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Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2019-10-01"

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  • Time-dependent reliability analyses of prestressed concrete girders strengthened with CFRP laminates
    Publication . Dias-da-Costa, D.; Neves, L.A.C.; Gomes, S.; Hadigheh, S.A.; Fernandes, Paulo
    This paper presents a time-dependent reliability analysis of prestressed concrete girders subjected to degradation caused by pitting corrosion. The procedure presented includes the effects of both spatial and temporal pitting corrosions on prestressing steel, as well as the degradation of the strengthening CFRP laminate used for the rehabilitation of the member. Results indicate that the correlation of corrosion in different segments of the prestressing tendons impacts on the computed safety index for the deteriorated structure. Ditlevsen bounds are proposed for a better approximation of the correlation between failure modes in the spatial discretisation. Results show that such approach produces adequate estimates of the reliability index over the full range of analysis in comparison with other tested models. It is also observed that the degradation of the CFRP laminates does not affect the reliability as significantly as corrosion, and that traffic loads, models uncertainties, corrosion error and corrosion rate are the most relevant variables in the analysis, followed by prestressing strength and concrete cover. The significance of the variables changes with time: the corrosion rate, corrosion model error and concrete cover increase in importance with the development of corrosion, whereas traffic loads become gradually less important.
    2019-10-01Journal article Open access Show more
  • Adjustment parameters of an internal combustion engine working with methane
    Publication . Dimitrov, R.; Bogdanov, K.; Wrobel, R.; Mihaylov, V.; Serrano, Luis; Institute of Physics Publishing
    The paper presents a study of the variation of ignition advance when the engine works with methane and a comparison with values when the engine runs on gasoline. It is known that methane has a lower burning velocity than gasoline, and therefore, to obtain a maximal efficiency from the working process (the maximum value of cylinder pressure pz should be 7-15 degrees after TDC), ignition advance should be increased, as for different operating regimes this angle should be increased with different values. A gasoline engine has been studied and were measured and analysed the ignition advance at work with gasoline and methane, with optimal air-fuel ratio (α) for both fuels. Three-dimensional graphics of ignition advance variation across the rpm and load range were made. In conclusion, on the basis of the experiments, a table is produced, which presents the values of coefficients for change of base parameters of ignition advance for all engine operating modes, in dependence on rpm and load of the engine.
    2019-10-01Conference proceedings Open access Show more