Course pre-requisite(s): Bachelor in Civil Engineering (Master in Civ. Eng.ng preferred)

Course Overview

In academic courses the experimental aspects of Engineering are usually either neglected or discussed as secondary issues. The outcome is that many freshly graduated engineers, and also more experienced ones, are unable to deal adequately with test data
and, sometimes, slide into relevant errors that may lead to collapse.

The course is aimed at providing a coherent and complete knowledge of the experimental aspects of Civil Structural Engineering: a theoretical base, a technological knowledge, practical and operational infos and skills.
In a 40 hours course the information transferred to the student can cover the basic issues that will be provided in a coherent and rational approach so as to allow the students to continue any further detailed study in the field.

The discussion of several case studies, either from literature and from the direct experience of the lecturer, allows to outline the details of testing to be discussed, the tricks behind a wrong testing campaign to be identified. In this way, the info provided
by the course may be useful also in the field of Forensic Investigations.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course, students are expected:
i) to have a solid theoretical background on material and structure characterization;
ii) to have a solid knowledge on the modern testing technology, with pros and cons of
every technique and estimating its reliability;
iii) to have a comprehensive overview of the up-to-date testing procedure for building
materials and structures, either newly built and existing;
iv) to solve easily standard practical problems in material and structural identification;
v) to identify rational procedures for experimental approaches to more complex cases.

Course Content

General issues
Testing materials and structures. What is the strength of a material? The probabilistic approach. Directly measured and derived quantities. Control schemes of a test: force and displacement control, Calibration of a test. Reduced scale testing. The concept of
precision. Error theory (basics).

Equipment
Load and Displacement sensors. Data acquisition. Universal testing machines.
Material testing - Concrete
Fresh concrete (in situ tests). Hardened concrete (from 3 days to 12 months). Existing structures: NDTs and MDTs. Combined methods. Other tests/methods (thermography). Critical discussion of the procedures. Case study.
Material testing - Masonry
NDTs: sonic tests, rebound hammer, georadar. MDTs: flat jacks, core drilling, endoscope. Compression tests (axial) of brickwork. Diagonal compression test: in situ and in Lab tests. Case study.
Structure testing – Static tests
Aims and scope. Experimental setup. Technology. Designing the test. Data processing.Load tests on slabs. Theoretical estimation of the displacements. Acceptable-vs-failed tests. Load tests on bridges. Case study.

Structure testing – Dynamic tests
Aims and scope. Experimental setup. Electric measures: sampling and aliasing. Technology. Designing the test. Data processing. Case study.
Appendix: The collapses that changed Structural Engineering…. and some others
This Appendix has the form of 4 seminars (2hours/each) discussing relevant structural collapse case studies (and minor ones):
- Silver Bridge (built 1928 – collapsed 1967) and the Bridge Management Systems
- Hyatt Regency Walkway – Kansas City, 1981: the worst disaster in USA till 9.11and other case studies
- Collapse of a steel warehouse
- Structure-excavation interaction: a case study
   
Instructional Method

The course relies on lectures. Any theme will be discussed first from a theoretical and then from a practical point of view. Students are involved in the lesson asking them to answer to the question the lecturer gives to the class.

At the end of the course, the Lecturer will provide the students with a practical problem asking them how they would solve it: this will be the issue of an oral discussion.

Required Course Materials

The Lecturer will provide students (on a web site, i.e. the Summer School one if available or the Genoa University) with pdf files of:
- relevant textbooks used in the international context
- scientific papers on some case study
- Power Points files of some of the issues discussed
None of these book needs to be studied or read in advance since the course makes use of the basic concepts of engineering only.
The students need to have at least the basic knowledge of an Engineer in Structural Mechanics and in Structural Engineering. Even though also a bachelor degree would be ok, surely the highest benefit from the course would be obtained by a PhD student.

Assessment

At the end of each theme, there will be a test on that issue, both with multiple choice and open answer questions.
At the end of the course, students will discuss orally the practical problem they have been given.
The final mark will be the weighted average of the intermediate tests and the oral discussion.