Basket-Handle Arch and Its Optimum Symmetry Generation as a Structural Element and Keeping the Aesthetic Point of View

The arches were a great advance in construction with respect to the rigid Greek linteled architecture. Its development came from the hand of the great Roman constructions, especially with the semicircular arch. In successive historical periods, different types of arches have been emerging, which in addition to their structural function was taking aesthetic characteristics that are used today to define the architectural style. When, in the construction of a bow, the rise is less than half the springing line, the semicircular arch is no longer used and the segmental arch is used, and then on to another more efficient and aesthetic arch, the basket-handle arch. This study examines the classic geometry of the basket-handle arch also called the three-centered arch. A solution is proposed from a constructive and aesthetic point of view, and this is approached both geometrically and analytically, where the relationship between the radius of the central arch and the radius of the lateral arch is minimized. The solution achieved allows the maximum springing line or clear span to be saved with the minimum rise that preserves the aesthetic point of view, since the horizontal thrust of a bow is greater than the relationship between the springing line of the arch and the rise. This solution has been programmed and the resulting software has made it possible to analyse existing arches in historic buildings or constructions to check if their solutions were close or not from both points of view. Thus, it has been possible to verify that in most of the existing arches analyzed, the proposed solution is reached

Turbulence characterization from a forward-looking nacelle lidar

We present two methods to characterize turbulence in the turbine inflow using radial velocity measurements from nacelle-mounted lidars. The first uses a model of the three-dimensional spectral velocity tensor combined with a model of the spatial radial velocity averaging of the lidars, and the second uses the ensemble-averaged Doppler radial velocity spectrum. With the former, filtered turbulence estimates can be predicted, whereas the latter model-free method allows us to estimate unfiltered turbulence measures. Two types of forward-looking nacelle lidars are investigated: a pulsed system that uses a five-beam configuration and a continuous-wave system that scans conically. For both types of lidars, we show how the radial velocity spectra of the lidar beams are influenced by turbulence characteristics, and how to extract the velocity-tensor parameters that are useful to predict the loads on a turbine. We also show how the velocity-component variances and co-variances can be estimated from the radial-velocity unfiltered variances of the lidar beams. We demonstrate the methods using measurements from an experiment conducted at the Nørrekær Enge wind farm in northern Denmark, where both types of lidars were installed on the nacelle of a wind turbine. Comparison of the lidar-based along-wind unfiltered variances with those from a cup anemometer installed on a meteorological mast close to the turbine shows a bias of just 2 %. The ratios of the unfiltered and filtered radial velocity variances of the lidar beams to the cup-anemometer variances are well predicted by the spectral model. However, other lidar-derived estimates of velocity-component variances and co-variances do not agree with those from a sonic anemometer on the mast, which we mostly attribute to the small cone angle of the lidar. The velocity-tensor parameters derived from sonic-anemometer velocity spectra and those derived from lidar radial velocity spectra agree well under both near-neutral atmospheric stability and high wind-speed conditions, with differences increasing with decreasing wind speed and increasing stability. We also partly attribute these differences to the lidar beam configuration

Experimental dynamic behavior of free standing multi-block structures under seismic loadings

This paper describes the dynamical behavior of free standing block structures under seismic loading. A comprehensive experimental investigation has been carried out to study the rocking response of four single blocks of different geometry and associations of two and three blocks. The blocks, which are large stones of high strength blue granite, were subjected to free vibration, and harmonic and random motions of the base. In total, 379 tests on a shaking table were carried out in order to address the issues of repeatability of the results and stability of the rocking motion response. Significant understanding of the rocking motion mechanism is possible from the high quality experimental data. Extensive experimental measurements allowed to discuss the impulsive forces acting in the blocks and the three-dimensional effects presented in the response

Lidar observations of marine boundary-layer winds and heights: a preliminary study

Here we describe a nearly 1-yr meteorological campaign, which was carried out at the FINO3 marine research platform on the German North Sea, where a pulsed wind lidar and a ceilometer were installed besides the platform's 105-m tower and measured winds and the aerosol backscatter in the entire marine atmospheric boundary layer. The campaign was the last phase of a research project, in which the vertical wind profile in the atmospheric boundary layer was firstly investigated on a coastal and a semi-urban site. At FINO3 the wind lidar, which measures the wind speed up to 2000 m, shows the highest data availability (among the three sites) and a very good agreement with the observations of wind speed and direction from cup anemometers and vanes from the platform's tower. The wind lidar was also able to perform measurements under a winter storm where 10-s gusts were observed above 60 m s−1 within the range 400–600 m. The ceilometer and wind lidar have also the potential of detecting the marine boundary layer height based on, respectively, direct and indirect observations of the aerosol backscatter. About 10 % of the measured wind profiles are available within the first 1000 m, which allows the investigation of the behavior with height of the two horizontal wind speed components. From the preliminary analysis of these vertical profiles, a variety of atmospheric and forcing conditions is distinguished; from a number of 10-min mean profiles the wind is observed to turn both anti- and clockwise more than 50 °, likely indicating the influence of baroclinity

Editorial

El concepto de derecho y praxis en el Siglo XXI ha permitido el surgimiento de tendencias que establecen una consideración distinta al derecho como un mundo sistémico de normas, para llegar a plantear que es también un mundo de valores construido históricamente por la humanidad en su camino y evolución. Valores con fuerza vinculante, que por ello obligatorios dado su constitucionalización, erigiéndose en principios fundantes del Estado posmoderno en la forma de Estado Social Democrático de Derecho, cuyo núcleo esencial lo compone la dignidad humana y con ello los derechos fundamentales en armonía con el derecho internacional humanitario. Tanta importancia se le da a esta nueva visión del derecho en el Siglo XXI, que nuestra constitución del 91 en su apotegma del artículo 93 inciso segundo establece un estándar distinto y novedoso de los modos tradicionales de interpretación del derecho al ordenar que los derechos y deberes consagrados en la Carta se interpretan de conformidad con tratados internacionales sobre derechos humanos ratificados en nuestro país. Un mundo maravilloso se nos presenta ante nuestros ojos, el mundo de los derechos fundamentales, los derechos humanos y el derecho internacional humanitario como eje central sobre el cual debe girar el derecho, izándose como límite al poder configurativo de la norma, modificando el péndulo de nuestra democracia haciéndola girar, que paradoja, hacia los jueces garantizadores de los mentados derechos a través de sus decisiones judiciales. Despertar este debate que se asoma como nuevo paradigma jurídico es tarea de todos, por lo que nuestra revista irrumpe en el concierto nacional con ese propósito novedoso, para socializar y masificar la discusión, específicamente la posibilidad de validar el precedente como ley material que constituya fuerza vinculante, erga omnes o por el contrario fortalecer el paradigma del espíritu regio de la ley.La Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de la Costa-CUC junto con su revista se ofrece como receptora de la diversidad de opiniones sobre la temática aquí expuesta con la convicción de que la controversia suscitada parirá ideas jurídicas capaces de ser transformadoras del entrono en beneficio del universo humano