Search results for "Structural engineering"
showing 10 items of 1998 documents
Experimental tests on Li-ceramic breeders for the helium cooled pebble bed (HCPB) blanket design
2003
The Helium Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) Test Blanket Module (TBM) to be tested in ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) Reactor foresees the utilization of Lithiate ceramics as Tritium breeder in form of pebble beds. Since 1998, ENEA has launched many experimental activities for the evaluation of the breeder thermomechanics and the interaction between the pebble beds and the prismatic steel containment walls. Main objectives of these activities are the measurement of the pebble bed effective thermal conductivity, the wall heat transfer coefficient, the pressure loads and deformations on the lateral walls and their dependency from the mechanical constraints. The paper presents …
Experimental Investigation of the Shear Response of Precast Steel-Concrete Trussed Beams
2017
The results of an experimental campaign of three-point bending tests on precast composite beams, named hybrid steel-trussed concrete beams (HSTCBs), are provided. HSTCBs are typically constituted by a precast steel truss embedded in a block of concrete cast in place. Two series of specimens were manufactured, designed such that shear failure would occur, and tested under positive and negative bending moment. The experimental results obtained showed that fragile shear failure occurred in almost all cases, evidencing the crisis of the compressed concrete strut involved in the collapse mechanism. Yielding of the steel members provided ductility to the system, especially in those cases in which…
Stressing Sequence for Hanger Replacement of Tied-Arch Bridges with Rigid Bars
2022
The construction of bridges with suspenders, such as cable-stayed or tied-arch bridges, needs deep study of the prestressing forces to be applied to stays or hangers in all stages, depending on the construction technique adopted. In these cases, the main issue is the determination of the initial forces and optimization of the prestressing system in terms of stressing values and sequence. When the bridge is already built and suspenders have to be replaced for maintenance, a different problem has to be faced by the engineer, because the sequence of replacements and the values of the axial stresses depend very much on the service conditions of the bridge and on its historical evolution from co…
Effect of fatigue on the intra-cycle acceleration in front crawl swimming: a time-frequency analysis.
2007
The present study analyzes the changes in acceleration produced by swimmers before and after fatiguing effort. The subjects (n=15) performed a 25-m crawl series at maximum speed without fatigue, and a second series with fatigue. The data were registered with a synchronized system that consisted of a position transducer (1 kHz) and a video photogrametry (50 Hz). The acceleration (m s−2) was obtained by the derivative analysis of the variation of the position with time. The amplitude in the time domain was calculated with the root mean square (RMS); while the peak power (PP), the peak power frequency (PPF) and the spectrum area (SA) were calculated in the frequency domain with Fourier analysi…
Fermentation and elutriation of primary sludge: Effect of SRT on process performance
2007
Abstract A primary sludge fermentation–elutriation pilot plant was operated using in-line and side-stream schemes. The influence of solids retention time, recirculation sludge flow-rate and solids concentration on the fermentation–elutriation process performance has been assessed in this paper. The use of high elutriation flows (12% of influent flow) improved the volatile fatty acids (VFA) concentration in the effluent stream. Suspended solids removal efficiency decreased in the primary settler when the solids retention time (SRT) was increased from 4 to 8 days. Disintegration step during hydrolysis process was pointed out as the main reason for that decrease. Maximum VFA productions were a…
Fractional viscoelastic behaviour under stochastic temperature process
2018
Abstract This paper deals with the mechanical behaviour of a linear viscoelastic material modelled by a fractional Maxwell model and subject to a Gaussian stochastic temperature process. Two methods are introduced to evaluate the response in terms of strain of a material under a deterministic stress and subjected to a varying temperature. In the first approach the response is determined making the material parameters change at each time step, due to the temperature variation. The second method, takes advantage of the Time–Temperature Superposition Principle to lighten the calculations. In this regard, a stochastic characterisation for the Time–Temperature Superposition Principle method is p…
An analytical solution for multilayered beams subjected to ends loads
2014
An alternative model for multilayered beams undergoing axial, shear and bending loads applied at the beam's ends is developed. It is based on a layer-wise kinematics, which inherently fulfills the equilibrium equations at layer level and the interface continuity conditions. This kinematics is suitably expressed by introducing a set of generalized variables representative of the beam midline displacement field, which become the primary variables of the problem governing equations. As a consequence, the proposed beam model exhibits the computational characteristics of an equivalent single layer model and possesses the accuracy of layer-wise beam theories, as well. Closed form solutions for di…
Unified theory for analysis of curved thin-walled girders with open and closed cross section through HSA method
2016
Abstract The behaviour of thin-walled structures is deeply influenced by non-uniform torsion and cross section distortion. In this paper the extension of the Hamiltonian Structural Analysis (HSA) Method to thin-walled straight and curved beams is presented. The proposed method solves the structural elastic problem of thin-walled beams through the definition of a Hamiltonian system composed of 1st order differential equations. The method allows engineers to solve the elastic problem by introducing the degrees of freedom and the corresponding compatibility equations, founding equilibrium equations in the variational form. The methodology is explained in the framework of the so-called Generali…
A smart composite-piezoelectric one-dimensional finite element model for vibration damping analysis
2015
A one-dimensional finite element method for generally layered smart beams is presented in this paper. The model implements the first-order shear deformation beam theory and is based on the preliminary analytical condensation of the electric state to the mechanical state. This allows us to establish an effective mechanical beam kinematically equivalent to the original smart beam including the effects of electro-elastic couplings. The contributions of the external electric loads are included in both the equivalent stiffness properties and the equivalent mechanical boundary conditions. Hermite shape functions, which depend on parameters representative of the staking sequence through the equiv…
A one-dimensional model for dynamic analysis of generally layered magneto-electro-elastic beams
2013
Abstract A new one-dimensional model for the dynamic problem of magneto-electro-elastic generally laminated beams is presented. The electric and magnetic fields are assumed to be quasi-static and a first-order shear beam theory is used. The electro-magnetic problem is first solved in terms of the mechanical variables, then the equations of motion are written leading to the problem governing equations. They involve the same terms of the elastic dynamic problem weighted by effective stiffness coefficients, which take the magneto-electro-mechanical couplings into account. Additional terms, which involve the third spatial derivative of the transverse displacement, also occur as a result of the …