• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.131-157
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• 2014

Special track systems used to divert a train to other directions or other tracks are generally called 'railway turnout'. A traditional turnout system consists of steel rails, switches, crossings, steel plates, fasteners, screw spikes, timber bearers, ballast and formation. The wheel rail contact over the crossing transfer zone has a dip-like shape and can often cause detrimental impact loads on the railway track and its components. The large impact also emits disturbing noises (either impact or ground-borne noise) to railway neighbors. In a brown-field railway track where an existing aged infrastructure requires renewal or maintenance, some physical constraints and construction complexities may dominate the choice of track forms or certain components. With the difficulty to seek for high-quality timbers with dimensional stability, a methodology to replace aged timber bearers in harsh dynamic environments is to adopt an alternative material that could mimic responses and characteristics of timber in both static and dynamic loading conditions. A critical review has suggested an application of an alternative material called fibre-reinforced foamed urethane (FFU). The full-scale capacity design makes use of its comparable engineering characteristics to timber, high-impact attenuation, high damping property, and a longer service life. A field trial to investigate in-situ behaviours of a turnout grillage system using an alternative material, 'fibre-reinforced foamed urethane (FFU)' bearers, has been carried out at a complex turnout junction under heavy mixed traffics at Hornsby, New South Wales, Australia. The turnout junction was renewed using the FFU bearers altogether with new special track components. Influences of the FFU bearers on track geometry (recorded by track inspection vehicle 'AK Car'), track settlement (based on survey data), track dynamics, and acoustic characteristics have been measured. Operational train pass-by measurements have been analysed to evaluate the effectiveness of the replacement methodology. Comparative studies show that the use of FFU bearers generates higher rail and sleeper accelerations but the damping capacity of the FFU help suppress vibration transferring onto other track components. The survey data analysis suggests a small vertical settlement and negligible lateral movement of the turnout system. The static and dynamic behaviours of FFU bearers appear to equate that of natural timber but its service life is superior.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.395-409
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• 2020

With verifications through many relevant researches in the past few decades, adopting the equivalent lateral force procedure for designing seismically isolated structures as a preliminary or even final design approach has become considerably mature and publicly acceptable, especially for seismic isolation systems that mechanically exhibit bilinear hysteretic behavior. During the design procedure, in addition to a given seismic demand, structural designers still need to previously determine three parameters, such as mechanical properties of seismic isolation systems or design parameters and performance indices of seismically isolated structures. However, an arbitrary or improper selection of given parameters might cause diverse or even unacceptable design results, thus troubling structural designers very much. In this study, first, based on the criterion that at least either two design parameters or two performance indices of seismically isolated structures are decided previously, the rationality and applicability of design results obtained from different conditions are examined. Moreover, to consider variations of design parameters of seismically isolated structures attributed to uncertainties of mechanical properties of seismic isolation systems, one of the conditions is adopted to perform bounding analysis for seismic isolation design. The analysis results indicate that with a reasonable equivalent damping ratio designed, considering a specific variation for two design parameters (the effective stiffness and equivalent damping ratio) could present more conservative bounding design results (in terms of isolation displacement and acceleration transmissibility) than considering the same variation but for two mechanical properties (the characteristic strength and post-yield stiffness).

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.174-186
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• 1991

There exist many frame structural systems which may be regarded as a combined structural system composed of beam/bar elements and attachments reducible to damped spring-mass systems. In this paper, analytical methods based on the receptance for the vibration analysis of such a system are presented. For the free vibration analysis and response calculations to point excitations, receptances of a uniform Timoshenko beam and a bar are derived in closed and spectral forms, and the method to obtain the system receptance by synthesizing the receptances of the elements and other subsystems is presented. The system damping property is also obtainable by sysnthesizing the components' damping properties. For calculations of the system responses to support motion, the Support Displacement Transfer Ratio(SDTR) of a uniform Timoshenko beam and a bar conceptually similar to the receptance is defined, and the method of synthesizing them with other subsystems' receptances is also presented. Such a method is very convenient especially in dynamic reanalysis subject to changes of some design variables.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.463-479
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• 2007

A series of wind tunnel sectional model dynamic tests of a twin-deck bridge were conducted at the CLP Power Wind/Wave Tunnel Facility (WWTF) of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) to investigate the effects of gap-width on the self-excited vibrations and the dynamic and aerodynamic characteristics of the bridge. Five 2.9 m long models with different gap-widths were fabricated and suspended in the wind tunnel to simulate a two-degrees-of-freedom (2DOF) bridge dynamic system, free to vibrate in both vertical and torsional directions. The mass, vertical frequency, and the torsional-to-vertical frequency ratio of the 2DOF systems were fixed to emphasize the effects of gap-width. A free-vibration test methodology was employed and the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm (ERA) was utilized to extract the eight flutter derivatives and the modal parameters from the coupled free-decay responses. The results of the zero gap-width configuration were in reasonable agreement with the theoretical values for an ideal thin flat plate in smooth flow and the published results of models with similar cross-sections, thus validating the experimental and analytical techniques utilized in this study. The methodology was further verified by the comparison between the measured and predicted free-decay responses. A comparison of results for different gap-widths revealed that variations of the gap-width mainly affect the torsional damping property, and that the configurations with greater gap-widths show a higher torsional damping ratio and hence stronger aerodynamic stability of the bridge.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartA
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• v.13A no.2 s.99
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• pp.177-184
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• 2006

Since well-known explicit methods for cloth simulation were regarded unstable for large time steps or stiff springs, implicit methods have been proposed to achieve the stability. Large time step makes the simulation fast, and large stiffness enables a less elastic cloth property. Also, there have been efforts to devise so-called semi-implicit methods to achieve the stability and the speed together. In this paper we improve Kang's method (Kang and Cho 2002), and thus devise a scalable method for cloth simulation that varies from an almost explicit to a full implicit method. It is almost as fast as explicit methods and, more importantly, almost as stable as implicit methods allowing large time steps and stiff springs. Furthermore, it has a less artificial damping than the previously proposed semi-implicit methods.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.379-392
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• 2011

This paper presents a multi-functional system, consisting of a magnetorheological (MR) damper and an electromagnetic induction (EMI) device, and its applications in stay cables. The proposed system is capable of offering multiple functions: (1) mitigating excessive vibrations of cables, (2) estimating cable tension, and (3) harvesting energy for wireless sensors used health monitoring of cable-stayed bridges. In the proposed system, the EMI device, consisting of permanent magnets and a solenoid coil, can converts vibration energy into electrical energy (i.e., induced emf); hence, it acts as an energy harvesting system. Moreover, the cable tension can be estimated by using the emf signals obtained from the EMI device. In addition, the MR damper, whose damping property is controlled by the harvested energy from the EMI device, can effectively reduce excessive cable vibrations. In this study, the multi-functionality of the proposed system is experimentally evaluated by conducting a shaking table test as well as a full-scale stay cable in a laboratory setting. In the shaking table experiment, the energy harvesting capability of the EMI device for wireless sensor nodes is investigated. The performance on the cable tension estimation and the vibration mitigation are evaluated using the full-scale cable test setup. The test results show that the proposed system can sufficiently generate and store the electricity for operating a wireless sensor node twice per day, significantly alleviate vibration of a stay cable (by providing about 20% larger damping compared to the passive optimal case), and estimate the cable tension accurately within a 2.5% error.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 2014

The noise between floors of apartment has been hot issue nowadays. In order to improve the noise insulation performance, we proposed the antivibration rubber system which can be applied to the floor system for sound insulation. Among various types of elastomer, butyl rubber showed the good aging characteristic, low rebound resilience and high damping factor. Thus, the butyl rubber was selected as a basic rubber for antivibration rubber system. The effects of type and loading amounts of carbon black on antivibration properties of butyl rubber were studied. The increase of surface area and the content of carbon black resulted in high bound rubber fraction, high mechanical property, low rebound resilience, and high damping factor of butyl rubber. Based on the results of this study, the new antivibration rubber was prepared and applied to the floor system for sound insulation. The impact sounds of floor system proposed in this study were 40 dB and 43 dB in cases of light weight and heavy weight impact sound, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.5-15
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• 2009

Dynamic shear properties of Nak-Dong river sand were investigated to build a soil property database for Nak-Dong delta region. Samples were taken from the estuary and the midstream of the river. Laboratory specimens were prepared by air pluviation method, and were tested by using RC/TS apparatus at various confining stresses, relative densities and numbers of cycles. Shear modulus reduction and damping curves were developed using Ramberg-Osgood and Modified Hyperbolic Models. The developed curves, compared to those reported by other investigators, show only a slight difference. The outcome of this RC/TS experiments can be very important resources when accessing the dynamic response of sandy soils in Nak-Dong delta region in the future.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.1133-1152
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• 2015

A frequency-domain method is developed for evaluating the earthquake input energy to two building structures connected by viscous dampers. It is shown that the earthquake input energies to respective building structures and viscous connecting dampers can be defined as works done by the boundary forces between the subsystems on their corresponding displacements. It is demonstrated that the proposed energy transfer function is very useful for clear understanding of dependence of energy consumption ratios in respective buildings and connecting viscous dampers on their properties. It can be shown that the area of the energy transfer function for the total system is constant regardless of natural period and damping ratio because the constant Fourier amplitude of the input acceleration, relating directly the area of the energy transfer function to the input energy, indicates the Dirac delta function and only an initial velocity (kinetic energy) is given in this case. Owing to the constant area property of the energy transfer functions, the total input energy to the overall system including both buildings and connecting viscous dampers is approximately constant regardless of the quantity of connecting viscous dampers. This property leads to an advantageous feature that, if the energy consumption in the connecting viscous dampers increases, the input energies to the buildings can be reduced drastically. For the worst case analysis, critical excitation problems with respect to the impulse interval for double impulse (simplification of pulse-type impulsive ground motion) and multiple impulses (simplification of long-duration ground motion) are considered and their solutions are provided.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.186-194
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• 2011

Natural fiber/natural rubber composites were fabricated by uniformly compounding natural rubber and cellulose- based natural fiber kenaf and then by compression molding. The effect of kenaf fiber content on their vulcanization behavior, hardness, tensile properties, tear strength and static and dynamic properties was investigated. The contents of kenaf fiber in the composites were 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 phr, compared to natural rubber and additives. The result indicated that various properties of natural rubber depended on the kenaf fiber content. With increasing kenaf fiber content, the torque for vulcanization of natural rubber was increased whereas the vulcanization time was reduced as well. The hardness, tensile modulus and tear strength of kenaf/natural rubber composites were gradually decreased with the fiber content whereas the tensile strength and elongation at break were decreased. Also, with increasing the kenaf fiber content the dynamic property of natural rubber was changed more greatly than the static property. The loss factor, which is closely related with the damping or absorption of the energy given to natural rubber, was proportionally increased with the fiber content.