Abstract

The European Union and the United States of America are fostering electrification of road transport as a means for achieving ambitious policy targets set to tackle air pollution and climate change. In 2011, the US DoE Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and the EC Joint Research Centre (JRC) established a collaborative work programme for pre-normative research on interoperability of smart grids and electric vehicles, as well as fuel/energy efficiency of hybrid- and full-electric vehicles. The present paper reports about a joint experimental campaign on a plug-in range extended vehicle (REEV) carried out at ANL’s Advanced Powertrain Research Facility (APRF) and at JRC’s Vehicle Electric Laboratory (VeLA 8). The vehicle was tested on the two roller benches against EU and US legislative cycles, at representative ambient temperatures varying between -30°C and 50°C, in order to investigate the impact of extreme ambient conditions on fuel and energy efficiency.

Abstract

The present paper describes the first steps of the research project by the title “Repair connection with wooden wedged dowels. New and alternative repair method that meets the demands of Monument Protection of built substance’s gentle care and material fairness”. The project aims to develop guidelines for static-constructive use of wood-wood repair connections with wooden wedged dowels. In the research project, the first steps for the description of the mechanical model for the wooden wedged dowels have been approached. Literature about wooden pegs and dowels and built examples of wooden wedged dowels in existing buildings have been analyzed; more, preliminary laboratory tests and FEM simulations have been implemented.In this paper, the results of the preliminary laboratory tests and the parallel development of a FEM model with the aim of describing the deformation behavior of the wooden wedged dowels for the most used wooden species will be presented. The main aims are: a) Analysis of the distribution of the strains / deformations in the dowel and in the connected building components when inserting the wedge. b) Analysis of the risk of opening of cracks in the materials. c) Analysis of distribution of stresses in the dowel and in the connected building elements utilizing FEM modeling calibrated on the experimental results. Thanks to the evaluation of deformation behavior in the proposed geometrical configuration and material combinations of wedge, dowel and connected building elements, it has been possible to understand the general framework of deformation behavior and failure modes for different combinations of timber density of the connection components.