Search results for "Structural Engineering"
showing 10 items of 1998 documents
Recent Progress in FSMA Microactuator Developments
2009
The giant magneto-strain effect is particularly attractive for actuator applications in micro- and nanometer dimensions as it enables contact-less control of large deformations, which can hardly be achieved by other actuation principles in small space. Two different approaches are being pursued to develop ferromagnetic shape memory (FSMA) microactuators based on the magnetically induced reorientation of martensite variants: (1) the fabrication of free-standing epitaxial Ni-Mn-Ga thin film actuators in a bottom-up manner by magnetron sputtering, substrate release and integration technologies and (2) the top-down approach of thickness reduction of bulk Ni-Mn-Ga single crystals to foil specime…
Theoretical and Experimental Studies on the Influence of Process Parameters on Strains and Forces of Single Point Incremental Forming
2014
These paper aims to determine the influence of the most important geometrical parameters (vertical step and punch diameter) on the main strains, thickness reduction and the forces along two directions during the single point incremental forming process (SPIF). The paper comprises a comparative numericalexperimental study, for a simple geometry part obtained by incremental forming. In fact, in the first stage, the punch has a vertical motion with the value of one vertical step. In the second stage, the punch follows a linear trajectory along one side of the die. After each linear trajectory the punch has successive vertical motions, taking one vertical step at a time until the entire geometr…
In-situ NDT testing procedure as an integral part of failure analysis of historical masonry arch bridges
2015
Abstract A nineteenth-century masonry arch bridge was analyzed as an illustrative example to explain the role of in-situ test campaigns in failure analysis and retrofit design. Test results were studied to find out the advantages of each technique, with the aim of proposing an optimized in-situ testing procedure. Standard static penetrometer, flat jack, thermographic and georadar in-situ tests were conducted. Traffic effects were analyzed by means of vibrational tests. The experimental analysis performed to investigate damage on the bridge structures shows the degree of reliability offered by each technique in evaluating specific information and reproducing the global behavior of the struct…
Hierarchical fast BEM for anisotropic time-harmonic 3-D elastodynamics
2012
The paper presents a fast boundary element method for anisotropic time-harmonic 3-D elastodynamic problems. The approach uses the hierarchical matrices format and the ACA algorithm for the collocation matrix setup and a preconditioned GMRES solver for the solution. The development of this approach for the anisotropic case presents peculiar aspects which deserve investigation and are studied in the paper leading to the employed computational strategy and its effective tuning. Numerical experiments are presented to assess the method accuracy, performances and numerical complexity. The method ensures adequate accuracy allowing remarkable reductions in computation time and memory storage.
Public transportation and fear of crime at BRT Systems: Approaching to the case of Barranquilla (Colombia) through integrated choice and latent varia…
2021
Abstract Security perception and Fear of Crime (FoC) in urban scenarios have the potential to affect travel behavior, changing people’s travel choices and patterns. In this sense, the feeling of being “safe” or “at-risk” in public transportation not only depends on observable factors like illumination, travel companionship or transport crowding, but also on unobservable individual-specific latent attributes, among which fear of crime constitutes a major issue to consider in transport security policy-making. This study aimed to describe the relationships among sociodemographic features, travel situations, system-design features, and the Fear of Crime at three different locations (buses, bus …
Delamination study of through-thickness reinforced composite laminates via two-phase interface model
2007
A technique to enhance the strength of the composite laminates in the thickness direction consists in inserting through-thickness reinforcement, by which the potential delamination crack faces are bridged in order to increase the interlaminar fracture strength. In this paper, the composite delamination is analyzed in the context of non-linear fracture mechanics making use of the interface concept. The presence of the reinforcement fibres provides an anisotropic elastic and post-elastic mechanical response, which herein is described by an original two-phase interface model. The two phases, namely the adhesive joint (or matrix of the composite) and the reinforcement, are characterized by thei…
Identifying wave and turbulence components in wind-driven shallow basins
2012
Wind-induced waves play an important role in shallow lake hydro- and sediment dynamics. That is why field measurements are important for the validation of their estimation methods, especially in shallow waters. In the first part of the present paper a method is introduced to improve the interpretation of the measured data, applicable both for pressure and velocity data. Replacing the turbulence-affected tail of the measured spectrum with a fitted power function causes a considerable 8-10% difference in the derived bulk wave parameters so this procedure is worth to be done. In the second part an appropriate technique to obtain wave features from 3D velocity time series will be described. The…
Seismically induced, non-stationary hydrodynamic pressure in a dam-reservoir system
2003
Stochastic seismic analysis of hydrodynamic pressure in a dam-reservoir system is presented in this paper. The analysis is conducted assuming infinite reservoir compressible fluid and modeling seismic acceleration as a normal zero-mean stochastic process obtained by Penzien filter. The non-homogeneous boundary conditions associated to the problem have been incorporated into the equation of pressure wave scattering in the form of a forcing function turning the non-homogeneous boundary value problem into an homogeneous one. Solution obtained via modal analysis in time-domain is coupled with the use of classical Ito stochastic differential calculus to characterize the stochastic hydrodynamic p…
Shear resistance analytical evaluation for RC beams with transverse reinforcement with two different inclinations
2020
An analysis-oriented mechanical model for shear strength evaluation of Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams with transverse reinforcement with two different inclinations, which required a numerical analysis, is turned into a design-oriented analytical model that can easily be utilized for practical purposes. The model assessed the shear resistance, according to the “lower-bound solution”, employing a numerical procedure that maximizes the element shear strength varying the stresses in the two sets of transverse reinforcement and the magnitude and inclination of the web concrete compressive stress field. The model is formulated with the aim of representing an extension of Eurocode 2 framework to R…
Private–Public Partnerships as Strategic Alliances
2008
A new approach to the design of concession contracts of port infrastructures that adapts some of the methods used in the design and start-up of strategic alliances is presented. From a cost–benefit analysis of the project, based on the industry benchmarks, a revenue-sharing model dependent on the investment interest and the risk undertaken or transferred by each partner was formulated. This model aids in the calculation of the amount of the canons (lease and royalty charges) that should be stated in the contract. Also, to avoid complicated renegotiations and undesired deadlock situations, methods are presented for the dynamic actualization of such canons according to changes that might occ…