Browsing by Author "Rodrigues, Hugo"
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- 2D and 3D Digital Image Correlation in Civil Engineering – Measurements in a Masonry WallPublication . Ramos, Tiago; Furtado, André; Eslami, Shayan; Alves, Sofia; Rodrigues, Hugo; Arêde, António; Tavares, Paulo J.; Moreira, P.M.G.P.Reinforced concrete structures play an important role in modern buildings, and common architectural designs often include RC frames strengthened with infill masonry panels. Due to their brittle nature, these components' failure and collapse have been subject of studies which can lead to proper structural diagnose and design in order to decrease their risk to human lives during seismic activities. Digital image correlation was used in two of these studies, in order to validate its ability for large specimens monitoring and future structural health monitoring applications. It enabled spatial reconstruction of the wall movement, characterization of its rigid body motion and measurement of both displacements and strain fields in in-plane and out-of-plane load applications. Data post-processing allowed the identification of common in-plane damages in the wall such as corner crushing and separation between infill and resistant structure.
- 3D Indoor Radio Coverage for 5G Planning: a Framework of Combining BIM with Ray-tracingPublication . Louro, João; Fernandes, Telmo Rui; Rodrigues, Hugo; Caldeirinha, Rafael F. S.This paper presents a framework to predict indoor radio wave coverage in buildings. Such method includes the capability to import BIM (Building Information Modelling) files that contain structured physical geometry and dimension data, including the material types that are of uttermost importance in evaluating their dielectric properties. Appropriated extraction of physical and dielectric attributes of the building elements was used as input to a 3D radio wave propagation ray-tracing developed in MatLab that allows the prediction of the received radio signal level at any location within the computational volume. Results are presented for line-of-sight contributions and first and second order reflections. Despite the generic nature of the proposed framework, prediction results are presented at 3.6 GHz, envisaging emerging 5G indoor radio coverage.
- Assessment and mitigation of seismic risk at the urban scale: an application to the historic city center of Leiria, PortugalPublication . Blyth, Anna; Di Napoli, Beatrice; Parisse, Francesco; Namourah, Zahir; Anglade, Elsa; Giatreli, Anna-Maria; Rodrigues, Hugo; Ferreira, Tiago MiguelThe implementation of a culture of seismic risk preparedness is becoming increasingly critical in Europe as the building stock ages and the awareness about seismic risk rises. In this context, the assessment of the seismic vulnerability of existing buildings, followed by the implementation of appropriate retrofitting solutions, can help to substantially reduce the levels of physical damage and economic impact of future events. The central region of Portugal is particularly susceptible to large seismic events and is characterized by the prevalence of historic masonry buildings. This work aims to validate assessment methods for the risk of historical city centers in order to propose management strategies for municipalities and assess the economic impact of large-scale seismic retrofitting. To do this, an application of these methods was performed on the historical city center of Leiria. An in-depth inspection was performed of the entire center and the results were compiled into a database. Using an index-based seismic vulnerability assessment approach, a vulnerability assessment was made for each building. Based on vulnerability and predicted damage, estimates of human and economic losses were made for the city center before and after retrofitting to justify interventions on a broad scale.
- Assessment of the efficiency of traditional earthquake resistant techniques for vernacular architecturePublication . Ortega, Javier; Vasconcelos, Graça; Rodrigues, Hugo; Correia, MarianaSpecific architectural elements can be identified in constructions located in regions frequently exposed to earthquakes. These earthquake resistant features were developed empirically by local communities to protect their built-up environment. Research in these traditional practices, resulting from a local seismic culture, is a relevant and positive approach, since it focuses on the strength of the system rather than on its weaknesses. Its integration into current vernacular building practices can help to preserve and retrofit surviving in-use examples while respecting their authenticity. The main goal of the present work is to assess numerically the efficiency of traditional earthquake resistant solutions to mitigate the seismic vulnerability of vernacular architecture. The paper thus presents the results of a detailed numerical study based on finite element modeling and nonlinear static (pushover) analysis intended to quantitatively evaluate the influence of each technique on the seismic behavior of vernacular constructions and to better understand their structural role under seismic loading.
- Assessment of the influence of horizontal diaphragms on the seismic performance of vernacular buildingsPublication . Ortega, Javier; Vasconcelos, Graça; Rodrigues, Hugo; Correia, MarianaThe awareness and preservation of the vernacular heritage and traditional construction techniques and materials is crucial as a key element of cultural identity. However, vernacular architecture located in earthquake prone areas can show a particularly poor seismic performance because of inadequate construction practices resulting from economic restraints and lack of resources. The horizontal diaphragms are one of the key aspects influencing the seismic behavior of buildings because of their major role transmitting the seismic actions to the vertical resisting elements of the structure. This paper presents a numerical parametric study adopted to understand the seismic behavior and resisting mechanisms of vernacular buildings according to the type of horizontal diaphragm considered. Detailed finite element modeling and nonlinear static (pushover) analyses were used to perform the thorough parametric study aimed at the evaluation and quantification of the influence of the type of diaphragm in the seismic behavior of vernacular buildings. The reference models used for this study simulate representative rammed earth and stone masonry vernacular buildings commonly found in the South of Portugal. Therefore, this paper also contributes for a better insight of the structural behavior of vernacular earthen and stone masonry typologies under seismic loading.
- Assessment of the mainshock-aftershock collapse vulnerability of RC structures considering the infills in-plane and out-of-plane behaviourPublication . Furtado, André; Rodrigues, Hugo; Arêde, António; Varum, HumbertoOne major challenge of earthquake risk mitigation is the assessment of existing buildings not designed with modern codes and the development of effective strengthening techniques. Particular attention should be given to reinforced concrete (RC) frame structures with infill masonry (IM) panels, as proved by their poor performance in recent earthquakes. From surveys on damaged and collapsed RC buildings, many buildings suffered severe damage or collapse due to the IM panels presence. It is observed that in-plane (IP) behaviour of IM can prevent the development of out-of-plane (OOP) strength mechanisms by arching effect. By contrast, in most cases the major damages were found in non-structural elements, particularly in clay IM, including diagonal cracking, OOP collapse or detachment of surrounding RC frames (the latter taking place in early earthquake instants) due to absence of or deficient connection to that frames. In a seismically active region, structures are subjected to multiple earthquakes, due to mainshock–aftershock phenomena or other sequences, leaving no time for rehabilitation of the buildings or rescue of the injured people between the events. This research pretends to assess the mainshock-aftershocks effects on an eight storey RC building. For this, different numerical models (considering different IM walls modelling strategies) were subjected to several non-linear dynamic analyses. The structure damage level was evaluated for different intensity levels of the aftershock-mainshock by the comparison between the maximum inter-storey drifts with drift limits suggested by international codes.
- Assessment of the Seismic Behavior of a Precast Reinforced Concrete Industrial Building with the Presence of Horizontal Cladding PanelsPublication . Ostetto, Liana; Sousa, Romain; Rodrigues, Hugo; A. L. Fernandes, PauloThe latest earthquakes in Europe exposed some critical problems in the connections of cladding panels in industrial precast reinforced concrete (PRC) structures. These connections did not perform as desired, causing the panels to fall, leading to significant nonstructural damage that resulted in the loss of human life and significant socio-economic impacts due to the interruption of business. Furthermore, in addition to the behavior of the cladding system itself, it is still not clear to what extent it can influence the overall seismic performance of the main structure. Making use of a simplified macroelement, the present study assesses the seismic performance of commonly employed cladding-to-structure connections, as well as the interaction of cladding panels with industrial PRC buildings. The analyses were carried out considering a PRC building representative of a Portuguese industrial park, studied with and without cladding panels. The seismic behavior of the structure was assessed considering both nonlinear static and dynamic procedures.
- Behavior of Rectangular Reinforced-Concrete Columns under Biaxial Cyclic Loading and Variable Axial LoadsPublication . Rodrigues, Hugo; Furtado, André; Arêde, AntónioThe behavior of reinforced-concrete (RC) elements subjected to axial loading variation in conjunction with cyclic biaxial bending is recognized as a very important research topic with a reduced number of experimental results available. Six full-scale RC rectangular columns were tested and analyzed to study the effects of variable axial load on the hysteretic behavior of RC building columns under biaxial horizontal loading. The experimental results are presented and discussed in terms of damage evolution, global hysteretic behavior, stiffness degradation, columns’ capacity, and energy dissipation. The global findings revealed the significant effects of the axial load variation on the hysteretic behavior of RC columns.
- BIM-based LCA assessment of seismic strengthening solutions for reinforced concrete precast industrial buildingsPublication . Raposo, Cátia; Rodrigues, Fernanda; Rodrigues, HugoConstruction sector contracts have relevant socioeconomic importance in contrast with its high environmental impact due to the intensive consumption of natural and energy resources throughout the buildings’ service life. Thus, this sector has been object of actions aiming the promotion of low carbon construction and refurbishment given its potential to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by applying more sustainable materials and techniques. With the development of the building information modeling (BIM) methodology, it is possible to develop the different project specialities in an integrated and collaborative platform since its initial phase, also facilitating the integration of life cycle assessment (LCA). The present work aims to evaluate and compare the environmental impacts of prefabricated concrete elements of new construction and solutions of seismic reinforcement of these elements in an existing building, as well as their costs, through LCA methodology and life cycle cost (LCC). For this purpose, the BIM model of an industrial building with a prefabricated concrete structure was developed and the respective LCA was achieved. It was considered the model of a similar building with 30 years of existence, whose structural calculation not considered the correct strengthening to face seismic actions. The respective seismic reinforcement solution was analyzed, and the corresponding LCA was accomplished. For each case, the LCC was calculated. The analysis of the two buildings highlighted the importance of rehabilitation in the construction sector, since the environmental impacts and the associated costs are reduced when compared to the construction of a new building.
- A building information modeling approach to integrate geomatic data for the documentation and preservation of cultural heritagePublication . Solla, Mercedes; Gonçalves, Luisa M. S.; Gonçalves, Gil; Francisco, Carina; Puente, Iván; Providência, Paulo; Gaspar, Florindo; Rodrigues, HugoNon-destructive testing (NDT) techniques play an important role in the characterization and diagnosis of historic buildings, keeping in mind their conservation and possible rehabilitation. This paper presents a new approach that merges building information modeling (BIM) with environment geospatial data obtained by several non-destructive techniques, namely terrestrial laser scanning, ground-penetrating radar, infrared thermography, and the automatic classification of pathologies based on RGB (red, green, blue) imaging acquired with an unmanned aircraft system (UAS). This approach was applied to the inspection of the Monastery of Batalha in Leiria, Portugal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. To assess the capabilities of each technique, different parts of the monastery were examined, namely (i) part of its west façade, including a few protruding buttresses, and (ii) the masonry vaults of the Church (nave, right-hand aisle, and transept) and the Founder’s Chapel. After describing the employed techniques, a discussion of the optimization, treatment and integration of the acquired data through the BIM approach is presented. This work intends to contribute to the application of BIM in the field of cultural heritage, aiming at its future use in different activities such as facility management, support in the restoration and rehabilitation process, and research.