Search results for "CONSTRUCTION"
showing 10 items of 2670 documents
Mechanical and environmental performance comparisons of improved asphalt pavement wearing courses with high quality aggregates, steel slags, and poly…
2023
The use of waste materials in the construction of hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavements is an important opportunity for environmental sustainability. When properly designed, the alternative mixtures may also guarantee excellent mechanical performance. In this study, the results of an experimental analysis carried out on dense-graded HMAs are presented. In particular, the performance of a "traditional" surface mixture with limestone aggregate (designed with neat bitumen or a polymer-modified bitumen within the typical acceptance requirements for intended use in wearing courses) was compared with two alternative mixtures. The research investigated a surface mixture including coarse basaltic aggrega…
Criteria for Laboratory Studies on Fine Soils Treated with Lime
2011
When selecting the appropriate materials for constructing road infrastructures, an important way for minimizing both the economical and environmental impact is to make use of lime for treating those natural soils that, involved in the earthwork for opening road fences, are not suitable, as they are in nature, to fulfill the specific requirements for being used as part of road construction, such as road embankments (including the capping layer) or the improved subgrade or, again, the sub-formation. From this point of view, the treatment of fine soils with lime (if needed, with lime and cement) can be considered as one of the main measures for preserving the natural environment since it fulfi…
Prediction of concrete materials compressive strength using surrogate models
2022
Using soft computing methods could be of great interest in predicting the compressive strength of Ultra-High-Performance Fibre Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC). Therefore, this study developed four soft computing techniques. The models are the Linear- relationship (LR), pure quadratic, M5P-tree (M5P), and artificial neural network (ANN). The models were trained and developed using 306 datasets comprising 11 input parameters, including the curing temperature (T), the water-to-cement ratio (w/c), silica fume (SF), cement content (C), fiber content (Fb), water (W), sand content (S), superplasticizer (SP), fiber aspect ratio (AR) and curing time (t). Experimental results were used and compared to t…
A model for SFRC beams without shear reinforcement
2008
In this paper a physical model, for the prediction of ultimate shear strength of Steel Fibers Reinforced Concrete (SFRC) beams is developed from the plastic Crack Sliding Model (CSM) introduced by Zhang (1997), based on the hypothesis that cracks can be transformed into yield lines. In this work the effectiveness factors are recalculated for SFRC beams and some further developments are introduced in the CSM, taking into account the fundamental post cracking tensile strength contribute of SFRC. The proposed model is validate by a large set of tests collected in literature and some numerical analyses were carried out to show the influence of fibers on the failure beams mode.
Out-of-Plane fragility of In-Plane damaged unreinforced masonry infills in low rise reinforced concrete buildings
2022
Unreinforced masonry (URM) is commonly used to make infill walls in reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings. Such infill walls are highly vulnerable to out-of-plane (OOP) seismic loading and this can result in huge economic losses and human casualties. Therefore, fragility assessment of URM infill walls under seismic loads is important in view of performing large-scale risk analysis. In this paper, OOP fragility functions are provided based on a numerical investigation supported by a macro-element model. The fragility is calculated assuming the uncertainty in the geometric and mechanical properties of infills instead of the variability in the seismic input. Further, the effect of in-plane …
Revealing the nature of metakaolin-based concrete materials using artificial intelligence techniques
2022
In this study, a model for the estimation of the compressive strength of concretes incorporating metakaolin is developed and parametrically evaluated, using soft computing techniques. Metakaolin is a component extensively employed in recent decades as a means to reduce the requirement for cement in concrete. For the proposed models, six parameters are accounted for as input data. These are the age at testing, the metakaolin percentage in relation to the total binder, the water-to-binder ratio, the percentage of superplasticizer, the binder to sand ratio and the coarse to fine aggregate ratio. For training and verification of the developed models a database of 867 experimental specimens has …
Influence of wall-to-floor connections and pounding on pre- and post-diction simulations of a masonry building aggregate tested on a shaking table
2023
AbstractThis paper presents numerical simulations within the frame of the project SERA—AIMS (Seismic Testing of Adjacent Interacting Masonry Structures). The study includes blind pre-diction and post-diction stages. The former was developed before performing the shaking table tests at the laboratory facilities of LNEC (Lisbon), while the latter was carried out once the test results were known. For both, three-dimensional finite element models were prepared following a macro-modelling approach. The structure consisted of a half-scaled masonry aggregate composed by two units with different floor levels. Material properties used for the pre-diction model were based on preliminary tests previou…
Simulation of blind pre-diction and post-diction shaking table tests on a masonry building aggregate using a continuum modelling approach
2023
AbstractMasonry buildings of historical centres are usually organized within aggregates, whose structural performance against seismic actions is challenging to predict and constitutes still an open issue. The SERA—AIMS (Seismic Testing of Adjacent Interacting Masonry Structures) project was developed to provide additional experimental data by testing a half-scale, two-unit stone masonry aggregate subjected to two horizontal components of dynamic excitation. In this context, this paper investigates the reliability of the modelling approach and the assumptions adopted to generate a three-dimensional continuum finite element model. The work involves two stages, namely a blind pre-diction and a…
Caratteristiche tipologico-strutturali per la valutazione della vulnerabilità sismica nel centro storico di Caltabellotta tra persistenze e trasforma…
2020
The research carried outin this paper aims at the knowledge of the typological and constructive characteristics of the building in Caltabellotta, in order to think about the seismic vulnerability. To achieve this goal, sheets were drawn up on the building types found and on the construction elements, looking for a method to overcome the difficulty of knowing the masonry due to the presence of plaster.
Properties of blended mortars produced with recycled by-products from different waste streams
2023
The construction industry encounters significant challenges in effectively managing solid waste produced during the extraction and production of building materials. In different countries, slurry waste generated from granite and marble processing industries, such as glass industry waste, constitutes a considerable portion of the total solid waste. Its undesirable disposal is causing unprecedented environmental damage. Using these non-biodegradable wastes to produce building materials would reduce the environmental burden and contribute to sustainable construction. This study, in detail, investigates the feasibility of utilizing Granite Powder (GP), Ground Granite Powder (GGP), and Ground Gl…