Search results for "Civil Engineering"

Nowy i pewny sposób ochronienia słomianych dachów i budowli drewnianych od poźarów

1822

Contribution to the development of natural fibers' use in structural composites. Study of a Flax / Epoxy composite’s behavior when exposed to hygroth…

2018

In recent years there is renewed interest for bio-sourced composites, including those based on flax fibers, and especially in the field of transport, mobility and leisure. In fact, the lower energy cost and environmental impact of flax fiber give it an advantage over glass fiber, while competing with its specific mechanical properties. However, flax fibers based composites long-term behavior remains poorly known in damp environments and constitutes an obstacle to a wider use. This work aims to provide adapted parameters to produce a high-grade flax/epoxy composite and to contribute to improve the durability knowledge of these materials. First, the influence of many processing parameters [(i…

Design of a modular locomotion system for autonomous mobile robots

2021

Autonomous mobile robots are becoming more popular today and are successfully integrated into many civil and industrial projects. In the industrial sectors flexibility and modularity have an important role, so the production can be diversified and achieved with low costs. This paper presents the conceptual and functional design of a modular locomotion system for an autonomous mobile platform that can be configured according to the needs of the industrial environment it serves. The architecture of the locomotion system is based on a spring suspension system and three types of wheels: conventional wheels, omnidirectional wheels and mechanum wheels. The calculations for the chosen suspension s…

Microwave heating of water in a rectangular waveguide: Validating EOF-Library against COMSOL multiphysics and existing numerical studies

2019

The purpose of this work is two-fold: first, we successfully validate our open-source tool EOF-Library, which efficiently couples Elmer FEM and OpenFOAM, against COMSOL Multiphysics, a commercial simulation package; second, we inform about significant discrepancies between our results and the experimental and simulation data found in a series of research papers. We reproduce the previously published numerical simulations wherein microwaves are supplied to a water domain through a rectangular waveguide, inducing convective flow. This is a conjugate problem with weakly coupled electromagnetics, heat transfer and fluid dynamics. It involves effects such as permittivity dependence on temperatur…

Rainfall timing and runoff: The influence of the criterion for rain event separation

2016

Abstract Rain is not uniform in time and space in semiarid areas and its distribution is very important for the runoff process. Hydrological studies usually divide rainfall into events. However, defining rain events is complicated, and rain characteristics vary depending on how the events are delimited. Choosing a minimum inter-event time (MIT) is a commonly used criterion. Our hypothesis is that there will be an optimal MIT that explains the maximum part of the variance of the runoff, with time to runoff used as a surrogate. The objective is to establish a procedure in order to decide upon this optimal MIT. We developed regressions between time to runoff (T0) and three descriptive variable…

Biohydrology research after Landau 2013 conference

2014

Biohydrology gives a new view on hydrological research. The impact of biota on hydrological processes was a disregarded topic in the early years of hydrology research. It has been present since the 1960s, but as a „Cinderella“ research topic. It emerged as a new aspect of the hydrological processes after the 1980s. In the 21st century, it has become a well established research topic, bringing new knowledge to aid understanding on how biota influence the hydrological cycle and the rates of hydrological processes. The importance of biohydrology research is growing, and the number of conferences, publications and research projects is being doubled every decade. The 4th Biohydrology conference,…

Deep Learning Networks for Automatic Retroperitoneal Sarcoma Segmentation in Computerized Tomography

2022

The volume estimation of retroperitoneal sarcoma (RPS) is often difficult due to its huge dimensions and irregular shape; thus, it often requires manual segmentation, which is time-consuming and operator-dependent. This study aimed to evaluate two fully automated deep learning networks (ENet and ERFNet) for RPS segmentation. This retrospective study included 20 patients with RPS who received an abdominal computed tomography (CT) examination. Forty-nine CT examinations, with a total of 72 lesions, were included. Manual segmentation was performed by two radiologists in consensus, and automatic segmentation was performed using ENet and ERFNet. Significant differences between manual and automat…

Thermo-Mechanical Analysis and Design Update of the Top Cap Region of the DEMO Water-Cooled Lithium Lead Central Outboard Blanket Segment

2022

Within the framework of the EUROfusion research and development activities, the Water-Cooled Lithium Lead (WCLL) Breeding Blanket (BB) is one of the two candidates to be chosen as the driver blanket for the European DEMO nuclear fusion reactor. Hence, an intense research work is currently ongoing throughout the EU to develop a robust conceptual design able to fulfil the design requirements selected at the end of the DEMO pre-conceptual design phase. In this work, the thermo-mechanical analysis and the design update of the top cap (TC) region of the DEMO WCLL Central Out-board Blanket (COB) segment is presented. The scope of the work is to find a design solution of the WCLL COB TC region abl…

A new design problem in the formulation of a special moment resisting connection device for preventing local buckling

2021

In the present paper an improved formulation devoted to the optimal design problem of a special moment resisting connection device for steel frames is proposed. This innovative device is called a Limited Resistance Plastic Device (LRPD) and it has been recently proposed and patented by some of the authors. It is thought to be preferably located at the extremes of the beam, connecting the beam end cross section with the relevant column. The typical device is a steel element characterized by symmetry with respect to three orthogonal barycentric planes and constituted by a sequence of three portions with abrupt cross section changes. The main novelty of the present proposal is related to the d…

Techniques, Tricks, and Stratagems of Oral Cavity Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging

2022

The oral cavity constitutes a complex anatomical area that can be affected by many developmental, inflammatory, and tumoural diseases. MultiSlice Computed Tomography (MSCT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) currently represent the essential and complementary imaging techniques for detecting oral cavity abnormalities. Advanced MRI with diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and dynamic contrast-enhanced perfusion-weighted imaging (DCE-PWI) has recently increased the ability to characterise oral lesions and distinguish disease recurrences from post therapy changes. The analysis of the oral cavity area via imaging techniques is also complicated both by mutual close appositions of different mucosa…