Search results for " Structural"

Masonry structures subjected to tsunami loads: Modeling issues and application to a case study

2020

Abstract Tsunamis are among the most dangerous natural disasters for coastal areas experiencing tsunami hazard. One of the major concerns in the assessment of strategies for the risk mitigation is to estimate vulnerability of structures and infrastructures. However, reliable approaches for the evaluation of the structural capacity under tsunami loads are nowadays not always available for all the types of structures, especially masonry. On this aim, the paper deals with the modeling issues of 3D masonry structures subjected to tsunami loads and the effect on the structural behavior of different modeling approaches. First, a brief state of the art on the available studies is presented regardi…

A Viscoelastic Model for the Long-Term Deflection of Segmental Prestressed Box Girders

2017

Most of segmental prestressed concrete box girders exhibit excessive multidecade deflections unforeseeable by past and current design codes. To investigate such a behavior, mainly caused by creep and shrinkage phenomena, an effective finite element (FE) formulation is presented in this article. This formulation is developed by invoking the stationarity of an energetic principle for linear viscoelastic problems and relies on the Bazant creep constitutive law. A case study representative of segmental prestressed concrete box girders susceptible to creep is also analyzed in the article, that is, the Colle Isarco viaduct. Its FE model, based on the aforementioned energetic formulation, was succ…

A damage identification procedure based on Hilbert transform: Experimental validation

2010

SUMMARY This paper aims at validating the feasibility of an identification procedure, based on the use of the Hilbert transform, by means of experimental tests for shear-type multi-degree-of-freedom systems. Particularly, a three-degree-of-freedom frame will be studied either numerically or experimentally by means of a laboratory scale model built at the laboratory of the Structural, Aerospace and Geotechnical Engineering Department (DISAG) of University of Palermo. Several damage scenarios have been considered to prove the effectiveness of the procedure. Moreover, the experimental tests have been conducted by considering two different input loads: pulse forces, simulated by means of an ins…

Dynamic Shakedown Sensitivity Analysis by Means of a Probabilistic Approach

2017

The shakedown limit load multiplier problem for elastic plastic structures subjected to a combination of fixed and seismic loads is treated. In particular, reference is firstly made to the unrestricted dynamic shakedown theory. The relevant seismic load history is modeled as a repeated one and, with reference to classically damped structures, appropriate modal analyses are utilized. With the aim of evaluating the reliability of the results arising from the application of the cited theory, a recent probabilistic approach is also utilized. This approach adopts the Monte Carlo method in order to define the necessary seismic acceleration histories and finally compute the related shakedown limit…

Structural assessment of the EU-DEMO WCLL Central Outboard Blanket segment under normal and off-normal operating conditions

2021

Abstract Within the framework of the EUROfusion design activities concerning the EU-DEMO Breeding Blanket (BB) system, a research campaign has been carried out at the University of Palermo with the aim of investigating the structural behaviour of the DEMO Water-Cooled Lithium Lead (WCLL) Central Outboard Blanket (COB) segment. The assessment has been performed considering three different loading scenarios: the Normal Operation (NO), the Over-Pressurization (OP) and the Upward Vertical Displacement Event (VDE-up). In particular, NO scenario represents the loading case referring to the nominal operating conditions, whereas the OP scenario refers to the loading conditions due to an in-box LOCA…

Some conventional and unconventional educational column stability Problems

2006

Two interesting problems are considered for enriching the curriculum of the Strength of Materials course, in the light of recently developed functionally graded materials (FGMs), characterized with the smooth variation of the elastic modulus. These are problems associated with buckling of columns with variable flexural rigidity along the axis of the column. A simple semi-inverse method is proposed for determining closed-form solutions of axially inhomogeneous columns. In order for the presentation to be given in one package, the conventional problems are also recapitulated along with the novel ones. The main approach adopted here is the use of the second-order differential equation, instea…

Investigation of buckling characteristics of cracked variable stiffness composite plates by an eXtended Ritz approach

2021

Abstract Variable Angle Tow (VAT) composite plates are characterized by in-plane variable stiffness properties, which opens to new concepts of stiffness tailoring and optimization to achieve higher structural performance for advanced lightweight structures where damage tolerance consideration are often mandatory. In this paper, a single-domain eXtended Ritz formulation is proposed to study the buckling behaviour of variable stiffness laminated cracked plates. The plate behaviour is described by the first order shear deformation theory whose generalized displacements, namely reference plane translations and rotations, are expressed via suitable admissible trial functions. These consist of a …

Discussion of “Free Overfall in Inverted Semicircular Channels” by Subhasih Dey

2004

Maximum Displacement Variability of Stochastic Structures Subject to Deterministic Earthquake Loading

1998

The variability of the maximum response displacement of random frame structures under deterministic earthquake loading are examined in this paper using stochastic finite element techniques. The elastic modulus and the mass density are assumed to be described by cross-correlated stochastic fields. Specifically, a variability response function formulation is used for this problem, which allows for calculation of spectral-distribution-free upper bounds of the maximum displacement variance. Further, under the assumption of prespecified correlation functions describing the spatial variation of the material properties, variability response functions are used to calculate the corresponding maximum…

Shakedown of elastic—plastic solids with frictionless unilateral contact boundary conditions

1997

Abstract Elastic perfectly plastic solids (or structures) in frictionless unilateral contact with a rigid obstacle and subjected to quasi-statically variable loads within a given domain are considered. In the hypothesis that the structure undergoes small displacements and complies with a d -stability requisite herein introduced, a Melantype shakedown theorem is presented. This theorem is conceptually similar to the classical one; namely, it requires that the unilateral-contact elastic stress response to the loads and to some initial plastic strains be plastically admissible everywhere in the body and for all load conditions. A method for evaluating the shakedown load boundary is also discus…