Research Doctorate in "Defense Against Natural Risks and Ecological Transition of Built Environment"
The PhD course in "Defense against natural risks and ecological transition of built environment" is organized by 21 Italian universities (Uninettuno is one of these universities) coordinated by the University of Catania.
The call comprehends 35 fellowships, of which one is organized by Uninettuno and it is called:
"Protection of maritime and land infrastructures and models for fatigue, aging and their lifetime"
Objectives of the course, admission requirements, procedures and the call are described at this link:
https://www.unict.it/it/bandi/dottorati-di-ricerca/2023-2024/dottorato-nazionale-difesa-dai-rischi-naturali-e-transizione
The call is available at the following link: https://studenti.smartedu.unict.it
Scientific-Disciplinary Sectors
ICAR01, ICAR02, ICAR03, ICAR06, ICAR07, ICAR08, ICAR09, ICAR10, ICAR11, ICAR19, ICAR20, GEO05, GEO08, GEO11,GEO12, ING-IND11
Uninettuno's members of the faculty board are the following professors: Dario Assante, Clamente Cesarano, Luca Placidi and Elpidio Romano.
Protection of maritime and land infrastructures and models for fatigue, aging and their lifetime
The proposed research will focus on the application of variational methods for the development of models for the description of structures subjected to action, as well as external static forces, including those due to cyclic loads, aging and natural corrosion.
The project is animated by the idea of developing new computational models that are reliable not only for the design of innovative solutions but also for diagnosing the current state of the structures already built with the estimate of their life time.
Going into more detail on the topic of the proposed research, the doctorate:
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Will deal with generalized continuum models. This will not only overcome the pathology of the dependence of the results on the mesh size in the usual finite element simulations, but will make it possible to deal with the reinforcements (of reinforced concrete) with the simplified, and computationally advantageous, models of Euler or Timoshenko.
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Will proceed to increase the space of the kinematic descriptors with parameters of damage, plasticity and concentration of deteriorating agents. Variational models of a non-standard type and suitable for the irreversibility of dissipative systems will be used. In particular, hemi-variational models will be used. Fatigue phenomena will be included in this scheme and therefore a method for estimating the life time of structures will be provided.
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Will use the mechanics of granular media, in which the effects of anisotropy induced by the deformations will be automatically resolved as well as the identification of the stiffness matrices in a way that is not only computationally effective, but also without the need for an excessive number of additional parameters.