Simulação numérica do comportamento de vidro reforçado com elementos metálicos embebidos

Trabalho financiado por Fundos FEDER, através do Programa Operacional Fatores de Competitividade – COMPETE, e por Fundos Nacionais, através da FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, no âmbito do projeto PTDC/ECM/116609/2010 – S-GLASS: Desempenho Estrutural e Regras de Projeto de Vigas de Vidro Reforçadas Externamente.O presente artigo descreve a simulação numérica de vigas de vidro laminado reforçadas com chapa de aço inoxidável perfurada, onde o Polivinil Butiral (PVB) e o SentryGlas (SG) são utilizados como materiais de película intercalar. Numa fase anterior, essas vigas foram analisadas experimentalmente em ensaios realizados por Marinho [1] no Laboratório de Construção e Tecnologia da Escola de Arquitetura da Universidade do Minho. Os resultados obtidos com os modelos numéricos são calibrados com os resultados obtidos nos ensaios experimentais. Os modelos numéricos são desenvolvidos com o programa de elementos finitos ATENA.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Towards e-Cities: an Atlas to enhance the public realm through interactive urban cyber-physical devices

Cyber-physical devices are the backbone of a postdigital society in which the virtual and real spaces are seamlessly integrated by ubiquitous computing and networking. The incorporation of such devices in public space is a central subject of a strategic Research Project that gathers a multidisciplinary team from architecture, product design, polymer science and ICT R&D units. This paper frames the key roles of public space and ICTs for UN Sustainable Development Goals and sustainable smart cities. It also reports the architecture R&D unit review on the relations between public space, community, environment and digital interfaces. This review was materialized in an Atlas that collects, classifies and relates a corpus of heterogeneous urban cyber-physical projects case studies. We expand on three main framing concepts (Digital Twin, Interface, Awareness) and identify trends on the devices’ design and deployment strategies to counteract digitally hostile environments and early obsolescence. We also suggest the rising of new types of urban devices aiming at expanding the liveliness of urban places, the knowledge of urban life and the users’ environmental consciousness. The lessons learned from the Atlas fed the design guidelines for a developing demonstrator of a new breed of environmentally sensible interactive urban devices.Work co-funded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) thru Norte 2020: Project “Lab4U&Spaces - Living Lab of Interactive Urban Space Solution” (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000072); and Project Lab2PT - Landscapes, Heritage and Territory laboratory - UIDB/04509/2020 thru FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

Experimental analysis on steel reinforced glass beams at different temperatures

This work is funded by FEDER Funds, through the Operational Programme Competitiveness Factors – COMPETE, and Portuguese Funds, through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project PTDC/ECM/116609/2010, “S-GLASS: Structural Performance and Design Rules of Glass Beams Externally Reinforced”. In addition, The COST Action TU0905 ‘‘Structural Glass – Novel Design Methods and Next Generation Products’’ is also acknowledged.Whereas glass components were used as infill elements in the past, contemporary architectural concepts include glass components as load-bearing elements. Recent architectural trends and technological developments have brought about unprecedented opportunities in the use of glass in buildings. The increasingly daring structural applications of glass will continue to drive the development of structural glass elements with high post-failure resistances. The present work aims to explore the concepts of structural performance of glass beams and the effectiveness of an embedded steel reinforcement system. The reinforcement system consists in embedding perforated stainless steel plates in the lamination process. The experimental study focuses on the effect of thermal actions and compares the use of soft foils and stiff foils (temperature ranging from approximately 16 ºC to 85 ºC).Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

On dynamic analysis of contact problems with freeform surfaces : a knee joint 3D-study

One of the biomechanical roles of the knee joint is to withstand high loading forces. Thus, this articulation is quite susceptible to injuries and diseases, which may cause anomalous contact loads, asymmetrical gait patterns and local pain that, ultimately, leads to a knee replacement. In view of that, identifying and quantifying the loads placed on the human knee is critical for understanding realistic joint mechanics. Since there is no standard non-invasive experimental approach able to measure in vivo knee dynamic loads, such quantities have to be predicted by making use of computational methods. The efficiency of these computational methods is a primary concern for a contact formulation to be used in multibody system (MBS) dynamics. In fact, it has been recognized by many researchers that most of the time consumed in simulating contact phenomena is spent on the contact detection phase. This computational time motivated the development of an efficient methodology to predict the contact forces that is here presented.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - DACHOR (MIT-Pt/BSHHMS/ 0042/2008), BIOJOINTS (PTDC/EME-PME/ 099764/2008), SFRH/BD/40164/ 2007, SFRH/BD/47750/200

Structural schemes for one dimension stationary equations

In this paper, we propose a new paradigm for finite differences numerical methods, based on compact schemes to provide high order accurate approximations of a smooth solution. The method involves its derivatives approximations at the grid points and the construction of structural equations deriving from the kernels of a matrix that gathers the variables belonging to a small stencil. Numerical schemes involve combinations of physical equations and the structural relations. We have analysed the spectral resolution of the most common structural equations and performed numerical tests to address both the stability and accuracy issues for popular linear and non-linear problems. Several benchmarks are presented that ensure that the developed technology can cope with several problems that may involve non-linearity.S. Clain acknowledges the financial support by Portuguese Funds through Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Funding UIDB/00324/2020. R. M. S. Pereira acknowledges the financial support by Portuguese Funds through Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Funding UIDB/04650/2020. P. A. Pereira acknowledges the financial support by Portuguese Funds through Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Funding UIDB/00013/2020. Diogo Lopes acknowledges the financial support by national funds (PIDDAC), through the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia and FCT/MCTES under the scope of the projects UIDB/05549/2020 and UIDP/05549/2020. S. Clain and R. M.Pereira acknowledge the financial support by FEDER – Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional, through COMPETE 2020 – Programa Operacional Fatores de Competitividade, and the National Funds through FCT, project N◦. POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028118

Improved estimation of inbreeding and kinship in pigs using optimized SNP panels

BACKGROUND: Traditional breeding programs consider an average pairwise kinship between sibs. Based on pedigree information, the relationship matrix is used for genetic evaluations disregarding variation due to Mendelian sampling. Therefore, inbreeding and kinship coefficients are either over or underestimated resulting in reduction of accuracy of genetic evaluations and genetic progress. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) can be used to estimate pairwise kinship and individual inbreeding more accurately. The aim of this study was to optimize the selection of markers and determine the required number of SNPs for estimation of kinship and inbreeding. RESULTS: A total of 1,565 animals from three commercial pig populations were analyzed for 28,740 SNPs from the PorcineSNP60 Beadchip. Mean genomic inbreeding was higher than pedigree-based estimates in lines 2 and 3, but lower in line 1. As expected, a larger variation of genomic kinship estimates was observed for half and full sibs than for pedigree-based kinship reflecting Mendelian sampling. Genomic kinship between father-offspring pairs was lower (0.23) than the estimate based on pedigree (0.26). Bootstrap analyses using six reduced SNP panels (n = 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500 and 3000) showed that 2,000 SNPs were able to reproduce the results very close to those obtained using the full set of unlinked markers (n = 7,984-10,235) with high correlations (inbreeding r > 0.82 and kinship r > 0.96) and low variation between different sets with the same number of SNPs. CONCLUSIONS: Variation of kinship between sibs due to Mendelian sampling is better captured using genomic information than the pedigree-based method. Therefore, the reduced sets of SNPs could generate more accurate kinship coefficients between sibs than the pedigree-based method. Variation of genomic kinship of father-offspring pairs is recommended as a parameter to determine accuracy of the method rather than correlation with pedigree-based estimates. Inbreeding and kinship coefficients can be estimated with high accuracy using ≥2,000 unlinked SNPs within all three commercial pig lines evaluated. However, a larger number of SNPs might be necessary in other populations or across lines

Use of multivariate analysis to evaluate genetic groups of pigs for dry-cured ham production

AbstractRecords of a pig population used for dry-cured ham production were used to evaluate genetic groups by multivariate analysis. The investigated genetic groups were as follows: DULL=Duroc×(Landrace×Large White), DULA=Duroc×Landrace, DUWI=Duroc×Large White, WIWI=Large White and DUDU=Duroc. Two groups were obtained for the carcass traits hot carcass weight (HCW), backfat thickness (BT) and loin depth (LD), with the groups including 597 and 341 animals harvested at 130kg and at 160kg weights, respectively. Two groups were also found for ham traits gross ham weight (GHW), trimmed ham weight (THW), ham inner layer fat thickness (HIFT), ham outer layer fat thickness (HOFT), pH (PH), and Göfo value, with 393 and 91 animals harvested at 130kg and 160kg weights, respectively. The analysis was performed within each group of traits and harvest weights, and the animals without records were excluded. The first and the second canonical variables explained 97.5% and 93.6% of the total variation for the carcass traits at 130kg and 160kg, respectively, and 88.8% of ham traits at 130kg. In the dispersion graph concerning the canonical means, a significant distance was observed between the genetic groups DUDU and WIWI for the carcass traits at 130kg and 160kg and the ham traits at 130kg. The 50% Duroc animals exhibited little dispersion regarding the carcass traits at 130kg and 160kg and were not divergent from the DUDU genetic group for the ham traits at 130kg. In a cluster analysis using the single linkage method, DULL, DULA and DUWI were grouped with a high similarity level for the carcass traits at 130kg and 160kg and ham traits at 130kg. Using the Tocher optimization method, 50% Duroc crossbred and 100% Duroc purebred animals were grouped for the ham traits at 130kg, suggesting that for ham traits, 50% Duroc animals were similar to 100% Duroc purebred animals. In this context, the genetic groups Duroc×Large White, Duroc×Landrace and Duroc×(Landrace×Large White) are recommended for use in producing dry-cured ham

Towards e-cities. An Atlas to enhance the public realm through interactive urban cyber-physical devices

Cyber-physical devices are the backbone of a postdigital society in which the virtual and real spaces are seamlessly integrated by ubiquitous computing and networking. The incorporation of such devices in public space is a central subject of a strategic Research Project that gathers a multidisciplinary team from architecture, product design, polymer science and ICT R&D units. This paper frames the key roles of public space and ICTs for UN Sustainable Development Goals and sustainable smart cities. It also reports the architecture R&D unit review on the relations between public space, community, environment and digital interfaces. This review was materialized in an Atlas that collects, classifies and relates a corpus of heterogeneous urban cyber-physical projects case studies. We expand on three main framing concepts (Digital Twin, Interface, Awareness) and identify trends on the devices’ design and deployment strategies to counteract digitally hostile environments and early obsolescence. We also suggest the rising of new types of urban devices aiming at expanding the liveliness of urban places, the knowledge of urban life and the users’ environmental consciousness. The lessons learned from the Atlas fed the design guidelines for a developing demonstrator of a new breed of environmentally sensible interactive urban devices

Contactless smart screening in nursing homes : an IoT-enabled solution for the COVID-19 era

In the COVID-19 era, the provision of health indicators seamlessly and without contact, in groups at risk such as the elderly, is crucial due to the fast spread of the disease and the need to act quickly to contain its evolution. Continuous monitoring of vital signs, such as body temperature and cardio-respiratory rates, can be vital in early detection and prediction of COVID-19, which rapidly progresses and particularly affects the elderly population in nursing homes. Conventional clinical methods used for monitoring vital signs are contact-based, require contact sensors that need to be precisely attached by a trained health professional, are less convenient for repeatable measurements, and not practical for long-term monitoring. On the other hand, contactless vital signs monitoring using radar-based techniques, or IR-thermal imaging, do not require the attachment of physical electrodes and can be of great value in health screening of patients and help health professionals in early detection of the COVID-19 in the elderly population, in the specific context of nursing houses. This work describes the design and specification of a low-cost contactless health screening system for nursing homes, and includes the design of an IoT Edge device that can be placed above the beds where patients rest, allowing the continuous acquisition of health information and its processing without any type of contact and invasiveness.911A-2C18-106F | Carlos Jorge Enes Capit?o de AbreuN/