Search results for "Civil and Structural Engineering"
showing 10 items of 1404 documents
An agent-based model to support the preliminary design and operation of heating and power grids with cogeneration units and photovoltaic panels in de…
2022
The increase in the energy demands of residential neighborhoods constitutes a huge challenge to be faced. A viable option lies in the insertion of both renewable energy production systems and cogeneration units within urban territories. On-site production allows for the satisfaction of the heating and electrical demands of end-users and favors the distribution of produced energy within the neighborhood, especially under the regulatory framework of energy communities. This paper proposes a tool to model heating and electricity networks integrated with cogeneration units and PV panels installed in urban areas. The tool accounts for the following possibilities: (i) energy flow management and p…
Towards a new mix design method for asphalt mixtures containing rap
2016
Recycling is one of the most important aspects to conceive the new construction or rehabilitation of sustainable road infrastructures. Even if Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) is commonly used in the practice, its presence may lead to some critical aspects due to the physical and chemical phenomena occurring during the new mix process. For instance, the formation of RAP clusters during a new mix may inhibit the uniform distribution of the virgin binder as well as cause changes in the design grading curve of the mixture. Indeed, laboratory results demonstrate that small-size RAP particles stick together forming clusters. The amount of clusters depends on different parameters observed: The pe…
Effects of Air Tightness Tests on Steel Thin-Wall Box Structures with Circular and Rectangular Cross Sections
2019
In this paper, the effects of air tightness tests on steel box structures with rectangular or circular cross sections typical of port cranes (legs, arms, and crosspieces) are analyzed. Legs and arms are generally made with elements with profiles having a square or rectangular cross section, while the diagonal struts are made with profiles having circular cross sections. To verify the air tightness of these elements, a necessary requirement to protect them from corrosion if they are not protected with other protection techniques, air tightness tests are performed. These tests, in the framework of durability tests, must be carried out while maintaining the structure elasticity well below the …
Estimating economic severity of Air Traffic Flow Management regulations
2021
The development of trajectory-based operations and the rolling network operations plan in European air traffic management network implies a move towards more collaborative, strategic flight planning. This opens up the possibility for inclusion of additional information in the collaborative decision-making process. With that in mind, we define the indicator for the economic risk of network elements (e.g., sectors or airports) as the expected costs that the elements impose on airspace users due to Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) regulations. The definition of the indicator is based on the analysis of historical ATFM regulations data, that provides an indication of the risk of accruing dela…
Restoration of the Zisa Palace, Palermo
1993
The building of the Zisa, commissioned by William I, began in 1164-1165; it was completed by William II in the years immediately following. It was built as a splendid place for rest and amusement, ...
Development and application of an alternative modelling approach for the thermo-mechanical analysis of a DEMO water-cooled lithium lead breeding blan…
2022
In the frame of the EUROfusion research activities devoted to the design of the DEMO breeding blanket (BB), the Water-Cooled Lithium-Lead BB (WCLL) concept is one of the candidates currently assessed in EU. To this end, an intense research campaign is ongoing to develop a robust geometric configuration for the WCLL BB Central Outboard Segment (COB). Since the current reference design of the WCLL COB segment is not mature enough to allow a full thermal-hydraulic assessment, an alternative procedure aimed at obtaining a thermal field for the whole segment without performing its complete thermal-hydraulic analysis is presented and applied in this work. The scope of the work is to obtain a ther…
On the severity of aortic stenosis in ascending aortic aneurysm: A computational tool to examine ventricular-arterial interaction and aortic wall str…
2020
Abstract An ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm (ATAA) is a life-threatening cardiovascular consequence of vessel dilatation that portends adverse events and death. From a clinical perspective, ATAA should not be treated as an isolated disease, and surgery is often carried out in the presence of AS, aortic insufficiency or a calcified valve leaflet. Aortic stenosis (AS) is common in ATAAs and leads to both vessel rigidity and left ventricular (LV) impairment. In this study, lumped-parameter modeling and computational analysis were used to assess the change in the wall shear stress (WSS) and intramural wall stress of patient-specific ATAA models with different degrees of AS (i.e., mild to sev…
Life Cycle Assessment of an Ambitious Renovation of a Norwegian Apartment Building to nZEB Standard
2018
Author's accepted manuscript. The upgrading of building infrastructure to modern standards represents a key tool for reducing global energy demand and emissions from buildings. In Norway, building upgrades have been prioritized despite the relatively low carbon intensity of the Norwegian energy mix through various incentive programs and continual improvement in building standards. Prioritizing upgrades is important as up to 90% of the existing Norwegian building stock is expected to remain standing by the year 2050. The overall impact of upgrading buildings is expected to be a net benefit to the environment but this is primarily in operation, and many studies on energy do not include the ma…
A matter of style? testing the moderating effect of driving styles on the relationship between job strain and work-related crashes of professional dr…
2020
Abstract Different empirical studies suggest that both job strain and driving styles are significant contributors to the work-related traffic crashes suffered by professional drivers. Nevertheless, the current evidence falls considerably short when explaining why driving styles may modify (or not) the relationship between occupational stressors and professional drivers’ safety outcomes. The aim of this study was to examine whether driving styles moderate the effect of job strain on professional drivers’ Work Traffic Crashes (WTCs). This research was performed using the data collected from a sample of 753 professional drivers, responding to a self-report questionnaire on job strain (work str…
Arbitrarily shaped plates analysis via Line Element-Less Method (LEM)
2018
Abstract An innovative procedure is introduced for the analysis of arbitrarily shaped thin plates with various boundary conditions and under generic transverse loading conditions. Framed into Line Element-less Method, a truly meshfree method, this novel approach yields the solution in terms of the deflection function in a straightforward manner, without resorting to any discretization, neither in the domain nor on the boundary. Specifically, expressing the deflection function through a series expansion in terms of harmonic polynomials, it is shown that the proposed method requires only the evaluation of line integrals along the boundary parametric equation. Further, minimization of appropri…