Search results for " Civil and Structural Engineering"
showing 10 items of 59 documents
Reclaimed asphalt binders and mortars fatigue behaviour
2017
Fatigue cracking is one of the most important failure mechanisms occurring in asphalt pavements, especially when mixtures incorporate considerable amount of rReclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). In fact, aged binders contained in RAP generally make asphalt more brittle and specifically reduce fatigue resistance of the resulting asphalt mixtures. Binders and mortars play a key role in this phenomenon, considering fatigue cracking usually starts within these asphalt components. However, performance-related tests and specifications commonly regard binders and there are no sound methodologies allowing the use of mortars to predicting fatigue performance of asphalts containing RAP. For this reason,…
Analytical solution of kinematic wave time of concentration for overland flow under green-ampt infiltration
2015
In this paper the well-known kinematic wave equation for computing the time of concentration for impervious surfaces has been extended to the case of pervious hillslopes, accounting for infiltration. An analytical solution for the time of concentration for overland flow on a rectangular plane surface is derived using the kinematic wave equation under the Green-Ampt infiltration. The relative time of concentration is defined as the ratio between the time of concentration of an infiltrating plane and the soil sorptivity time scale, depending on the normalized rainfall intensity and a parameter synthesizing the soil and hillslope characteristics. It is shown that for a more complex case (corre…
Towards a new mix design method for asphalt mixtures containing rap
2016
Recycling is one of the most important aspects to conceive the new construction or rehabilitation of sustainable road infrastructures. Even if Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) is commonly used in the practice, its presence may lead to some critical aspects due to the physical and chemical phenomena occurring during the new mix process. For instance, the formation of RAP clusters during a new mix may inhibit the uniform distribution of the virgin binder as well as cause changes in the design grading curve of the mixture. Indeed, laboratory results demonstrate that small-size RAP particles stick together forming clusters. The amount of clusters depends on different parameters observed: The pe…
On the impact of safety requirements, energy prices and investment costs in street lighting refurbishment design
2018
Abstract Street lighting is an indispensable feature for the night landscape of cities. It is important for road safety, users visual comfort, crime prevention and to augment the perceived personal safety. Realize and maintain an adequate street lighting service is very expensive for municipalities with significant impact on their budgets. For this reason, special attention should be paid to the design of new street lighting systems and to the refurbishment of existing ones, since many of them are inadequate. In light of this it is very important to implement street lighting designs that fulfil lighting requirements avoiding energy waste and light pollution and, at the same time, result eco…
Cap Rate as the Interpretative Variable of the Urban Real Estate Capital Asset: A Comparison of Different Sub‐Market Definitions in Palermo, Italy
2017
Real estate capital is in constant competition with other capital assets due to its different and complementary economic functions such as direct use, productive investment, and speculative investment. These features and the resulting opportunities cannot be easily deduced from direct observation of the real estate markets, so some further insights need to be carried out in order to highlight the relationship between prices, rents and performances. This study aims at providing a multifaceted perspective of a specific urban real estate market to overcome the difficulties arising from opacities and informative asymmetries that hinder the decision of investors, by facilitating the comparison o…
An ANN model to correlate roughness and structural performance in asphalt pavements
2017
Abstract In this paper, using a large database from the Long Term Pavement Performance program, the authors developed an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to estimate the structural performance of asphalt pavements from roughness data. Considering advantages of modern high-performance survey devices in the acquisition of road pavement functional parameters, it would be of practical significance if the structural state of a pavement could be estimated from its functional conditions. To differentiate various road section conditions, several significant input parameters, related to traffic, weather, and structural aspects, have been included in the analysis. The results are very interesting and …
Simplified analytical model for moment–axial force domain in the presence of shear in R.C. members externally strengthened with steel cages
2015
Equations for a hand calculation of moment–axial force domain in the presence of shear for R.C. beam/column externally strengthened with steel angles and strips are developed. The analytical derivation is made assuming, for axial load and flexure, the equivalent stress-block parameters for internal forces, considering the confinement effects induced in the concrete core by external cages both in the cases of strips or angles yielding. Limit states due to bond failure, concrete crushing and yielding of steel angles and strips in flexure and in shear, including moment-to-shear interaction, are considered. The proposed model gives results in a good agreement with available experimental data an…
Cold recycling of reclaimed asphalt pavements
2018
Pavement engineers have in front of them multiple challenges linked to addressing issues related to social development and society’s expanding needs. One of the most substantial of these issues is perhaps how to effectively rehabilitate and/ or maintain the existing road network while preserving and sustaining limited natural resources. The re-usage of existing pavement materials to reconstruct/ rehabilitate our future pavements is the solution that is now more and more selected by the different road administrations around the world. However, upon closer inspection, one can find many areas and details, not negligible issues, that are simply extensions of HMA technology (i.e. mix design proc…
Novel performance-based technique for predicting maintenance strategy of bitumen stabilised ballast
2018
Abstract Despite being the most used worldwide, railway ballasted tracks presents high maintenance cost related to ballast settlement and particle degradation. With the aim of reducing life cycle costs, bitumen stabilised ballast (BSB) has been recently proposed as a relatively cheap alternative maintenance solution to be applied to existing tracks. This study aims at assessing the potential advantages of this technology, defining a novel maintenance strategy of traditional ballasted track-beds. A protocol for the application of the BSB technology and its associated maintenance strategy is defined. To estimate minor and major maintenance operations of BSB scenario in comparison to tradition…
Stiffness and strength of composite truss beam to R.C. column connection in MRFs
2015
Abstract The results of experimental and numerical investigations on the cyclic behavior of composite truss beam to reinforced concrete column connection of moment resisting frames are reported. The beams are constituted by a steel truss and end zone added rebar embedded within a concrete block cast in place, so that, after curing, the steel truss and the added rebar work together with the concrete matrix as reinforcement of the composite beam. Particularly, three specimens of two-span continuous beams were tested under monotonic and cyclic actions as three point bending test. With the goal to investigate about the behavior of the end zone of the beam integrated into a moment resisting fram…