Luis A. C. Neves

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Verified

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• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at University of Nottingham

The use of empirically calibrated moment-rotation models that account for strength and stiffness deterioration of steel frame members is paramount in evaluating the performance of steel structures prone to collapse under seismic loading. These deterioration models are typically used as zero-length springs in a concentrated plasticity formulation; h...

Management of a large portfolio of infrastructure assets is a complex and demanding task for transport agencies. Although extensive research has been conducted on probabilistic models for asset management, in particular bridges, focus has been almost exclusively on deterioration modelling. The model being presented in this study tries to reunite a...

The paper presented herein proposes a reliability-based framework for quantifying the structural robustness considering the occurrence of a major earthquake (mainshock) and subsequent cascading hazard events, such as aftershocks that are triggered by the mainshock. These events can significantly increase the probability of failure of buildings, esp...

The aim of this work is to provide new contributions in order to define more accurately the structural robustness concept, particularly when applied to cor-roded reinforced concrete (RC) structures. To fulfill such task, several robust-ness indicators are analyzed and discussed with special emphasis on structural performance based measures. A new r...

This paper presents an analytical study evaluating the influence of ground motion duration on structural damage of 3-story, 9-story, and 20-story SAC steel moment resisting frame buildings designed for downtown Seattle, WA, USA, using pre-Northridge codes. Two-dimensional nonlinear finite element models of the buildings are used to estimate the dam...

The Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) has a great potential to be used in monitoring structures, specifically retaining walls, due to its fast acquisition and contactless function. However, previous research showed that the accuracy of deformation estimation using the TLS varied between few millimeters to a few centimeters. The Structural Health Moni...

This paper proposes a framework for mixed uncertainty quantification in the remaining service life assessment of existing deteriorated reinforced concrete (RC) bridges under temperature climate changes. The probability bound analysis (PBA) is deployed for quantifying mixed uncertainty. The epistemic uncertainty in climate change is modelled using a...

This paper investigates the role of masonry elastoplastic constitutive models on tunnelling-induced damage in buildings. A two-stage analysis method (TSAM) is adopted, incorporating input greenfield displacements, 3D masonry walls, and an elastic model for the soil. The paper focuses on four masonry constitutive models that can be readily adopted f...

The surface anomaly is a common defect for structures that resist lateral stresses, such as retaining walls. The accurate detection of an anomaly using contactless techniques, such as the Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS), is significant for the reliable structural assessment. The influence of the scanning geometry on the accuracy of the TLS point-cl...

Reliability analysis methods are used to evaluate the safety of reinforced concrete structures by evaluating the limit state function 𝑔(𝑋𝑖). For implicit limit state function and nonlinear analysis , an advanced reliability analysis methods are needed. Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) can be used in this case however, as the number of input variables i...

This paper proposes a new method for time-variant reliability analysis of existing ageing structures under epistemic uncertainty from limited recurrent field measurement data. A growth model and a noise factor are introduced to account for the ageing changes of distribution parameters that take place while the reliability interval is sequentially u...

This study aims to investigate the impact resistance of textile reinforced concrete (TRC) panels made of high-ductility mortar reinforced with carbon and glass textiles. The TRC panels were subjected to high velocity impact load from a hemispherical steel projectile at impact velocity ranging from 60 m.s−1 to 80 m.s−1. Plain concrete specimens serv...

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of asphalt pavements are associated with significant uncertainty resulting from variability in the quantity and impact of individual components, the quality of data for each component, and variability of asphalt durability. This study presents a framework to quantify and incorporate the uncertainty of LCA and asphalt...

Concrete structures are exposed to aggressive environmental conditions that lead to corrosion of the embedded reinforcement and pre-stressing steel. Consequently, the safety of concrete structures may be compromised, and this requires a significant budgets to repair and maintain critical infrastructure. Prediction of structural safety can lead to s...

Retaining walls are a critical infrastructure of transportation networks and the monitoring of their condition is crucial for the efficient and reliable maintenance of the network. The condition of retaining walls is frequently assessed using qualitative criteria and visual inspection, which are susceptible to human-bias and errors. To improve the...

Concrete gravity dams are mass concrete structures, often built on rock mass foundations, conceived to rely upon their weight for stability. To prevent sliding, these structures are usually keyed/embedded into the foundation, a good construction practice particularly relevant in medium to high intensity seismic zones. In stability analysis, the ext...

Bridges are critical assets for the safe, reliable, and functional operation of transportation networks. Infrastructure asset managers are responsible for ensuring that these bridges adhere to rigorous safety standards using the finite resources available to transportation agencies. Predicting future condition, forecasting required interventions, a...

This paper proposes a framework for the reliability-based remaining service life prediction of existing deteriorated structures considering both aleatory and epistemic uncertainties separately. A Bayesian probability box (p-box) is developed for modelling the epistemic uncertainty by considering the bounds of the distribution parameter, whereas the...

Over the last decades, the most developed counties performed investments and efforts in the enhancement of civil engineering infrastructures. These countries have built infrastructures able to respond to current demands, reducing the need for investments in new infrastructures. However, most of the existing infrastructures present clear signs of de...

This report summerizes all the results of "Pavement LCM project", providing NRAs with a package that has the ambition of being user-friendly enough for a wide-spread use across European NRAs and that could allow CEDR members to plan a harmonized implementation of these practices. This report provides NRAs with the main findings and further recommen...

Roads play a particular role among critical infrastructures as they support the transport of people and goods but also serve as a lifeline system for repairing other infrastructures. The assessment and management of the resilience of road networks to adverse events are thus essential for society. A major concern in resilience analyses of road netwo...

Partial safety factors present in codes are defined for the design of broad populations of structures. As a consequence, they do not always reflect correctly the uncertainties for specific existing structures. The possibility of adjusting them has therefore great interest when assessing an existing structure. The concept of design point connected t...

Bridges are critical assets for the safe, reliable and functional operation of transportation networks. Infrastructure asset managers are responsible for ensuring that these bridges adhere to rigorous safety standards using the finite resources available to transportation agencies. To facilitate strategy development and to present decisions to stak...

In this paper, continuous timed Petri nets (CTPN) are used to develop a hybrid traffic model, where the network is modelled as a macroscopic model and calibrated by microscopic models. The concept of CTPN is used to build a modular model, where first the highway traffic system is decomposed into several systems, based on structural entities (highwa...

In the past few years, the construction of multi-storey timber buildings has increased significantly in locations where high-intensity ground motions are likely to occur. On the other hand, the fast development of wood engineered products, as glued-laminated timber (GLT) and cross-laminated timber (CLT), has been challenging researchers to provide...

Timber floors are a critical component of many historical and modern buildings. Due to incorrect design and construction, effects of deterioration, change in use, and/or functional requirements, these components frequently need to be retrofitted. This chapter reviews the need for retrofitting of existing timber floors and critically evaluates a ran...

Bridge asset managers have finite resources at their disposal to minimise the risk of structural failure and ensure bridges are maintained to a suitable safety threshold. Any maintenance strategy must be efficient in its use of resources and deliver an optimal Whole Life Cycle Cost (WLCC). The calculation of an accurate WLCC is contingent on having...

A range of predictable and unpredictable events can cause road perturbations, disrupting traffic flows and more generally the functioning of society. To manage this threat, stakeholders need to understand the potential impact of a multitude of predictable and unpredictable events. The present paper adopts a hazard-independent approach to assess the...

Disruptions to transport networks are inevitable and detrimental to the functioning of society. Improving the resilience of transport networks to disruptive events has, therefore, a significant impact on society. Although the resilience of a transport system depends on the ability of the network to sustain the consequences of initial disruption (i....

Bridge asset managers have finite resources at their disposal to minimise the risk of structural failure and ensure bridges are maintained to a suitable safety threshold. Any maintenance strategy must be efficient in its use of resources and deliver an optimal Whole Life Cycle Cost (WLCC). The calculation of an accurate WLCC is contingent on having...

Despite their favorable physical and mechanical properties for structural use, tropical woods, such as Iroko (Milicia excelsa), present knowledge gaps to be filled mainly about their mechanical characterization, which currently limit their use or result in under- or overdimensioned structural elements. Visual classification, one of the most used me...

This paper addresses the need to revise the current Vietnamese design wind map by proposing a new typhoon wind map for the country, based on Monte Carlo simulations of typhoon tracks in the North West Pacific basin. Using historical typhoon data from the period 1951 to 2019 provided by the Japanese Meteorology Agency, novel multi-variate regression...

The uplift pressures change the stress state of the rock mass foundation in a coupled hydromechanical process and may compromise the dam stability. Consequently, dam safety regulations specify the maximum values of the hydraulic conductivity and uplift pressures that can usually only be fulfilled after the execution of seepage and uplift control me...

The work outlines recent EU policies supporting the sustainability and climate resilience of infrastructure and buildings. It evaluates the expected variations in climatic factors causing corrosion, provides a state of the art review on climate change induced corrosion of reinforced concrete and steel structures, and presents recent works on the c...

Bridge asset managers are tasked with developing effective maintenance strategies by the stakeholders of transportation networks. Any presentation of maintenance strategies requires an estimate of the consequence on the Whole Life Cycle Cost (WLCC), which is contingent on an accurate deterioration model. Bridge deterioration has previously been dem...

Disruptions to the transport system have a greater impact on society and the economy now than ever before due to the increased interconnectivity and interdependency of the economic sectors. The ability of transport systems to maintain functionality despite various disturbances (i.e. robustness) is hence of tremendous importance and has been the foc...

Bridge Management Systems (BMS) are decision support tools that have gained widespread use across the transportation infrastructure management industry. The Whole Life Cycle Cost (WLCC) modelling in a BMS is typically composed of two main components: a deterioration model and a decision model. An accurate deterioration model is fundamental to any q...

Structural design using partial safety factors aims at achieving an homogeneous safety level in geotechnical design without the use of more complex reliability analysis. In this work, the different Design Approaches proposed by Eurocode 7 for shallow foundations resting on the surface of undrained soils are compared in terms of the resulting reliab...

This paper provides a framework for the calibration of partial safety factors in prestressed concrete (PC) girders strengthened in flexure with carbon fiber–reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates. A hybrid approach was proposed to take advantage of comprehensive nonlinear numerical models in reliability analysis using a first-order reliability method...

To elicit an estimate of the Whole Life Cycle Cost (WLCC) of a portfolio of bridges, a deterioration model and a decision model can be employed. The accuracy of an output from the decision model is fundamental to the overall estimate of the WLCC [1], although any quality decision output requires an accurate underlying deterioration model. Commonly...

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...

This paper presents typhoon track simulations for the North West Pacific basin. Using historic typhoon data from the period 1951 to 2017 provided by the Japanese Meteorology Agency, multi-variate regression analysis is used to determine the parameters of a novel storm centre translation model. This model is then used to simulate typhoon tracks usin...

Maintenance decision-making involves a series of multiple objectives, some of them contradictory. Usually, stakeholders intend to find the optimal maintenance strategy, to minimize the economic burden, while simultaneously maximizing the buildings’ performance. In this study, a condition-based maintenance model, based on Petri nets, is proposed to...

With the increased complexity of urban systems, the need to protect the services of smart cities from disruptions by increasing their resilience to adverse events is more critical than ever before. The present paper aims at clarifying the meaning of system resilience by discussing its definitions and then accordingly proposes a set of resilience in...

Variability of pavement design parameters has always been a concern to pavement designers and highway agencies. A robust pavement design should take into account the variability of the design inputs and its impact on the reliability of the design. In this study, the variability effect of thickness and stiffness of pavement layers was investigated....

This paper presents an assessment of the accuracy of the HDM-4 fuel consumption model calibrated for the United Kingdom and evaluates the need for further calibration of the model. The study focuses on HGVs and compares estimates made by HDM-4 to measurements from a large fleet of vehicles driving on motorways in England. The data was obtained from...

Western countries are increasingly demanding for robust structures, i.e., structures capable of withstanding local damage caused by unforeseen extreme events without triggering a progressive collapse, thus reducing the magnitude and proportion of the resulting consequences. In this paper, the robustness of framed RC buildings is analysed by compari...

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is increasingly used to evaluate the impact of all lifecycle phases of road pavements on the environment. From the late ‘90s, this technique has continuously evolved and improved, however, there are still limitations and uncertainties in the framework. In this regard, Santero et al (2011) showed that gaps still exist in...

There remains a level of uncertainty concerning the methodological assumptions and parameters to consider in the estimation of road vehicle fuel consumption due to the condition of road pavements. In fact, recent studies highlighted how existing models can lead to very different results and that because of this, they are not fully ready to be imple...

Bridge asset management is often a challenging and complicated task due to the diversity, multitude and variation of bridge configurations. Much research has been carried out in the field of asset management which has resulted in a wealth of models to help with the decision making process. However, often these models oversimplify the process, resul...

The effectiveness of masonry infill wall on behavior of a Reinforced Concrete (RC) frame subjected to a column failure is studied experimentally. For this reason, one full scale RC frame designed according to Eurocode is statically tested to investigate the behavior of the frame with and without masonry infill wall. The obtained results show that i...

“Using truck sensors for road pavement performance investigation” is a research project within TRUSS, an innovative training network funded from the EU under the Horizon 2020 programme. The project aims at assessing the impact of the condition of the road pavement unevenness and macrotexture, on the fuel consumption of trucks to reduce uncertainty...

A stochastic Petri-net formalism is proposed to predict the degradation of ceramic claddings over time in order to understand how different environmental exposure conditions contribute to the overall degradation of these claddings. For that purpose, the degradation condition of 195 ceramic claddings located in Lisbon, Portugal, is evaluated through...

Keywords: Uncertainty Quantification, Effective Elastic Modulus, Midpoint Approximation, Random Field Theory, Stochastic Finite Element Method

The dam’s reservoir water level varies over the year according to the water inflow and outflow, as a function of environmental events but also of dam exploitation management policy and human decisions. In the Portuguese dam safety regulation (RSB 2007), the normal water level (NWL) is considered as the optimum exploitation level. However, as proved...

In this paper, mechanical properties of a new structural and eco-efficient hollow clay bricks are investigated. The principal goal was to recycle residual sludge from aluminium anodizing industries by incorporating it in the raw material of bricks, thus contributing for the sustainability of the construction sector. It was also an objective to enha...

The stochastic finite element method is a useful tool to calculate the response of systems subject to uncertain parameters and has been applied extensively to analyse structures composed of randomly heterogeneous materials. The methodology to estimate the parameters of the random field underlying a stochastic finite element model often utilises the...

Fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composites have been increasingly used worldwide in the strengthening of civil engineering structures. As FRP becomes more common in structural strengthening, the development of probability-based limit state design codes will require accurate models for the prediction of the mechanical properties of the FRPs. Existing...

Motivation: -The road infrastructure is the biggest and most valuable asset in Europe; -However, this suffers of underfinancing and deterioration problems due to lack of information and political awareness; -Recent studies claimed that up to 5% of fuel consumption is affected by the poor conditions of the road surface;-This with a review of the cur...

The performance of heavy-timber structures in earthquakes depends strongly on the inelastic behavior of the mechanical connections. Nevertheless, the nonlinear behavior of timber structures is only considered in the design phase indirectly through the use of an R-factor or a q-factor, which reduces the seismic elastic response spectrum. To improve...

When accommodating new uses or mitigating the consequences of deterioration, the strength increase of existing structures is significantly more onerous than a similar increase at the design stage of new structures. The safety methods prescribed in current standards were defined for the design of new structures and are frequently conservative for th...

The paper presents a comparison of fuel consumption estimates computed using the HDM-4 model with measurements from a large database owned by truck fleet managers. The study considers data from three different types of truck and 1,645 vehicles in total for a case study in the United Kingdom (UK). Typical fuel consumption has been estimated using HD...

Bridge portfolio managers have a difficult task managing a large, varied portfolio of aging assets in a squeezed financial climate and on networks with increasing usage. Therefore, decision support tools are becoming more and more integral in managing portfolios of this scale. The model presented in this paper is designed to show a modern, data-dri...

This paper presents the application of three Machine Learning techniques to fuel consumption modelling of articulated trucks for a large dataset. In particular, Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest (RF), and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models have been developed for the purpose and their performance compared. Fleet managers use telematic...

In this study, a methodology to model and predict the life-cycle performance of building façades based on Stochastic Petri Nets is proposed. The proposed model evaluates the performance of rendered façades over time, evaluating the uncertainty of the future performance of these coatings. The performance of rendered façades is evaluated based on a d...

This paper presents design procedures for fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) systems inserted in the cover of concrete elements according to the near-surface mounted (NSM) technique. Such strengthening system depends greatly on their bond strength. Two existing design formulations to estimate the bond strength of NSM FRP systems in concrete are studied...

The poster introduces possibilities for the road transport industry for reducing costs and GHG emissions by exploring the fuel consumption of road vehicles through the application Machine Learning algorithms to the huge amount of data available nowadays.

Stochastic Petri-Nets (PNs) are combined with General-Purpose Graphics Processing Unit (GPGPUs) to develop a fast and low cost framework for PN modelling. GPGPUs are composed of many smaller, parallel compute units which has made them ideally suited to highly parallelized computing tasks. Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is used to evaluate the probabil...

Management of existing structures has traditionally been based on condition assessment, based on visual inspections, disregarding the susceptibility of different structural types to aging and deterioration. Robustness, as a measure of the effects of unpredictable damage to structural safety can be a complementary information to the results of inspe...

Purpose: Although the impact of road pavement surface condition on rolling resistance has been included in the life cycle assessment (LCA) framework of several studies in the last years, there is still a high level of uncertainty concerning the methodological assumptions and the parameters that can affect the results. In order to adopt pavement ca...

Considering data from 260 articulated trucks, with ~12900 cc Euro 6 engines driving along a motorway in England (M18), the study first shows how different approaches lead to the conclusion that road pavement surface conditions influence fuel consumption of the considered truck fleet. Then, a multiple linear regression for the prediction of fuel con...

The poster introduces the latest progress in the research ’Using Truck Sensors for Road Pavement Performance Investigation’. The poster has been presented to the 1st ed. of the TRUSS ITN Workshop at Lloyd’s Register on the 24th May 2017 in London.

Selected to represent the Nottingham Transportation Engineering Centre (NTEC) in the 2nd year Ph.D. students poster session at the Engineering Research Showcase 2017 (the University of Nottingham). The poster briefly introduces the aim of the project and initial results.

Management of a diverse portfolio of assets is a demanding and complex task. Although extensive research has been carried out in bridge asset management models, the model developed in this study contains flexibility which is able to model a vast array of different types of elements, under different environmental stressors and with different operati...

Experimental studies have estimated the impact of road surface conditions on vehicle fuel consumption to be up to 5% (Beuving et al., 2004). Similar results have been published by Zaabar and Chatti (2010). However, this was established testing a limited number of vehicles under carefully controlled conditions including, for example, steady speed or...

In Europe, the road network is the most extensive and valuable infrastructure asset. In England, for example, its value has been estimated at around £344 billion and every year the government spends approximately £4 billion on highway maintenance (House of Commons, 2011). Fuel efficiency depends on a wide range of factors, including vehicle charact...

Currently, decisions on the maintenance and repair of infrastructural assets, structures in particular, are mostly based on the results of inspections and the resulting condition index, neglecting system robustness and therefore not making optimal use of the limited funds available. This paper presents a definition and a measure of structural robus...

The assessment of the mechanical properties of existing timber elements could benefit from the use of probabilistic information gathered at different scales. In this work, Bayesian Probabilistic Networks are used to hierarchically model the results of a multi-scale experimental campaign, using different sources of information (visual and mechanical...