Search results for "Structural engineering"
showing 10 items of 1998 documents
Constitutive Models for the Tensile Behaviour of TRM Materials: Literature Review and Experimental Verification
2021
In recent years, the scientific community has focused its interest on innovative inorganic matrix composite materials, namely TRM (Textile Reinforced Mortar). This class of materials satisfies the need of retrofitting existing masonry buildings, by keeping the compatibility with the substrate. Different recent studies were addressed to improve the knowledge on their mechanical behaviour and some theoretical models were proposed for predicting the tensile response of TRM strips. However, this task is complex due to the heterogeneity of the constituent materials and the stress transfer mechanism developed between matrix and fabric through the interface in the cracked stage. This paper present…
Towards More Sustainable Pavement Management Practices Using Embedded Sensor Technologies
2019
Road agencies are constantly being placed in difficult situations when making road maintenance and rehabilitation decisions as a result of diminishing road budgets and mounting environmental concerns for any chosen strategies. This has led practitioners to seek out new alternative and innovative ways of monitoring road conditions and planning maintenance routines. This paper considers the use of innovative piezo-floating gate (PFG) sensors and conventional strain gauges to continuously monitor the pavement condition and subsequently trigger maintenance activities. These technologies can help develop optimized maintenance strategies as opposed to traditional ad-hoc approaches, which often le…
Quantitative assessment of the parameters linked to the blending between reclaimed asphalt binder and recycling agent: A literature review
2020
Abstract The lack of understanding the mechanisms governing the interaction between reclaimed asphalt binder (RAb) 1 and recycling agents is one of the technical issues that still need to be resolved when high amount of reclaimed asphalt (RA) 2 is used in a new recycled asphalt mixture (RAM). Due to important role of RAb in that interaction and increased used of RA, it becomes necessary to have a way to classify RA, as any other material used in asphalt mixture production. It is very important to determine how much RAb is active by itself (DoA) 3 , but also to determine how much RAb can be considered available for a mix design of RAM (DoAv) 4 when a recycling agent is used. Finally, since t…
Recommendation of RILEM TC237-SIB on cohesion test of recycled asphalt
2018
This recommendation describes how to evaluate the presence of potentially active bitumen in recycled asphalt (RA) materials through the cohesion test. The experimental protocol is designed according to the research performed by the RILEM Technical Committee 237-SIB ‘‘Testing and characterization of sustainable innovative bituminous materials and systems’’ with the purpose, to develop a new, simple and fast method for the characterization of RA while limiting the need for conventional rheological tests. The guidelines in this recommendation focus on the testing procedure including specimen preparation, data analysis and provide information on the preparation of a tests report.
Masonry Compressive Strength Prediction Using Artificial Neural Networks
2019
The masonry is not only included among the oldest building materials, but it is also the most widely used material due to its simple construction and low cost compared to the other modern building materials. Nevertheless, there is not yet a robust quantitative method, available in the literature, which can reliably predict its strength, based on the geometrical and mechanical characteristics of its components. This limitation is due to the highly nonlinear relation between the compressive strength of masonry and the geometrical and mechanical properties of the components of the masonry. In this paper, the application of artificial neural networks for predicting the compressive strength of m…
Portable low-cost open-source wireless spectrophotometer for fast and reliable measurements
2020
This article is based upon COST Action CA16215 and supported by the ERDF , European-Union Project No.1.1.1.2/16/I/001.
DORA algorithm for network flow models with improved stability and convergence properties
2001
A new methodology for the solution of shallow water equations is applied for the computation of the unsteady-state flow in an urban drainage network. The inertial terms are neglected in the momentum equations and the solution is decoupled into one kinematic and one diffusive component. After a short presentation of the DORA (Double ORder Approximation) methodology in the case of a single open channel, the new methodology is applied to the case of a sewer network. The transition from partial to full section and vice versa is treated without the help of the Preissmann approximation. The algorithm also allows the computation of the diffusive component in the case of vertical topographic discon…
Design optimization of mooring system: An application to a vessel-shaped offshore fish farm
2019
Abstract Design optimization of mooring systems of offshore floating structures is a challenging task, partly because of the large number of design variables, complicated design constraints, nonlinear system behavior, and time-consuming numerical simulations. For engineering designs, efficient yet accurate approaches are needed. This paper proposes an integrated optimization methodology for design of mooring systems. The methodology integrates the design of experiments, screening analysis, time-domain simulations, and a metamodel-based optimization procedure. To demonstrate the methodology, the mooring system of a vessel-shaped offshore fish farm was designed considering the ultimate limit …
A decentralized load control architecture for smart energy consumption in small islands
2020
Abstract In this paper we propose the adoption of Overgrid, a new decentralized load control architecture, for balancing the energy production variations introduced with the adoption of renewable sources, facilitating and improving the smart energy retrofit. The system is presented and applied for managing the aggregated daily load profile of a community of domestic end-users in the island of Lampedusa, Italy, exploiting the load profiles gathered in a real measurement campaign. The Overgrid Demand Response (DR) architecture is used for managing the residential flexible loads, estimating the aggregated power demand without any centralized server and creating a virtual “community” of smart b…
Structural performances of pultruded GFRP emergency structures – Part 2: Full-scale experimental testing
2019
Abstract This paper presents an experimental testing of a pultruded glass fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) structure used for emergency applications continuing the discussion presented in a previous paper (part 1) where the study of the characteristics of material and elements are presented. First, the design of the composite structure and components and the evaluation of the structural behavior by means of numerical and analytical approach according to current regulatory codes are described. In this frame, the global and local response was observed according to load paths deriving from the design loads at limit states. Then, the experimental test on a full-scale 2D model is presented at diff…