Ricerc@Sapienza

Past earthquakes have shown the high vulnerability of existing masonry buildings, particularly to out-of-plane local collapse mechanisms. Such mechanisms can be prevented if façades are restrained by tie rods improving the connections to perpendiculars walls. Whereas in the past only static models have been proposed, herein the nonlinear equation of motion of a monolithic wall restrained by a tie rod is presented. The façade, resting on a foundation and adjacent to transverse walls, rotates only around one base pivot and has one degree of freedom.

Quality control of the performance of mechanical components subjected to hardness processing is a topic of fundamental importance in the field of automotive. The lack of hardening, may cause failures with serious repercussions. The industry and the companies responsible for the hardening processes as well as for the quality control of the mechanical components are continuously seeking for improvements in the standard destructive tests performed by Vicker or Brinell durometers.