• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제24권1호
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• pp.1-18
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• 2006

Strengthening of existing old structures has traditionally been accomplished by using conventional materials and techniques, viz., externally bonded steel plates, steel or concrete jackets, etc. Alternatively, fibre reinforced polymer composite (FRPC) products started being used to overcome problems associated with conventional materials in the mid 1950s because of their favourable engineering properties. Effectiveness of FRPC materials has been demonstrated through extensive experimental research throughout the world in the last two decades. However there is a need to use refined analytical tools to simulate response of strengthened system. In this paper, an attempt has been made to develop a numerical model of strengthened reinforced concrete (RC) beams with FRPC laminates. Material models for RC beams strengthened with FRPC laminates are described and verified through a nonlinear finite element (FE) commercial code, with the help of available experimental data. Three dimensional (3D) FE analysis has been performed by assuming perfect bonding between concrete and FRPC laminate. A parametric study has also been performed to examine effects of various parameters like fibre type, stirrup's spacing, etc. on the strengthening system. Through numerical simulation, it has been shown that it is possible to predict accurately the flexural response of RC beams strengthened with FRPC laminates by selecting an appropriate material constitutive model. Comparisons are made between the available experimental results in literature and FE analysis results obtained by the present investigators using load-deflection and load-strain plots as well as ultimate load of the strengthened beams. Furthermore, evaluation of crack patterns from FE analysis and experimental failure modes are discussed at the end.

• 한국지반환경공학회 논문집
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• 제18권10호
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• pp.5-14
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• 2017

In recent years, world has witnessed many man-made activities related to both above and underground blasts. Details on behaviour of shallow foundations subjected to blast loads and induced liquefaction is scarce in literature. In this paper, typical shallow strip foundation in saturated cohesionless soils subjected to both above and underground blasting have been simulated by using finite difference based numerical model FLAC3D. Peak particle velocity (PPV) has been obtained to propose critical values for which bearing capacity failure for shallow foundations with soil liquefaction can occur. Typical results for pore pressure ratio (PPR) for various scaled distances are compared to PPR values obtained by using empirical equation available in literature which shows good agreement. Critical design values obtained in the present study for PPV and PPR to estimate the scaled distance, bearing capacity failure and liquefaction susceptibility can be used effectively for design of shallow strip foundation in cohesionless soil subjected to both above and under ground blast loads.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제17권5호
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• pp.691-708
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• 2016

Recently, number of smart material are investigated and widely used in civil construction and other industries. Present study investigates the application of smart semi-active piezoelectric friction damper (PFD) made with piezoelectric material for the seismic control of the horizontally curved bridge isolated with lead rubber bearing (LRB). The main aim of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of hybrid system and to find out the optimum parameters of PFD for seismic control of the curved bridge. The selected curved bridge is a continuous three-span concrete box girder supported on pier and rigid abutment. The PFD is located between the deck and abutments or piers in chord and radial directions. The bridge is excited with four different earthquake ground motions with all three components (i.e. two horizontal and a vertical) having different characteristics. It is observed that the use of semi-active PFD with LRB is quite effective in controlling the response of the curved bridge as compared with passive system. The incorporation of the smart damper requiring small amount of energy in addition with an isolation system can be used for effective control the curved bridge against the dynamic loading.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제4권4호
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• pp.493-515
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• 2008

Semi-active control systems have attracted a great deal of attention in recent years because these systems can operate on battery power alone, proving advantageous during seismic events when the main power source of the structure may likely fail. The behavior of semi-active devices is often highly non-linear and requires suitable and efficient control algorithm. This paper presents the comparative study and performance of variable semi-active friction dampers by using recently proposed predictive control law with direct output feedback. In this control law, the variable slip force of semi-active variable friction damper is kept slightly lower than the critical friction force, which allows the damper to remain in the slip state during an earthquake, resulting in improved energy dissipation capability. This control algorithm is able to produce a continuous and smooth slip forces for a variable friction damper. The numerical examples include a structure controlled with multiple variable semi-active friction dampers and with multiple passive friction dampers. A parameter, gain multiplier defined as the ratio of damper force to critical damper control force, is investigated under four different real earthquake ground motions, which plays an important role in the present control algorithm of the damper. The numerically evaluated optimum parametric value is considered for the analysis of the structure with dampers. The numerical results of the variable friction dampers show better performance over the passive dampers in reducing the seismic response of structures.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제6권8호
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• pp.953-974
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• 2010

The performance of variable dampers for seismic protection of the benchmark highway bridge (phase I) under six real earthquake ground motions is presented. A simplified lumped mass finite-element model of the 91/5 highway bridge in Southern California is used for the investigation. A variable damper, developed from magnetorheological (MR) damper is used as a semi-active control device and its effectiveness with friction force schemes is investigated. A velocity-dependent damping model of variable damper is used. The effects of friction damping of the variable damper on the seismic response of the bridge are examined by taking different values of friction force, step-coefficient and transitional velocity of the damper. The seismic responses with variable dampers are compared with the corresponding uncontrolled case, and controlled by alternate sample control strategies. The results of investigation clearly indicate that the base shear, base moment and mid-span displacement are substantially reduced. In particular, the reduction in the bearing displacement is quite significant. The friction and the two-step friction force schemes of variable damper are found to be quite effective in reducing the peak response quantities of the bridge to a level similar to or better than that of the sample passive, semi-active and active controllers.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제40권6호
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• pp.477-488
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• 2008

The objective of the paper is to analyze the thermally induced density wave oscillations in water cooled boiling water reactors. A transient thermal hydraulic model is developed with a characteristics-based implicit finite-difference scheme to solve the nonlinear mass, momentum and energy conservation equations in a time-domain. A two-phase flow was simulated with a one-dimensional homogeneous equilibrium model. The model treats the boundary conditions naturally and takes into account the compressibility effect of the two-phase flow. The axial variation of the heat flux profile can also be handled with the model. Unlike the method of characteristics analysis, the present numerical model is computationally inexpensive in terms of time and works in a Eulerian coordinate system without the loss of accuracy. The model was validated against available benchmarks. The model was extended for the purpose of studying the flow-induced density wave oscillations in forced circulation and natural circulation boiling water reactors. Various parametric studies were undertaken to evaluate the model's performance under different operating conditions. Marginal stability boundaries were drawn for type-I and type-II instabilities in a dimensionless parameter space. The significance of adiabatic riser sections in different boiling reactors was analyzed in detail. The effect of the axial heat flux profile was also investigated for different boiling reactors.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제6권1호
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• pp.23-40
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• 2003

The steady state response of a torsionally coupled system with tuned mass dampers (TMDs) to external wind-induced harmonic excitation is presented. The torsionally coupled system is considered as one-way eccentric system. The eccentricity considered in the system is accidental eccentricity only. The performance of single tuned mass damper (TMD) optimally designed without considering the torsion is investigated for the torsionally coupled system and found that the effectiveness of a single TMD is significantly reduced due to torsion in the system. However, the design of TMD system without considering the torsion is only justified for torsionally stiff systems. Further, the optimum parameters of a single TMD considering the accidental eccentricity are obtained using numerical searching technique for different values of uncoupled torsional to lateral frequency ratio and aspect ratio of the system. The optimally designed single TMD system is found to be less effective for torsionally coupled system in comparison to uncoupled system. This is due to the fact that a torsionally coupled system has two natural frequencies of vibration, as a result, at least two TMDs are required which can control both lateral and torsional response of the system. The optimum damper parameters of different alternate arrangements such as (i) two identical TMDs placed at opposite corners, (ii) two independent TMDs and (iii) four TMDs are evaluated for minimum response of the system. The comparative performance of the above TMDs arrangements is also studied for both torsionally coupled and uncoupled systems. It is found that four TMDs arrangement is quite effective solution for vibration control of torsionally coupled system.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.149-169
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• 2011

Dynamic response of two adjacent single degree-of-freedom (SDOF) structures connected with friction damper under base excitation is investigated. The base excitation is modeled as a stationary white-noise random process. As the force-deformation behavior of friction damper is non linear, the dynamic response of connected structures is obtained using the equivalent linearization technique. It is observed that there exists an optimum value of the limiting frictional force of the damper for which the mean square displacement and the mean square absolute acceleration responses of the connected structures attains the minimum value. The close form expressions for the optimum value of damper frictional force and corresponding mean square responses of the coupled undamped structures are derived. These expressions can be used for initial optimal design of the friction damper for connected structures. A parametric study is also carried out to investigate the influence of system parameters such as frequency ratio and mass ratio on the response of the coupled structures. It has been observed that the frequency ratio has significant effect on the performance of the friction damper, whereas the effects of mass ratio are marginal. Finally, the verification of the derived close from expressions is made by correlating the response of connected structures under real earthquake excitations.

• International Journal of Ocean System Engineering
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• 제3권3호
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• pp.116-130
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• 2013

The prediction of ocean currents in real time over the warning times of a few hours or days is required in planning many operation-related activities in the ocean. Traditionally this is done through numerical models which are targeted toward producing spatially distributed information. This paper discusses a complementary method to do so when site-specific predictions are desired. It is based on the use of a recurrent type of neural network as well as the statistical tool of model tree. The measurements made at a site in Indian Ocean over a period of 4 years were used. The predictions were made over 72 time steps in advance. The models developed were found to be fairly accurate in terms of the selected error statistics. Among the two modeling techniques the model tree performed better showing the necessity of using distributed models for different sub-domains of data rather than a unique one over the entire input domain. Typically such predictions were associated with average errors of less than 2.0 cm/s. Although the prediction accuracy declined over longer intervals, it was still very satisfactory in terms of theselected error criteria. Similarly prediction of extreme values matched with that of the rest of predictions. Unlike past studies both east-west and north-south current components were predicted fairly well.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제10권4호
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• pp.337-357
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• 2000

Analytical formulations and solutions for the first time, to the stability analysis of a simply supported composite and sandwich plates based on a higher order refined theory, developed by the first author and already reported in the literature are presented. The theoretical model presented herein incorporates laminate deformations which account for the effects of transverse shear deformation, transverse normal strain/stress and a nonlinear variation of inplane displacements with respect to the thickness coordinate - thus modelling the warping of transverse cross sections more accurately and eliminating the need for shear correction coefficients. The equations of equilibrium are obtained using the Principle of Minimum Potential Energy (PMPE). The comparison of the results using this higher order refined theory with the available elasticity solutions and the results computed independently using the first order and the other higher order theories developed by other investigators and available in the literature shows that this refined theory predicts the critical buckling load more accurately than all other theories considered in this paper. New results for sandwich laminates are also presented which may serve as a benchmark for future investigations.