RESEARCH
DIRECT LOSS ANALYSIS
Research grant, awarded to the University of California Berkeley, in partnership with Interprogetti, from CSMIP (California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program). The Principal Investigator for the research project is Prof. Jack Moehle (Full professor at Berkeley and current Chair of the ACI 318-19 committee – worldwide renown earthquake and structural engineering expert). The research aims at evaluating the feasibility of a post-earthquake rapid loss assessment methodology for instrumented buildings, in terms of damage and monetary losses. The methodology builds up upon the framework laid out from FEMA P58 and FEMA P695 guidelines (Federal Emergency Management Agency).
SEISO
Super elastic Isolator, in partnership with the University of California, Berkeley. Development of a new Isolator device that adopts an ensemble of super-elastic Nitinol wires as horizontal load resisting mechanism. The resisting mechanism is characterized by the gradually stiffening response under large displacements and deformations, which is determined through a combination of the nonlinear geometry effects and the super-elastic material properties of the Nitinol wires. The stiffening response, aside from the protection of the super-structure against impulsive forces, it allows to define multi-level hazard performance objectives for the device, that enable minimization of repair costs due to damage.
SEISMIC ISOLATION OF BUILDINGS
In the study (published in the scientific journal “Progettazione sismica” (no. 3/2013), different seismic protection strategies were analyzed and compared for a reinforced concrete building, designed for the new station of Military Police in Naples named after J. Pattison, with particular regard to the problems of resilience and post-earthquake maintainability.
SHRINKAGE AND FLUAGE
Study of slow phenomena (shrinkage and fluage) on a thin vault in reinforced in an article entitled: “Concrete renaissance: design and construction of the Auditorium Oscar Niemeyer, Ravello, Italy”, published in the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Volume 166, Issue CE1. The article was awarded by the Civil Engineering Journal with the Coopers Hill War Memorial Prize as best publication of the year 2013.
PRESTRESSING SYSTEM
Interaction of pre-tensioned and post-tensioned concrete beams. Study on the behavior of the decks of the Railway Station of Naples Afragola by Zaha Hadid (published on the technical magazine “Structural Modeling” by CSPFEA Engineering Solutions on May 2011), characterized by the coexistence of various types of pre-tensioned and post-tensioned elements and the consequent complex methodology of modeling by phases.