Home to the skylark - The Velux Foundations

Bone tissue without osteoporosis
Why do some people develop osteoporosis?
Osteoporosis or brittle bone disease is a condition
in which even trivial everyday activities may sud-
denly cause painful fractures and result in hospi-
talisation and even surgery. Osteoporosis afflicts
at least 25% of women in Denmark after the age
of 50. Like the Eiffel Tower, bones in the human
body are constructed in a latticework to provide
great strength with minimal structural material.
A research team at the Department of Biomedi-
cines, Aarhus University, is currently conducting
a study with the aid of a microCT scanner of how
this microstructure changes with age. The aim
is to determine how these changes in the micro-
structure influence the risk of osteoporosis.
Annemarie Brüel MD, associate professor, and Jes-
per Skovhus Thomsen MD, associate professor, De-
partment of Biomedicine, Aarhus University. In
2009, ”Procurement of a μCT scanner for research
in bone microstructure and the significance of age
in the development of osteoporosis” was awarded a
grant of DKK 1,448,250 by the VELUX FOUN-
DATION.
Bone tissue with osteoporosis
Advanced climate chamber just supplied to Technical University of Denmark - DTU
Technical University of Denmark - DTU has
just taken delivery of a state-of-the-art climate
chamber for measuring the combined mechanical
and climatic impacts (temperature and humidity
levels) of materials and components. The con-
figuration and construction of the chamber from
Vötsch Industrietechnik in Germany has been in
progress for the past twelve months. Challenges
in the design notably included the choice of the
right multilayer glass for the custom-constructed
ventilating pane in the door through which ad-
vanced optical deformation measurements will
be made. This will be accomplished using DTU’s
ARAMIS systems, which were acquired a couple
of years ago, also with a donation from the VIL-
LUM FOUNDATION. In the months ahead,
the chamber will be integrated in a so-called bi-
axial impact configuration to permit impacts to
be delivered to test specimens inside the cham-
ber. This will be followed by a battery of tests on
test specimens in both wood and fibre compos-
ites with a view to investigating the behaviour of
wood structures and wind turbine blades under
extreme climate impacts.
Christian Berggreen, PhD, associate professor, De-
partment of Mechanical Engineering, and Sigur-
dur Ormarsson, PhD, Department of Civil Engi-
neering, Technical University of Denmark.
In 2010, “Climate chamber for investigation of
climate-sensitive materials and structural compo-
nents” was awarded a grant of DKK 1,156,410 by
the VILLUM FOUNDATION.
38 POSTCARDS VILLUM FOUNDATION AND VELUX FOUNDATION
39