O projeto seguro e econômico das estruturas de armazenamento é função das máximas ações impostas e da resistência destas estruturas de suportar tais ações, observadas as combinações mais desfavoráveis. Entre as ações consideradas nos cálculos dos silos horizontais (peso próprio, peso de equipamentos, vento, recalques diferenciais de apoios, impacto de veículos, explosões, etc), a de maior importância é a causada pelo empuxo dos produtos armazenados e que foi objeto de estudo nesta pesquisa. Este trabalho foi realizado em duas etapas, teórica e experimental, procurando avaliar estas ações com base em teorias e métodos de cálculo de diversos autores. Na tremonha do silo, as pressões foram avaliadas através do método de cálculo proposto por Safarian & Harris, da teoria de Walker e da Norma Australiana AS 3774. Nas paredes, foram avaliadas as pressões de acordo com as teorias de Airy, Reimbert & Reimbert, Coulomb e Rankine e da norma americana ANSI/96. Os modelos teóricos foram estudados e comparados com os resultados obtidos através de medições diretas das pressões em modelo piloto e silo horizontal em escala real com a determinação da relação entre as pressões verticais e horizontais (K). Dos resultados obtidos propõe-se um novo método de cálculo com base em um modelo empírico para a determinação das pressões horizontais nestas unidades. / The safe and economic design of storage structures is a function of the loads and of the strenght of these structures, considering unfavorable loads combinations. Among the loads considered in the calculations of the horizontal silos, the most important load is due stored products. Silos are usually designed on the basis of simple theory which is used to predict horizontal pressures on the walls and hoppers. The pressures generally depend on many factors including the physical properties of the stored materials, the flow pattern and also the method of operating the silo. This work is divided in two parts in order to evaluate these loads based in theories and international codes.The silo hopper was evaluate by Walker\'s theory and by AS 3774-1996 code. The silo walls was evaluete by theories of Airy, Rankine, Reimbert & Reimbert, Coulomb, Safarian & Harris and ANSI (1996) code. The theoretical models were studied and compared with the results obtained through pressure measurements in a real and a pilot silos. From the results we proposed a new empiric design method to evaluate the horizontal pressures in the silos wall.

The soil-structure interaction models associated with laterally loaded deep foundations have typically been based on load tests involving relatively small diameter foundations. The lateral soil resistance for larger diameter foundations has been assumed to increase linearly with diameter; however, few, if any load tests have been performed to confirm this relationship. To better understand the lateral resistance of large diameter deep foundations in sand, a series of full scale, cyclic, lateral load tests were performed on two 1.2 m diameter drilled shafts and a 0.324 m diameter steel pipe pile in sand. Although the tests involve two different foundation types, the upper 2.4 m of the profile, which provides the majority of the lateral resistance, consists of sand compacted around both foundation types. Therefore, these test results make it possible to evaluate the effect of foundation diameter on lateral soil resistance. The drilled shafts were first loaded in one direction by reacting against a fifteen-pile group. Subsequently a load test was performed in the opposite direction by reacting against a 9-pile group. The soil profile below the 2.4 m-thick layer of compacted sand consisted of interbedded layers of sand and fine-grained soil. For the drilled shaft load tests, pile head deflection and applied load were measured by string potentiometers and load cells, respectively. Tilt was also measured as a function of depth with an inclinometer which was then used to calculate deflection and bending moment as a function of depth. For the pipe pile, deflection and applied load were also measured; however, bending moment was computed based on strain gauges readings along the length of the pile. The lateral response of the drilled shafts and pipe pile were modeled using the computer programs LPILE (Reese et al., 2000), SWM6.0 (Ashour et al., 2002), and FB-MultiPier Version 4.06 (Hoit et al., 2000). Comparisons were made between the measured and computed load-deflection curves as well as bending moment versus depth curves. Soil parameters in the computer programs were iteratively adjusted until a good match between measured and computed response of the 0.324 m pipe pile was obtained. This refined soil profile was then used to model the drilled shaft response. User-defined p-multipliers were selected to match the measured results with the calculated results. On average very good agreement was obtained between measured and computed response without resorting to p-multipliers greater than 1.0. These results suggest that a linear increase in lateral resistance with foundation diameter is appropriate. LPILE typically produced the best agreement with measured response although the other programs usually gave reasonable results as well. Cyclic loading generally reduced the lateral resistance of the drilled shafts and pile foundation by about 20%.

The Buckling Restrained Braced Frame (BRBF) is used in steel structures as a lateral load resisting system for seismic events. In typical design procedure the impact of gravity loads acting on BRBFs is neglected and the beams and columns of the structure are designed to resist all gravity loads. In actuality BRBFs are supporting portions of gravity loads acting on the structure which may be changing the overall performance of BRBFs. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of large gravity loads on BRBF performance. This is done using finite element analysis to test two different structures supporting large gravity loads. The first structure is a seven story structure consisting of different BRBF configurations; the second structure is a three story structure with all BRBFs in an eccentrically braced configuration. Each structure was modeled with applied ground motion simulations with and without gravity loads, and with gravity loads but no applied ground motion simulations. Results indicate that gravity loads have no significant impact on the overall performance of BRBFs for either structure.

Les futurs réacteurs expérimentaux comme ITER ou JT-60SA réaliseront des réactions de fusion thermonucléaire au sein de plasmas de plusieurs millions de degrés. Le confinement de la réaction au centre de la chambre est assuré par des champs magnétiques très intenses générés par des aimants supraconducteurs. Ces bobines sont refroidies à 4.4 K via une circulation forcée d’hélium supercritique. Le fonctionnement cyclique des machines engendre des charges thermiques pulsées qui devront être absorbées par les réfrigérateurs de plusieurs mégawatts de puissances électriques. L’expérience HELIOS, construite au CEA Grenoble, est une maquette à échelle réduite du système de distribution d’hélium du tokamak JT-60SA constituée d’un bain d’hélium à saturation et d’une boucle en hélium supercritique. Les travaux de thèse présentés ici explorent les possibilités d’HELIOS afin de réaliser les études expérimentale et numérique de trois stratégies de lissage de charges thermiques : l’utilisation du bain saturé en tant que volant thermique ouvert, la variation de la vitesse du circulateur et l’utilisation de la vanne de by-pass de la charge thermique. Le modèle EcosimPro développé ici rend bien compte des phénomènes de couplage transitoire entre le dépôt d’énergie, la montée en pression et en température de la boucle de circulation, de même que le couplage entre la boucle de circulation et le bain saturé. Des contrôles avancés ont été testés numériquement puis validés expérimentalement pour améliorer la stabilité du réfrigérateur et optimiser la puissance de réfrigération. / Future fusion reactor devices such as ITER or JT-60SA will produce thermonuclear fusion reaction inplasmas at several millions of degrees. The confinement in the center of the chamber is achieved byvery intense magnetic fields generated by superconducting magnets. These coils have to be cooleddown to 4.4 K through a forced flow of supercritical helium. The cyclic behavior of the machinesleads to pulsed thermal heat loads which will have to be handled by the refrigerator.The HELIOS experiment built in CEA Grenoble is a scaled down model of the helium distributionsystem of the tokamak JT-60SA composed of a saturated helium bath and a supercritical helium loop.The thesis work explores HELIOS capabilities for experimental and numerical investigations on threeheat load smoothing strategies: the use of the saturated helium bath as an open thermal buffer, therotation speed variation of the cold circulator and the bypassing of the heated section. Thedeveloped model describes well the physical evolutions of the helium loop (pressure, temperature,mass flow) submitted to heat loads observed during experiments. Advanced controls have beentested and validated to improve the stability of the refrigerator and to optimize the refrigerationpower.

Effective-stress nonlinear dynamic analyses (NDA) were performed for piles in liquefiable sloped ground to assess how inertia and liquefaction-induced lateral spreading combine in long-duration vs. short-duration earthquakes. A parametric study was performed using input motions from subduction and crustal earthquakes covering a wide range of earthquake durations. The NDA results were used to evaluate the accuracy of the equivalent static analysis (ESA) recommended by Caltrans/ODOT for estimating pile demands. Finally, the NDA results were used to develop new ESA methods to combine inertial and lateral spreading loads for estimating elastic and inelastic pile demands. The NDA results showed that pile demands increase in liquefied conditions compared to nonliquefied conditions due to the interaction of inertia (from superstructure) and kinematics (from liquefaction-induced lateral spreading). Comparing pile demands estimated from ESA recommended by Caltrans/ODOT with those computed from NDA showed that the guidelines by Caltrans/ODOT (100% kinematic combined with 50% inertia) slightly underestimates demands for subduction earthquakes with long durations. A revised ESA method was developed to extend the application of the Caltrans/ODOT method to subduction earthquakes. The inertia multiplier was back-calculated from the NDA results and new multipliers were proposed: 100% Kinematic + 60% Inertia for crustal earthquakes and 100% Kinematic + 75% Inertia for subduction earthquakes. The proposed ESA compared reasonably well against the NDA results for elastic piles. The revised method also made it possible to estimate demands in piles that performed well in the dynamic analyses but could not be analyzed using Caltrans/ODOT method (i.e. inelastic piles that remained below Fult on the liq pushover curve). However, it was observed that the pile demands became unpredictable for cases where the pile head displacement exceeded the displacement corresponding to the ultimate pushover force in liquefied conditions. Nonlinear dynamic analysis is required for these cases to adequately estimate pile demands.

Au cours de leur durée de vie, les bâtiments importants sont susceptibles d’être soumis à des charges accidentelles, telles que des explosions ou des impacts. Evaluer leur stabilité vis-à-vis de charges traditionnelles statiques et sismiques ne suffit pas. Leurs performances structurelles liées à des scénarios d’effondrement progressif doivent également être examinées.L’étude de l’effondrement progressif est un problème dynamique. Malheureusement, les expériences sur le comportement des structures de génie civil dans des conditions dynamiques sont rares car difficiles à réaliser. Dans cette étude, des sous-assemblages poteaux-poutres en béton armé ont été testés sous chargement dynamique. Le chargement a consisté à placer une masse importante jouant le rôle de « charge morte » sur la colonne centrale d’un sous-assemblage simulant la liaison de 3 poteaux avec 2 poutres. Une pièce fusible jouant le rôle de support sous la colonne centrale est brutalement déverrouillée pour simuler la perte de portance soudaine de cette colonne. Le comportement dynamique et les dommages locaux causés à la structure ont été mesurés et étudiés. Le bâti de chargement et les dispositifs de support ont été conçus spécialement pour cet essai. La charge morte supérieure peut être modifiée et appliquées à différents spécimens. Les supports des colonnes latérales ont une rigidité horizontale contrôlée et sont conçus pour limiter la rotation de ces mêmes colonnes. Ainsi, les conditions aux limites des essais réalisés sont supposées être représentatives de situations réalistes. Au cours des essais, un laser a été installé sous la colonne centrale pour mesurer la vitesse de chute. Une caméra numérique rapide a été utilisée pour visualiser l'ensemble du processus de ruine du sous-assemblage. Les images obtenues de la caméra ont été traitées par une technique de DIC (Digital Image Correlation) afin d’obtenir le champs de déplacement et les déformations correspondantes. Grâce à ces mesures dynamiques, des données importantes ont été produites et enregistrées, notamment la période de vibration, la fréquence, la vitesse et le déplacement des différents échantillons testés. Sur la base de ces données expérimentales, l’effet de la section et de la portée des poutres sur la réponse dynamique et sur le mode d’endommagement des sous-assemblages a été discuté. Cette étude montre que les résultats expérimentaux obtenus, en termes de mécanismes structurels, de schéma de fissuration, de mode d'endommagement, peuvent être utilisés pour analyser le comportement de sous-assemblages de structures réelles.De plus, une modélisation numérique des essais a été réalisée pour simuler le processus de ruine de la structure. Une technique appelée «connecteur» a été proposée dans le modèle aux éléments finis du sous-assemblage poteaux-poutres. Cette technique consiste à ajouter une série de ressorts pour étudier le rôle de l’interaction entre les armatures en acier et le béton. Un modèle d'endommagement anisotrope, appelé modèle DFH-KST, a été utilisé pour caractériser l'évolution de la fissuration et l’endommagement du béton.La polyvalence de la méthodologie adoptée permet d’évaluer l’influence du comportement non-linéaire du matériau et celle de la géométrie de la structure testée. Les études numériques de calibration et de validation montrent que le modèle proposé peut reproduire le comportement et la résistance de la structure avec succès. / Important buildings may be subjected to accidental loads, such as explosions or impacts, during their service life. It is, therefore, necessary not only to evaluate their safety under traditional loads and seismic action. The structural performances related to progressive collapse scenarios need to be investigated.The study of progressive collapse involves a dynamic problem, but unfortunately dynamic experiments on the behavior of the civil engineering structures under dynamic conditions are rare. In this research, beam-column sub-assemblage specimens were tested under dynamic load. The loading program consists in placing a large mass, as a dead load, on the top of the middle column of a beam-column sub-assemblage. The support under the middle column is suddenly removed for simulating the sudden loss of a column and the damage that will result in the structure. The loading system and supporting devices were designed specially for this test. The upper dead load can be changed by increasing or decreasing the applied masse to different specimens. The supports for the side column have a controlled rigidity in the horizontal direction and are designed to restrain rotation of the side-column. Thus, the boundary conditions are supposed to be similar to real situations. During the test, a laser was installed under the middle pillar to collect the falling velocity and a high-speed camera was used to visualize the whole process of the component failure process. The images obtained from the camera were processed by Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technology to get the corresponding displacements and strain fields. By these means, all the information of the structure under dynamic loading was captured and recorded, such as the period of vibration, frequency, velocity and displacement. Based on these experimental data, the effect of section and span of the specimen on dynamic response and damage mode was discussed. Time history of resistance force curves was produced. Compared with previous published quasi-static experiments in terms of structural mechanisms, crack patterns, damage mode, it shows the experimental results from beam-column assemblage with the designed support device can be used to analyze the behavior of the local structure in the entire frame.In addition, numerical simulations were developed for simulating the failing process of the structure. A technique named “connector” was proposed into beam-column finite element model by adding a series of springs to investigate the interaction between steel rebars and concrete. A concrete damage model, named DFH-KST model, was used to characterize the development of concrete crack and damage. The versatility of the adopted methodology allows assessing the influence of the material nonlinear behavior and the geometry of the tested structure. Calibration and validation studies show that the proposed model can successfully represent the resistance of structure and behavior. Furthermore, the transverse component effect on the resistance to progressive collapse was discussed.

Memoria para optar al título de Ingeniero Civil Eléctrico / Hoy en día la operación económica de sistemas eléctricos de potencia tiene como uno de sus principales objetivos minimizar los costos de operación del sistema mientras se mantienen márgenes de seguridad y suficiencia. Además, para su correcto funcionamiento se hacen necesarias cada vez más herramientas, entre ellas se encuentra el Demand Side Management (DSM), el cual permite la incorporación de los consumidores finales como un actor relevante, a través de la gestión de artefactos eléctricos de uso residencial, lo cual en la actualidad ocurre muy poco. El objetivo de este trabajo consiste en eso, incorporar DSM a través de las cargas refrigerantes (refrigeradores) de los consumidores, para ello, se desarrolla una metodología que contempla el desarrollo de un modelo de Unit Commitment que considere las restricciones físicas de un set de 20 máquinas térmicas las cuales conforman un parque térmico de 3 tecnologías (gas natural licuado, Diesel y carbón) con una capacidad instalada de 2.554 MW y una alta penetración de energías renovables (50% de la demanda máxima entre recurso eólico y solar). Además, se establece una curva de demanda típica con un pick de 1920 MW con un tiempo de análisis correspondiente a 96 periodos de media hora cada uno. Posteriormente, se hace necesario caracterizar el consumo de los refrigeradores e incorporar una formulación matemática que permita utilizar estas cargas como un refrigerador equivalente controlable, para ello, se incorpora al Unit Commitment el modelo presentado en [1], el cual considera este refrigerador equivalente como una batería con fuga. Mediante lo anterior se consideraron 139 MW de consumo promedio del total de los refrigeradores (equivalente a 3.470.000 refrigeradores) para incorporar al modelo de Unit Commitment. Luego, se presentan los casos de análisis para evaluar el desempeño que tienen los refrigeradores al ser utilizados como carga controlable, para lo cual, se propone realizar en régimen permanente 3 Unit Commitment, uno sin control, otro en el cual se agrupan todos los refrigeradores como una única batería controlable y un tercero en el cual se agrupan en 1000 baterías para ver cómo afecta el control de los refrigeradores en el desempeño del sistema, apreciándose que no existe una diferencia significativa entre utilizar 1 o 1000 baterías, sin embargo, se obtiene que sí existe una modificación de la curva de demanda del sistema con respecto al caso sin control, especialmente en las horas de mayor exigencia de éste, en las cuales el consumo se ve reducido en un máximo de 46 MW y los costos totales del sistema alrededor de 58.831 USD. Finalmente, se realizan escenarios de contingencia sobre los casos previamente descritos, en los cuales se realizan 2 casos de déficit intempestivo del recurso renovable (uno en hora punta y otro en valle) y 1 caso de superávit, de los cuales se desglosa que, en caso de un desbalance intempestivo del recurso solar y eólico, es posible entregar una gran cantidad de flexibilidad al sistema para responder ante este evento, pues se atenúa considerablemente la potencia no suministrada al sistema en caso de un déficit y por otro lado se mejora el costo total del sistema en caso de un superávit.

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Abstract not available

Bridges consisting of multiple parallel pre-stressed and pre-fabricated Tee-beams topped by a cast-on-site concrete slab are often a cost-effective way of constructing simply-supported and multi-span bridge structures in many countries world-wide. For the design of these bridges computer models are often utilised. This thesis presents a comprehensive discussion of modelling issues encountered in the practical design work on this bridge type. A chapter on the modelling of various loading conditions is followed by a detailed discussion of the modelling of the longitudinal load bearing system, the Tee-beams, and the lateral load-bearing system, the roadway slab. A summary of commonly used bridge systems in various countries is also included. All this material is presented considering design code requirements in various internationally used specifications. The information included in this thesis has been used to define specifications for the implementation of a software tool to support the design of so-called Super-Tee bridges. A summary of these specifications is given in the conclusions of this thesis. Material included in this thesis has also been published in the following conference proceedings: Pircher G., Pircher M. (2004) “Computer-aided design and analysis of multiple Tee-beam bridges”, Proceedings: Fifth Austroads Bridge Conference, Hobart, Australia, on CD Pircher M, Pircher G, Wheeler A (2006) “Automated Analysis and Design of Super-Tee Bridges”, Proceedings: Sixth Austroads Bridge Conference, Perth (in publication) / Master of Engineering (Hons)