• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.29-42
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• 2017

The purpose of the present study is the presentation of the appropriate element and shape function in the solution of the neutron diffusion equation in two-dimensional (2D) geometries. To this end, the multigroup neutron diffusion equation is solved using the Galerkin finite element method in both rectangular and hexagonal reactor cores. The spatial discretization of the equation is performed using unstructured triangular and quadrilateral finite elements. Calculations are performed using both linear and quadratic approximations of shape function in the Galerkin finite element method, based on which results are compared. Using the power iteration method, the neutron flux distributions with the corresponding eigenvalue are obtained. The results are then validated against the valid results for IAEA-2D and BIBLIS-2D benchmark problems. To investigate the dependency of the results to the type and number of the elements, and shape function order, a sensitivity analysis of the calculations to the mentioned parameters is performed. It is shown that the triangular elements and second order of the shape function in each element give the best results in comparison to the other states.

• Journal of Institute of Convergence Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.17-21
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• 2016

The analysis of circular plates under the constant pressure are simplified as the loading conditions of the circular manhole. The theoretical solution of circular plates with respect to the constant pressures are derived by using the governing equation of plate deflection. The deflection and the radial stress distributions were calculated by the theory. Finite element solutions were conducted with respect to the element types of the continuum elements. The most accurate element was selected by comparisons of the theoretical solutions and simulated solutions. The C3D8I element type in brick-type continuum elements gave in a good accordance with the theoretical solutions.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.365-383
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• 2015

Strip footing is an important type of shallow foundations and is commonly used beneath the walls. Analysis of shallow foundation involves the determination of stresses and deformations. Element free Galerkin method, one of the important mesh free methods, is used for the determination of stresses and deformations. Element free Galerkin method is an efficient and accurate method as compared to finite element method. The Element Free Galerkin method uses only a set of nodes and a description of model boundary is required to generate the discrete equation. Strip footing of width 2 m subjected to a loading intensity of 200 kPa is studied. The results obtained are agreeing with the values obtained using analytical solutions available in the literature. Parametric study is done and the effect of modulus of deformation, Poisson's ratio and scaling parameter on deformation and stresses are determined.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.2 s.32
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• pp.1-10
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• 1999

This study is concerned with the application of new criterion for membrane/shell mixed element in the rigid-plastic finite element analysis and elastic-plastic finite element analysis. The membrane/shell mixed element can be selctively adapted to the pure stretching condition by using membrane or a shell element in the bending effect areas. Thus, membrane/shell mixed element requires a efficient criterion for a distinction between membrane and shell element. In the present study introduce the criterion using the angle of between two element and confirm a generality of criterion from appling the theory to a rigid-plastic and elastic-plastic problems.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.589-599
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• 1999

This paper presents the development and applications of the software package JIFEX, a new finite element system which can be used for structural analysis and optimum design by the modern computer hardware and software technologies such as MS Windows95/NT and Pentium PC platforms. The complete system of JIFEX is programmed with $C/C^{++}$ language to make full use of advanced facilities of MS Windows95/NT. In the system, the finite element data pre-processing, based on the most popular CAD package AutoCAD (R13, R14), has been implemented, so that the finite element modeling could be integrated with geometric modeling of CAD. The system not only has interactive graphics facility for data post-processing, but also realizes the real-time computing visualization by means of the Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) technique. Running on the Pentium computers, JIFEX can solve large-scale finite element analysis problems such as the ones with more than 60000 nodes in the finite element model.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.411-437
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• 2012

In this paper, we propose a continuum mechanics based 3-D beam finite element with cross-sectional discretization allowing for warping displacements. The beam element is directly derived from the assemblage of 3-D solid elements, and this approach results in inherently advanced modeling capabilities of the beam element. In the beam formulation, warping is fully coupled with bending, shearing, and stretching. Consequently, the proposed beam elements can consider free and constrained warping conditions, eccentricities, curved geometries, varying sections, as well as arbitrary cross-sections (including thin/thick-walled, open/closed, and single/multi-cell cross-sections). We then study the modeling and predictive capabilities of the beam elements in twisting beam problems according to geometries, boundary conditions, and cross-sectional meshes. The results are compared with reference solutions obtained by analytical methods and solid and shell finite element models. Excellent modeling capabilities and solution accuracy of the proposed beam element are observed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.1099-1120
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• 2014

In this paper, reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) of structures is addressed. For this purpose, the global search and optimization capabilities of genetic algorithm (GA) are combined with the efficiency and reasonable accuracy of an advanced moment-based finite element reliability method. For performing RBDO, three variants of GA including a real-coded, a binary-coded and an improved binary-coded GA are developed. In these methods, GA performs (finite element) reliability analyses to evaluate reliability constraints. For truss structures which include finite element modeling, reliability constraints are evaluated using finite element reliability analysis. Response sensitivity required for finite element reliability analysis is obtained by direct differentiation method (DDM) rather than finite difference method (FDM). The proposed methods are examined within four standard test examples and real-world design problems. The results illustrate the superiority and efficiency of the improved binary-coded GA. Results also illustrate that DDM significantly reduces the computational cost and improves the efficiency of the optimization procedure.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.191-213
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• 2011

This paper presents an improved 8-node shell element for the analysis of plates and shells. The finite element, based on a refined first-order shear deformation theory, is further improved by the combined use of assumed natural strain method. We analyze the influence of the shell element with the different patterns of sampling points for interpolating different components of strains. Using the assumed natural strain method with proper interpolation functions, the present shell element generates neither membrane nor shear locking behavior even when full integration is used in the formulation. Further, a refined first-order shear deformation theory, which results in parabolic through-thickness distribution of the transverse shear strains from the formulation based on the third-order shear deformation theory, is proposed. This formulation eliminates the need for shear correction factors in the first-order theory. Numerical examples demonstrate that the present element perform better in comparison with other shell elements.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.57-66
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• 2023

In this study, we investigate the effects of a single roughness element on Venturi cavitation. The single roughness element of hemispherical shape is installed at the throat inlet of a Venturi tube. Since the wake behind the roughness element induces an additional pressure drop, cavitation inception occurs at a higher Cavitation number for the Venturi model with the single roughness element than for the Venturi model with no roughness. Cavitation bubbles form along the wake of the roughness element and lengthen in the streamwise direction as the Cavitation number decreases, forming a longitudinal cavitation. With a further decrease in the Cavitation number, the longitudinal cavitation bubble merges with the sheet cavitation initiated from the exit edge of the Venturi tube throat, followed by the shedding of cloud cavitation. The merging of the longitudinal cavitation and sheet cavitation is accompanied by a sudden decrease in the discharge coefficient and an increase in the pressure loss coefficient as it chokes the flow inside the Venturi tube.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.173-194
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• 2015

Site response analysis is an important topic in earthquake engineering. A time-domain numerical method called as one-dimensional (1D) finite element artificial boundary method is proposed to simulate the homogeneous plane elastic wave propagation in a layered half space subjected to the obliquely incident plane body wave. In this method, an exact artificial boundary condition combining the absorbing boundary condition with the inputting boundary condition is developed to model the wave absorption and input effects of the truncated half space under layer system. The spatially two-dimensional (2D) problem consisting of the layer system with the artificial boundary condition is transformed equivalently into a 1D one along the vertical direction according to Snell's law. The resulting 1D problem is solved by the finite element method with a new explicit time integration algorithm. The 1D finite element artificial boundary method is verified by analyzing two engineering sites in time domain and by comparing with the frequency-domain transfer matrix method with fast Fourier transform.