Revestimento vinílico em pavimentos: características, execução e patologia

O desenvolvimento industrial, tecnológico e económico, conduziu ao aparecimento de soluções construtivas e de revestimentos disponíveis no mercado da construção, cada vez mais eficientes e economicamente vantajosas. Uma dessas soluções é o revestimento vinílico em pavimentos, utilizado a nível mundial principalmente em escritórios, hospitais e escolas. A sua resistência ao tráfego pedonal e facilidade de aplicação e manutenção fazem dele um revestimento de eleição. No entanto esta aparente versatilidade acaba por colocar dificuldades aos profissionais do projecto, da construção e da reabilitação de edifícios, em particular na escolha das melhores soluções para cada tipo de utilização. É pois importante que estes profissionais disponham de orientações práticas para que façam as suas escolhas de um modo objectivo. O presente trabalho propõe o desenvolvimento de uma análise aprofundada deste tipo de material, onde são abordadas as suas exigências funcionais, modo de aplicação e patologia associada, tentando evitar-se deste modo a ocorrência de eventuais erros sistemáticos e recorrentes.

Design of a sea-level tsunami detection network for the Gulf of Cadiz

The devastating impact of the Sumatra tsunami of 26 December 2004, raised the question for scientists of how to forecast a tsunami threat. In 2005, the IOC-UNESCO XXIII assembly decided to implement a global tsunami warning system to cover the regions that were not yet protected, namely the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean and the North East Atlantic, the Mediterranean and connected seas (the NEAM region). Within NEAM, the Gulf of Cadiz is the more sensitive area, with an important record of devastating historical events. The objective of this paper is to present a preliminary design for a reliable tsunami detection network for the Gulf of Cadiz, based on a network of sea-level observatories. The tsunamigenic potential of this region has been revised in order to define the active tectonic structures. Tsunami hydrodynamic modeling and GIS technology have been used to identify the appropriate locations for the minimum number of sea-level stations. Results show that 3 tsunameters are required as the minimum number of stations necessary to assure an acceptable protection to the large coastal population in the Gulf of Cadiz. In addition, 29 tide gauge stations could be necessary to fully assess the effects of a tsunami along the affected coasts of Portugal, Spain and Morocco.

MDAI: Model based Design in Automobile Industry

It is proposed a new approach based on a methodology, assisted by a tool, to create new products in the automobile industry based on previous defined processes and experiences inspired on a set of best practices or principles: it is based on high-level models or specifications; it is component-based architecture centric; it is based on generative programming techniques. This approach follows in essence the MDA (Model Driven Architecture) philosophy with some specific characteristics. We propose a repository that keeps related information, such as models, applications, design information, generated artifacts and even information concerning the development process itself (e.g., generation steps, tests and integration milestones). Generically, this methodology receives the users' requirements to a new product (e.g., functional, non-functional, product specification) as its main inputs and produces a set of artifacts (e.g., design parts, process validation output) as its main output, that will be integrated in the engineer design tool (e.g. CAD system) facilitating the work.

New Steel Alloys for the Design of Heat Recovery Steam Generator Components of Combined Cycle Gas Plants

Demand for power is growing every day, mainly due to emerging economies in countries such as China, Russia, India, and Brazil. During the last 50 years steam pressure and temperature in power plants have been continuously raised to improve thermal efficiency. Recent efforts to improve efficiency leads to the development of a new generation of heat recovery steam generator, where the Benson once-through technology is applied to improve the thermal efficiency. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the mechanical behavior of a high pressure superheater manifold by applying finite element modeling and a finite element analysis with the objective of analyzing stress propagation, leading to the study of damage mechanism, e.g., uniaxial fatigue, uniaxial creep for life prediction. The objective of this paper is also to analyze the mechanical properties of the new high temperature resistant materials in the market such as 2Cr Bainitic steels (T/P23 and T/P24) and also the 9-12Cr Martensitic steels (T/P91, T/P92, E911, and P/T122). For this study the design rules for construction of power boilers to define the geometry of the HPSH manifold were applied.

Child-care attendance and common morbidity: evidence of association in the literature and questions of design

Papers on child-care attendance as a risk factor for acute respiratory infections and diarrhea were reviewed. There was great variety among the studies with regard to the design, definition of exposure and definition of outcomes. All the traditional epidemiological study designs have been used. The studies varied in terms of how child-care attendance in general was defined, and for different settings. These definitions differed especially in relation to the minimum time of attendance required. The outcomes were also defined and measured in several different ways. The analyses performed were not always appropriate, leading to sets of results of uneven quality, and composed of different measures of association relating different exposures and outcomes, that made summarizing difficult. Despite that, the results reported were remarkably consistent. Only two of the papers reviewed failed to show some association between child-care attendance and increased acute respiratory infections, or diarrhea. On the other hand, the magnitude of the associations reported varied widely, especially for lower respiratory infections. Taken together, the studies so far published provide evidence that children attending child-care centers, especially those under three years of age, are at a higher risk of upper respiratory infections, lower respiratory infections, and diarrhea. The studies were not consistent, however, in relation to attendance at child-care homes. Children in such settings were sometimes similar to those in child-care centers, sometimes similar to those cared for at home, and sometimes presented an intermediate risk.