76,466 research outputs found
Numerical modelling of behaviour of reinforced concrete columns in fire and comparison with Eurocode 2
The paper describes a two-step finite element formulation for the thermo-mechanical non-linear analysis of the behaviour of the reinforced concrete columns in fire. In the first step, the distributions of the temperature over the cross-section during fire are determined. In the next step, the mechanical analysis is made in which these distributions are used as the temperature loads. The analysis employs our new strain-based planar geometrically exact and materially non-linear beam finite elements to model the column. The results are compared with the measurements of the full-scale test on columns in fire and with the results of the European building code EC 2. The resistance times of the present method and the test were close. It is also noted that the building code EC 2 might be non-conservative in the estimation of the resistance time. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Marker based Thermal-Inertial Localization for Aerial Robots in Obscurant Filled Environments
For robotic inspection tasks in known environments fiducial markers provide a
reliable and low-cost solution for robot localization. However, detection of
such markers relies on the quality of RGB camera data, which degrades
significantly in the presence of visual obscurants such as fog and smoke. The
ability to navigate known environments in the presence of obscurants can be
critical for inspection tasks especially, in the aftermath of a disaster.
Addressing such a scenario, this work proposes a method for the design of
fiducial markers to be used with thermal cameras for the pose estimation of
aerial robots. Our low cost markers are designed to work in the long wave
infrared spectrum, which is not affected by the presence of obscurants, and can
be affixed to any object that has measurable temperature difference with
respect to its surroundings. Furthermore, the estimated pose from the fiducial
markers is fused with inertial measurements in an extended Kalman filter to
remove high frequency noise and error present in the fiducial pose estimates.
The proposed markers and the pose estimation method are experimentally
evaluated in an obscurant filled environment using an aerial robot carrying a
thermal camera.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, Published in International Symposium on Visual
Computing 201
Learning to Divide and Conquer for Online Multi-Target Tracking
Online Multiple Target Tracking (MTT) is often addressed within the
tracking-by-detection paradigm. Detections are previously extracted
independently in each frame and then objects trajectories are built by
maximizing specifically designed coherence functions. Nevertheless, ambiguities
arise in presence of occlusions or detection errors. In this paper we claim
that the ambiguities in tracking could be solved by a selective use of the
features, by working with more reliable features if possible and exploiting a
deeper representation of the target only if necessary. To this end, we propose
an online divide and conquer tracker for static camera scenes, which partitions
the assignment problem in local subproblems and solves them by selectively
choosing and combining the best features. The complete framework is cast as a
structural learning task that unifies these phases and learns tracker
parameters from examples. Experiments on two different datasets highlights a
significant improvement of tracking performances (MOTA +10%) over the state of
the art
-Analysis Minimization and Generalized (Co-)Sparsity: When Does Recovery Succeed?
This paper investigates the problem of signal estimation from undersampled
noisy sub-Gaussian measurements under the assumption of a cosparse model. Based
on generalized notions of sparsity, we derive novel recovery guarantees for the
-analysis basis pursuit, enabling highly accurate predictions of its
sample complexity. The corresponding bounds on the number of required
measurements do explicitly depend on the Gram matrix of the analysis operator
and therefore particularly account for its mutual coherence structure. Our
findings defy conventional wisdom which promotes the sparsity of analysis
coefficients as the crucial quantity to study. In fact, this common paradigm
breaks down completely in many situations of practical interest, for instance,
when applying a redundant (multilevel) frame as analysis prior. By extensive
numerical experiments, we demonstrate that, in contrast, our theoretical
sampling-rate bounds reliably capture the recovery capability of various
examples, such as redundant Haar wavelets systems, total variation, or random
frames. The proofs of our main results build upon recent achievements in the
convex geometry of data mining problems. More precisely, we establish a
sophisticated upper bound on the conic Gaussian mean width that is associated
with the underlying -analysis polytope. Due to a novel localization
argument, it turns out that the presented framework naturally extends to stable
recovery, allowing us to incorporate compressible coefficient sequences as
well
On materially and geometrically non-linear analysis of reinforced concrete planar frames
A family of new beam finite elements for geometrically and materially non-linear static analysis of reinforced concrete planar frames is derived, in which strain measures are the only interpolated unknowns, and where the constitutive and equilibrium internal forces are equal at integration points. The strain-localization caused by the strain-softening at cross-sections is resolved by the introduction of a `short constant-strain element'. Comparisons between numerical and experimental results on planar frames in pre- and post-critical states show both good accuracy and computational efficiency of the present formulation. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
New methodology for calculating damage variables evolution in Plastic Damage Model for RC structures
The behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) structures under severe demands, as strong ground motions, is highly complex; this is mainly due to joint operation of concrete and steel, with several coupled failure modes. Furthermore, given the increasing awareness and concern for the important seismic worldwide risk, new developments have arisen in earthquake engineering. Nonetheless, simplified numerical models are widely used (given their moderate computational cost), and many developments rely mainly on them. The authors have started a long-term research whose final objective is to provide, by using advanced numerical models, solid basis for these developments. Those models are based on continuum mechanics, and consider Plastic Damage Model to simulate concrete behavior. Within this context, this paper presents a new methodology to calculate damage variables evolution; the proposed approach is based in the Lubliner/Lee/Fenves formulation and provides closed-form expressions of the compressive and tensile damage variables in terms of the corresponding strains. This methodology does not require calibration with experimental results and incorporates a strategy to avoid mesh-sensitivity. A particular algorithm, suitable for implementation in Abaqus, is described. Mesh-insensitivity is validated in a simple tension example. Accuracy and reliability are verified by simulating a cyclic experiment on a plain concrete specimen. Two laboratory experiments consisting in pushing until failure two 2-D RC frames are simulated with the proposed approach to investigate its ability to reproduce actual monotonic behavior of RC structures; the obtained results are also compared with the aforementioned simplified models that are commonly employed in earthquake engineering.Postprint (published version
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