L'illusione della scrittura, le metamorfosi del labirinto. Le città invisibili di Calvino e il modello ovidiano.

Résumé: Par le biais de cette thèse, nous nous aventurons dans le monde des Villes invisibles d'Italo Calvino à travers un voyage qui nous portera à affronter des thèmes tels que l'insuffisance du langage pour décrire les multiples formes de la réalité ; l'importance de la relation entre l'oeil et l'esprit ; les instruments déployés par Italo Calvino pour atteindre son objectif: toucher du doigt l'essence même de la réalité. Pour ce faire, l'écrivain puisera dans une tradition séculaire d'oeuvres littéraires, y compris et surtout Ovide et ses Métamorphoses, qui fera l'objet dune étude plus poussée étant donné que Calvino et lui partagent la conviction que l'art et l'illusion qu'il comporte nous guident vers une réalité nouvelle. Nous finirons par l'étude de certains concepts récurrents dans la littérature en général, mais surtout dans celle de l'écrivain. Des thèmes comme l'échiquier, le labyrinthe ou encore la carte nous apparaissent comme autant de moyens employés par Calvino pour comprendre notre monde. Le tout à travers un voyage initiatique qui nous permettra non seulement de mieux comprendre la réalité dans laquelle nous vivons et par conséquent nous-même, mais aussi d'entrer dans l'esprit de l'auteur sans toutefois oublier que nous ne pouvons qu'effleurer la surface de ce dernier. Abstract: Through this thesis, we will enter the world of Italo Calvino's Invisible cities in a trip that will bring us to analyse subjects such as the language inadequacy when it comes to describing reality and its multiple forms ; the importance of the link between the eye and the mind ; the tools used by Italo Calvino in order to achieve his goal: reach the very essence of reality. To do so, the writer will make full use of a tradition that comes from centuries of literary books, included and most of all Ovid and his Metamorphoses, which we will study more deeply as Calvino shares with him the belief that art and illusion that derives from it, bring us towards a new reality. Finally, we will analyse some topics which are generally recurrent not only in literature, but also in Calvino's work. Topics such as chessboard, labyrinth, map that are may different ways used by Calvino to understand our world. All of this will take us through an initiatory trip that will allow us not only to better understand the reality we live in and therefore ourselves, but also to enter the writer's mind without however forgetting that we cannot but only scratch the surface of the latter.

Influence of adhesive thickness on adhesively bonded joints under fatigue loading

Research on adhesive joints is arousing increasing interest in aerospace industry. Incomplete knowledge of fatigue in adhesively bonded joints is a major obstacle to their application. The prediction of the disbonding growth is yet an open question. This thesis researches the influence of the adhesive thickness on fatigue disbond growth. Experimental testing on specimens with different thickness has been performed. Both a conventional approach based on the strain energy release rate and an approach based on cyclic strain energy are provided. The inadequacy of the former approach is discussed. Outcomes from tests support the idea of correlating the crack growth rate to the cyclic strain energy. In order to push further the study, a 2D finite element model for the prediction of disbond growth under quasi-static loading has been developed and implemented in Abaqus. Numerical simulations have been conducted with different values of the adhesive thickness. The results from tests and simulations are in accordance with each other. According to them, no dependence of disbonding on the adhesive thickness has been evidenced.