Applying the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development to Water management

A strategic management of water is integral for any society aiming at moving towards sustainability. This thesis aims to provide a common understanding of how water management should be considered within sustainability constraints, using ‘backcasting’ from basic sustainability principles as a compass. With a common language, a constructive dialogue is then possible to unify all stakeholders to move together towards sustainability. To answer the research question “How can an interaction with water stakeholders be strategically developed to progress toward the service of water in a sustainable society”, a methodology based on Sustainability Life Cycle Assessment, the Template for Sustainable Product Development and Multi-Stakeholder Platforms has been utilised within one domestic and one industrial water user case study in Blekinge, Southern Sweden. In this locality, water is regarded as abundant in volume. Yet it was revealed that what is consumed by society is not water as such; but the purity of water. Within this context, opportunities to move towards sustainability have arisen and the case study organizations were able to utilise improvements in reporting and operations. Economic activity such as new infrastructure, pollutant trading schemes and product accreditation are amongst the many concepts identified as potential steps towards the service of water in a sustainable society

Numerical investigation on the effects of non-structural components on the elastic fundamental period of buildings

In this work a parametric study has been performed in order to evaluate the elastic fundamental period of vibration of buildings as function of structural morphology (height, plan area, ratio between plan dimensions) and infills distribution. Recent earthquakes highlighted the significant effects derived from the interaction between structural and non-structural elements on the main dynamic parameters of a structure and the lateral distribution of the inertial forces. Usually, non-structural elements acts together with the structural elements, adding both masses and stiffness. The presence of infill elements is generally not taken into account in the design process of structural elements, although these elements can significantly increase the lateral stiffness of a building leading to a modification in dynamic properties. Particularly, at the Damage Limit State (where an elastic behaviour is expected), soil-structure interaction effects and non-structural elements may further affect the elastic natural period of buildings, changing the spectral accelerations compared with those provided by seismic codes in case of static analyses. Using a numerical campaign, the effects of these parameters on the elastic dynamic behaviour of buildings have been studied taking into account presence and distribution of non-structural elements

Damage Detection and Localization on Real Structures Subjected to Strong Motion Earthquakes Using the Curvature Evolution Method: The Navelli (Italy) Case Study

In recent years, structural health monitoring (SHM) has received increasing interest from both research and professional engineering communities. This is due to the limitations related to the use of traditional methods based on visual inspection for a rapid and effective assessment of structures and infrastructures when compared with the great potential offered by newly developed automatic systems. Most of these kinds of systems allow the continuous estimation of structural modal properties that are strictly correlated to the mechanical characteristics of the monitored structure. These can change as a result of material deterioration and structural damage related to earthquake shaking. Furthermore, a suitable configuration of a dense sensor network in a real-time monitoring system can allow to detect and localize structural and non-structural damage by comparing the initial and a final state of the structure after a critical event, such as a relevant earthquake. In this paper, the modal curvature evaluation method, used for damage detection and localization on framed structures, considering the mode curvature variation due to strong earthquake shaking, is further developed. The modified approach is validated by numerical and experimental case studies. The extended procedure, named “Curvature Evolution Method” (CEM), reduces the required computing time and the uncertainties in the results. Furthermore, in this work, an empirical relationship between curvature variation and damage index has been defined for both bare and infilled frames

Fundamental period of Italian reinforced concrete buildings: comparison between numerical, experimental and Italian code simplified values.

Aim of this study is a comparison among the fundamental period of reinforced concrete buildings evaluated using the simplified approach proposed by the Italian Seismic code (NTC 2008), numerical models and real values retrieved from an experimental campaign performed on several buildings located in Basilicata region (Italy). With the intention of proposing simplified relationships to evaluate the fundamental period of reinforced concrete buildings, scientists and engineers performed several numerical and experimental campaigns, on different structures all around the world, to calibrate different kind of formulas. Most of formulas retrieved from both numerical and experimental analyses provides vibration periods smaller than those suggested by the Italian seismic code. However, it is well known that the fundamental period of a structure play a key role in the correct evaluation of the spectral acceleration for seismic static analyses. Generally speaking, simplified approaches impose the use of safety factors greater than those related to in depth nonlinear analyses with the aim to cover possible unexpected uncertainties. Using the simplified formula proposed by the Italian seismic code the fundamental period is quite higher than fundamental periods experimentally evaluated on real structures, with the consequence that the spectral acceleration adopted in the seismic static analysis may be significantly different than real spectral acceleration. This approach could produces a decreasing in safety factors obtained using linear and nonlinear seismic static analyses. Finally, the authors suggest a possible update of the Italian seismic code formula for the simplified estimation of the fundamental period of vibration of existing RC buildings, taking into account both elastic and inelastic structural behaviour and the interaction between structural and non-structural elements

Crystal and molecular structure of .beta.-cyclodextrins functionalized with the anti-inflammatory drug Etodolac.

The conjugates of .beta.-cyclodextrins with R- or with S-Etodolac were characterized by NMR spectroscopy, and S-Etodolac alone was characterized by X-ray diffraction anal. In soln., the R-Etodolac conjugate is sol. in water; the other epimer shows a very low soly. The NMR characterization of the R-Etodolac conjugate in D2O shows that, in aq. soln., the Edotolac moiety is self-included in the cavity, while the NMR characterization in MeOH of both conjugates underlines that, in this solvent, the Etodolac moiety is not included in the CD cavity. The X-ray structure detn. of the S-Etodolac conjugate reveals a "sleeping swan"-like shape, with the covalently bonded Etodolac moiety being folded with the 8-Et group inserted inside the hydrophobic cavity of the .beta.-CD ring. The terminal Me group of the 8-Et group enters the center of cavity from the side of the primary hydroxyl groups and is buried inside the .beta.-CD macrocycle. The terminal Me group is positioned at a distance of 1.06 .ANG. from the O(4) plane in the side of the primary hydroxyl groups. In addn. to van der Waals interactions between the hydrophobic Et group and the .beta.-CD cavity, the folded conformation is further stabilized by one intramol. H-bond involving the indole N-H group and the primary hydroxyl group of the glucose unit 7. Along the b axis, the .beta.-CD mols. are arranged in columns; the macrocycles form a herring bone pattern, so that the cavity of each .beta.-CD mol. is closed at each end by neighboring mols. Within the layers, the .beta.-CD macrocycles are held together by a complicated intermol. hydrogen bond network, in which numerous water mols. and hydroxyl groups are involved

An advanced approach to the long term SHM of structures and transport infrastructures

This work shows the preliminary monitoring results by applying in situ and remote sensing systems to a school building located in Ariccia (Rome), within the WP6 “Structural Health Monitoring and Satellite Data” 2019–21 Reluis Project. In particular, the use of the remote sensing Differential Interferometry Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) has provided a spatial map of the displacement of the investigated structure and the corresponding time-series with the aim of monitoring deformation phenomena, focusing on the local scale analysis,which produces suitable results for urban monitoring and damage assessment. The DInSAR results have been integrated with the identification of the dynamic characteristics of the structure. In-situ data was provided by the Seismic Observatory of Structures (OSS), a network of permanent seismic monitoring systems managed by the Italian Department of Civil Protection (DPC). Modal parameters were identified from the accelerometric responses recorded at several floors of the buildings. The integrated use of the two techniques has allowed to confirm the healthiness of the investigated structure, even in presence of several seismic events occurred in the area during the monitoring period. This case represents a good example about how the integration of in-situ sensors with remotely sensed data is a key factor for a sustainable structural and infrastructural monitoring and can support the planning of both maintenance and safety management

Numerical and experimental analyses of the modal characteristics of framed structures subjected to earthquakes

Damage detection approach based on dynamic monitoring of structural properties over time has received a considerable attention in recent scientific literature. In earthquake engineering field, the recourse to experi-mental research is necessary to understand the mechanical behaviour of the various structural and non-structural components. A new methodology to detect and localize a possible damage occurred on a framed structure after an earthquake is discussed in this paper which resumes the main outcomes retrieved from many numerical non linear dynamic models of reinforced concrete framed structures characterized by 3, 5 and 8 floors with different geometric configurations and designed for gravity loads only. In addition, the main re-sults of experimental shaking table tests carried out on a steel framed model are also showed to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed procedure