Search results for "Safety factor"
showing 10 items of 15 documents
A risk assessment proposal for underground cavities in Hard Soils-Soft Rocks
2018
Abstract Underground calcarenite quarries in Marsala (Sicily) have been involved in a number of collapses that have, seriously damaged numerous buildings. The stability conditions were therefore examined in order to assess risk conditions within the historical centre of the town and the surrounding areas, which are subject to urban expansion. Starting with an extensive collection of historical information, the research was carried out through surveys of the cavities, systematic sampling of material, petrographic analysis and geotechnical testing. The results of laboratory tests and in situ investigations provided a geotechnical characterization of both the intact material and the rock mass.…
Influence of a thin horizontal weak layer on the mechanical behaviour of shallow foundations resting on sand
2021
The presence of minor details of the ground, including soil or rock masses, occurs more frequently than what is normally believed. Thin weak layers, shear bands, and slickensided surfaces can substantially affect the behaviour of foundations, as well as that of other geostructures. In fact, they can affect the failure mechanisms, the ultimate bearing capacity of footings, and the safety factor of the geotechnical system. In this research, numerically conducted through Finite Element Code Plaxis 2D, the influence of a horizontal thin weak layer on the mechanical behaviour of shallow footings was evaluated. The obtained results prove that the weak layer strongly influences both the failure me…
Multi-objective optimization of nitinol stent design.
2017
Nitinol stents continuously experience loadings due to pulsatile pressure, thus a given stent design should possess an adequate fatigue strength and, at the same time, it should guarantee a sufficient vessel scaffolding. The present study proposes an optimization framework aiming at increasing the fatigue life reducing the maximum strut strain along the structure through a local modification of the strut profile.The adopted computational framework relies on nonlinear structural finite element analysis combined with a Multi Objective Genetic Algorithm, based on Kriging response surfaces. In particular, such an approach is used to investigate the design optimization of planar stent cell.The r…
The control of the residual lifetimes of carbon fibre-reinforced composite pressure vessels
2015
International audience; The understanding of the degradation of carbon fibre composites, with emphasis on the use of these composites in filament-wound pressure vessels, is explored. Earlier studies by many researchers have led to a general appreciation of the mechanisms involved; however, only recently have both computational power and experimental techniques become sufficiently developed to allow for the use of quantitative analyses. It is shown that damage is controlled by fibre failure, and that initially this occurs randomly within the structure. In monotonic loading, the development of clusters of fibre breaks causes rapid failure; however, under maintained loads the kinetics of damag…
Intrinsic mechanisms limiting the use of carbon fiber composite pressure vessels
2016
International audience; The viscoelastic properties of the resins used in carbon fiber composite pressure vessels introduce time effects which allow damage processes to develop during use under load. A detailed understanding of these processes has been achieved through both experimental and theoretical studies on flat unidirectional specimens and with comparisons with the behavior of pressure vessels. Under steady pressures, the relaxation of the resin in the vicinity of earlier fiber breaks gradually increases the sustained stress in neighboring intact fibers and some eventually break. The rate of fiber failure has been modeled based only on physical criteria and shown to accurately predic…
Health monitoring of high performance composite pressure vessels,
2018
International audience; The most important form of damage in carbon fiber reinforced composite pressure vessels is the failure of the fibers however the rate of fiber failure is controlled by the viscoelastic nature of the matrix, which determines overall in-service lifetimes. This type of damage is very different from that encountered with metal pressure vessels and requires a detailed understanding in order to ensure reliability. Innovative proof testing methods based on these processes are necessary. The damage processes and the means of quantifying them are discussed. Their reliability under pressure over periods of decades is analyzed. Intrinsic safety factors linked directly to the pr…
Optimization of continuous elastic perfectly plastic beams
2004
Abstract The optimal design of elastic plastic beams subjected to loads quasi-statically variable within a given domain is studied. A minimum volume formulation and a maximum load multiplier formulation are developed, both expressed on the grounds of a statical as well as of a kinematical approach. The search problems are formulated according to three different limiting criteria acting simultaneously. For each criterion a corresponding selected safety factor is imposed. The Euler–Lagrange equations related to the above described problems are deduced. A special iterative technique devoted to the solution of the above referenced problems is proposed. Some numerical examples conclude the paper.
A Robustness Approach to Reliability
2012
Reliability of products is here regarded with respect to failure avoidance rather than probability of failure. To avoid failures, we emphasize variation and suggest some powerful tools for handling failures due to variation. Thus, instead of technical calculation of probabilities from data that usually are too weak for correct results, we emphasize the statistical thinking that puts the designers focus on the critical product functions. Making the design insensitive to unavoidable variation is called robust design and is handled by (i) identification and classification of variation, (ii) design of experiments to find robust solutions, and (iii) statistically based estimations of proper safe…
Predicting the equilibrium bed slope in natural streams using a stochastic model for incipient sediment motion
2011
In this paper, a method to predict the equilibrium bed slope in natural streams based on the incipient motion criterion is proposed. The method is based on the criterion suggested by Gessler to simulate the grain size distribution of the armour coat using the concept of critical shear stress of a sediment mixture. In particular, a different expression of the probability for a single particle size to be part of the armour coat is firstly proposed; then, a simple two-steps criterion is suggested to estimate the safety factor required by the proposed approach. The method is applied in three different Italian regions (Calabria, Basilicata, and Tuscany) and required several field campaigns invol…
Layer thickness optimisation in a laminated composite
1997
Abstract The paper describes a method to optimise the thickness balance within a composite laminate with layers oriented according to a limited set of angles. The laminate must be symmetric, balanced and loaded in-plane. The optimisation process is particularly suited to be used in conjunction with a finite element program. It provides the designer with the optimal overall engineering characteristics anda list of all the possible orientation combinations ranked with respect to their safety factor. The optimisation method is based on the first order gradient optimum search method and operates iteratively in the engineering elastic characteristics field. The cost function implemented up to no…