• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.317-335
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• 2016

Concentrically braced steel frames (CBFs) can be optimised during the seismic design process by using lateral loading distributions derived from the concept of uniform damage distribution. However, it is not known how such structures are affected by uncertainties. This study aims to quantify and manage the effects of structural and ground-motion uncertainty on the seismic performance of optimum and conventionally designed CBFs. Extensive nonlinear dynamic analyses are performed on 5, 10 and 15-storey frames to investigate the effects of storey shear-strength and damping ratio uncertainties by using the Monte Carlo simulation method. For typical uncertainties in conventional steel frames, optimum design frames always exhibit considerably less inter-storey drift and cumulative damage compared to frames designed based on IBC-2012. However, it is noted that optimum structures are in general more sensitive to the random variation of storey shear-strength. It is shown that up to 50% variation in damping ratio does not affect the seismic performance of the optimum design frames compared to their code-based counterparts. Finally, the results indicate that the ground-motion uncertainty can be efficiently managed by optimizing CBFs based on the average of a set of synthetic earthquakes representing a design spectrum. Compared to code-based design structures, CBFs designed with the proposed average patterns exhibit up to 54% less maximum inter-storey drift and 73% less cumulative damage under design earthquakes. It is concluded that the optimisation procedure presented is reliable and should improve the seismic performance of CBFs.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.507-513
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• 2019

Reinforced soil and Expanded Polystyrenes (EPS) mixture (RSEM) is a geomaterial which has many merits, such as light weight, wide strength range, easy for construction, and economic feasibility. It has been widely applied to improve soft ground, solve bridge head jump, fill cavity in pipeline and widen highway. Reutilizing dredged sediment to produce RSEM as earthfill can not only consume a large amount of waste sediment but also significantly reduce the construction cost. Therefore, there is an urgent need understand the basic stress-strain characteristics of reinforced dredged sediment-EPS mixture (RDSEM). A series of cyclic triaxial tests were then carried out on the RDSEM and control clay. The effects of cement content, EPS beads content and confining pressure on the cyclic stress-strain behaviour of RDSEM were analyzed. It is found that the three stages of dynamic stress-strain relationship of ordinary soil, vibration compaction stage, vibration shear stage and vibration failure stage are also applicative for RDSEM. The cyclic stress-strain curves of RDSEM are lower than that of control clay in the vibration compaction stage because of its high moisture content. The slopes of backbone curves of RDSEMs in the vibration shear stage are larger than that of control clay, indicating that the existence of EPS beads provides plastic resistance. With the increase of cement content, the cyclic stress-strain relationship tends to be steeper. Increasing cement content and confining pressure could improve the cyclic strength and cyclic stiffness of RDSEM.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.149-160
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• 2021

Buildings made using the locally available clay materials are amongst the least expensive forms of construction in many developing countries, and therefore, widely popular in remote areas. It is despite the fact that these low-strength masonry structures are vulnerable to seismic forces. Since transporting imported materials like cement and steel in areas inaccessible by motorable roads is challenging and financially unviable. This paper presents, and experimentally investigates, adobe masonry structures that utilize the abundantly available local clay materials with moderate use of imported materials like cement, aggregates, and steel. Shake-table tests were performed on two 1:3 reduce-scaled adobe masonry models for experimental seismic testing and verification. The model AM1 was confined with vertical lightly reinforced concrete columns provided at all corners and reinforced concrete horizontal bands (i.e., tie beams) provided at sill, lintel, and eave levels. The model AM2 was confined only with the horizontal bands provided at sill, lintel, and eave levels. The models were subjected to sinusoidal base motions for studying the damage evolution and response of the model under dynamic lateral loading. The lateral forcedeformation capacity curves for both models were developed and bi-linearized to compute the seismic response parameters: stiffness, strength, ductility, and response modification factor R. Seismic performance levels, story-drift, base shear coefficient, and the expected structural damages, were defined for both the models. Seismic performance assessment of the selected models was carried out using the lateral seismic force procedure to evaluate their safety in different seismic zones. The use of vertical columns in AM1 has shown a considerable increase in the lateral strength of the model in comparison to AM2. Although an R factor equal to 2.0 is recommended for both the models, AM1 has exhibited better seismic performance in all seismic zones due to its relatively high lateral strength in comparison to AM2.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.43-52
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• 1990

To investigate the effects of soil properties of the soft zone around a pile subjected 1,o the horizontal harmonic vibration, the parametric study is perfomed. The determination of the soil reaction or stiffness of the Winkler springs representing the soil around a pile is performed by dividing the soil profile into a number of homogeneous obtained from this study are as follows : 1) The real and imaginary parts of the stiffness show clear variations for the different shear modulus ratios, poisson's ratios, and distance retios to outer boundary as the dimensionless frequency increases. The differences are more pronounced for the imaginary part of the stiffness. 2) The stiffness of soil shows clear decrease. The real parts of the stiffness show larger as the frequency increases. On the other hand, the imaginary parts of the stiffness show smaller.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.18-23
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• 2016

The effective case depth for case-hardened rolling bearing has been discussed. For this purpose, rolling contact fatigue tests for ball bearings built with inner race of various hardness values were conducted until L₁₀ calculating rating life using a bearing life test machine under radial loading. Then, the distribution of residual stress below the inner raceway, which depended on the hardness value, was measured by X-ray diffraction. As a result, the linear relationship was established between the hardness value of the inner race and the theoretical shear stress evaluated at the depth where the residual stress disappeared below the inner raceway. Based on the relationship, it could be found that the factor of safety in bearing manufacturer’s rules for the effective case depth of case hardened rolling bearings was set higher. However, it could be also found that the hardness values at the depth where the maximum shearing stress acted below the raceway surface in a tapered roller bearing hardened by the carburizing process, were not sufficient for preventing plastic deformation under the basic dynamic load rating. Consequently, further efforts were still required to reduce or to disperse the contact load on the material design of a rolling bearing in order to prolong its life.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.285-302
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• 2017

Buckling-restrained braced frames (BRBFs) are commonly used as the lateral force-resisting systems in building structures in the seismic regions. The nearly-symmetric hysteretic response and the delayed brace core fracture of buckling-restrained braces (BRBs) under the axial cyclic loading provide the adequate lateral force and deformation capacity to BRBFs under the earthquake excitation. However, the smaller axial stiffness of BRBs result in the undesirable higher residual drift response of BRBFs in the post-earthquake scenario. Two alternative approaches are investigated in this study to improve the elastic axial stiffness of BRBs, namely, (i) by shortening the yielding cores of BRBs; and (ii) by reducing the BRB assemblies and adding the elastic brace segments in series. In order to obtain the limiting yielding core lengths of BRBs, a modified approach based on Coffin-Manson relationship and the higher mode compression buckling criteria has been proposed in this study. Both non-linear static and dynamic analyses are carried out to analytically evaluate the seismic response of BRBFs fitted with short-core BRBs of two medium-rise building frames. Analysis results showed that the proposed brace systems are effective in reducing the inter-story and residual drift response of braced frames without any significant change in the story shear and the displacement ductility demands.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.39-56
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• 2009

Vibration is an undesirable phenomenon in a dynamic system like lightly damped aerospace structures and active vibration control has gradually been employed to suppress vibration. The objective of the current investigation is to introduce an active torsional magneto-rheological (MR) fluid based damper for vibration control of a typical nose landing gear. They offer the adaptability of active control devices without requiring the associated large power sources. A torsional damper is designed and developed based on Bingham plastic shear flow model. The numerical analysis is carried out to estimate the damping coefficient and damping force. The designed damper is fabricated and an experimental setup is also established to characterize the damper and these results are compared with the analytical results. A typical FE model of Nose landing gear is developed to study the effectiveness of the damper. Open loop response analysis has been carried out and response levels are monitored at the piston tip of a nose landing gear for various loading conditions without damper and with MR-damper as semi-active device. The closed-loop full state feedback control scheme by the pole-placement technique is also applied to control the landing gear instability of an aircraft.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.727-741
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• 2014

The functionally graded beam (FGB) is investigated in this study on both dynamic and static loading in case of resting on a soil medium rather than on the usual Winkler-Pasternak elastic foundation. The powerful ABAQUS software was used to model the problem applying finite element method. In the present study, two different soil models are taken into account. In the first model, the soil is assumed to be an elastic plane stress medium. In the second soil model, the Drucker-Prager yield criterion, which is one of the most well-known elastic-perfectly plastic constitutive models, is used for modelling the soil medium. The results are shown to evaluate the effects of the different soil models, stiffness values of the elastic soil medium on the normal and shear stress and free vibration properties. A comparison was made to those from the existing literature. Numerical results show that considering real soil as a continuum space affects the results of the bending and the modal properties significantly.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.29-39
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• 2021

This study aimed to develop a method for the determination of the damaged story in reinforced concrete (RC) structure with ambient vibrations, based on modified jerk energy methodology. The damage was taken as a localized reduction in the stiffness of the structural member. For loading, random white noise excitation was used, and dynamic responses from the finite element model (FEM) of 4 story RC shear frame were extracted at nodal points. The data thus obtained from the structure was used in the damage detection and localization algorithm. In the structure, two damage configurations have been introduced. In the first configuration, damage to the structure was artificially caused by a local reduction in the modulus of elasticity. In the second configuration, the damage was caused, using the Elcentro1940 and Kashmir2005 earthquakes in real-time history. The damage was successfully detected if the frequency drop was greater than 5% and the mode shape correlation remained less than 0.8. The results of the damage were also compared to the performance criteria developed in the Seismostruct software. It is demonstrated that the proposed algorithm has effectively detected the existence of the damage and can locate the damaged story for multiple damage scenarios in the RC structure.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.101-109
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• 1995

Axisymmetric and quasi-static finite element analysis of an inflated tire rotating with constant angular velocity and contact to road has been performed. Centrifugal force effect was added to load stiffness matrix and equation of effective material properties were calculated by the Halpin-Tsai formulation. In this report, radial truck/bus tire was analyzed. It was inflated and rotated at speeds up to 140 km/h. Then, contact problem was performed to calculate stress-strain field of tire wiht flat rigid road under the load due to the self-weight of a vehicle. Significant changes of stress-strain field of tire were observed in the finite element analysis. Shear stress, strain and strain energy density were rapidly increased at the dege of #2 belt at freely rotating state. This concentrated stress and strain made belt edge sparation. Under the condition of flat riged road contact, strain energy density of #2 belt, carcass turn-up part were concentrated and bigger values than only freely rotation state. Therefore, dynamic behaivor of tire has to considered as design factors which are affected to belt edge separation and bead breakage.