. In this reading, Pouillon emerges not as an exception within post-war modernity, but as a "transformative continuator": an architect who reactivates the French classical tradition and translates it to the operational conditions of reconstruction and mass social housing. The work is structured into three parts. The first reconstructs the theoretical framework of tectonics. The second traces the cultural genealogy of Pouillon's thought and analyses the operational context of post-war Paris. The third part develops a multiscalar analysis of Résidence Le Parc, covering the problems of the framed wall, stone as a tectonic and ethical core, the travée as a device of order. The study reaches four main theses:First: The hybrid construction system of Meudon—load-bearing Fontvieille stone articulated with reinforced concrete slabs—is not a technical compromise, but a new tectonic synthesis that reactivates the logic of load-bearing mass under conditions of industrial prefabrication. Second: The travée functions in Meudon as a "total operator" of the project, simultaneously coordinating construction logic, facade composition, and interior spatial organization, extending to the urban scale as the rhythm of public space. Third: Decorum in Pouillon does not respond to the strict truth of the Perretian frame, but to a "lithic verisimilitude" (vraisemblance)—an expressive adequacy between form, construction, and civic character—that reformulates Quatremère’s principle of analogical decorum for modern conditions. Fourth: The civic dimension of the work is not an ethical supplement added to formal decisions, but the direct effect of the construction grammar itself assumed as a shared language. The research is based on specialized critical bibliography (Lucan, Bonillo, Ferlenga, Sayen), primary sources from Pouillon’s archives, heritage documentation from the French Ministry of Culture, and direct measurements taken in the municipal archives of Meudon-la-Forêt. Its main contribution consists of articulating tectonic analysis and the theory of decorum within a single analytical device, proposing a systematic reading of the travée as the syntactic atom of the project, and defending the relevance of Pouillon’s lithic lesson for the contemporary debate on civic architecture and collective housing.
  

• MONTERO VEGA, MARIANA: Joint Operations of Autonomous Delivery Robots and Mobile Micro Hubs: A Continuous-Approximation and Game-Theoretic Assessment for Urban E-Commerce Logistics
  
  Author: MONTERO VEGA, MARIANA
  Programme: DOCTORAL DEGREE IN CIVIL ENGINEERING
  Department: Barcelona School of Civil Engineering (ETSECCPB)
  Mode: Article-based thesis
  Deposit date: 03/07/2026
  Reading date: 08/09/2026
  Reading time: 11:00
  Reading place: UPC Campus Nord, ETSECCPB, C/ Jordi Girona 1-3, edific C2, Sala 212 (Sala Conferències), Barcelona
  Thesis director: ESTRADA ROMEU, MIGUEL ANGEL
  Thesis abstract: Last-mile logistics is one of the most resource-intensive and externality-generating segments of urban freight systems, yet market forces consistently fail to align private incentives with social objectives. This thesis investigates the conditions under which Autonomous Delivery Robots can serve as a catalyst for a more sustainable and equitable urban logistics paradigm, examining the problem through the Desirability-Feasibility-Viability framework across four interconnected studies.On the desirability side, a global survey of 1,344 e-commerce users across Europe, Asia, and North America reveals that acceptance of ADRs is real but structurally uneven. Socio-demographic factors, particularly gender, age, and urbanity shapes delivery preferences in ways that have direct implications for infrastructure design and deployment strategy. Parcel lockers emerge as the most preferred delivery modality globally, a finding that motivates their inclusion as a full market participant in the subsequent viability analysis. A multi-regional acceptance study combining structural equation models with an ordered logit model identifies perceived competence as the central mediating variable driving behavioral intention across all regions, while revealing that risk sensitivity and price barriers are significant only in markets where ADRs have not yet achieved commercial deployment. On the feasibility side, the moving micro hub (MMH) concept, a two-echelon system combining Autonomous Hub Vehicles with ADRs is introduced and evaluated through a continuous approximation model across multiple urban demand scenarios. The system reduces delivery costs by 40–55% relative to business-as-usual (BaU) while significantly lowering global warming potential, with ADR body capacity emerging as the dominant cost lever and operational speed as essentially irrelevant. User-derived design constraints from the desirability studies including robot height preferences, multi-compartment design, and off-peak delivery windows are incorporated directly as operational parameters, establishing a quantitative link between stated user preferences and system cost structure.On the viability side, a two-stage game-theoretic model demonstrates that cooperation among business-as-usual, moving micro hub, and parcel locker operators never emerges endogenously under market conditions: the ε-core is strictly positive across all Monte Carlo simulations when there is little to no taxation , establishing that public subsidy is a structural necessity rather than a transitional feature. A Stackelberg regulatory layer shows that Pigovian and diversified tax schemes achieve near-subsidy-free coalition stability at substantially lower fiscal effort than flat entry tolls, while producing fairer profit distributions and maintaining the viability of all three operators. Critically, the minimum subsidy required is shown to be substantially smaller than the monetized externality savings generated by the demand shift toward cleaner technologies, reframing public investment in coalition support as a fiscally efficient instrument for urban sustainability rather than a transfer to private operators. Taken together, the findings establish that the future of last-mile logistics will not be decided by technology alone. ADRs are operationally viable and environmentally beneficial, but their transformative potential depends on the willingness of regulators to price externalities, of system designers to align operational parameters with real user needs, and of policymakers to accept that stable cooperation among heterogeneous operators is a governance achievement, not a market outcome.
  

Reading date: 10/09/2026

• COLLADO CIPRÉS, VERÓNICA: Hot deformation behaviour of WC–Co cemented carbides
  
  Author: COLLADO CIPRÉS, VERÓNICA
  Programme: DOCTORAL DEGREE IN MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
  Department: Department of Materials Science and Engineering (CEM)
  Mode: Article-based thesis
  Deposit date: 03/06/2026
  Reading date: 10/09/2026
  Reading time: 11:30
  Reading place: ESCOLA D'ENGINYERIA BARCELONA ESTC/Eduard Maristany, 16 (08019 Barcelona)EDIFICI A planta 0, SALA D'ACTEShttps://meet.google.com/pcm-czdv-rxr
  Thesis director: LLANES PITARCH, LUIS MIGUEL | GARCÍA, JOSÉ LUIS
  Thesis abstract: This PhD thesis presents a systematic approach to describe, model, and understand the hot deformation behaviour of cemented carbides—composite materials based on tungsten carbide (WC) and cobalt (Co), commonly known as hardmetals—under service-like conditions. The work aims to bridge the gap between traditional room-temperature studies and the complex mechanical demands encountered at elevated temperatures.Hardmetals are used in applications requiring extreme mechanical performance, such as cutting tools, mining equipment, and forming dies. Historically, research has concentrated on their room-temperature properties, mainly hardness and fracture toughness. However, such studies do not capture the complex mechanical behaviour at elevated temperatures, where plastic deformation becomes a dominant wear mechanism.Previous investigations into high-temperature deformation have primarily relied on creep testing, which is conducted under very low strain rates and constant stress. While these studies have helped to identify deformation regimes and mechanisms such as grain boundary sliding and binder infiltration, they do not reflect the dynamic, high-strain-rate conditions experienced during actual service, such as in machining operations. Similarly, research on hot hardness has shown that fine-grained WC structures tend to retain higher hardness at lower temperatures but may soften more rapidly at elevated temperatures—highlighting the need for a deeper understanding of microstructural effects under thermal stress.This thesis addresses these critical knowledge gaps by systematically studying the hot deformation behaviour of WC–Co cemented carbides under service-like conditions, with strain rates ranging from 0.0005 to 0.1 s⁻¹ and temperatures from 700 °C up to 1000 °C. The research unfolds in three interconnected stages. The first study investigates sintered cobalt, the binder phase in WC–Co. Through hot compression testing, the deformation mechanisms were characterised, revealing a creep exponent of n = 5 and an activation energy consistent with self-diffusion in face-centered cubic Co. These findings indicate that deformation is governed by dislocation glide and climb.A physically based constitutive equation was developed to describe the peak stress in WC–Co as the sum of three components: stress carried by the binder, stress accommodated by the WC, and stress arising from the interaction between the two phases. The WC phase exhibited an activation energy of 585 kJ/mol, attributed to W pipe diffusion, and a high stress exponent (n = 19), indicating minimal sensitivity to temperature and strain rate—typical of ceramic materials. The interaction term was modelled using the binder mean free path and carbide skeleton stiffness, revealing its significant influence on overall mechanical resistance.The final study incorporated WC grain size into the constitutive model. Experimental results demonstrated that fine-grained WC structures exhibit higher resistance to plastic deformation at lower temperatures due to grain boundary strengthening. However, this advantage diminishes rapidly at elevated temperatures, where grain boundary sliding and binder infiltration become dominant deformation mechanisms. Coarser WC grains, while less resistant at room temperature, maintain structural integrity more effectively under thermal stress. Microstructural analysis via electron back-scattered diffraction confirmed these trends, highlighting the role of grain boundaries, phase transformations, and interface behaviour.These studies provide a framework for understanding and optimizing the high-temperature mechanical behaviour of WC–Co cemented carbides. By bridging the gap between microstructural characterisation and physical modelling, this thesis advances the field beyond traditional room-temperature and creep-based analyses, offering practical tools for designing hardmetals capable of withstanding extreme service conditions.
  

• MURILLO GOMEZ, NELSON ENRIQUE: COASTAL HAZARDS, RISKS AND ADAPTATION IN THE BARRA DE SALAMANCA (COLOMBIA)
  
  Author: MURILLO GOMEZ, NELSON ENRIQUE
  Programme: DOCTORAL DEGREE IN MARINE SCIENCES
  Department: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (DECA)
  Mode: Normal
  Deposit date: 16/07/2026
  Reading date: pending
  Reading time: pending
  Reading place: pending
  Thesis director: JIMENEZ QUINTANA, JOSE ANTONIO
  Thesis abstract: Coastal sandbars are generally elongated landforms that provide protection to environmental, socioeconomic, and infrastructural ecosystems from extreme events, but are highly sensitive to morphodynamic changes driven by natural and anthropogenic processes. This is further complicated by the uncertainty Surrounding the expected sea-level rise in the coming years. These dynamics generate pressures and motivate land managers to understand the genesis of their morphological evolution, the physical agents that modulate it, the risks associated with the diversity of their exposed ecosystems within a tolerance limit, and to propose sustainable adaptation measures for the future.This research reconstructs the morphological evolution of the Salamanca coastal sandbar (Colombia), located within a national and international conservation park, over the last 40 years, the physical agents present at decadal and episodic scales, and the assessment of threats associated with erosion and flooding. Understanding the past and considering sea level rise projections to 2050, a projected area susceptible to damage was identified. Within this area, the exposure and vulnerability of the exposed elements were assessed, and this, when integrated with the threats, allowed for the estimation of environmental, physical, and socioeconomic risks. Recognizing that risk cannot be eliminated because it is intrinsic to coastal development, we have proposed a model of tolerable risk levels and a list of adaptation measures grouped into strategies according to their implications for the coastal zone. The results showed that the sandbar is decreasing its sediment transport rates, indicating a search for morphological equilibrium. However, erosion rates of around -20 m/a at the most critical points are deteriorating environmental services. This, combined with storm impacts and the increasing construction of hard infrastructure, has worsened and increased the exposure of the main land-based infrastructure connecting the region's most important towns with the interior of the country. This is putting commercial and tourism activities at risk. The communities located in these areas are in highly vulnerable socioeconomic conditions, generating pressure on the coastline that requires urgent intervention. The tolerable risk for environmental, physical infrastructure, and socioeconomic factors was established according to the degree of impact on the exposed element, its loss of natural value, and the resulting repercussions on the quality of life of the inhabitants. This criterion facilitates a balance of sustainable development between the inhabitants and their environment. The risk reduction strategies demonstrated that acting alone does not achieve tolerable risks, and only a comprehensive strategy allows us to approach the proposed objectives. Prompt action is needed to reduce uncertainty and increase objectivity about the expected future. We conclude that the methodology developed allowed us to understand what has happened, why, under what conditions the threats have evolved, the morphological evolution, the risk typologies, what could happen, and how to reduce the probability of the expected changes. We believe this methodological process can be replicated and adapted to any coastal area with the specific characteristics required. keywords: morphology, risks, adaptation measures.
  

• PLANA RIU, JOSEP: Marching faster in time: advanced time-integration for incompressible flows
  
  Author: PLANA RIU, JOSEP
  Programme: DOCTORAL DEGREE IN THERMAL ENGINEERING
  Department: Department of Heat Engines (MMT)
  Mode: Normal
  Deposit date: 22/07/2026
  Reading date: 10/09/2026
  Reading time: 15:00
  Reading place: Sala de Conferències de TR5
  Thesis director: PEREZ SEGARRA, CARLOS DAVID
  Thesis abstract: The computational cost of scale-resolving simulations of incompressible flows, such as Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) and Large-Eddy Simulation (LES), is largely dictated by the temporal integration of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. Traditional timestepping strategies often rely on conservative stability criteria, such as the standard Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) condition, which typically underestimates the maximum stable timestep by neglecting the complex interplay between convective and diffusive scales. This thesis addresses the challenge of "marching faster in time" by developing a framework that integrates stability-aware adaptive timesteppting with hardware-optimized sparse linear algebra techniques. The first part of this thesis focuses on the development and extension of self-adaptive time integration methods based on the spectral analysis of the governing operators. By implementing algorithms such as AlgEigCD on staggered grids, it is shown that the maximum stable timestep can be accurately determined by tracking the evolution of the operators’ eigenvalues, rather than relying on the conservative CFL condition. This approach allows for significantly larger timesteps without compromising stability or accuracy, leading to substantial reductions in computational time for incompressible flow simulations, without sacrificing the fidelity of the results. Furthermore, this thesis extends these concepts to the realm of reduced-order modeling (ROM). Using Poincaré’s separation theorem for singular values, a theoretical foundation is established to prove that the stability limits of the reduced convective operators are bounded by those of the full-order system. The resulting RedEigCD algorithm enables ROMs to sustain larger timesteps, effectively leveraging their lower dimensionality to further reduce total wall-clock time. Finally, the research addresses the hardware-level bottleneck inherent in modern CFD solvers, which are frequently limited by memory bandwidth during sparse algebraic operations. By exploiting the repeated matrix structure found in parallel-in-time ensemble averaging simulations, sparse matrix-vector products are replaced by sparse matrix-matrix products. This transformation increases the arithmetic intensity of the computations, enabling higher performance on modern hardware architectures. The effectiveness of these combined mathematical and computational strategies is validated through a series of academic and industrial test cases, demonstrating that significant speedups can be achieved without compromising the accuracy or stability of the simulations. This work provides a practical pathway for accelerating CFD simulations in real-world applications, while also contributing to the theoretical understanding of stability in numerical methods for incompressible flows.