Search results for " Civil and Structural Engineering"
showing 10 items of 59 documents
Review of push-out and shear response of hybrid steel-trussed concrete beams
2018
The hybrid steel trussed concrete beams examined in the present study are comprised of two principal components, i.e., a steel joist with inclined rebars, realized in industry, which is welded to a smooth steel plate and then embedded within the concrete cast in situ. The paper presents first the state of the art on laboratory tests and analytical modeling of the steel-to-concrete stress transfer mechanism investigated by push-out tests. Next, the most relevant scientific contributions currently available in the technical literature regarding experimental investigation on actual shear behavior are summarized and discussed. Lastly codes and analytical models are reviewed.
Progress in the initial design activities for the European DEMO divertor: Subproject "Cassette"
2017
Abstract Since 2014 preconceptual design activities for European DEMO divertor have been conducted as an integrated, interdisciplinary R&D effort in the framework of EUROfusion Consortium. Consisting of two subproject areas, ‘Cassette’ and ‘Target’, this divertor project has the objective to deliver a holistic preconceptual design concept together with the key technological solutions to materialize the design. In this paper, a brief overview on the recent results from the subproject ‘Cassette’ is presented. In this subproject, the overall cassette system is engineered based on the load analysis and specification. The preliminary studies covered multi-physical analyses of neutronic, thermal,…
Analytical evaluation of steel–concrete composite trussed beam shear capacity
2015
A calculation method for the prediction of the shear resistance of precast composite beams, named Hybrid Steel Trussed-Concrete Beams (HSTCBs), is herein proposed. HSTCBs are constituted by a prefabricated steel truss embedded within a concrete matrix cast in situ so that, after curing, the two materials work together in the mechanical response of the composite structural element, the steel truss behaving as reinforcement of the beam. The proposed analytical model is developed on the basis of the results of a reference experimental campaign of three-point bending tests available in the literature, carried out on specimens of HSTCB designed in order to attain a shear failure. Furthermore, th…
Optimization of Osmotic Desalination Plants for Water Supply Networks
2016
Water scarcity and the poor quality of water resources are leading to a wider diffusion of desalination plants using the Reverse Osmosis (RO) process. Unfortunately, the cost of a cubic meter of fresh water produced by an RO plants is still high and many efforts are in progress to increase the efficiency of the membranes used in osmotic plants and to limit the energy required by the process. A further reduction of the energy cost could be obtained by an optimal operation of the desalination plant so reducing the hourly energy cost, or by coupling the RO plant with an energy production plant based on direct osmosis (Pressure Retarded Osmosis PRO). The economic viability of the desalination p…
Failure by corrosion in PC bridges: A case history of a viaduct in Italy
2016
Purpose The paper illustrates a viaduct collapse due to corrosion phenomena. Moreover, a contribution to the issues related to both the control of existing structures and design methods to be followed for the construction of new buildings is provided. Design/methodology/approach The objectives were achieved by in situ observations and numerical analyses. The effects of corrosion phenomena are investigated, and the progressive collapse analysis is provided to be helpful in this case. Findings The damages induced by corrosion phenomena have caused the collapse of the viaduct taken in to account. The performed numerical analyses were able to reproduce the effects of corrosion in terms of redu…
Incremental dynamic based fragility assessment of reinforced concrete structures: Stationary vs. non-stationary artificial ground motions
2017
Abstract Artificial and natural records are commonly employed by researches and practitioners to perform refined seismic assessments of structures. The techniques for the generation of artificial records and their effectiveness in producing signals which are significantly representative of real earthquakes are still debated as well as results of the consequent seismic assessment to expect from their application. The paper presents an in-depth comparative study highlighting the effect of employing different typologies of artificial ground motion records on seismic assessment results, especially addressing seismic fragility curves. Three sets of 50 stationary, nonstationary evenly modulated a…
Strengthening of steel-reinforced concrete structural elements by externally bonded FRP sheets and evaluation of their load carrying capacity
2014
Abstract The paper proposes a preliminary design tool for reinforced concrete (RC) elements strengthened by fiber-reinforced-polymer (FRP) sheets to be used in civil engineering applications and in particular in medical buildings. The design strategy is based on limit analysis theory and utilizes a numerical procedure which provides a direct method to determine peak load, failure mode and critical zones of the structural elements of interest.
Hybrid Procedure for Automated Detection of Cracking with 3D Pavement Data
2016
Pavement cracks are considered a major indicator of pavement performance. Because traditional manual crack surveys are dangerous, time consuming, and expensive, technologies have been developed to collect high-speed pavement images, and numerous algorithms have been proposed to detect cracks on pavement surface. The latest PaveVision3D Ultra system (3D Ultra) has been implemented to achieve 30-kHz three-dimensional (3D) scanning rate for 1-mm resolution pavement surface data at highway speed up to 100 km/h (60 mi/h). This paper presents the application of a hybrid procedure for automated crack detection on 3D pavement data collected using 3D Ultra. The procedure combines three different me…
Interaction between Longitudinal Shear and Transverse Bending in Prestressed Concrete Box Girders
2017
In box girder bridges, the quantity and distribution of reinforcement to be put in concrete elements of sections can be evaluated only by considering the deformation of the cross section in addition to the longitudinal analysis of the static scheme, establishing the entire state of stress of box sections. This leads to a need to evaluate the interaction between internal forces obtained by the global analysis and the ones obtained by the local analysis of the cross sections. The frame effect implies the elastic deformation of slabs and webs, whereas eccentrically applied loads lead to cross-section distortion with the loss of the box shape. Hence, the reinforcement is strongly influenced by …
Numerical prediction of the shear response of semi-prefabricated steel-concrete trussed beams
2016
Abstract In this study, the shear behavior of hybrid steel-trussed-concrete beams (HSTCBs) realized with prefabricated steel trusses embedded into a concrete core cast in situ, is investigated by means of Finite Element (FE) numerical simulations. HSTCBs do not behave as classical RC elements nor composite beams. Up to now, there are not specific design criteria in the building codes and the calculation of this type of beams is conducted by means of design-by-testing procedures. The knowledge of the material behavior as well as the understanding of the interaction between materials in contact is the first requirement for the definition of proper design procedures and calculation methods for…