32,310 research outputs found
Behaviour of traditional Portuguese timber roof structures
The aim of this paper is to present the results of a structural analysis of common trusses traditionally used in roof construction in Portugal. The study includes the results of a preliminary survey intending to assess the geometry, materials and on site pathologies, as well as a twodimensional linear elastic static and dynamic analysis. The trusses behaviour under symmetric and non-symmetric loads, the king post/tie-beam connection, the stiffness of the joints and the incorrect positioning of the purlins, were some of the structural aspects that have been investigated
Modelling of timber joints in traditional structures
Original unstrengthened timber connections and the effects of different strengthening techniques
have been evaluated experimentally with tests on full-scale birdsmouth joints. Experimental results
show that structural response of traditional timber connections under cyclic loading cannot be
represented by common constraint models, like perfect hinges or rigid joints, but should be using
semi-rigid and friction based models. A research program has investigated the behaviour of old
timber joints and examined strengthening criteria. The main parameters affecting the mechanical
behaviour of the connection have been singled out. A synthetic model of cyclic behaviour has been
adapted on the basis of experimental results
Experimental analysis of original and strengthened traditional timber connections
Tests on full-scale unstrengthened connections were performed under monotonic and cyclic loading. Attention has been principally focused on the birdsmouth joint, because of its common use in practice. Different strengthening solutions with metal elements have been evaluated
The Luminosity Function of Low-Redshift Abell Galaxy Clusters
We present the results from a survey of 57 low-redshift Abell galaxy clusters
to study the radial dependence of the luminosity function (LF). The dynamical
radius of each cluster, r200, was estimated from the photometric measurement of
cluster richness, Bgc. The shape of the LFs are found to correlate with radius
such that the faint-end slope, alpha, is generally steeper on the cluster
outskirts. The sum of two Schechter functions provides a more adequate fit to
the composite LFs than a single Schechter function. LFs based on the selection
of red and blue galaxies are bimodal in appearance. The red LFs are generally
flat for -22 < M_Rc < -18, with a radius-dependent steepening of alpha for M_Rc
> -18. The blue LFs contain a larger contribution from faint galaxies than the
red LFs. The blue LFs have a rising faint-end component (alpha ~ -1.7) for M_Rc
> -21, with a weaker dependence on radius than the red LFs. The dispersion of
M* was determined to be 0.31 mag, which is comparable to the median measurement
uncertainty of 0.38 mag. This suggests that the bright-end of the LF is
universal in shape at the 0.3 mag level. We find that M* is not correlated with
cluster richness when using a common dynamical radius. Also, we find that M* is
weakly correlated with BM-type such that later BM-type clusters have a brighter
M*. A correlation between M* and radius was found for the red and blue galaxies
such that M* fades towards the cluster center.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 16 pages, 4 tables, 24 figure
Seismic strengthening of beam-column joints with multidirectional CFRP laminates
An experimental program was carried out to analyse the potentialities of a technique based on the use of multidirectional CFRP laminates (MDL-CFRP) for the seismic repair and strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) beam-column joints. This experimental program comprises cyclic tests on three full-scale RC joints, representative of interior beam-column connections in buildings. The joints were initially submitted to a cyclic test inducing a
damage pattern representative of a seismic event. Subsequently, they were repaired and
strengthened with MDL-CFRP. The strengthened joints were then tested for the same loading
history of the original ones up to their failure. The adopted strengthening technique uses the MDL-CFRP that are simultaneously glued and anchored to the concrete surfaces. This technique is called Mechanically Fastened and Externally Bonded Reinforcement (MF-EBR).
In the present study, the effectiveness of two different strengthening configurations was investigated. The tests are described and the main results are presented and analyzed
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