From survey to fem analysis for documentation of built heritage: The case study of villa revedin-bolasco

In the last decade advances in the fields of close-range photogrammetry, terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and Computer Vision (CV) have enabled to collect different kind of information about a Cultural Heritage objects and to carry out highly accurate 3D models. Additionally, the integration between laser scanning technology and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is gaining particular interest in recent years for structural analysis of built heritage, since the increasing computational capabilities allow to manipulate large datasets. In this note we illustrate the approach adopted for surveying, 3D modeling and structural analysis of Villa Revedin-Bolasco, a magnificent historical building located in the small walled town of Castelfranco Veneto, in northern Italy. In 2012 CIRGEO was charged by the University of Padova to carry out a survey of the Villa and Park, as preliminary step for subsequent restoration works. The inner geometry of the Villa was captured with two Leica Disto D3a BT hand-held laser meters, while the outer walls of the building were surveyed with a Leica C10 and a Faro Focus 3D 120 terrestrial laser scanners. Ancillary GNSS measurements were also collected for 3D laser model georeferencing. A solid model was then generated from the laser global point cloud in Rhinoceros software, and portion of it was used for simulation in a Finite Element Analysis (FEA). In the paper we discuss in detail all the steps and challenges addressed and solutions adopted concerning the survey, solid modeling and FEA from laser scanning data of the historical complex of Villa Revedin-Bolasco

Energy tunnels: concept and design aspects

Geotechnical structures are increasingly employed as energy geostructures in Europe and worldwide. Besides being constructed for their primary structural role, they are equipped to exchange heat with the ground and supply thermal energy for heating and cooling of buildings and de-icing of infrastructures. This technology can play a fundamental role in the current challenge of addressing the increasing need for clean and renewable sources of energy. This study investigates the possibility of thermal activation of tunnel linings. Particularly, attention will be paid on a new energy segment, which can be used together with tunnel boring machine tunneling to create so-called energy tunnels. Thermal and mechanical designs need to be developed by making effective use of computational methods to quantify the exploitable heat and assess the possible consequences on the surrounding ground and the structure itself. Guidance on how to proceed in this direction will be provided in this study, showing how thermo-hydro and thermo-mechanical numerical analyses can be used to achieve a proper and effective design of energy tunnels. Two examples of possible applications will also be presented. Keywords: Energy tunnel, Geothermal energy, Heating and cooling, Geotechnical desig

Energy diaphragm walls for Turin metro

The increasing need for renewable sources of energy for heating and cooling of buildings and infrastructures makes energy geostructures an innovative and interesting technology, which is rapidly spreading all around the world. This category includes all underground structures that are in contact and can exchange heat with the subsoil, being transformed into low enthalpy geothermal systems. The thermal activation of diaphragm walls, which are normally required in urban constructions such as underground car parks or cut and cover tunnels, is the focus of this paper. Thhe results of Finite Element numerical analyses, performed to estimate the heat exchange achievable by the geothermal activation of section 1 of the Turin Metro Line 2 tunnel currently under design in Italy, are described

Energy and mechanical aspects on the thermal activation of diaphragm walls for heating and cooling

Underground geotechnical structures, such as deep and shallow foundations, diaphragm walls, tunnel linings and anchors are being increasingly employed as energy geostructures to exchange heat with the ground by installing absorber pipes into the structural elements. This paper focuses on the application of this technology to reinforced concrete diaphragm walls used for construction of underground car parks, basements and metro stations, with the purpose of heating and cooling the adjacent buildings. Preliminary numerical modelling allowed optimising the geothermal plant design of the diaphragm wall. Then its energy efficiency is investigated through finite element thermo-hydro coupled analyses together with the effects of the thermal activation on the surrounding soil. Finally, finite difference thermo-mechanical analyses are used to study the mechanical effects induced by the thermal activation

Shared task proposal: Instruction giving in virtual worlds

This paper reports on the results of the working group “Virtual Environ-ments ” at the Workshop on Shared Tasks and Comparative Evaluation for NLG. This working group discussed the use of virtual environments as a platform for NLG evaluation, and more specifically of the generation of in

Shoreline change, seawalls, and coastal property values

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2015. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Ocean & Coastal Management 114 (2015): 185-193, doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2015.06.025.We investigate the effects of shoreline change and protective structures (seawalls) on home values, using data on residences sold between 2000 and 2010 in the coastal towns of Marshfield, Duxbury, and Plymouth, Massachusetts. These towns comprise shorelines that exhibit moderate rates of shoreline change, relative to other shorelines in the state, with extensive armoring. We investigate explicitly the effects of hard structural protection in combination with environmental amenities and hazards (distance to a beach, elevation of a property, location in a flood zone). We find that homeowners pay a premium in housing markets for nearshore properties protected by nature (higher elevations or more stable shorelines) or by humans (seawalls). The average marginal increase in nearshore property values associated with a 1m rise in elevation is 2 percent, a 1m (horizontal distance) decrease in the erosion rate is 0.2 percent, and location behind a seawall is 10 percent. The effects of erosion, elevation, and seawalls appear to be limited to properties located in close proximity to water or to oceanfront residences. Overall, the benefits of access to ocean amenities dominate the risks of exposures to hazards associated with shoreline change.This article was prepared under award number NA10OAR4170083 (WHOI Sea Grant Omnibus) from the US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Northeast Regional Sea Grant Consortium project 2014-R/P-NERR-14-1-REG); award number GEO-0815875 from the US National Science Foundation (Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems [CNH]); award number NSF/OCE 1325430 from the US National Science Foundation; and with support from the J. Seward Johnson Fund in Support of the Marine Policy Center and the John E. Sawyer Endowed Fund

La promotion du tourisme italien en Suisse pendant la période 1919-1943

Cette thèse analyse la promotion du tourisme italien en Suisse dans la période entre la fin de la Première Guerre mondiale, 1919, et la chute du fascisme en Italie, qui a eu lieu en 1943. La recherche se réfère avant tout à toute la publicité et la communication éditoriale de l'ENIT, Agence nationale des industries touristiques ; en particulier au mensuel "Le Vie d’Italia", organe officiel de l’institution. L'analyse a été faite sur les médias francophones et italophones pour leur ligne éditoriale libérale en ligne avec l'approche ENIT. La thèse analyse la variété des médias de l’époque : journaux, périodiques, radio, cinéma et tout le matériel de propagande. En raison de la grande difficulté à trouver le matériel d'enquête, principalement détruit en raison de problèmes liés à la période de guerre et aux politiques de l'ENIT, cette recherche s'avère être un travail intéressant de recherche, de collecte et d'analyse de ce matériel précieux. Le tableau qui en résulte est extrêmement intéressant précisément en raison de la représentation touristique d'un pays qui a en partie véhiculé la propagande du régime fasciste à travers l'ENIT. Il fallait également contextualiser le moment politique, la langue et les politiques commerciales. Un travail complexe qui est présenté accompagné de références bibliographiques, de données et d'une analyse politique minutieuse entre deux pays très différents culturellement. L'importance économique du secteur touristique italien et l'intérêt des touristes suisses pour le "Bel Paese" donne également un retour socio-économique général important à toute cette thèse. -- This thesis analyzes the Italian tourism promotion in Switzerland in the period between the end of the First World War, 1919, and the fall of fascism in Italy, which took place in 1943. The research refers above all to all the advertising and editorial communications of ENIT, National Agency for Tourism Industries; specifically, on the "Le Vie d’Italia" which was the official magazine of the institution. The analysis was carried out on the French and Italian-language media for their liberal editorial line in line with the ENIT approach. The thesis analyzes the variety of media of the time: newspapers, periodicals, radio, cinema and all propaganda material. Due to the great difficulty in finding the survey material, mostly destroyed due to problems relating to the war period and ENIT policies, this research turns out to be an interesting job of finding, collecting and analyzing this precious material. The resulting picture is extremely interesting precisely because of the tourist representation of a country that partly conveyed the propaganda of the fascist regime through ENIT. It was also necessary to contextualize the political moment, the language and commercial policies. A complex work that is presented accompanied by bibliographical references, data and careful political analysis between two very different countries culturally. The economic importance of the Italian tourism sector and the interest of Swiss tourists for the “Bel Paese”also gives an important general socio-economic feedback to this whole thesis

Finding Your Literature Match -- A Recommender System

The universe of potentially interesting, searchable literature is expanding continuously. Besides the normal expansion, there is an additional influx of literature because of interdisciplinary boundaries becoming more and more diffuse. Hence, the need for accurate, efficient and intelligent search tools is bigger than ever. Even with a sophisticated search engine, looking for information can still result in overwhelming results. An overload of information has the intrinsic danger of scaring visitors away, and any organization, for-profit or not-for-profit, in the business of providing scholarly information wants to capture and keep the attention of its target audience. Publishers and search engine engineers alike will benefit from a service that is able to provide visitors with recommendations that closely meet their interests. Providing visitors with special deals, new options and highlights may be interesting to a certain degree, but what makes more sense (especially from a commercial point of view) than to let visitors do most of the work by the mere action of making choices? Hiring psychics is not an option, so a technological solution is needed to recommend items that a visitor is likely to be looking for. In this presentation we will introduce such a solution and argue that it is practically feasible to incorporate this approach into a useful addition to any information retrieval system with enough usage.Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of the colloquium Future Professional Communication in Astronomy II, 13-14 April 2010, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 11 pages, 4 figures

Energy performance of diaphragm walls used as heat exchangers

The possibility of equipping diaphragm walls as ground heat exchangers to meet the full or partial heating and cooling demands of overlying or adjacent buildings has been explored in recent years. In this paper, the factors affecting the energy performance of diaphragm walls equipped as heat exchangers are investigated through finite element modelling. The numerical approach employed is first validated using available experimental data and then applied to perform parametric analyses. Parameters considered in the analysis include panel width, the ratio between the wall and excavation depths, heat transfer pipe spacing, concrete cover, heat-carrier fluid velocity, concrete thermal properties and the temperature difference between the air within the excavation and the soil behind the wall. The results indicate that increasing the number of pipes by reducing their spacing is the primary route to increasing energy efficiency in the short term. However, the thermal properties of the wall concrete and the temperature excess within the excavation space are also important, with the latter becoming the most significant in the medium to long term. This confirms the benefits of exploiting the retaining walls installed for railway tunnels and metro stations where additional sources of heat are available

Effect of temperature induced excess porewater pressures on the shaft bearing capacity of geothermal piles

Changes in temperature in clays of low permeability typically induce excess porewater pressures. In the context of geothermal piles this effect has typically been overlooked since most installations have occurred in soils with higher values of permeability. A parametric study is presented that solves the governing differential equations one dimensionally in a pile to study the influence of the various parameters: temperature of the fluid, permeability and soil compressibility. A new shaft resistance reduction ratio has been also defined to illustrate the loss of bearing capacity. The study shows that when the value of permeability is 1E-11 m/s or lower, combined with a soil compressibility in excess of 20,000 MPa, the developed excess porewater pressures can potentially reduce the effective stress locally to very low values. The solution applied to the case of the Lambeth College, London, also provides a plausible explanation to the observed loss of shaft friction of the tested pile