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No artigo examina-se a importância das relações inter-regionais entre o Mercosul e a União Européia, em particular em relação a outras alternativas de política externa.

Os interesses dos EUA na América Latina e a criação da Alca são fatores determinantes para explicar o propósito da União Européia de estabelecer um Acordo de Associação com o Mercosul. Enquanto que à UE interessa o alargamento do Mercosul, os EUA preferem, por meio da criação da Alça, induzir a sua dissolução e retirar vantagens da integração assimétrica. O nosso objetivo é demonstrar que, face aos cenários possíveis de evolução dos entendimentos regionais na América Latina, o mais plausível (co-existência do Mercosul, do Acordo de Associação UE/Mercosul, e da Alca) é também aquele que permite reconciliar os interesses da UE e dos EUA na região.

O americanismo foi a principal idéia norteadora da diplomacia brasileira na primeira metade do século XX. Os anos 40 constituíram o apogeu e o declínio desta idéia. A análise da política naval brasileira no período mostra o quanto ela foi influenciada pela aliança formal com os Estados Unidos dos tempos de guerra, e como se sonhou que a supremacia naval do Brasil no cone sul seria atingida como auxílio norte-americano. O fracasso desta política, entretanto, foi explicitado logo no início dos anos 50. A idéia da aliança especial contaminou todos os elementos inerentes ao poder nacional, e o caso da Marinha do Brasil serve para referendar este achado.

No artigo se argumenta que as relações Brasil-Argentina, apesar de aparentemente erráticas, evoluem da instabilidade estrutural no século XIX à estabilidade estrutural pela integração no século XXI, passando por fases de rivalidade e cooperação conjuntural. A construção dessa estabilidade dá "coerência" ao relacionamento bilateral. A relação com o Brasil pertence a uma categoria relativamente autônoma, não-determinada pela política externa global da Argentina.

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A análise das relações Brasil e Ásia constata a existência de certos esforços para um relacionamento mais consistente e abrangente entre ambos, seja no âmbito político, econômico e acadêmico. Entretanto, a taxa de intercâmbio entre eles ainda permanece muito aquém do desejável. Assim, discute-se perspectivas e possibilidades de crescimento de tal relacionamento entre os dois, como forma de fazer valer as iniciativas já correntes.

No artigo pretende-se mostrar a posição dos Estados Unidos em um diferente contexto conceitual e histórico, como tentativa de escapar-se do imediatismo da discussão atual do país como um poder imperial ou hegemônico, trazidos pelos debates atuais. Revela-se assim, problemas de definições dos conceitos de imperialismo e hegemonia, assim como da dominação formal/infomal distorcendo a real imagem e posição da América do Norte no campo internacional nos dias atuais.

O objetivo deste artigo é demonstrar que o protagonismo internacional do governo Lula busca ressuscitar a questão do desenvolvimento tendo como base tanto o regionalismo, quanto a recuperação da clivagem Norte/Sul na política internacional em benefício das novas demandas dos países em desenvolvimento. Baseado nessa constatação, indagamos se as estratégias internacionais e o diálogo Sul-Sul presente na retórica e na ação da política externa do governo Lula representam alianças duradouras ou coalizões efêmeras nas relações internacionais contemporâneas entre os países em desenvolvimento e menor desenvolvidos.

Abstract The paper presents some results from Rosa’s [1] research that aimed to verify the effect of creep and shrinkage of the concrete in soil-structure interaction. The construction consists in a 17 storeys building. It is set down on shallow foundation, in the central part of the construction, and steel piles, on the boundary. The structure was submitted to instrumentation during construction, including the monitoring of foundation settlements and columns deformation. It was possible to compare the structural design with a numerical refined structural analysis. Comparisons of the structural and foundation design with and without due consideration of soil-structure interaction are also presented. Finally, the different design assumptions were confronted with instrumentation results, both related to foundation settlements and to columns loading as well. Attention is pointed out on the effect of concrete creep and shrinkage in the soil-structure interaction analysis.

Abstract The tunnel design is a subject that demands a three-dimensional analysis dealing with two different players: lining and rockmass. The traditional methods of getting the necessary parameters for design do not consider a correct interaction between the two players, but the New Implicit Method (NIM) takes this characteristic in its core and develops some formulations for elastic, plastic and viscous rockmasses. Understanding that the stiffness of the lining and the distance between the lining and the tunnel face change the convergence of the tunnel, a code in MatLab for NIM is validated through Finite Element (FEM) with its results being presented. The validation of this method was compared with FEM analysis and the results obtained an average accuracy of 12% what represents a good approximation regarding geotechnical issues.

Abstract The installation of new reinforcing bars onto an existing structure is a common practice in civil construction both for old and new structures. The use of anchors has been extensively studied and normalized. The placement of steel reinforcement bars in holes filled with epoxy resin, despite their wide use, still lacks a satisfactory methodology for the design of such systems. In this context, the aim of this paper is to present the results of an experimental programme for confined pullout tests, comparing the performance of cast steel reinforcement bars to that of bars bonded to concrete with epoxy resin. The investigated test parameters included the bar diameter, the embedment length and the resin thickness. Tests results showed a significant efficiency of epoxy resin as structural bonding agent and allowed the verification of sizeable reduction in the anchorage lengths for bonded bars.

Abstract Cellular concrete is a lightweight concrete obtained by aerating agent, which produces air-voids into the mixture. This work deals with bond between cellular concrete and steel rebars. Pull-out tests of 4,2 mm diameter rebars partly immersed into concrete cylinders were made. Concrete unit weight variation and setting of a transverse rebar into the concrete cylinder center constitute the variables of the work. Three types of mixture were prepared: one without aerating agent (with a dry unit weight of 2255 kg/m3), and two with different aerating agent rates (with a dry unit weight equal to 1565 and 1510 kg/m3). The study revealed the large decrease of bond stress between 4,2 diameter rebars and cellular concrete, due to concrete unit weight reduction. Transverse rebar introduced into concrete cylinder center increased the ultimate pull-out force of the test: the gain of bond produced by the transverse rebar grew up when the cellular concrete unit weight had been reduced. Therefore, special anchorages (not exclusively straight), permitting bond improvement between cellular concrete and rebars could be a solution to improve the mechanical performance of cellular concrete.

Abstract A concrete structural member when kept under sustained load presents progressive strains over time, associated to the material creep. The fresh concrete consistency, specially, exerts some effect on that phenomenon. The pioneering formulations developed to modelling the creep of concrete are applicable, directly, to the cases for which the stress magnitude remains constant. Its application to reinforced concrete structural members, that exhibits changes in the magnitude of the stresses over such a time dependent phenomenon, requires simplifications from which result the memory models, whose implementation presents the disadvantage of involving the history of the stresses storage. The State Models were developed to overcome these difficulties, as they result of integral calculus scheme improvement, dispensing such computational memory storage. The subject of this work is the analysis of creep strains on reinforced concrete thin-walled columns, emphasizing the fresh concrete consistency efecct, on the base of a state model, fixing the values of its physical parameters from the NBR 6118/14 proceedings [1]. The obtained results showed the occurrence of stresses transfer from the mass of the concrete to the reinforcement steel bars, that was more pronounced in those cases for which the slump test abatement were the highest and, in some cases, including, it induced the material yielding condition.

Abstract This paper presents a study of the conformity of structural concrete blocks manufactured and used in masonry construction in Brazil. It is based on compressive strength tests, on dimensional analysis and absorption tests of over six thousand samples from three classes (A, B and C) and two modular sizes (M-15 and M-20). National results show that blocks tend to have an estimated compressive strength higher than specified, except blocks from class A. Regional results show that blocks manufactured in the northeast (NE) are consistently non-conforming, for all block classes. The study also shows that dimensional variations and absorption tests results are within code tolerances.

Abstract This paper presents a numerical analysis of the mechanical behavior of structural masonry panels submitted to horizontal and vertical stresses. To evaluate the design process of these structures, the results obtained by the computer simulations were compared with the results determined by the design criteria of ABNT NBR 15961-1 (2011), ACI TMS 530 (2013) and EN 1996-1-1 (2005). The finite element software DIANA v.9.3 was used to simulate two-dimensional models with the simplified micro modelling procedure. The results obtained by the normative standards were more conservative than the results of the numerical model, as expected. With the increase of the pre-compression level, the computer simulation has demonstrated the increasing trend of the values of resistant forces, besides the change of the way of rupture of the panels. Among the three standards evaluated, the American Standard was the most conservative.

Abstract In systems of suspended cable bridges, the cable-stayed bridges have been widely used because of its capacity to overcome large spans and not require large areas of support during their execution, minimizing interference with existing vehicle flow or overcoming large spans in rivers and channels that require space to the passage of vessels. In addition to this structural advantages, they are aesthetically well accepted by society, valuing the urban space and often making it a landmark. This paper aims to describe the influence of unilateral suspension of decks on the behavior of cable-stayed bridges with curved decks through structural models in order to evaluate whether structural gains or losses are relevant to project considerations. Results indicated that stresses variation in the deck depends not only on the position of the cables and their forces (which depends on the stiffness of the deck), but also on the cable itself and the central pylon.

Abstract Concrete is a material that presents time-delayed effects associated with creep and shrinkage phenomena. The numerical modeling of the creep is not trivial because it depends on the age of the concrete at the time of loading, which makes necessary to store the history of loads to apply the principle of superposition. However, a problem formulated in finite elements has many points of integration, making this storage impossible. The Theory of Solidification, together with incremental algorithm developed by Bazant e Prasannan ([1], [2]), solves this problem. Therefore, this paper presents the adaptation of this algorithm to a finite element commercial software (ANSYS) considering the creep, according to the CEB-FIP Model Code 1990 [3]. The results demonstrate that the deformations provided by this adaptation are in accordance with the analytical solution given by the CEB-FIP MC90, including cases where the loads are applied at different ages of the concrete.

Abstract In hogging bending moment regions of continuous composite beams the collapse by lateral-distortional buckling (LDB) can occur. The design against LDB according to ABNT NBR 8800:2008 begins with the determination of the elastic critical moment, which depends, among other factors, of the distribution of the bending moment in the analyzed span, taken into account in the formulation through the modification parameter Cdist. To assess the analytical formulations prescribed by ABNT NBR 8800:2008, numerical FE models that simulate the LDB behavior of continuous steel-concrete composite beams were developed in this paper. The different boundary conditions presented in ABNT NBR 8800:2008 were checked using two different models: a simplified model, with a single simply supported span; and models with multiple internal supports and more than one span. It was observed that the Cdist values prescribed by ABNT NBR 8800:2008 can be unsafe, and therefore new values for Cdist are proposed in this paper.