Ricerc@Sapienza

The purpose of this activity is the production of a report on the feasibility of functional
time series analysis for the study of the dynamics of the income distribution. The
deliverables of the present activity are the following:
1. Literature review;
2. Reasoned exposition of the mathematical theory;
3. Implementation steps for the coding of a prototype statistical analysis;
4. Example of a possible application of the prototype statistical analysis;
5. The coding and the output corresponding to parts 3 and 4.

Non-structural components are typically not designed for seismic loads, nevertheless their response can significantly affect the building functionality after earthquakes, even for low-intensity events. The poor performance of non-structural elements can result in substantial economic losses and business interruption. Consequently, damage of these components has severe impact in the post-earthquake building recovery in addition to the potential risk to life safety.

In this paper, a simplified procedure for the evaluation of the seismic performance of bridge piers founded on caissons subjected to strong ground motions is outlined. To this end, the up-per-bound semi-empirical relationships proposed in [1] are considered for the estimation of the seismic performance, expressed in terms of the maximum and permanent values of the deck drift ratio attained during and at the end of the seismic event.

The seismic performance of dams must be checked against expected ground motions verifying the possible occurrence of a serviceability or of an ultimate limit state. In this framework it is generally recognised that the earthquake-induced settlement of the dam crest can be assumed as a reliable index of performance since it is representative of the overall seismic response of the dam and is suitable for the evaluation of the level of damage induced by earthquake loading. Accordingly, threshold values of the crest settlement can be introduced to check the occurrence of a given limit state.

In this paper, the influence of inelastic soil behaviour on the seismic performance of bridge piers supported by caisson foundations is assessed. The results of an extensive parametric study, performed assuming a linear elastic and an elastic-plastic soil behaviour, are compared, showing the strong influence of the inelastic soil response. The geometrical properties of caissons and piers are varied; the systems are subjected to seismic records capable of mobilising the shear strength of the soil.

Potential instability of large existing earth dams is a major source of seismic
vulnerability of Italy. In fact, most of them were designed before the adoption of modern
building codes, without accounting for seismic loads explicitly. Hence, there is an urgent
necessity to investigate the response of most existing earth dams to severe earthquake loading.

This paper investigates the combined effect of the vertical component of the input motion and of the weakening effect associated to pore-pressure build-up with reference to a zoned earth dam for which the most recent probabilistic seismic hazard analyses promoted the need of evaluating its seismic performance.

It is well known that the incidence angle of seismic excitation has an influence on the structural response of buildings, and this effect can be more significant in the case of near-fault signals. However, current seismic codes do not include detailed requirements regarding the direction of application of the seismic action and they have only recently introduced specific provisions about near-fault earthquakes. Thus, engineers have the task of evaluating all the relevant directions or the most critical conditions case by case, in order to avoid underestimating structural demand.

In this paper, a procedure is proposed to determine the fatigue life of the electrical cable connected to a 5MWfloating offshore wind turbine, supported by a spar-buoy at a water depth of 320 m, by using a numerical approach that takes into account site-specific wave and wind characteristics. The effect of the intensity and the simultaneous actions of waves and wind are investigated and the outcomes for specific cable configurations are shown. Finally, the fatigue life of the cable is evaluated.

This paper presents the formulation of a three-dimensional beam finite element (FE) that accounts for cross-section warping and dynamic inertia effects. The model is the extension of an existing mixed formulation, originally developed for the static analysis of thin-walled beams, to the case of dynamic loading conditions. Four independent fields are considered to derive the element governing equations, i.e. material rigid displacements, strains and stresses and an additional displacement field, describing the out-of-plane warping displacement of the beam cross-sections.