1,721,003 research outputs found
IFCRASC'12 - Ingegneria Forense, Crolli, Affidabilità Strutturale, Consolidamento
No full textThese Proceedings includes all papers presented at the IF CRASC ’12 Congress, which is
the 2nd Congress on Forensic Engineering jointed with the 5th Congress on Collapses, Reliability
and Retrofit of Structures.
About three years after the IF CRASC ’09 Congress which was held at University of
Naples Federico II, Italy, we organized a further meeting occasion at University of Pisa,
which expressed its interest in Forensic Engineering topics. The quantity and quality of papers,
which were more than doubled compared to the previous edition of the Congress, give
great success to this scientific event. No one could forget complexities in the organization
of this Congress in a very difficult moment for Italian Universities, professional activities,
and the economy of the country. Nevertheless, this is the proof that one should invest in
upper-level education programs and highly skilled professions just in crisis moments. Developing
subjects such as Forensic Engineering, which is quickly broadening especially in
the field of structural failures and reliability, create new job opportunities and provide a
guide toward highly skilled activities. In particular, even though Forensic Engineering was
born to provide both technical and legal expertise to those work as technical consultants in
legal procedures, it extended to the wider field of non-legal consultancy and is affecting any
job activity supported by law. It is not a coincidence that field inspections after recent
Emilia Romagna earthquakes were considered to be Forensic Engineering operations. Recently
someone said: “Forensic is nice and trendy!”. This also confirms the conjunction between
Forensic Engineering and Collapses, Reliability and Retrofit of Structures (namely,
the traditional fields of such a subject) was a forward-looking idea. The merit of this growth
should mainly be attributed to the activity of the Italian Association of Forensic Engineering,
which promoted the organization of this Congress, and some Universities such as that
of Pisa, which shared its goals and supported the organization.
These Proceedings do not offer a proper recognition of many efforts by all those who made
possible the realization of this Congress, that is, academics, professionals, lawyers, judges,
and entrepreneurs. In particular, we want to express our sincere gratitude to sponsors,
young colleagues working in the Congress Secretariat, and administration office of the Department
of Civil Engineering at University of Pisa. We also thank congress speakers, paper
authors and all delegates whose participation made possible the success of this event.
Nicola Augenti Mauro Sass
Dynamic Characterization Test of the New Law Court in Naples
No full textThe New Law Court in Naples, Italy is a group of buildings where all the law activities of the city are conducted. Load tests on the structure were required for the final acceptance of the purchaser after the construction was complete. Given the particular type and shape of the structure, traditional load tests were not possible so it was decided: (1) to conduct a dynamic test of the structure; (2) to analyze its dynamic behavior; and (3) to verify its seismic reliability. The investigation focused on the skylight of the central portion of the building complex, formed by steel frames supported by a concrete structure. The structural behavior was quite complex. Frequencies associated with both the global modal shapes of the whole structure (which were often coupled themselves) and the local resonances of single members were identified. The seismic test showed a non-negligible reduction of the first structural frequency when increasing the level of stress. This behavior is related to the contribution given by the nonstructural components which cannot be neglected, when service stresses are low. The structural characterization allowed the calibration of the finite-element model, whose dynamic characteristics were very close to the experimental ones. © 2009 ASCE
Performance of school buildings during the Molise earthquake sequence of October 31, November 1 2002
No full textThe authors inspected about 300 primary and secondary schools in 87 municipalities of Molise. About 40% were masonry structures, 40% were reinforced concrete (RC) frame structures, and the remaining 20% were a variety of structures. Almost all of them were built without seismic criteria and most had no more than three stories. In this paper we compare the distribution of the damage with the vulnerability classes. The collapses in San Giuliano di Puglia highlight the comparative vulnerabilities related to structural types, construction phases, and location
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