Search results for " Mechanical engineering"
showing 10 items of 623 documents
Experimental Investigation of Stall and Surge in a Multistage Compressor
2016
Flow instability conditions, in particular during surge and stall phenomena, have always influenced the operational reliability of turbo-compressors and have attracted significant interest resulting in extensive literature. Nowadays, this subject is still one of the most investigated because of its high relevance on centrifugal and axial compressor operating flow range, performance and efficiency. Many researchers approach this important issue by developing numerical models, whereas others approach it through experimental studies specifically carried out in order to better comprehend this phenomenon. The aim of this paper is to experimentally analyze the stable and unstable operating condit…
A new and simplified approach to assess the pavement surface micro- and macrotexture
2017
Abstract Road safety depends on pavement skid resistance and surface texture. Skid resistance mainly depends on micro-texture and macrotexture. Skid and texture measurements on samples, in the laboratory, at the preliminary stage of the design, would enhance the design in terms of timing, costs, and reliability. Consequently, this study aims at setting up and validating simple methods for assessing surface texture and skid resistance based on core/sample measurements. Experiments were carried out and predictive relationships were set up to explain and predict results. Under given conditions, miniaturised macro-and microtexture tests (modified EN 13036-1 and modified EN 13036-4, respectively…
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…
Reducing the noise pollution level along main roads in Sibiu, Romania by optimizing the traffic flow
2017
Noise pollution is one of the most important negative effects of road traffic, especially in cities. The current paper presents an attempt to reduce the noise level created by the road traffic along some main roads in the city of Sibiu, Romania by suggesting ways to optimize the traffic flow. The number of cars and the resulting noise levels were recorded in a key area of Sibiu. The noise levels were compared to standards and to measurements taken in areas with less traffic. Then, they were fed, together with road geometry data, into a specialized simulation software that allowed the computer-aided reproduction of the traffic flow, but also the modifying of conditions such as the road geome…
Vibration control for adjacent structures using local state information
2014
In this paper, a novel strategy for structural vibration control of multi-structure systems is presented. This strategy pays particular attention to mitigating negative interstructure interactions. Moreover, it is based on recent advances in static output–feedback control, which make possible the efficient computation of decentralized velocity-feedback controllers by solving a single-step optimization problem with Linear Matrix Inequality constraints. To illustrate the main ideas, a local velocity-feedback energy-to-peak controller is designed for the seismic protection of a two-building system. This controller is remarkably effective and extremely simple. Moreover, it can also be implement…
Sparsity-aware narrowband interference mitigation and subcarriers selection in OFDM-based cognitive radio networks
2016
In this paper, the performance of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing overlay cognitive radio network with subcarrier selection schemes is investigated. We propose three subcarrier selection techniques that reduce the level of interference at the primary base station based on collected channel state information from the different network nodes. Approximated outage probability expressions are also derived and verified by simulations for the different studied techniques. In addition, we propose and investigate a new approach for asynchronous narrowband interference (NBI) estimation and mitigation in cognitive radio networks. The proposed approach does not require prior knowledge of …
Innovative modeling of tuned liquid column damper controlled structures
2016
In this paper a different formulation for the response of structural systems controlled by Tuned Liquid Column Damper (TLCD) devices is developed, based on the mathematical tool of fractional calculus. Although the increasing use of these devices for structural vibration control, it has been demonstrated that existing model may lead to inaccurate prediction of liquid motion, thus reflecting in a possible imprecise description of the structural response. For this reason the recently proposed fractional formulation introduced to model liquid displacements in TLCD devices, is here extended to deal with TLCD controlled structures under base excitations. As demonstrated through an extensive expe…
A dynamic model for MED-TVC transient operation
2017
Abstract The Multi Effect Distillation (MED) process is often proposed as a key technology for the construction of new thermal desalination plants, especially within solar-powered cogeneration schemes. With this respect, the need for transient behaviour analysis requires the development of dynamic models for the MED process. Only a few have been presented so far in the literature, in which, however, several simplifying assumptions and constrains are still limiting their potential use. The model here proposed addresses most of the aspects still limiting previous models formulations. The powerful equation-based process simulator gPROMS® was chosen for the implementation of the model, develope…
Thermo-mechanical post-buckling analysis of variable angle tow composite plate assemblies
2017
peer-reviewed The increasing use of composite materials for lightweight structural applications and the extended tailoring capabilities offered by variable stiffness laminates requires rapid and robust analysis tools that adequately describe the mechanical behaviour of such structures. In this work, a Rayleigh–Ritz solution for generally restrained multilayered stiffened variable angle tow plates in the post-buckling regime is presented. The plate model is based on first-order shear deformation theory and accounts for geometrical nonlinearity through von Kármán’s assumptions. General symmetric and unsymmetric stacking sequences are considered and Legendre orthogonal polynomials are employed…
Combining TMD and TLCD: analytical and experimental studies
2017
Abstract In these years several research efforts have been focused on developing efficient and reliable control devices for mitigating the structural response of tall and lightly damped buildings in case of strong dynamic excitations, such as wind and earthquake ones. In this context, Tuned Mass Dampers (TMDs) represent probably the most common control device due to their high control performances. On the other hand, Tuned Liquid Column Dampers (TLCDs) are increasingly becoming more popular because of some of their attractive features, cost-effectiveness among the others, even though they yield slightly less control performance compared to the classical TMDs. Aiming at combining the benefic…