• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.197-213
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• 2011

Concrete is a heterogeneous material exhibiting quasi-brittle behaviour. While homogenization of concrete is commonly accepted in general engineering applications, a detailed description of the material heterogeneity using a mesoscale model becomes desirable and even necessary for problems where drastic spatial and time variation of the stress and strain is involved, for example in the analysis of local damages under impact, shock or blast load. A mesoscale model can also assist in an investigation into the underlying mechanisms affecting the bulk material behaviour under various stress conditions. Extending from existing mesoscale model studies, where use is often made of specialized codes with limited capability in the material description and numerical solutions, this paper presents a mesoscale computational model developed under a general-purpose finite element environment. The aim is to facilitate the utilization of sophisticated material descriptions (e.g., pressure and rate dependency) and advanced numerical solvers to suit a broad range of applications, including high impulsive dynamic analysis. The whole procedure encompasses a module for the generation of concrete mesoscale structure; a process for the generation of the FE mesh, considering two alternative schemes for the interface transition zone (ITZ); and the nonlinear analysis of the mesoscale FE model with an explicit time integration approach. The development of the model and various associated computational considerations are discussed in this paper (Part 1). Further numerical studies using the mesoscale model for both quasi-static and dynamic loadings will be presented in the companion paper (Part 2).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.766-775
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• 2015

The integrity assessment of reactor vessel internals should be conducted in the design process to secure the safety of nuclear power plants. Various loads such as self-weight, seismic load, flow-induced load, and preload are applied to the internals. Therefore, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code, Section III, defines the stress limit for reactor vessel internals. The present study focused on structural response analyses of the upper guide structure upper flange. The distributions of the stress intensity in the flange body were analyzed under various design load cases during normal operation. The allowable stress intensities along the expected sections of stress concentration were derived from the results of the finite element analysis for evaluating the structural integrity of the flange design. Furthermore, seismic analyses of the upper flange were performed to identify dynamic behavior with respect to the seismic and impact input. The mode superposition and full transient methods were used to perform time-history analyses, and the displacement at the lower end of the flange was obtained. The effect of the damping ratio on the response of the flange was also evaluated, and the acceleration was obtained. The results of elastic and seismic analyses in this study will be used as basic information to judge whether a flange design meets the acceptance criteria.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.251-262
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• 2019

This paper is about design concept and simplified analysis method against dropped object events. The ships and offshore structures are exposed to various types of dropped object accidents such as laydown area struck by drill collar and topside deck hit by food container during their lifetime. Mitigation can be accomplished by proper facility layout and designing structures to safely absorb energy from accidental loads. It shall be designed to avoid loss of life, environmental pollution and loss of assets. Impact loads can lead to structural global collapse of the main structure or punching of a local barrier type structure with potential to escalate directly or indirectly to a global collapse of the structure. This study provides the background information on the issue of dropped object of the shipyard and also focuses on structural assessment of the local individual component such as deck plate, stiffener and web/girder by using simplified analysis method. The results of the simplified analysis method were compared with numerical results using non-linear finite element simulation.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.61-69
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• 2024

With increasing interest in aviation leisure sports, the demand for ultralight aircraft has increased, highlighting the necessity for robust structural design of the aircraft. In response, this study conducted static structural analysis and free-fall analysis of fuselage frame of ultralight aircraft. Robust design and crashworthiness under operational load conditions and vertical impact scenarios were evaluated by assessing maximum stress and safety factors. Analyses were performed using finite element method-based software ANSYS Workbench. Results including stress distribution and strain were analyzed to verify the safety of the designed fuselage frame. Additionally, this study predicted excessive deformation and failure locations of the fuselage frame during vertical drop impacts.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.75-87
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• 2018

A large number of low-rise buildings experienced serious roof covering failures under strong wind while few suffered structural damage. Clay and concrete tiles are two main kinds of roof covering. For the tile roof system, few researches were carried out based on Finite Element (FE) analysis due to the difficulty in the simulation of the interface between the tiles and the roof sheathing (the bonding materials, foam or mortar). In this paper, the FE analysis of a single clay or concrete tile with foam-set or mortar-set were built with the interface simulated by the equivalent nonlinear springs based on the mechanical uplift and displacement tests, and they were expanded into the whole roof. A detailed wind tunnel test was carried out at Tongji University to acquire the wind loads on these two kinds of roof tiles, and then the test data were fed into the FE analysis. For the purpose of validation and calibration, the results of FE analysis were compared with the full-scale performance ofthe tile roofs under simulated strong wind impact through one-of-a-kind Wall of Wind (WoW) apparatus at Florida International University. The results are consistent with the WoW test that the roof of concrete tiles with mortar-set provided the highest resistance, and the material defects or improper construction practices are the key factors to induce the roof tiles' failure. Meanwhile, the staggered setting of concrete tiles would help develop an interlocking mechanism between the tiles and increase their resistance.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.375-389
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• 2023

In this study, free vibration analysis of functionally graded (FG) porous truncated conical shell panels reinforced by graphene platelets (GPLs) has been investigated for the first time. Additionally, the effect of three different types of porosity distribution and five different types of GPLs patterns on dynamic response of the shell are also studied. Halpin-Tsai micromechanical model and Voigt's rule are used to determine Young modulus, shear modulus and Poisson's ratio with mass densities of the shell, respectively. The main novelties of present study are: applying 3D elasticity theory and the finite element method in conjunction with Rayleigh-Ritz method to give more accurate results unlike other simplified shell theories, and also presenting a general 3D solution in cylindrical coordinate system that can be used for analyses of different structures such as circular, annular and annular sector plates, cylindrical shells and panels, and conical shells and panels. A convergence study is performed to justify the correctness of the obtained solution and numerical results. The impact of porosity and GPLs patterns, the volume of voids, the weight fraction of graphene nanofillers, semi vertex and span angles of the cone, and various boundary conditions on natural frequencies of the functionally graded panel have been comprehensively studied and discussed. The results show that the most important parameter on dynamic response of FG porous truncated conical panel is the weight fraction of nanofiller and adding 1% weight fraction of nanofiller could increase 57% approximately the amounts of natural frequencies of the shell. Moreover, the porosity distribution has great effect on the value of natural frequency of structure rather than the porosity coefficient.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.545-561
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• 2024

Piled raft foundation has become widely used in the recent years because it can increase bearing capacity of foundation with control settlement. The design for a piled raft in terms vertical load and lateral load need to understands contribution load behavior to raft and pile in piled raft foundation system. The load-bearing behavior of the piled raft, especially concerning lateral loads, is highly complex and challenge to analyze. The complex mechanism of piled rafts can be clarified by using three dimensional (3-D) Finite Element Method (FEM). Therefore, this paper focuses on free-standing head pile group, on-ground piled raft, and embedded raft for the piled raft foundation systems. The lateral resistant of piled raft foundation was investigated in terms of relationship between vertical load, lateral load and displacement, as well as the lateral load sharing of the raft. The results show that both vertical load and raft position significantly impact the lateral load capacity of the piled raft, especially when the vertical load increases and the raft embeds into the soil. On the same condition of vertical settlement and lateral displacement, piled raft experiences a substantial demonstrates a higher capacity for lateral load sharing compared to the on-ground raft. Ultimately, regarding design considerations, the piled raft can reliably support lateral loads while exhibiting behavior within the elastic range, in which it is safe to use.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.405-418
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• 2024

To study the influence of different reduced beam section (RBS) on the mechanical performance of modular boltedwelded hybrid connection joints (MHCJs), this article uses ABAQUS to establish and verify the finite element model (FEM) of the test specimens on the basis of quasi-static test research. Based on, 14 joint models featuring different RBS are devised to evaluate their influence on seismic behavior, such as joint failure mode, bending moment (M)-rotation angle (θ) curve, ductility, and energy consumption. The results indicate that when the flange and web are individually weakened, they alleviate to some extent the concentrated stress of the core module (CM) and column end steel skeleton in the joint core area, but both increase the stress on the flange connecting plate (FCP). At the same time, the impact of both on seismic performance such as bearing capacity, stiffness, and energy consumption is relatively small. When simultaneously weakening the flange and web of the steel beam, forming plastic hinges at the weakened position of the beam end, significantly alleviated the stress concentration of the CM and the damage at the FCP, improving the overall deformation and energy consumption capacity of joints. But as the weakening size of the web increases, the overall bearing capacity of the joint shows a decreasing trend.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.133-143
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• 2015

This paper describes the test results and nonlinear analysis of reinforced concrete T-beams strengthened by bonded steel plates under increasing static loading conditions. The first part of this paper discusses the flexural tests on five T-beams, including the test model design (based on similarity principles), test programs, and test procedure. The second part discusses the nonlinear numerical analysis of the strengthened beams, in which a concrete damage plasticity model and a cohesive behavior were adopted. The numerical analysis results are compared with experimental data and show good agreement. The area of bonded steel plate and the anchor bolt spacing were found to have an impact on the cracking load, yield load, and ultimate load. An increase in the area of steel plate and a reduction of the anchor spacing could significantly improve the cracking and ultimate loads and decrease the damage of the beam.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.419-424
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• 2004

we performed the underwater explosion analysis for the liquefied oxygen tank - a kind of fuel tank of a mid-size submarine, and tried to verify the structural safety for this structure. First, we reviewed the theory and application of underwater explosion analysis using Structure-Fluid Interaction technique and its finite element modeling scheme. Next, we modeled the explosive and sea water as fluid elements, the LOX tank as structural elements and the interface between two regions as ALE scheme. The effect on shock pressure and impulse of fluid mesh size and shape are also investigated. As the analysis result, the shock pressure due explosion propagated into the water region and hit the structure region. The plastic deformation and the equivalent stress highly appeared at the web frame and the shock mount of LOX structure, but these values were acceptable for design criteria.