• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.665-683
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• 2006

The strength behaviors of Fiber Reinforced Plastics (FRP) Composites can be greatly influenced by the properties of constitutive materials, the laminate structures, and load conditions etc, accompanied by many uncertainty factors. So the reliability study on FRP is an important subject of research. Many achievements have been made in reliability studies based on the probability theory, but little has been done on the roles played by fuzzy variables. In this paper, a fuzzy reliability model for FRP laminates is established first, in which the loads are considered as random variables and the strengths as fuzzy variables. Then a numerical model is developed to assess the fuzzy reliability. The Monte Carlo simulation method is utilized to compute the reliability of laminas under the maximum stress criterion. In the second part of this paper, a generalized fuzzy reliability model (GFRM) is proposed. By virtue of the fact that there may exist a series of states between the failure state and the function state, a fuzzy assumption for the structure state together with the probabilistic assumption for strength parameters is adopted to construct the GFRM of composite materials. By defining a generalized limit state function, the problem is converted to the conventional reliability formula that enables the first-order reliability method (FORM) applicable in calculating the reliability index. Several examples are worked out to show the validity of the models and the efficiency of the methods proposed in this paper. The parameter sensitivity analysis shows that some of the mean values of the strength parameters have great influence on the laminated composites' reliability. The differences resulting from the application of different failure criteria and different fuzzy assumptions are also discussed. It is concluded that the GFRM is feasible to use, and can provide an effective and synthetic method to evaluate the reliability of a system with different types of uncertainty factors.

• Composites Research
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.332-339
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• 2018

Fiber metal hybrid laminate (FML) can be used as an economic material with superior mechanical properties and light weight than conventional metal by bonding of metal and FRP. However, there are disadvantages that it is difficult to predict fracture behavior because of the large difference in properties depending on the type of fiber and lamination conditions. In this paper, we study the failure behavior of hybrid materials with laminated glass fiber reinforced plastics (GFRP, GEP118, woven type) in Al6061-T6 alloy. The Al alloys were coated with GFRP 1, 3, and 5 layers, and fracture behavior was analyzed by using a static test and a low cycle fatigue test. In the low cycle fatigue test, strain - life analysis and the total strain energy density method were used to analyze and predict the fatigue life. The Al alloy did not have tensile properties strengthening effect due to the GFRP coating. The fatigue hysteresis geometry followed the behavior of the Al alloy, the base material, regardless of the GFRP coating and number of coatings. As a result of the low cycle fatigue test, the fatigue strength was increased by the coating of GFRP, but it did not increase proportionally with the number of GFRP layers.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.61 no.4
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• pp.475-481
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• 2017

An overhead travelling crane structure of two doubly symmetric welded box beams is designed for minimum cost. The rails are placed over the inner webs of box beams. The following design constraints are considered: local buckling of web and flange plates, fatigue of the butt K weld under rail and fatigue of fillet welds joining the transverse diaphragms to the box beams, fatigue of CFRP (carbon fibre reinforced plastic) laminate, deflection constraint. For the formulation of constraints the relatively new standard for cranes EN 13001-3-1 (2010) is used. To fulfill the deflection constraint CFRP strengthening should be used. The application of CFRP materials in strengthening of steel and concrete structures are widely used in civil engineering applications due to their unique advantages. In our study, we wanted to show how the mechanical properties of traditional materials can be improved by the application of composite materials and how advanced materials and new production technologies can be applied. In the optimization the following cost parts are considered: material, assembly and welding of the steel structure, material and fabrication cost of CFRP strengthening. The optimization is performed by systematic search using a MathCAD program.

• Journal of Ship and Ocean Technology
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.38-57
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• 2000

This paper deals with reliability analysis of specially orthotropic plates subjected to transverse lateral pressure loads by using Monte Carlo simulation method. The plates are simply supported around their all edges and have a low short span to plate depth ratio with rectangular plate shapes. Various levels of reliability analyses of the plates are performed within the context of First-Ply-Failure(FPF) analysis such as ply-/laminate-level reliability analyse, failure tree analysis and sensitivity analysis of basic design variables to estimated plate reliabilities. In performing all these levels of reliability analyses, the followings are considered within the Monte Carlo simulation method: (1) input parameters to the strengths of the plates such as applied transverse lateral pressure loads, elastic moduli, geometric including plate thickness and ultimate strength values of the plates are treated as basic design variables following a normal probability distribution; (2) the mechanical responses of the plates are calculated by using simplified higher-order shear deformation theory which can predict the mechanical responses of thick laminated plates accurately; and (3) the limit state equations are derived from polynomial failure criteria for composite materials such as maximum stress, maximum strain, Tsai-Hill, Tsai-Wu and Hoffman.