Search results for "Structural engineering"
showing 10 items of 1998 documents
Improved Global-Local Method for Ultrasonic Guided Wave Scattering Predictions in Composite Waveguides and Defects
2023
Abstract As structures increase in complexity, in the use of high-performing materials and designs, their health assessment becomes increasingly challenging. Ultrasonic guided waves (UGWs) have shown to be very promising in the inspection of large (i.e. aerospace components) attenuating (i.e. composite materials) structures and have been successfully employed for damage detection in a variety of fields. The intrinsic complex nature of UGWs, due to their dispersive behavior, combined with the structural complexity of the applications, though, makes the interpretation of UGW inspections very challenging. Numerical simulations of UGW propagation become crucial to this end and have been address…
Simulazione della propagazione di difetti a fatica mediante il modello di zona coesiva
2009
Le giunzioni incollate guadagnano sempre più mercato, nel campo delle costruzioni in genere, dove è necessario un alleggerimento delle strutture. Nel caso di geometrie di giunto semplici il dimensionamento avviene attraverso relazioni analitiche che restituiscono il valore massimo delle tensioni, il quale deve essere inferiore al limite di utilizzo dell’adesivo stesso. Quando le geometrie sono complesse l’approccio analitico diventa impraticabile, di conseguenza si provvede a verificare la correttezza della soluzione mediante analisi agli elementi finiti (EF). L’introduzione del modello di zona coesiva nell'analisi EF permette di simulare il danneggiamento ed il cedimento del giunto in cond…
First lamina hybridization of high performance CFRP with Kevlar fibers: Effect on impact behavior and nondestructive evaluation
2022
The impact behavior of a carbon-Kevlar hybrid composite, widely used in sport car manufacturing, was evaluated. To highlight the hybridization effect, comparative analyses were performed with the basic CFRP laminate having the same lay-up. Tensile, bending and low velocity impact tests, followed by nondestructive inspections, highlighted that Kevlar first lamina hybridization leads to an increment in specific impact strength, up to 55%. To assess the most reliable technique to detect the impact damage, nondestructive evaluation was performed by pulsed thermography, phased array ultrasonic technique, computed tomography and digital radiography. Phased array ultrasonic technique can be consid…
Keep calm, pay attention, and carry on: Anxiety and consciousness mediate the effect of, mindfulness on driving performance in young drivers
2021
Abstract Road traffic crashes are currently one of the main causes of deaths in the world and many efforts have been made to develop effective interventions to reduce them. Mindfulness has risen as a method for improving mental and physical well-being and has been hypothesized as potentially beneficial for driving performance. This has led to some commercial ventures based on such hypothesis, despite that the empirical evidence backing up them is still limited. Besides, at the moment there is not yet a clear account of the specific mechanism underlying this proposals. So, it seems plausible that the relationship between mindfulness and driving performance is indirect, and that personality t…
Characterization of a small Mediterranean island end-users’ electricity consumption: The case of Lampedusa
2017
Abstract The paper presents the results of a study carried out on Lampedusa Island (Italy) and based on the survey of electricity consumption data. The main outcomes of the study are: • the characterization of the energy demand of private houses and hotels in Italian small islands with significant touristic flows during the summer period; • the identification of inefficient use of the electric loads; • the construction of aggregated load profiles for clusters of homogeneous domestic end-user to be used for implementing Demand Response strategies. The study shows how electricity consumption in Mediterranean small islands are very high with respect to the national average and lays the basis f…
Stochastic model for electrical loads in Mediterranean residential building: validation and applications
2014
A major issue in modelling the electrical load of residential building is reproducing the variability between dwellings due to the stochastic use of different electrical equipment. In that sense and with the objective to reproduce this variability, a stochastic model to obtain load profiles of household electricity is developed. The model is based on a probabilistic approach and is developed using data from the Mediterranean region of Spain. A detailed validation of the model has been done, analysing and comparing the results with Spanish and European data. The results of the validation show that the model is able to reproduce the most important features of the residential electrical consum…
Classification of Extreme Rainfall for a Mediterranean Region by Means of Atmospheric Circulation Patterns and Reanalysis Data
2020
AbstractThe atmospheric circulation can be recognized as one of the causes of severe rainfall events occurrence. Such events, especially when are characterized by short durations and high intensities, result in flood events in the Mediterranean area. It is very important to understand how these heavy rainfall events, which can be usually identified with convective rainfall, are related to the different types of atmospheric circulation. In order to do this, some weather circulation patterns (WPs), which have been derived for the Europe, have been first connected with the rainfall annual maxima (AMAX) recorded over the Sicily. The analyses allowed to identify those WPs that are more likely to…
Experimental Study on the Performance of Timber Frame Wall Panels in Mediterranean Construction
2018
Only recently, the use of wooden buildings is spreading in the central and southern parts of the Italy due to national and EU policies on eco-sustainability and energy saving. Knowledge of the durability of the building envelope elements, generally made with dry assembled stratified systems, is still insufficient. The paper presents the first results of a durability evaluation of multilayer timber panel applied to Platform Frame System buildings, focusing on the variation of energy performance over time. The case study describes the construction of two single-family houses in the municipality of San Cataldo (Sicily, Italy). The used timber multilayer panel presents a stratigraphy suitable f…
River Conservation and Phytodepuration in a Mid-Mediterranean Streambed: A Sicilian Case Study
2016
AbstractFor landslide mitigation purposes, a system of two screen dams was created along the main channel of the Capreria River in Sicily. The de facto constructed wetlands occasioned behind the flow-path barriers produced, for several years, an appreciable reduction of organic load of the upstream municipal wastewaters from the nearby town of Riesi, Italy. This coincidence inspires the prospect of promoting a multifunctional role for these slope-stabilization works, thereby allowing them to be viewed from an intriguing and innovative planning perspective.
Impact on the water column biogeochemistry of a Mediterranean mussel and fish farm
2002
We investigated and compared the impact of organic loads due to the biodeposition of mussel and fish farms on the water column of a coastal area of the Tyrrhenian Sea (Western Mediterranean). Physico-chemical data (including oxygen, nutrients, DOC and particulate organic matter), microbial variables (picoplankton and picophytoplankton density and biomass) and phytoplankton biomass (as chlorophyll-a) were determined on a monthly basis from March 1997 to February 1998. The results of this study indicate that both fish farm and mussel culture did not alter significantly dissolved inorganic phosphorus and chlorophyll-a values, while inorganic nitrogen concentrations were higher in mussel farm a…