Search results for "Structural Engineering"
showing 10 items of 1998 documents
Rockburst induced ground motion—a comparative study
2004
Abstract While rockbursts from underground copper mining in Western Poland normally produce surface peak ground accelerations (PGA) and velocities of 0.05–0.1 g and 1–3 cm/s, occasionally these peak motions may exceed 0.15 g and 10 cm/s, respectively. These larger motions are of considerable concern and an investigation has been undertaken to define the nature of these larger induced ground motions. This paper compares these rockburst motions with low intensity earthquakes. Various strong motion parameters such as PGA, peak ground velocity (PGV) and displacements as well as strong motion duration, Arias intensity, Fourier and response spectra are compared with those from earthquakes. It is …
Influence of some relevant process parameters on the dimensional accuracy in incremental forming: a numerical and experimental investigation
2004
Abstract As known, incremental forming is a flexible and innovative sheet metal forming process which allows complex shape shells forming without the need for any die. For these reasons, incremental forming is nowadays suggested for rapid prototyping and customised products. The present paper is focused on material formability in incremental forming and, in particular, on the evaluation and compensation of elastic springback. The latter significantly modifies the imposed shape. For this purpose, a deeper assessment of the process was developed following three different approaches. First of all, a wide experimental investigation on the influence of some relevant process parameters was develo…
Contact between the components of a knee prosthesis: numerical and experimental study
2012
The aim of this work is the analysis of the contact area in a knee prosthesis using two different approaches. In particular, the interface between the femoral component and the polyethylene insert has been studied both numerically and experimentally. The interest in studying the contact area is related to the fact that the wear of the polyethylene insert, due to the high contact pressures, represents one of the major causes of failure of the total knee prosthesis. The possibility to evaluate the contact area at different loads and mutual position between femur and tibia is, therefore, of fundamental importance to study the service life of a prosthesis and to improve its performance. The fin…
Improving the rheometry of rubberized bitumen: experimental and computation fluid dynamics studies
2017
Abstract Multi-phase materials are common in several fields of engineering and rheological measurements are intensively adopted for their development and quality control. Unfortunately, due to the complexity of these materials, accurate measurements can be challenging. This is the case of bitumen-rubber blends used in civil engineering as binders for several applications such as asphalt concrete for road pavements but recently also for roofing membranes. These materials can be considered as heterogeneous blends of fluid and particles with different densities. Due to this nature the two components tends to separate and this phenomenon can be enhanced with inappropriate design and mixing. Thi…
Square Ring Compression: Numerical Simulation and Experimental Tests
1996
In the upsetting process of square rings buckling problems often arise, depending on the geometry of the ring and on the frictional conditions at the punch-workpiece interface, yielding to the practical unacceptability of the forged component. Consequently in order to make up a set of rules to be introduced in an expert system able to assist the designer of cold forming sequences, a knowledge base has been built up, by means of a set of numerical simulations, the results of which have been validated by several experimental tests.
SEPARATION OF PRINCIPAL STRESSES ALONG SECTIONS OF SYMMETRY BY MEANS OF ISOPACHIC PATTERNS
1969
An approximate rapid method for the separation of principal stresses along sections of symmetry free from external loads is described. The method is based on the sum of principal stresses and checked by applying it to a circular ring under diametral compression and to a grooved bar in tension.
A macro-modelling approach for the analysis of infilled frame structures considering the effects of openings and vertical loads
2015
During the last decades, several macro-models have been proposed for the modelling of the infill panels' contribution to the lateral strength of frames. Despite all this effort, a robust model, which takes into account the influence of the vertical load, is not yet available. Furthermore, the influence of the very common case of infill walls with openings, such as windows and doors, has been neglected in all the code provisions that have been published so far. In this paper, an updated macro-model, based on the equivalent pin-jointed diagonal compressive strut, is presented. The proposed macro-model is able to represent the stiffening effect of the infill panel with openings by taking into …
Road design problems solved by affine arithmetic
2015
In this paper we propose the use of techniques based on range numbers for solving problems of road designing. We applied the Affine Arithmetic to verify the driver's visibility in a horizontal curve, providing very interesting results and confirming its usefulness even in the most complex analytical expressions. The preparation of charts such as those proposed in this paper also makes this method directly accessible to those not so familiar with this technique.
Robotic face milling path correction and vibration reduction
2015
In this paper the developed method for off-line compensation of tool deflections and vibration reduction when milling aluminum with an industrial robot is presented. The efficiency of this approach is verified with high precision measurements of deflections using a laser tracker. The compensation method is based on the static milling process model which can predict the mean value components of the tool forces and the passive damping system mounted on the spindle to reduce vibrations. With a process model such as the one presented in this paper and estimates of the robot's joint stiffness values, the tool path can be adjusted to counteract deflections of the tool during milling operations. T…
Improving Reliability of Road Safety Estimates Based on High Correlated Accident Counts
2007
Calibrating a safety performance function (SPF) with many years of accident data creates a temporal correlation that traditional model calibration procedures cannot deal with. It is well known that generalized estimating equations (GEE) models are able to incorporate trends into accident data and thus overcome difficulties in accounting for correlation; the usual application of GEEs to safety analysis uses robust (or sandwich) estimates of regression coefficients under the independence hypothesis for the working correlation matrix. This practice is justified by the robustness of the GEE procedure against misspecification of the response correlation structure. Nevertheless, with this method…