Patrizia Trovalusci

Sapienza University of Rome | la sapienza · Department of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering

The present study aims at replacing virgin polypropylene with a percentage of recycled plastics to assess the impact of this substitution on the mechanical properties of the original material. Homogenization is employed to predict the mechanical properties of the mixtures and verification is performed by considering tensile tests for each blend and...

The main objective of this study is to implement extended finite element method (XFEM) to two dimensional (2D) micropolar structures in order to extract basic fracture parameters required in linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) in a computationally efficient manner, and thus to provide basis to explore the crack propagation phenomenon within th...

The present study provides closed-form expressions of propagation (kinking) angles by generalizing maximum energy release rate criterion in linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) within micropolar theory of elasticity to address the in-plane, brittle crack propagation phenomenon in size-dependent materials with the presence of particle rotations....

Polylactic acid (PLA) nanofibrous networks have gained substantial interest across various engineering and scientific disciplines, such as tissue engineering, drug delivery, and filtration, due to their unique and multifunctional attributes, including biodegradability, tuneable mechanical properties, and surface functionality. However, predicting t...

In the past the technological invention has often governed the creation of innovative forms (Roman concrete, steel, reinforced concrete, etc.), with the result of a substantial correspondence between conception and realisation. In the electronic and digital era, this role seems to be entrusted to the mathematical-numerical instrumentation offered b...

In civil structures, a lot of attention is paid to lightweight design, i.e., reduction in self-weight by design without compromising safety, integrity, and performance of a structure. The cost-effectiveness of lightweight design is another important consideration, as it can help to reduce the overall cost of a project. Thanks to the development of...

The construction industry has a massive impact on climate change, and reducing its environmental impact is a critical challenge that requires innovative solutions. Shape and topology optimization methods can play a crucial role in addressing this issue by optimizing the structural geometry and material distribution. In this paper, we present a nove...

A significant number of scientific research groups are still nowadays dealing with masonry material as the main focus of study since it provides an open field of research that is far from resolution in a standardized manner. As masonry structures are highly vulnerable to any level of natural hazards, especially seismic activity, both traditional an...

In solid mechanics, the defects and imperfections of materials (e.g., cracks, dislocations, etc.) play a key role on the overall mechanical behaviour of the structure despite their localized character. In this paper, the phenomenon of crack propagation under tension (Mode I) has been investigated considering two different approaches: linear elastic...

The majority of built heritage covering large spans are built with curved masonry components, such as multi-ring arches, to attain greater overall thickness. Their ultimate structural capacity when subjected to external loads is significantly influenced by the various construction techniques utilized. Such structures are made up of independent ring...

The use of recycled plastic in construction fields, among others, is becoming a turning point for resolving significant related problems such as resource management, sustainability and plastic waste generation. Hence, in the context of sustainability, the ”Three R’s”: reduce, reuse and recycle, are getting more attention day after day. There has be...

In steel structures, a lot of attention is paid to lightweight structures, i.e. reduction of dead load without compromising structural safety, integrity and performance. Thanks to modern steel aluminium foam sandwich panel manufacturing technology a new possibility became available for lightweight structural design. Assessment and understanding of...

Among the most characteristic structures in historical constructions for crossing large spans are the masonry vaulted structures by utilizing their geometric stability to safely transfer the loads to supports with regard to their negligible tensile strength. The ability of masonry piers to bear such transferred stresses and safely convey them to th...

Peridynamic (PD) models are commonly implemented by exploiting a particle-based method referred to as standard scheme. Compared to numerical methods based on classical theories (e.g., the finite element method), PD models using the meshfree standard scheme are typically computationally more expensive mainly for two reasons. First, the nonlocal natu...

A strategy based on material homogenization and heuristic optimization for the structural identification of composite materials is proposed. The objective is the identification of the constitutive properties of a micropolar continuum model employed to describe the mechanical behaviour of a composite material made of rigid blocks and thin elastic in...

All-atom molecular dynamics simulations are conducted to elucidate the fracture mechanism of polylactic acid nanofibres doped with metallic nanoparticles. Extensional deformation is applied on polymer nanofibres decorated with spherical silver nanoparticles on the surface layer. In the obtained stress–strain curve, the elastic, yield, strain soften...

All-atom molecular dynamics simulations are conducted to elucidate the thermomechanical characteristics of polylactic acid nanofibers with a diameter range of 1.93 nm–5.4 nm. Nanofibers undergo tensile deformations from which elastic, yield, softening and fracture phases are recognized and mechanical parameters are evaluated by tracking the stress,...

The structural performance of any building design is often dependent on the geometrical shape, which affects its behavior and stability. Structural consideration and optimization in the conceptual stage of the design process can lead to better solutions and design exploration. In this paper, a design approach for generating and structurally optimiz...

Masonry structures are highly vulnerable to natural hazards, therefore both traditional and composite materials have been used as reinforcements to provide different solutions. Extensive effort is done to develop appropriate techniques of assessment, that usually demand an individualised methodology of analysis to be handled through comparative stu...

A significant number of scientific research groups are still nowadays dealing with masonry material as the main focus of study since it provides an open field of research that is far from resolution in a standardized manner. As masonry structures are highly vulnerable to any level of natural hazards, especially seismic activity, both traditional an...

In this paper, an optimization strategy for a canopy, based on computational modelling approaches is presented. The design approach is applied to a realistic roof structure of an ecological island (waste collection centre) and has been completely redesigned with the aid of a Genetic Algorithm and a Dynamic Relaxation Algorithm. The preliminary desi...

The use of composite on the strengthening and retrofitting of masonry structures over the past few decades has gained considerable importance. In this paper, the influence of partial reinforcement on the structural response of masonry arches is studied. An upper bound limit analysis numerical approach has been implemented to compute the collapse mu...

The mechanical response of materials such as fiber and particle composites, rocks, concrete, and granular materials, can be profoundly influenced by the existence of voids. The aim of the present work is to study the dynamic behavior of hexagonal microstructured composites with voids by using a discrete model and homogenizing materials, such as mic...

The modern polycrystalline composite materials have a complex internal structure consisting of different phases and interfaces with random distribution. Relevant examples are Al2O3/ZrO2, i.e. alumina/zirconia composites, widely used as structural materials with applications ranging from aerospace to bio-engineering. Depending on the phases content...

It is known that the presence of microstructures in solids such as joints and interfaces has an essential influence on the studies of the development of advanced materials, rock mechanics, civil engineering, and so on. However, microstructures are often neglected in the classical local (Cauchy) continuum model, resulting in inaccurate descriptions...

Rock formation such as shale normally has a layered structure where the rock blocks interact with each other by their interfaces like head joints and bed joints. In practical geological conditions, such interfaces are often rough and able to result in dilatancy and volume change of the overall geological structure. The dilatancy can be an important...

The main objective of this work is to extend finite element-based topology optimization problem to the two-dimensional, size-dependent structures described using weakly non-local Cosserat (micropolar) and strongly non-local Eringen’s theories, the latter of which finds an application for the first time, to the best of Authors’ knowledge. The optimu...

Pointed arches are important architectural elements of both western and eastern historical built heritage. In this paper, the effects that different geometrical (slenderness and sharpness) and mechanical (friction and cohesion) parameters have on the in-plane structural response of masonry pointed arches are investigated through the implementation...

The purpose of this work is to study the mechanical behavior of microstructured materials, in particular porous media. We consider a detailed description of the material through a discrete model, considered as the benchmark of the problem. Two continuous models, one micropolar and one classic, obtained through a homogenization procedure of the mate...

Historical masonry structures have a great interest in civil engineering because they constitute a large part of the world’s building heritage. In this paper, the effects that different geometrical (panel ratio, block ratio, and bond type) and mechanical (friction ratio) parameters have on the in-plane structural response of brick masonry panels ar...

The present paper aims at evaluating non-classical continuum parameters for each class of armchair and zigzag single-walled CNTs focusing on the scale effect in their flexural behavior observed in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Through a non-linear optimization approach, the bending rigidities obtained from atomistic simulations are compared...

It has been demonstrated that materials with microstructure, such as particle composites, show a peculiar mechanical behavior when discontinuities and heterogeneities are present. The use of non-local theories to solve this challenge, while preserving memory of the microstructure, particularly of internal length, is a challenging option. In the pre...

Dilatancy is of importance for understanding the micromechanical behavior of materials such as cemented sand, mortar joints, and the interfaces of masonry-like structures. Rough interface contacts are able to result in dilatancy and lead to an increase in the material’s volume. However, as far as the authors’ knowledge very few works are present re...

This work aims to present the dynamic character of microstructured materials made of hexagonal-shape particles interacting with elastic interfaces. Several hexagonal shapes are analyzed to underline the different constitutive behavior of each texture. The mechanical behavior at the macro scale is analyzed by considering a discrete model assumed as...

The description of the mechanical behavior of composite materials is an open challenge in engineering. The focus of this work is on micro-cracked/micro-porous composites, made of stiff grains embedded in a cracked or porous deformable matrix. Grains interact between each other and with cracks or pores localized at the interfaces, which reduce the c...

In this work, particle composite materials with different kind of microstructures are analyzed. Such materials are described as made of rigid particles and elastic interfaces. Rigid particles of arbitrary hexagonal shape are considered and their geometry is described by a limited set of parameters. Three different textures are analyzed and static a...

Classical theory of elasticity fails to reflect the true behaviour of solids with internal material organization when internal and external length scales are of comparable orders. This drawback leads to emergence of non-classical continuum theories which are offered to be distinguished as ‘implicit’/‘weak’ and ‘explicit’/‘strong’ non-local models a...

Efficient application of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in nano-devices and nano-materials requires comprehensive understanding of their mechanical properties. As observations suggest size dependent behaviour, non-classical theories preserving the memory of body’s internal structure via additional material parameters offer great potential when a continuum...

Polycrystalline materials with inter-granular phases are modern composite materials extremely relevant for a wide range of applications, including aerospace, defence and automotive engineering. Their complex microstructure is often characterized by stochastically disordered distributions, having a direct impact on the overall mechanical behaviour....

Understanding the effects of defects is crucial due to their deliberate or unintentional presence in many materials. Classical theory of elasticity may not be the best candidate to describe behaviour of structures with defects of comparable size of its underlying material organization, as it lacks in internal scale parameters. In this respect, pres...

This paper deals with the numerical evaluation of the in-plane collapse behaviour of unreinforced masonry arches and portals characterised by different geometries subjected to several loading conditions and modelled as assemblages of rigid blocks in contact through no-tensional and frictional interfaces. This study has been conducted using a new in...

Structural monitoring plays a central role in civil engineering; in particular, optimal sensor positioning is essential for correct monitoring both in terms of usable data and for optimizing the cost of the setup sensors. In this context, we focus our attention on the identification of the dynamic response of beam-like structures with uncertain dam...

Numerical modeling of masonry structures is nowadays still an active research field, and this is partly due to a number of open issues related to preservation and restoration of historical constructions and the availability of computational tools that have become more and more refined. This work focuses on the analysis of settlement-induced failure...

This paper is dedicated to the identifiability of vibrating beam structures with uncertain damages. The probability of damage occurrence is computed assuming a Gaussian distributed random damage parameter. Then, we propose a technique for selecting an optimized solution of sensors placement based on the comparison among the probability of damage oc...

Despite its complexity, the accurate structural modelling of masonry still represents an active field of research, due to several practical applications in civil engineering, with special reference to the preservation and restoration of cultural heritage.

Multiscale procedures are often adopted for the continuum modeling of materials composed of a specific micro-structure. Generally, in mechanics of materials only two-scales are linked. In this work the original (fine) micro-scale description, thought as a composite material made of matrix and fibers/particles/crystals which can interact among them,...

In this work, material symmetries in homogenized composites are analyzed. Composite materials are described as materials made of rigid particles and elastic interfaces. Rigid particles of arbitrary hexagonal shape are considered and their geometry described by a limited set of parameters. The purpose of this study is to analyze different geometrica...

In the last decades the modeling of masonry structures has become an argument particularly appealing for many researchers and a large variety of numerical techniques have been formulated with the aim to produce practical applications in civil engineering, with special reference to the preservation and restoration of cultural heritage. Nevertheless,...

The aim of the present work is to investigate the mechanical behaviour of orthotropic masonry subjected to localised loads in the context of both ‘implicit’/‘weak’ and ‘explicit’/‘strong’ non-local continuum models. To look for possible correspondences and differences, the solutions of Cosserat (micropolar) and integral form of Eringen models, obta...

Increasing application of composite structures in engineering field inherently speed up the studies focusing on the investigation of non-homogeneous bodies. Due to their capability on capturing the size effects, and offering solutions independent of spatial discretization, enriched non-classical continuum theories are often more preferable with res...

The dynamical behavior of a mono-dimensional bar with distributed microcracks is addressed in terms of free and forced wave propagation. The multiscale model, derived from a generalized continuum formulation, accounts for the microstructure by means of a microdisplacement variable, added to the standard macrodisplacement, and of internal parameters...

Mechanical behaviour of particle composite materials is growing of interest to engineering applications. A computational homogenization procedure in conjunction with a statistical approach have been successfully adopted for the definition of the representative volume element (RVE) size, that in random media is an unknown of the problem, and of the...

A fast statistical homogenization procedure (FSHP) based on virtual element method (VEM)—previously developed by the authors has been successfully adopted for the homogenization of particulate random composites, via the definition of the representative volume element (RVE), and of the related equivalent elastic moduli. In particular, the adoption o...

The macroscopic behavior of materials with anisotropic microstructure described as micropolar continua is studied in the present paper. Micropolar continua are characterized by more kinematical and dynamical descriptors than classical continua (Cauchy), as additional strain and stress fields, namely the micro-rotation and the relative rotation, and...

The aim of this contribution is to formulate equivalent continuum finite element model for two-dimensional atomic arrays under plane-stress condition, based on Eringen's two phase local/nonlocal model. The interaction between the atoms is modelled using translational and rotational linear elastic springs including both nearest and second nearest ne...

The aim of the present work was to investigate the mechanical behavior of orthotropic composites, such as masonry assemblies, subjected to localized loads described as micropolar materials. Micropolar models are known to be effective in modeling the actual behavior of microstructured solids in the presence of localized loads or geometrical disconti...

Urban planning has long been introduced into the territorial classification elements as belonging to integrated waste cycle management. Within such framework, types of urban hygiene are defined and described. In particular, the General Regulatory Plan of the City of Rome has established that areas and facilities for separate collection of waste bel...

An accurate and fast failure simulation for masonry walls is still an active field of research, due to its fundamen- tal role in predicting the overall response of masonry structures under seismic and other extreme natural and man- originated events. Multiscale models have been successfully exploited for achieving this task, being characterized by...

A novel multiscale strategy is proposed for the damage analysis of masonry structures modeled as periodic composites. Such a computational strategy, whose aim is to reduce the typically high computational cost exhibited by fully microscopic numerical analyses, is based on a multiscale/multidomain model equipped with an adaptive capability, which al...

Several composite materials used in engineering – such as ceramic/metal matrix composites, concrete, masonry-like/geo–materials and innovative meta–materials – have internal micro-structures characterized by a random distribution of inclusions (particles) embedded in a matrix. Their structural response is highly influenced not only by the mechanica...

Cosserat continua demonstrated to have peculiar mechanical properties, with respect to classic Cauchy continua, due to the fact that they are able to more accurately model heterogeneous materials, as particle composites, masonry-like materials and others, taking into account, besides the disposition, the size and the orientation of the heterogeneit...

We present a two–steps multiscale procedure suitable to describe the constitutive behavior of hierarchically structured particle composites. The complex material is investigated considering three nested scales, each one provided by a characteristic length. At the lowest scale (micro), a periodic lattice system describes in detail the mechanical res...

In this paper, a novel adaptive multiscale model is proposed for accurately predicting the nonlinear mechanical response of periodic brick masonry due to crack initiation and propagation under general in-plane loading histories. Such a model relies on a two-level domain decomposition technique, used in conjunction with an adaptive strategy able to...