Seismic vulnerability of churches in Faial and Pico islands, Azores

Earthquakes represent one of the main cause of serious damage and loss of historic and architectural heritage. Interventions to preserve these building should start with a careful knowledge and assessment of their seismic vulnerability, in order to support any needed retrofitting and strengthening measures. This paper proposes a procedure to register and diagnose of the level of damage on churches after the occurrence of an earthquake, and also to assess the seismic vulnerability of this type of construction. This procedure was applied to sixteen churches in the Azores islands which were hit by the July 9th 1998 earthquake. Belfries of church towers are elements with a particular seismic vulnerability. For this reason, and based on the Italian methodology proposed by the Linee Guida (2006), it is applied to belfries of two churches from Pico (Azores), a simplified mechanical model for assessment of seismic vulnerability of this type of structures

The isotopic composition (d15N, d13C) of agricultural wastes and derived composts.

The aim of this study was to measure variations in the isotopic composition (d13C and d15N) during the composting of different agricultural wastes using bench-scale bioreactors. Four different feedstocks of agricultural wastes (Horse bedding manure + legumes residues; Dairy manure + Jatropha mill cake; Dairy manure + sugarcane residues; Dairy manure) were used for aerobic-thermophilic composting. During composting no significant differences were found between the d13C values of the source material and the compost, except for Dairy manure + sugarcane residues. d15N values increased significantly in composts of Horse bedding manure + legumes residues and Dairy manure + Jatropha mill cake. d15N values of composts may be related to NH3 volatilization during the composting process. Isotopic signatures (d13C, d15N) can be used to differentiate composts from different feedstock sources and d15N values may be a quantitative indicator of NH3 volatilization during composting. Use of bench-scale bioreactors is a promising apparatus to study the dynamics of C and N and stable isotopes signatures during composting, but future adjustments regarding sampling methodology are necessary

Determinação do poder calorífico de resíduos florestais em função do seu teor de umidade.

Resumo

Functionalizing self-assembled GaN quantum dot superlattices by Eu-implantation

Self-assembled GaN quantum dots (QDs) stacked in superlattices (SL) with AlN spacer layers were implanted with Europium ions to fluences of 1013, 1014, and 1015 cm−2. The damage level introduced in the QDs by the implantation stays well below that of thick GaN epilayers. For the lowest fluence, the structural properties remain unchanged after implantation and annealing while for higher fluences the implantation damage causes an expansion of the SL in the [0001] direction which increases with implantation fluence and is only partly reversed after thermal annealing at 1000 °C. Nevertheless, in all cases, the SL quality remains very good after implantation and annealing with Eu ions incorporated preferentially into near-substitutional cation sites. Eu3+ optical activation is achieved after annealing in all samples. In the sample implanted with the lowest fluence, the Eu3+ emission arises mainly from Eu incorporated inside the QDs while for the higher fluences only the emission from Eu inside the AlN-buffer, capping, and spacer layers is observed. © 2010 American Institute of PhysicsFCT-PTDC/CTM/100756/2008program PESSOA EGIDE/GRICESFCT-SFRH/BD/45774/2008FCT-SFRH/BD/44635/200

Damage assessment of drilled hybrid composite laminates

Hole drilling operations are common in fibre reinforced plastics - FRP’s - to facilitate fastener assembly to other parts in more complex structures. As these materials are non-homogeneous, drilling causes some damages, like delamination, for example. Delamination can be reduced by a careful selection of drilling parameters, drill material and drill bit geometry. In this work two types of laminates are drilled using different machining parameters and comparing drill geometries. Results show the importance of a cautious selection of these variables when composites’ drilling is involved