Search results for "0201 civil engineering"
showing 10 items of 242 documents
Iron-clay interactions: Detailed study of the mineralogical transformation of claystone with emphasis on the formation of iron-rich T-O phyllosilicat…
2014
International audience; Iron-minerals-water interactions are of primary importance in the contexts of underground structure engineering (e.g. reactive barriers or deep geological storage) and for the understanding of secondary alteration processes in primitive meteorites. To improve our understanding of these systems, we determine the mineralogical transformations induced by the association of iron and silicates during a cooling through an experimental simulation of iron-clay interactions with a step-by-step procedure in the range of 90 degrees C to 40 degrees C. The run products and solutions are well characterised, by means of different techniques (X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmis…
Ultimate Shear of RC Beams with Corroded Stirrups and Strengthened with FRP
2019
Transverse reinforcement plays a key role in the response behavior of reinforced concrete beams. Therefore, corrosion of steel stirrups may change the failure mode of elements from bending to shear, leading to a brittle and catastrophic crisis. It is important to strengthen reinforced concrete beams with corroded stirrups to enhance the shear resistance. This paper presents a formulation, based on the modified compression field theory, to estimate the ultimate shear of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with FRP, because of stirrup corrosion. The detrimental effect of corrosion on steel stirrup yield strength was taken into account by introducing an empirical decay law. The effective st…
Design, modelling, and analysis of a large floating dock for spar floating wind turbine installation
2020
Installation of floating wind turbines at the offshore site is a challenging task. A significant part of the time efficiency and costs are related to the installation methods which are sensitive to weather conditions. This study investigates a large floating dock concept, which can be used to shield a floating wind turbine during installation of tower, nacelle, and rotor onto a spar foundation. In this paper, the concept is described in detail, and a design optimisation is carried out using simple design constraints. Hydrodynamic analysis and dynamic response analysis of the coupled system of the optimum dock and spar are conducted. Two spars of different sizes are considered, and the motio…
Computational study of water adsorption on halloysite nanotube in different pH environments
2020
Abstract The comprehension of structural and energetic features of halloysite nanotube (HNT) in different chemical environments plays a crucial role in developing new HNT based materials. So far these aspects were investigated by means of laboratory techniques that hardly are able to provide hints at atomistic level of detail. Our investigation aims to obtain such accurate informations through density functional theory calculations on HNT models, in order to figure out the most stable forms of HNT under different pH conditions. It turns out that, at low pH, the preferred protonation sites are located in the inner aluminic surface while in alkaline medium the silicic layer can show delocaliz…
Numerical modelling of out-of-plane response of infilled frames: State of the art and future challenges for the equivalent strut macromodels
2017
Abstract Infill-frame interaction constitutes a still open question both in research and in practicing engineering. Computational models used to predict this interaction are, in most cases, addressing the estimation of the response of the infilled frames when subjected to actions parallel to their plane. However, the observation of the post-earthquake damage has demonstrated that infills, weakened by the in-plane actions, may fail out-of-plane increasing the risks associated to the earthquake scenarios. In spite of this, different studies have shown that infills, if properly designed and supported by the frame, exhibit a significant strength and displacement capacity when called to resist t…
IP-OOP interaction in URM infilled frame structures: A new macro-modelling proposal
2020
Abstract Reinforced concrete frame structures with unreinforced masonry (URM) infills represent a common construction practice all over the world. To correctly assess the seismic performance of these structures, prediction of the behaviour of masonry infills under in-plane (IP) and out-of-plane (OOP) loading, as well as their interaction, is of primary importance. Different approaches are available in the literature with different levels of approximation for assessment of the IP-OOP infill response, showing increasing interest in this field. In this context, this paper presents a new macro-element model which can simulate the behaviour of URM infill walls under seismic IP and OOP actions. T…
Earthquake Excited Base-Isolated Structures Protected by Tuned Liquid Column Dampers: Design Approach and Experimental Verification
2017
Abstract In this contribution a direct approach for optimal design of a Tuned Liquid Column Damper (TLCD) device attached to the base slab of a base-isolated structure is presented, aiming at reducing the seismic displacement demand of the base-isolation subsystem. Assuming white noise base excitation, for a wide parameter range a direct optimization procedure yields design charts for optimal TLCD quantities. The performance of the base-isolated structure equipped with optimally tuned TLCD device in comparison to the simple base-isolated one is evaluated both numerically and experimentally. In a numerical study the system is subjected to the 44 records of the FEMA P-695 far-field ground mot…
Hybrid Passive Control Strategies for Reducing the Displacements at the Base of Seismic Isolated Structures
2019
In this paper, the use of hybrid passive control strategies to mitigate the seismic response of a base-isolated structure is examined. The control performance of three different types of devices used for reducing base displacements of isolated buildings is investigated. Specifically, the Tuned Mass Damper (TMD), the New Tuned Mass Damper (New TMD) and the Tuned Liquid Column Damper (TLCD), each one associated to a Base Isolated structure (BI), have been considered. The seismic induced vibration control of base-isolated structures equipped with the TMD, New TMD or the TLCD is examined and compared with that of the base-isolated system without devices, using real recorded seismic signals as e…
Optimal design of tuned liquid column dampers for seismic response control of base-isolated structures
2017
In this paper, the use of a tuned liquid column damper (TLCD) as a cost-effective means to control the seismic response of a base-isolated structure is studied. A straightforward direct approach for the optimal design of such a device is proposed, considering a white noise model of the base excitation. On this base, a direct optimization procedure of the TLCD design parameters is performed and optimal design charts are presented as a ready-to-use practical design tool. Comparison with the optimal parameters obtained considering a classical iterative statistical linearization technique proves the reliability of the proposed approach. The performance of the base-isolated TLCD-controlled struc…
A multi-technique simultaneous approach for the design of a sailing yacht
2015
In this paper, most significant steps involved during the whole process of designing a sailing yacht are outlined. In particular, a novel simultaneous approach has been proposed to optimize the design process of a sailing yacht. Analytical resistance prediction models are simultaneously used with CAD systems and computational fluid dynamics tools to find, in the more effective way, the best solution for the chosen design conditions. As a general rule, in fact, once the target point has been decided, task of the designer is the definition of those systems of aerodynamic and hydrodynamic forces that are in equilibrium when the boat sails at its target. Unfortunately, a multi-purpose yacht doe…