Ricerc@Sapienza

An effective hybrid computational framework is described here in order to assess the nonlinear dynamic response of piezoelectric energy harvesting devices. The proposed strategy basically consists of two steps. First, fully coupled multiphysics finite element (FE) analyses are performed to evaluate the nonlinear static response of the device. An enhanced reduced-order model is then derived, where the global dynamic response is formulated in the state-space using lumped coefficients enriched with the information derived from the FE simulations.

This paper presents a coupled numerical modelling of the soil-structure interaction for a multi-span girder bridge, inspired by a case study in Italy, to analyse the importance of the local dynamic response of the abutments in the seismic performance of the bridge. The full soil-bridge model was implemented in the analysis framework OpenSees, describing the mechanical behaviour of the foundation soils by means of an advanced constitutive model calibrated against experimental data.

This paper presents the formulation of a tri-dimensional (3D) beam-column finite element (FE) with cross-section warping, based on a corotational approach for the analysis of damaging structures including material and geometric nonlinear effects. The model derives from an extended Hu–Washizu formulation and is an enhancement of a previously proposed beam FE formulation originally adopted for steel and reinforced concreted structures under linear geometry.