Search results for " Structural"
showing 10 items of 1751 documents
Effectiveness of BFRP confinement on the compressive behaviour of clay brick masonry cylinders
2020
Abstract This paper presents the results of an experimental and analytical study on the compressive behaviour of small clay brick masonry cylinders reinforced with a basalt fibre reinforced polymer (BFRP) composite. Fourteen cylinders, manufactured using two assembling schemes and confined using either one or two layers of BFRP grids, were tested under monotonic compression loading. Traditional strain measuring systems were integrated with digital image correlation (DIC) technique. The BFRP confined masonry cylinders showed a ductile behaviour characterised by a softening branch of the stress–strain curve. The experimental strains, strength, and full stress–strain curves were modelled using…
Simultaneous measurement of temperature and strain in glass fiber/epoxy composites by embedded fiber optic sensors: II. Post-cure testing
2007
In this paper the use of fiber optic sensors embedded into GFRP laminates for structural health monitoring of thermo-mechanical loads is presented. The proposed sensing system, consisting of two coupled fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, allows the simultaneous measurement of both temperature and strain by decoupling the change in reflected wavelength induced by temperature variations from that induced by either mechanical or apparent strain, with significant advantages either for monitoring the composite cure kinetics, as described in the accompanying paper (Part I), or for assessing the structural response to thermo-mechanical loads. Both thermal ramp and mechanical static/dynamic bending…
Eurofusion-DEMO Divertor - Cassette Design and Integration
2020
International audience; The Eurofusion-DEMO design will complete the Pre Conceptual Design phase (PCD) with a PCD Gate, named G1, scheduled to take place in Q4 2020 that will focus on assessing the feasibility of the plant and its main components prior to entering into the Conceptual Design phase. In the paper first an overview is given of the Eurofusion-DEMO Divertor Assembly including design and interface description, systems and functional requirements, load specification, system classification, manufacturing procedures and cost estimate. Then critical issues are discussed and potential design solutions are proposed, e.g.:- Neutron material damage limits of the different (structural) mat…
Spatial and temporal changes in Actinobacterial dominance in experimental artificial groundwater recharge.
2008
Abstract Artificial groundwater recharge (AGR) is used in the drinking water industry to supplement groundwater resources and to minimise the use of chemicals in water treatment. This study analysed the spatial and temporal changes of microbial communities in AGR using two test systems: a nutrient-amended fluidized-bed reactor (FBR) and a sand column. Structural changes in the feed lake water (Lake Roine), FBR, and sand column bacterial communities were determined by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and the length heterogeneity analysis of amplified 16S rRNA genes (LH-PCR). Two clone libraries were created to link the LH-PCR results to the dominant bacterial groups. The lake w…
Microbial diversity in a thermophilic aerobic biofilm process: analysis by length heterogeneity PCR (LH-PCR).
2003
A two-stage pilot-scale thermophilic aerobic suspended carrier biofilm process (SCBP) was set up for the on-site treatment of pulp and paper mill whitewater lining. The microbial diversity in this process was analyzed by length heterogeneity analysis of PCR-amplified 16S ribosomal DNA. The primer pair selected for PCR amplification was first evaluated by a computational analysis of fragment lengths in ten main phylogenetical eubacterial groups. The fragment contained the first third of the 16S rRNA gene, which was shown to vary naturally between 465 and 563 bp in length. The length heterogeneity analysis of polymerase chain reaction (LH-PCR) profile of the biomass attached to carrier elemen…
Condition Monitoring Technologies for Synthetic Fiber Ropes - a Review
2020
This paper presents a review of different condition monitoring technologies for fiber ropes. Specifically, it presents an overview of the articles and patents on the subject, ranging from the early 70’s up until today with the state of the art. Experimental results are also included and discussed in a conditionmonitoring context,where failuremechanisms and changes in physical parameters give improved insight into the degradation process of fiber ropes. From this review, it is found that automatic width measurement has received surprisingly little attention, and might be a future direction for the development of a continuous condition monitoring system for synthetic fiber ropes.
Machine learning at the interface of structural health monitoring and non-destructive evaluation
2020
While both non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and structural health monitoring (SHM) share the objective of damage detection and identification in structures, they are distinct in many respects. This paper will discuss the differences and commonalities and consider ultrasonic/guided-wave inspection as a technology at the interface of the two methodologies. It will discuss how data-based/machine learning analysis provides a powerful approach to ultrasonic NDE/SHM in terms of the available algorithms, and more generally, how different techniques can accommodate the very substantial quantities of data that are provided by modern monitoring campaigns. Several machine learning methods will be illu…
Vulnerability of a Damaged Bridge Abutment in a Seismic Area
2018
The case of the abutment of a motorway urban viaduct damaged by human intervention is presented. Built in the 1960s, it lies in a critical seismic area and the human-induced damage involved the elements of the abutment foundation. The structure is geometrically complex and the evaluations of its structural safety were carried out by applying Italian codes from different times: those concerning the time of construction, those of a recent past (1996), and those of the present (2008), inspired by Eurocodes. A comparison between the safety checks performed and the requirements of all these codes is presented and discussed, especially regarding safety coefficients after the damage was done. Two …
Design considerations of high RAP-content asphalt produced at reduced temperatures
2018
In many countries recycling of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) for road surface layers is limited to a maximum of 10–30%. This is due to technical limitation of common asphalt plant but also to specifications that are still restrictive when it comes to increasing RAP in surface courses. The mistrust in this practice is mainly related to uncertainty in performance of these mixes as well as to existing fundamental issues with the mix design, especially when production temperatures are lowered. This paper analyses some of the factors affecting the design of warm asphalt mixtures for surface course layers containing 50% RAP, and suggests a framework to justify the common assumption of full ble…
Euro Area Structural Convergence? A Multi-Criterion Cluster Analysis
2015
Abstract This paper proposes a classification of the old member countries of the euro area in a structural data rich environment and run a convergence analysis using the same framework. First, we use a clustering approach and identify two structurally distinct clusters of countries that are not modified between 1999 and 2012: the South Countries Group (SCG) – composed of Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain – and the Other Countries Group (OCG). Second, we propose a convergence metrics and reach three key findings: (i) increase over time of the between-clusters׳ dispersion; (ii) diverging demographics and innovation performance into the OCG, and (iii) an unfortunate convergence towards high la…