Search results for "Structural engineering"
showing 10 items of 1998 documents
Influence of secondary torsion on curved steel girder bridges with box and I-girder cross-sections
2015
Steel curved girder bridges are largely used today in motorways and railways. They are often composed of thin-walled crosssections, entirely made of steel or with an upper concrete slab. The deck may have I-girders or box cross-sections: in any case curved girders are subjected to twisting moment, associated with bending, even for dead loads. Moreover, in thin-walled sections the influence of non-uniform torsion becomes sizable with respect to Saint Venant torsion, modifying the state of tangential stresses in the section and introducing axial stresses due to warping being prevented. Open sections of I-girder bridges are especially subject to these phenomena and warping can be significant n…
The Effect of Friction in Passive and Active Heave Compensators of Crown Block Mounted Compensators
2012
Abstract This paper studies the effects of friction model during passive and active heave compensation of offshore drilling equipment. The main purpose of heave compensation while drilling from vessels or semi-submersible platforms is to maintain the drilling operation unaffected by the wave induced motion. The investigated system is of an existing crown mounted compensator. A model of the system is developed which includes mechanics, hydraulics and pneumatics. The passive heave compensation scheme is described including force equalising hydraulic cylinders. In this paper the detrimental effect of friction on the heave compensation performance in both passive and active heave compensation i…
INTERNAL PRESSURE AND COUNTERPUNCH ACTION DESIGN IN Y-SHAPED TUBE HYDROFORMING PROCESSES: A MULTI OBJECTIVE OPTIMISATION APPROACH
2009
In sheet metal forming most of the problems are multi-objective problems, generally characterised by conflicting objectives. A classical approach to investigate such kind of problems is focused on a combination of multiple objectives into a unique objective function to be optimised. Actually, in metal forming processes optimisation two main phases have to be developed in order to reach an optimal solution: the former is the modelling phase (definition of the design variables and objective function) and the latter concerns the computational aspect (numerical simulations or experiment to be developed). In this paper, an integration between numerical simulations, response surface methodology a…
Fundamental period of infilled reinforced concrete frame structures
2016
AbstractThe fundamental period of vibration appears to be one of the most critical parameters for the seismic design and assessment of structures. In the present paper, the results of a large-scale analytical investigation on the parameters that affect the fundamental period of reinforced concrete structures are presented. The influence of the number of storeys, the number of spans, the span length, the infill wall panel stiffness and the percentage of openings within the infill panel on the fundamental period of infilled RC frames was investigated. Based on these results, a regression analysis is applied in order to propose a new empirical equation for the estimation of the fundamental per…
Prediction of the additional shear action on frame members due to infills
2014
Infill masonry walls in framed structures make a significant contribution to the response under seismic actions. With special regard to reinforced concrete (RC) structures, it is known that internal forces modifications caused by the frame–infill interaction may be not supported by the surrounding frame because of the additional shear forces arising at the ends of beams and columns. Such additional forces may lead to the activation of brittle collapse mechanisms and hence their prediction is basic in capacity assessment, especially for structures that disregard the details for seismic zones. In this paper a parametric study is carried out addressed to the prediction of the shear forces ment…
Environmental, functional and economic criteria for comparing “target roundabouts” with one- or two-level roundabout intersections
2015
The article describes a criterion based on functional, environmental and economic aspects for comparing conventional roundabouts with innovative one- or two-level roundabouts. We compared the performances of eight roundabout types, differing in geometric layout, number of lanes and traffic flow regulation from each other, with regard to vehicle delays and CO2, NOx, PM2.5 and PM10 pollutant emissions. Recently-designed roundabouts - target roundabouts and flyover roundabouts - have also been studied for their undoubted practical interest. By means of closed-form capacity models and CORINAIR methodology, several traffic simulations were carried out to examine a typical annual traffic demand c…
Experimental and Numerical Analysis of a Cross-Flow Turbine
2016
An important component of the management cost of aqueducts is the energy costs. Part of these costs can be recovered by transforming some of the many existing energy dissipations into electric energy by means of economical turbines. This paper describes an experimental study that has been carried out in order to (1) test the performance of an economical cross-flow turbine that maintains high efficiency within a large range of water discharges, and (2) validate a new approximate formula relating main inlet velocity to inlet pressure. It is demonstrated that the proposed formula, on the basis of some simplifying assumptions, exactly links inlet velocity to inlet pressure with any possible geo…
Implementation of the driver training curriculum in Spain – An analysis based on the Goals for Driver Education (GDE) framework
2014
Abstract The Goals for Driver Education (GDE) framework represents a conceptual outline of the goals to be satisfied in driver education (Hatakka et al., 2002). We aimed to analyze the implementation of the driver training curriculum in Spain, taking this framework as reference; the Spanish driving instructors was the target population from which to gather the information to be analyzed. For this purpose, we developed the DTCI (Driver Training Curriculum Implementation) scale as well as a number of questions concerning the driving instructors’ opinions about their own training as instructors, and they were included in a survey that provided information for a probabilistic sample of 676 driv…
Evaluation of the laboratory prediction of surface properties of bituminous mixtures
2009
Abstract An experimental and analytical investigation was carried out both in laboratory and in situ on wearing courses. The approach presented in this paper aims to predict the in situ density and surface properties of bituminous layers, during the phase of mix design in laboratory. Therefore, the main attempt of this study is to identify, amongst the commonly available laboratory equipments, the most adequate for producing specimens that, used for carrying out simple and reliable laboratory test, allow the prediction of the surface characteristics of the mixture as laid on site. This is done by comparing the data collected from an experimental site with those calculated from laboratory sp…
Stress separation in the photoelastic study of centrifugal stresses
1972
This technical note refers to the problem of stress separation in the photoelastic analysis of plane models under centrifugal stresses. Two methods are described in order to determine the sum of principal stresses. These methods, which are based on the compatibility equation, reduce the determination of the sum of principal stresses to the solution of a Laplace's or Poisson's equations. As an example of application, the separation of stresses in a rotating disk with two eccentric holes is shown and comparison with the stresses obtained by using the shear-difference method is made.