Seismic Response of a Platform-Frame System with Steel Columns

Timber platform-frame shear walls are characterized by high ductility and diffuse energy dissipation but limited in-plane shear resistance. A novel lightweight constructive system composed of steel columns braced with oriented strand board (OSB) panels was conceived and tested. Preliminary laboratory tests were performed to study the OSB-to-column connections with self-drilling screws. Then, the seismic response of a shear wall was determined performing a quasi-static cyclic-loading test of a full-scale specimen. Results presented in this work in terms of force-displacement capacity show that this system confers to shear walls high in-plane strength and stiffness with good ductility and dissipative capacity. Therefore, the incorporation of steel columns within OSB bracing panels results in a strong and stiff platform-frame system with high potential for low- and medium-rise buildings in seismic-prone areas

Esecuzione e interpretazione di prove sperimentali su pareti realizzate con tecnologia "ISOSPAN".

In recent years, the resistance of reinforced concrete bearing panels structures has been the object of several research works, to assess the effective behavior of this kind of materials in static and seismic situations. Despite the wide use of this kind of concrete walls in Northern Europe the national regulations are not very detailed and specific. In fact, regarding the structural elements without reinforcement or partially reinforced employed in the industrial buildings, there are no common methods or approved procedures to calculate the strength of this kind walls, both Italian and European (Eurocodes) regulations. In order to partially fill this gap the Italian Ministry of Public Works issued some Guidelines in the July 2011 concerning the construction technique in object, where a series of laboratory tests should be carried on to investigate the mechanical properties (Young and shear moduli) and the panels behavior under different loads and with different geometries. This paper presents a summary of the experimental results of some tests conducted following the above Guidelines and the comparison of these with the analytical results of a proposed procedure

“Keep it simple”: the introductions of Veterinary Medicine academic papers

This study investigates the linguistic organization of the introduction sections of academic papers from the Veterinary Medicine field in terms of the two basic systems that determine how one clause is related to another: taxis (degree of interdependency) and logico-semantic relation (Halliday; Matthiessen, 2014, p. 438). All the clauses from the introduction sections of five published academic papers were analyzed. The results showed a high recurrence of simple clauses and embedded clauses in the corpus. In the clause complexes, the preference is for paratactic extensions. The results of this analysis may help understanding the functioning of academic writing in English language in this specific field.This study investigates the linguistic organization of the introduction sections of academic papers from the Veterinary Medicine field in terms of the two basic systems that determine how one clause is related to another: taxis (degree of interdependency) and logico-semantic relation (Halliday; Matthiessen, 2014, p. 438). All the clauses from the introduction sections of five published academic papers were analyzed. The results showed a high recurrence of simple clauses and embedded clauses in the corpus. In the clause complexes, the preference is for paratactic extensions. The results of this analysis may help understanding the functioning of academic writing in English language in this specific field.  Keywords: clause complex; Veterinary Medicine; academic writing.

Protección contra sobretensión para la generación pico-hídrica conectada a la red mediante inversores fotovoltaicos

Very small-scale hydropower plants are environmentally friendly and renewable resource-based innovative solutions. The interest in pico-hydro systems (up to 5 kW) has increased significantly from the first stand-alone applications, at remote sites, to the distributed generation, with the injection of generated energy into the grid. Recently, there have been advances in the grid connection of these systems using off-the-shelf components, namely photovoltaic inverters. Therefore, pico-hydro systems have gained an enormous potential in distributed generation, particularly in the context of microgrids. However, in situations of over-power, or whenever the generator is under no load, e.g. when the grid fails, there is a need for effective over-voltage protection, as in small wind turbines. This paper proposes two over-voltage protection circuits, designed to ensure the integration of pico-hydro turbines connected to the grid using conventional photovoltaic microinverters and string inverters, for power ranges of 300 W and some kW, respectively. Extensive tests were performed on an emulation platform and a workbench using these two different over-voltage protection circuits. One is designed to connect the generators of water wheels to the grid and the other to connect 1,500 W generators of water turbines. The experimental results demonstrated the performance of the proposed over-voltage protection circuits in four different situations. Both avoid irreversible damages of generators, photovoltaic microinverters and string inverters in the context of the above-described grid connection approach.Las centrales hidráulicas, a muy pequeña escala, son soluciones innovadoras basadas en recursos renovables y respetuosas con el medio ambiente. El interés en los sistemas pico- hidráulicos (hasta 5 kW) ha aumentado significativamente desde las primeras aplicaciones independientes en sitios remotos, hasta la generación distribuida, con inyección de energía en la red. Recientemente, han surgido avances en la conexión a la red, utilizando componentes estándar como los inversores fotovoltaicos. Sin embargo, en situaciones de exceso de potencia, o cuando el generador no tiene carga, por ejemplo, cuando falla la red, existe la necesidad de protección frente a la sobretensión. Este artículo propone dos circuitos de protección frente a la sobretensión, diseñados para conectar turbinas pico-hidráulicas a la red, utilizando microinversores fotovoltaicos e inversores de cadena, para rangos de potencia de 300 W y algunos kW, respectivamente. Uno de ellos está diseñado para conectar los generadores de ruedas hidráulicas a la red y el otro para conectar generadores de turbinas hidráulicas de 1.500 W. Se realizaron extensas pruebas en una plataforma de emulación y en un banco de trabajo utilizando estos dos circuitos de protección contra sobretensión. Los resultados experimentales demostraron el rendimiento de los circuitos de protección, respecto a cuatro situaciones diferentes. Además, ambos evitan daños irreversibles en los generadores y microinversores e inversores de cadena, dentro del contexto del enfoque de conexión a la red descrito anteriormente.The authors would like to thank: the CYTED Thematic Network 518RT0558 ”Ciudades Inteligentes Totalmente Integrales, Eficientes y Sostenibles”; FCT (Foundation of Science and Technology, Portugal) for the financial support through the contract SAICT-POL/24376/2016 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-024376); and Gabriela Ribeiro, for her contributions for the development of this work.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

development and characterization of a system for the seismic and energy retrofit of existing buildings

Abstract The integrated retrofitting of building heritage is a high interesting topic in Europe lately. Many calls of the researching program H2020 is focused on this topic. This work deals with a new technology that improve seismic and energetic performance of existing buildings by operating only on the outer surface. The system consists in two layers of insulating material and between them a seismic resistant layer made with in-situ cast concrete. The structural connection is made with steel screws fixed on the existing structure and embedded in the cast concrete. The resistance and the stiffness are improved, the displacement is reduced and so is the damage of the existing structural elements. The building vulnerability is then reduced. Analytical and numerical studies were carried out to assess the structural seismic performance. First a feasibility study has been conducted, analyzing different geometric configurations and boundary conditions. Analytical and numerical buckling analysis of thin concrete slabs were performed, and the results are presented. Then a sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the sizing of retrofitting to the change in the intensity of seismic action and the height of the building. Referring to the numerical and analytical results, a set of quasi-static cyclic tests on real-scale specimens was performed and the results are presented

LA ACREDITACIÓN DE CARRERAS DE POSGRADO: EXPERIENCIAS EN LA FACULTAD DECIENCIAS EXACTAS, INGENIERIA Y AGRIMENSURA DE LA UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE ROSARIO

La Escuela de Posgrado y Educación Continua de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Ingeniería y Agrimensura de la Universidad Nacional de Rosario cuenta desde el año 2001 con un Área de Acreditación de carreras de posgrado. En esos años se ofrecían ocho carreras de posgrado ampliándose la oferta educativa, en la actualidad, a dieciséis. Todas estas carreras han sido evaluadas y acreditadas ante la Comisión Nacional de Evaluación y Acreditación Universitaria con resultado positivo. En este tiempo hemos trabajado adaptándonos a los cambios en los procesos y protocolos establecidos desde la Nación y desde nuestra Universidad, implementando estrategias de gestión propia, inherentes a la Facultad, para la búsqueda, obtención y procesamiento de la información necesaria para cada etapa de acreditación. El proceso de acreditación se convirtió en una forma de trabajo continua y sostenida a lo largo del tiempo ayudando a tomar decisiones estratégicas para la institución. Presentamos nuestra experiencia después de casi una década de trabajo continuo

Hydrodynamic limit for a boundary driven super-diffusive symmetric exclusion

We study the hydrodynamic limit for a model of symmetric exclusion processes with heavy-tailed long jumps and in contact with infinitely extended reservoirs. We show how the corresponding hydrodynamic equations are affected by the parameters defining the model. The hydrodynamic equations are characterized by a class of super-diffusive operators that are given by the regional fractional Laplacian with some additional reaction terms and various boundary conditions. This work solves some questions left open in \cite{BJGO2} about the same model