A non-destructive technique for the health monitoring of tie-rods in ancient buildings

A technique is developed to identify in-situ the tensile force in tie-rods which are used in ancient monumental masonry buildings to eliminate the lateral load exercised by vaults and arcs. The technique is a frequency-based identification method that allows to minimize the measurement error and that is of simple execution. In particular, the first natural frequencies of the tie-rod are experimentally identified by measuring the FRFs with instrumented hammer excitation. Then, a numerical model, based on the Rayleigh-Ritz method, is developed for the axially-loaded tie-rod by using the Timoshenko beam theory retaining shear deformation and rotary inertia. Non-uniform section of the rod is considered since this is often the case for hand-made tie-rods in old buildings. The part of the tie-rod inserted inside the masonry wall is also modeled and a simple support is assumed at the extremities inside the walls. The constraints given to the part of the tie-rod inserted inside the masonry structure are assumed to be elastic foundations. The tensile force and the stiffness of the foundation are the unknown. In some cases, the length of the rod inside the masonry wall can be also assumed as unknown. The numerical model is used to calculate the natural frequencies for a given set of unknowns. Then, a weighted difference between the calculated and identified natural frequencies is calculated and this difference is minimized in order to identify the unknowns, and in particular the tensile force. An estimation of the error in the identification of the force is given. The technique has been tested on six tie-rods at the central vault of the famous Duomo of Parma, Italy

Solving variational inequalities and cone complementarity problems in nonsmooth dynamics using the alternating direction method of multipliers

This work presents a numerical method for the solution of variational inequalities arising in nonsmooth flexible multibody problems that involve set-valued forces. For the special case of hard frictional contacts, the method solves a second order cone complementarity problem. We ground our algorithm on the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM), an efficient and robust optimization method that draws on few computational primitives. In order to improve computational performance, we reformulated the original ADMM scheme in order to exploit the sparsity of constraint jacobians and we added optimizations such as warm starting and adaptive step scaling. The proposed method can be used in scenarios that pose major difficulties to other methods available in literature for complementarity in contact dynamics, namely when using very stiff finite elements and when simulating articulated mechanisms with odd mass ratios. The method can have applications in the fields of robotics, vehicle dynamics, virtual reality, and multiphysics simulation in general

Free and forced wave motion in a two-dimensional plate with radial periodicity

In many practical engineering situations, a source of vibrations may excite a large and flexible structure such as a ship’s deck, an aeroplane fuselage, a satellite antenna, a wall panel. To avoid transmission of the vibration and structure-borne sound, radial or polar periodicity may be used. In these cases, numerical approaches to study free and forced wave propagation close to the excitation source in polar coordinates are desirable. This is the paper’s aim, where a numerical method based on Floquet-theory and the FE discretision of a finite slice of the radial periodic structure is presented and verified. Only a small slice of the structure is analysed, which is approximated using piecewise Cartesian segments. Wave characteristics in each segment are obtained by the theory of wave propagation in periodic Cartesian structures and Finite Element analysis, while wave amplitude change due to the changes in the geometry of the slice is accommodated in the model assuming that the energy flow through the segments is the same. Forced response of the structure is then evaluated in the wave domain. Results are verified for an infinite isotropic thin plate excited by a point harmonic force. A plate with a periodic radial change of thickness is then studied. Free waves propagation are shown, and the forced response in the nearfield is evaluated, showing the validity of the method and the computational advantage compared to FE harmonic analysis for infinite structures

Comportamento de recópula de fêmeas selvagens de Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae) no Vale do São Francisco.

Moscas-das-frutas são pragas quarentenárias relevantes na fruticultura mundial. Amosca-do-mediterrâneo, Ceratitis capitata é cosmopolita e atualmente, a mais representativa da família Tephritidae no Submédio do Vale do São Francisco (VSF), no Nordeste do Brasil.Resumo 1003-1

Exposure of sterile Mediterranean fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) males to ginger root oil reduces female remating.

Females of Ceratitis capitata are facultative polyandrous, with remating more common in laboratory strains rather than wild ones. In the application of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) against this pest, large overflooding ratios of sterile : wild males can increase the remating frequency. Females that mate for the first time with a sterile male tend to remate more frequently. The exposure of sterile males to ginger root oil (GRO) is used in C. capitata SIT programmes to increase the sterile male mating success. Exposing males to an ?aromatherapy? with GRO may also increase the remating frequency among wild females. The frequency of wild females remating, number of matings per female, the refractory period between the first and second mating, and the duration of the first and second matings of wild females were determined under laboratory conditions for three mating scenarios that included wild males only or wild males competing with sterile males (either GRO-treated or nontreated). Wild females first mated with sterile males exposed to GRO had their remating rate over the following 6 days and the mean number of matings per female reduced in comparison to those first mated with non-exposed sterile males, from 62.5% to 32.2% and from 3.1 to 1.6 respectively. The remating parameters of females mated with sterile GRO-exposed males resembled those of females mated with wild males.Supplement 1

Suppression of a Field Population of Aedes aegypti in Brazil by Sustained Release of Transgenic Male Mosquitoes

The increasing burden of dengue, and the relative failure of traditional vector control programs highlight the need to develop new control methods. SIT using self-limiting genetic technology is one such promising method. A self-limiting strain of Aedes aegypti, OX513A, has already reached the stage of field evaluation. Sustained releases of OX513A Ae. aegypti males led to 80% suppression of a target wild Ae. aegypti population in the Cayman Islands in 2010. Here we describe sustained series of field releases of OX513A Ae. aegypti males in a suburb of Juazeiro, Bahia, Brazil. This study spanned over a year and reduced the local Ae. aegypti population by 95% (95% CI: 92.2%-97.5%) based on adult trap data and 81% (95% CI: 74.9-85.2%) based on ovitrap indices compared to the adjacent no-release control area. The mating competitiveness of the released males (0.031; 95% CI: 0.025-0.036) was similar to that estimated in the Cayman trials (0.059; 95% CI: 0.011-0.210), indicating that environmental and target-strain differences had little impact on the mating success of the OX513A males. We conclude that sustained release of OX513A males may be an effective and widely useful method for suppression of the key dengue vector Ae. aegypti. The observed level of suppression would likely be sufficient to prevent dengue epidemics in the locality tested and other areas with similar or lower transmission