Search results for " Structural"
showing 10 items of 1751 documents
A criterion for the assessment of the reliability of ASHRAE conduction transfer function coefficients
2010
This paper presents a new mathematical approach, which, when applied to conduction transfer functions (CTFs) of a multi-layered wall, is able to predict the reliability of building simulations. This new procedure can be used to identify the best set of CTF coefficients, which are a critical point at the core of the ASHRAE calculation methodology founded on the transfer function method. To evaluate the performance of different CTF coefficient sets, the authors performed a large number of thermal simulations on the multi-layered walls included in the ASHRAE Handbook, volume fundamentals, and on other walls typical of Mediterranean building heritage. Those data were employed to test an algorit…
Annual heating energy requirements of office buildings in a European climate
2016
Abstract The concept of implementing energy savings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has become a key element of energy policies of any industrialized country. In the civil sector and specifically, energy savings for office buildings, there are still opportunities for further enhancements related to correctly determining the air conditioning thermal requirements. However, there is a lack of simple correlations that allow a preliminary assessment for a single building or correlations that can be quickly applied at the district level. This paper proposes several simple correlations that determine the heating loads of a typical office building by only knowing the Degree-Days of a specific Eu…
The importance of reliable climatic data in the energy evaluation
2012
Abstract In the last few years, more and more attention has been focused on energy issues, as it is pointed out, for example, by the Directive 2002/91/EC on the Energy Performance of Buildings and Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources. However, in order to do that, reliable tools for technicians to design systems for such topics should be provided. Nowadays, several software are available; the weak point is the availability of reliable climatic data and, above all, the ones referring to solar radiation. In this work, after a short overview of the world climatic databases, a description of three statistical methods for the elaboration of a climatic…
Shear strength of High-strength concrete beams: modeling and design recommendations
2014
Abstract In the present paper, the flexural and the shear resistance of high strength reinforced concrete (HSC) beams with longitudinal bars, in the presence of transverse stirrups is analyzed both theoretically and experimentally. The experimental researches here presented are parts of previous researches carried out by the author. Researches refer to HSC beams with high percentages of steel bars failing in shear and in flexure. From the analytical point of view, a model based on the evaluation of the resistance contribution due to beam and arch actions including bond splitting and concrete crushing failure modes is developed and presented. The model was verified against available experime…
Discussion of “Analysis of Geometrical Relationships and Friction Losses in Small-Diameter Lay-Flat Polyethylene Pipes” by Giuseppe Provenzano, Vince…
2016
For a lay-flat drip line with an inner nominal diameter dn = 16 mm, characterized by three different pipe wall thicknesses, WT, 6, 8 and 10 mil, the Authors of the original paper very accurately investigated the geometrical expansion of the cross-sectional diameter as a function of different pressure head values, ranging in between 0.84-17.55 m. Results obtained by the Authors, for pressure heads not exceeding a threshold pressure value, showed significant d variations, in a very narrow range of pressure heads, which however is seldom considered in practice (less than 3 m). The Authors experimentally evaluated a modified Blasius’ law friction coefficient, c, equal to 0.285, corresponding to…
Rendezvous Guidance Trajectories via Multiple-Subarc Sequential Gradient-Restoration Algorithm
2009
We consider the three-dimensional rendezvous between a target spacecraft in a circular orbit and a chaser spacecraft with an initial separation distance and an initial separation velocity. We assume that the chaser spacecraft has variable mass and that its trajectory is governed by three controls, one determining the thrust magnitude and two determining the thrust direction. We employ the Clohessy–Wiltshire equations, describing the relative motion of the chaser vis-a-vis the target, and the multiple-subarc sequential gradient-restoration algorithm to produce first optimal trajectories and then guidance trajectories for the following problems: P1—minimum time, fuel free; P2—minimum fuel, ti…
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…
Contribution to the platoon distribution analysis in steady-state traffic conditions
2014
The traffic flow analysis and the relevant vehicle distribution (“free-moving” or “platooned” vehicles) on highway facilities at uninterrupted flow has always had fundamental importance in Highway Engineering, with special reference to topics like traffic operations, car accidents, road safety and air pollution emissions. In light of this, the study suggests a calculation algorithm as a random test generator to simulate a steady state traffic flow and to provide time headways. Thanks to the outcome produced by numerical simulations, we analysed platoon distributions within traffic flows in a steady-state regime and showed the results of numerical analyses carried out by traffic random proce…
Flexural behaviour of glass panels under dead load and uniform lateral pressure
2013
Abstract In the present paper the experimental results relative to flexural tests on out-of-plane loaded large scale panels made of laminated structural glass are presented and discussed. Glass panels are parts of the structural facade of the Fontanarossa International Airport of Catania (Italy). Panels are mounted on a rigid testing frame and loaded with an uniformly distributed lateral pressure. Two different kinds of tests were carried-out, cyclic and monotonic, able to reproduce the serviceability and the ultimate conditions of the glass panels when subjected to the coupled effects of dead load and horizontal forces, the latter reproducing the wind action. Results obtained focused the h…
Low stiffness variation in structural systems: identification and localization
2008
When a very low damage occurs, the undamaged structural response totally overlaps the damaged one either in time domain or in frequency domain; on the other hand, by considering some characteristics of the analytical signal, such as the phase, it has been possible to develop a damage identification procedure that allows the identification and localization of damage even if the structure experiences multiple damages at the same time. This procedure is also robust with respect to the presence of measuring noise. In order to assess the validity of the proposed damage identification procedure, numerical applications on single degree of freedom and 2 DOF and 4 DOF are presented using data record…