What Was a Relevant Translation in the 18th Century?

The paper applies RT to analyse an 18th century translation of a Latin text by the preeminent Romanian scholar Demetrius Cantemir. The translation diverges significantly from the original and was met with harsh criticism. Using the conceptual toolkit of RT, I argue that the differences between the original and its English translation were motivated by the translator’s desire to yield the same cognitive effect without putting the audience to unnecessary processing effort. Both effects and effort need to be evaluated by taking into account the respective cognitive environments of the source-text and the target-text audiences. The intertextual dimension of the text under scrutiny adds to the difficulty of communicating the same message in different languages and cultures

Crack path and liquid metal embrittlement specificity of austenitic steels in mercury at room temperature

A liquid metal embrittlement specificity of three austenitic steels with increasing nickel content (304 L, 316 L and 316L(N)) is studied in liquid mercury in the axisymmetric notched geometry. Only the low nickel alloys are susceptible to LME. The crack path of an austenitic steel fracture induced by liquid mercury has been elucidated at microstructural scale. Deformation induced martensite (γ(fcc) → α’(bcc)) of the low nickel steels induces numerous α’/α’ interfaces at small scale that are susceptible to be embrittled. Because the only steel that resists LME is the one that shows stability over α’ phase change due mostly to its higher nickel content, a point confirmed by X Ray fractography, it is inferred that the major factor contributing to the LME sensitivity at room temperature is the α’ phase formation in unstable austenitic steels during plastic strain. This provides a sound rationale on how to prevent mercury induced embrittlement with austenitic steels

The role of overstrength on the seismic performance of asymmetric-plan structures

Uneven distribution of seismic demand in asymmetric-plan structures is a critical concern in earthquake-resistant design. Contemporary seismic design strategies that are based on linear elastic response, single load reduction factor, and uniform ductility demand throughout an asymmetric system generally lead to unsatisfactory performance in terms of realized ductilities and nonuniform damage distribution due to strong torsional coupling associated with asymmetric-plan systems. In many cases, actual nonlinear behavior of the structure displays significant deviation from what is estimated by a linear elastic, force-based seismic design approach. This study investigates the prediction of seismic demand distribution among structural members of a single-story, torsionally stiff asymmetric-plan system. The focus is on the effect of inherent unbalanced overstrength, resulting from current force-based design practices, on the seismic response of code-designed single-story asymmetric structures. The results obtained are utilized to compile unsymmetrical response spectra and uniform ductility spectra, which are proposed as assessment and preliminary design tools for estimating the seismic performance of multistory asymmetric structures. A simple design strategy is further suggested for improving the inelastic torsional performance of asymmetric systems. Providing additional strength to stiff edge members over their nominal design strength demands leads to a more balanced ductility distribution. Finally, seismic responses of several asymmetric case study structures designed with the aid of the proposed strategy are assessed for validating their improved performance

Robustness of 3D base-isolated R.C. systems with FPS

This study evaluates the seismic robustness of 3D r.c. structures isolated with single-concave friction pendulum sys-tem (FPS) devices by computing the seismic reliability of different models related to different malfunction cases of the seismic iso-lators. Considering the elastic response pseudo-acceleration as the relevant random variable, the input data have been defined by means of the Latin Hypercube Sampling technique in order to develop 3D inelastic time-history analyses. In this way, bivariate structural performance curves at each level of the r.c. structural systems as well as seismic reliability-based design abacuses for the FP devices have been computed and compared in order to evaluate the robustness of the r.c. system considering different failure cases of the FP bearings. Moreover, the seismic robustness is examined by considering both a configuration equipped with beams connecting the substructure columns and a configuration without these connecting beams in order to demonstrate their effectiveness and provide useful design recommendations for base-isolated structural systems equipped with FPS

Seismic fragility and reliability of structures isolated by friction pendulum devices: Seismic reliability-based design (SRBD)

The paper deals with the seismic reliability of elastic structural systems equipped with friction pendulum isolators (friction pendulum system). The behavior of these systems is analyzed by employing a two-degree-of-freedom model accounting for the superstructure flexibility, whereas the friction pendulum system device behavior is described by adopting a widespread model that considers the variation of the friction coefficient with the velocity. With reference to medium soil condition, the uncertainty in the seismic inputs is taken into account by considering a set of artificial records, obtained through Monte Carlo simulations within the power spectral density method, with different frequency contents and characteristics depending on the soil dynamic parameters and scaled to increasing intensity levels. The sliding friction coefficient at large velocity is also considered as random variable modeled through a uniform probability density function. Incremental dynamic analyses are developed in order to evaluate the probabilities exceeding different limit states related to both r.c. superstructure and isolation level defining the seismic fragility curves through an extensive parametric study carried out for different structural system properties. Finally, considering the seismic hazard curves related to a site near L'Aquila (Italy), the seismic reliability of the r.c. superstructure systems is evaluated, and seismic reliability-based design abacuses are derived with the aim to define the radius in plan of the friction pendulum devices in function of the structural properties and reliability level expected