Search results for "Structural Engineering"
showing 10 items of 1998 documents
Tyre rubber-modified bitumens development: the effect of varying processing conditions
2013
Tyre rubber-modified binders (TR-MBs), produced through McDonald’s wet process and used worldwide (e.g. asphalt rubber), have been demonstrated to provide various benefits to pavements and, moreover, they represent a good opportunity for recycling tyre rubber (TR). However, this technology is still struggling to be fully adopted in Europe, mainly because of their poor stability during high temperatures storage, which leads to high initial costs in modifying existing asphalt plants. Storage stable TR-MBs are proving to be a great option and their development could be the key to spread the recycling of TR within paving applications in Europe. This paper aims to enrich this field of research b…
Structural Behavior of Telescopic Steel Pipe for a Full-Scale 60 kW Wind Turbine Tower
2020
A simple analytical model, including local effects due to buckling and shear to moment interaction, was developed to pre-dict the load-carrying capacity of CHS tubes under flexure and shear. A finite-element analysis with ABAQUS Code was also conducted for validation of the proposed model. By properly modeling the imperfection effects due to the ovalization of steel tube, a good correlation of the structural response and failure mode was also achieved, and a good correlation with the analytical model was also achieved. Numerical and analytical results were compared with experimental results recently obtained by the author with good agreement. Experimental tests refer to full-scale static te…
Evaluation of Subgrade Resilient Modulus Predictive Model for Use in Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide
2006
The characterization of unbound materials in the mechanistic–empirical pavement design guide (MEPDG), also known as the 2002 design guide, is reviewed, and this characterization is applied to Minnesota subgrades. The main emphasis is on the collection of k1-, k2-, and k3-parameters for Minnesota fine-grained soils and the procedure for the interpretation of the resilient modulus test to provide an input to the multilayer elastic theory (MLET) analysis (Level 2 input). This is an important aspect of adaptation of the MEPDG, because the guide recommends measurement of resilient moduli from laboratory testing, but the procedure does not specify how to interpret the test data to obtain an input …
A new dynamic identification technique: application to the evaluation of the equivalent strut for infilled frames
2003
A new time domain identification technique for systems under Gaussian white noise input is presented, requiring for its application the measurement of the system response but no information about input intensity. The technique proposed is based on the statistic moment equations derived by using a special class of mathematical models named "potential models". These models allow one to determine fundamental properties of the response statistics, making it possible to identify stiffness and dissipation features of a structural system, and also to determine the excitation input. The technique proposed is here applied to the identification of the strut equivalent to the infill of a single story-…
Determination of Torsional Stresses in Shafts: From Physical Analogies to Mathematical Models
2015
This paper presents the historical development of methods used for the study of torsional stresses in shafts. In particular, the paper covers both analog methods, especially those based on electrical analogies proposed circa 1925, and numerical methods, especially finite difference methods (FDM), finite element methods (FEM) and boundary element methods (BEM).
Explicit equations for uniform flow depth
2017
Conventional approach in uniform open channel flow is to express the resistance coefficient in the Manning, Darcy-Weisbach or Chezy form. However, for practical cross-sections, including rectangular and trapezoidal ones, the governing equation is implicit in the uniform water depth. For these sections the water depth, corresponding to known values of the flow discharge, slope channel and resistance coefficient, is presently obtained by trial and error procedure. In this paper exact analytical solutions of uniform flow depth for rectangular and trapezoidal section have been obtained in the form of fast converging power series.
A penalty-based finite element interface technology
2002
Abstract An effective and robust interface element technology able to connect independently modeled finite element subdomains is presented. This method has been developed using the penalty constraints and allows coupling of finite element models whose nodes do not coincide along their common interface. Additionally, the present formulation leads to a computational approach that is very efficient and completely compatible with existing commercial software. A significant effort has been directed toward identifying those model characteristics (element geometric properties, material properties and loads) that most strongly affect the required penalty parameter, and subsequently to developing si…
An open-source GA framework for optimizing the seismic upgrading design of RC frames through BRBs
2022
Abstract Optimizing seismic upgrading interventions in reinforced concrete (RC) structures is a difficult task, due to the inner non-linearity of the analyses usually performed. Additionally, it is well known that the displacement demand to the structure depends from the mass and stiffness of the system, and consequently its definition cannot be made a-priori. This paper presents the application of a soft-computing method -i.e. Genetic Algorithm (GA)- for the shaping optimization of code-compliant seismic upgrading interventions on plane RC frames through Buckling-Restrained Braces (BRB). The metaheuristic procedure allows to minimize the cost while ensuring the required safety level, witho…
Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows, Part II: Metaheuristics
2005
This paper surveys the research on the metaheuristics for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW). The VRPTW can be described as the problem of designing least cost routes from one depot to a set of geographically scattered points. The routes must be designed in such a way that each point is visited only once by exactly one vehicle within a given time interval; all routes start and end at the depot, and the total demands of all points on one particular route must not exceed the capacity of the vehicle. Metaheuristics are general solution procedures that explore the solution space to identify good solutions and often embed some of the standard route construction and improvemen…
Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows, Part I: Route Construction and Local Search Algorithms
2005
This paper presents a survey of the research on the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW). The VRPTW can be described as the problem of designing least cost routes from one depot to a set of geographically scattered points. The routes must be designed in such a way that each point is visited only once by exactly one vehicle within a given time interval, all routes start and end at the depot, and the total demands of all points on one particular route must not exceed the capacity of the vehicle. Both traditional heuristic route construction methods and recent local search algorithms are examined. The basic features of each method are described, and experimental results for Solom…