Search results for " Geology"

Geological results of the crustal SIRIPRO transect in central Sicily

2013

Mapping tectonics: a key element in submarine geological events and probabilities assessment

2016

A Multidisciplinary approach to define the Plio-Quaternary tectonics in the Termini Imerese Mts. (Northern central Sicily)

2012

Wildlife park of Etna

2013

Mount Etna is located west of the east coast of Sicily, within the territory of the province of Catania and is crossed by 15’ meridian east, which it takes its name. It’s occupies an area of 1570 . It’s dimensions place it among the largest in the world and, from the geological standpoint, the highest of the European continent.

Landform classification: a high-performing mapping unit partitioning tool for landslide susceptibility assessment—a test in the Imera River basin (no…

2022

In landslide susceptibility studies, the type of mapping unit adopted affects the obtained models and maps in terms of accuracy, robustness, spatial resolution and geomorphological adequacy. To evaluate the optimal selection of these units, a test has been carried out in an important catchment of northern Sicily (the Imera River basin), where the spatial relationships between a set of predictors and an inventory of 1608 rotational/translational landslides were analysed using the multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) method. In particular, landslide susceptibility models were prepared and compared by adopting four different types of mapping units: the largely adopted grid cells (PX…

Effect of the mineralogical composition on the elastoplastic hydromechanical response of Opalinus Clay shale

2021

Abstract Opalinus Clay is the shale currently under investigation as the host formation for geological radioactive waste disposal in Switzerland. Its hydromechanical response has been widely studied, and the experimental results show a range of values whose dispersion needs to be clarified. This work aims to explain the dispersion in the literature results by correlating the hydro-mechanical response to the mineralogical variability of the tested specimens . Based on published microstructural studies, the Opalinus Clay shale is herein schematised as a sequence of two kinds of layers: the shaly (high in clay-mineral content) and the sandy (low in clay-mineral content) layers. The mineralogic…

The Residual Shear Strength of the Shaly and Sandy Facies of the Opalinus Clay

2018

The paper presents a comprehensive laboratory campaign carried out with the aim to asses the residual strength of the Opalinus Clay. Ring shear tests with vertical effective stress up to 1 MPa were performed on remoulded samples of two different facies of the Opalinus Clay. Test results show that the «Shaly» facies is characterized by a low range of variation of residual strength while the strength of the «Sandy» facies is very sensitive to the variation of grain size distribution. Microstructural analyses (SEM) suggest that the difference in the observed mechanical behavior of the two facies can be related to different particles arrangements along the shear surfaces.

Life cycle environmental assessment of retaining walls in unsaturated soils

2022

Abstract Retaining structures above groundwater level support soils that are usually in a state of partial saturation and subject to the actions of atmospheric agents. The current design approach considers the possible extremes of soil conditions – either totally dry or totally saturated – but it neglects matric suction’s contribution to soil shear strength. This work aims to describe how unsaturated-soil mechanics of can positively influence the sustainability of retaining structures through a holistic, multidisciplinary, geotechnical, and environmental analysis. The geotechnical analysis allows to estimate the lateral earth pressure of a geostructure in both unsaturated and extreme soil c…

Out-of-Plane fragility of In-Plane damaged unreinforced masonry infills in low rise reinforced concrete buildings

2022

Unreinforced masonry (URM) is commonly used to make infill walls in reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings. Such infill walls are highly vulnerable to out-of-plane (OOP) seismic loading and this can result in huge economic losses and human casualties. Therefore, fragility assessment of URM infill walls under seismic loads is important in view of performing large-scale risk analysis. In this paper, OOP fragility functions are provided based on a numerical investigation supported by a macro-element model. The fragility is calculated assuming the uncertainty in the geometric and mechanical properties of infills instead of the variability in the seismic input. Further, the effect of in-plane …

Influence of wall-to-floor connections and pounding on pre- and post-diction simulations of a masonry building aggregate tested on a shaking table

2023

AbstractThis paper presents numerical simulations within the frame of the project SERA—AIMS (Seismic Testing of Adjacent Interacting Masonry Structures). The study includes blind pre-diction and post-diction stages. The former was developed before performing the shaking table tests at the laboratory facilities of LNEC (Lisbon), while the latter was carried out once the test results were known. For both, three-dimensional finite element models were prepared following a macro-modelling approach. The structure consisted of a half-scaled masonry aggregate composed by two units with different floor levels. Material properties used for the pre-diction model were based on preliminary tests previou…