Flavio Stochino's blog

This paper reports on the experimental assessment of the punching shear behaviour of reinforced recycled concrete slabs characterized by fine natural aggregates and coarse recycled aggregates. In particular, the latter were obtained only from demolished concrete. The experimental campaign has been carried out on 12 specimens. Moreover, three reinforced natural aggregate concrete slabs have been casted and tested as benchmarks. Four replacement percentages (30, 50, 80 and 100%) of coarse recycled aggregates in place of coarse natural aggregates have been considered.

Fibre-reinforced plates and shells are finding an increasing interest in engineering applications; in most cases dynamic phenomena need to be taken into account. Consequently, effective and robust computational tools are sought in order to provide reliable results for the analysis of such structural models. In this paper the mixed assumed-strain laminated plate element, previously used for static analyses, has been extended to the dynamic realm. This model is derived within the framework of the so-called First-order Shear Deformation Theory (FSDT).

 The 64 m diameter Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT), located near Cagliari (Italy), is the world’s second largest fully steerable radio telescope with an active surface. Among its peculiarities is the capability of modifying the configuration of the primary mirror surface by means of electromechanical actuators. This capability enables, within a fixed range, balancing of the deformation caused by external loads. In this way, the difference between the ideal shape of the mirror (which maximizes its performance) and the actual surface can be reduced.

The interaction between cars or trains and bridges has been often described by means of a simplified model consisting of a beam loaded by a traveling mass, or by a traveling oscillator.Among others, two aspects are essential when dealing with masses traveling along flexible vibrating supports: (i) a complete relative kinematics; and (ii) a continuous transition between a traveling mass, rigidly coupled, and a traveling oscillator, elastically coupled with the support.

The current development of the isogeometric approach in various fields of mechanics is explained by the high-accuracy results which can be achieved at a reduced computational cost by codes based on non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS). In the case of strongly curved beams the simple diagonal de Saint-Venant’s constitutive model can lead to significant errors as it has been reported in the classic literature. Other models such as Winkler’s have been proposed and seem more suitable for these kinds of structures.

What is the importance of strain rate on structural response under blast load?

This and other issues are discussed in the recent paper from Stochino F. and Carta G.:

“SDOF models for reinforced concrete beams under impulsive loads accounting for strain rate effects”, DOI: 10.1016/j.nucengdes.2014.05.022, Nuclear Engineering and Design 276, (2014), 74-86.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002954931400301X