• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.563-581
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• 2024

This paper presents a novel finite element model for the free vibration analysis of variable-thickness functionally graded porous (FGP) microplates resting on Pasternak's medium in the hygro-thermal environment. The governing equations are established according to refined higher-order shear deformation plate theory (RPT) in construction with the modified couple stress theory. For the first time, three-node triangular elements with twelve degrees of freedom for each node are developed based on Hermitian interpolation functions to describe the in-plane displacements and transverse displacements of microplates. Two laws of variable thickness of FGP microplates, including the linear law and the nonlinear law in the x-direction are investigated. Effects of thermal and moisture changes on microplates are assumed to vary continuously from the bottom surface to the top surface and only cause tension loads in the plane, which does not change the material's mechanical properties. The numerical results of this work are compared with those of published data to verify the accuracy and reliability of the proposed method. In addition, the parameter study is conducted to explore the effects of geometrical and material properties such as the changing law of the thickness, length-scale parameter, and the parameters of the porosity, temperature, and humidity on the free vibration response of variable thickness FGP microplates. These results can be applied to design of microelectromechanical structures in practice.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.455-473
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• 2016

Methods for the seismic demands evaluation of structures require iterative procedures. Many studies dealt with the development of different inelastic spectra with the aim to simplify the evaluation of inelastic deformations and performance of structures. Recently, the concept of inelastic spectra has been adopted in the global scheme of the Performance-Based Seismic Design (PBSD) through Capacity-Spectrum Method (CSM). For instance, the Modal Pushover Analysis (MPA) has been proved to provide accurate results for inelastic buildings to a similar degree of accuracy than the Response Spectrum Analysis (RSA) in estimating peak response for elastic buildings. In this paper, a simplified nonlinear procedure for evaluation of the seismic demand of structures is proposed with its applicability to multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) systems. The basic concept is to write the equation of motion of (MDOF) system into series of normal modes based on an inelastic modal decomposition in terms of ductility factor. The accuracy of the proposed procedure is verified against the Nonlinear Time History Analysis (NL-THA) results and Uncoupled Modal Response History Analysis (UMRHA) of a 9-story steel building subjected to El-Centro 1940 (N/S) as a first application. The comparison shows that the new theoretical approach is capable to provide accurate peak response with those obtained when using the NL-THA analysis. After that, a simplified nonlinear spectral analysis is proposed and illustrated by examples in order to describe inelastic response spectra and to relate it to the capacity curve (Pushover curve) by a new parameter of control, called normalized yield strength coefficient (${\eta}$). In the second application, the proposed procedure is verified against the NL-THA analysis results of two buildings for 80 selected real ground motions.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.490-497
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• 2020

The 3D printing process provides a higher degree of freedom when designing ceramic parts than the conventional press forming process. However, the generation and growth of the microcracks induced during heat treatment is thought to be due to the occurrence of local tensile stress caused by the thermal decomposition of the binder inside the green body. In this study, an alumina columnar specimen, which is a representative ceramic material, is fabricated using the digital light process (DLP) 3D printing method. DTG analysis is performed to investigate the cause of the occurrence of microcracks by analyzing the debinding process in which microcracks are mainly generated. HDDA of epoxy acrylates, which is the main binder, rapidly debinded in the range of 200 to 500℃, and microcracks are observed because of real-time microscopic image observation. For mitigating the rapid debinding process of HDDA, other types of acrylates PETA, PUA, and MMA are added, and the effect of these additives on the debinding rate is investigated. By analyzing the DTG in the 25 to 300℃ region, it is confirmed that the PETA monomer and the PUA monomer can suppress the rapid decomposition rate of HDDA in this temperature range.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.447-470
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• 2014

Numerical simulation of the non-linear behavior of (RC) structural walls subjected to severe earthquake ground motions requires a reliable modeling approach that includes important material characteristics and behavioral response features. The objective of this paper is to optimize a simplified method for the assessment of the seismic response and damage development analyses of an RC structural wall building using macro-element model. The first stage of this study investigates effectiveness and ability of the macro-element model in predicting the flexural nonlinear response of the specimen based on previous experimental test results conducted in UCLA. The sensitivity of the predicted wall responses to changes in model parameters is also assessed. The macro-element model is next used to examine the dynamic behavior of the structural wall building-all the way from elastic behavior to global instability, by applying an approximate Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA), based on Uncoupled Modal Response History Analysis (UMRHA), setting up nonlinear single degree of freedom systems. Finally, the identification of the global stiffness decrease as a function of a damage variable is carried out by means of this simplified methodology. Responses are compared at various locations on the structural wall by conducting static and dynamic pushover analyses for accurate estimation of seismic performance of the structure using macro-element model. Results obtained with the numerical model for rectangular wall cross sections compare favorably with experimental responses for flexural capacity, stiffness, and deformability. Overall, the model is qualified for safety assessment and design of earthquake resistant structures with structural walls.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.243-256
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• 2019

Determination of the most meaningful structural modes and gaining insight into how these modes evolve are important issues for long-term structural health monitoring of the long-span bridges. To address this issue, modal parameters identified throughout the life of the bridge need to be compared and linked with each other, which is the process of mode tracking. The modal frequencies for a long-span bridge are typically closely-spaced, sensitive to the environment (e.g., temperature, wind, traffic, etc.), which makes the automated tracking of modal parameters a difficult process, often requiring human intervention. Machine learning methods are well-suited for uncovering complex underlying relationships between processes and thus have the potential to realize accurate and automated modal tracking. In this study, Gaussian mixture model (GMM), a popular unsupervised machine learning method, is employed to automatically determine and update baseline modal properties from the identified unlabeled modal parameters. On this foundation, a new mode tracking method is proposed for automated mode tracking for long-span bridges. Firstly, a numerical example for a three-degree-of-freedom system is employed to validate the feasibility of using GMM to automatically determine the baseline modal properties. Subsequently, the field monitoring data of a long-span bridge are utilized to illustrate the practical usage of GMM for automated determination of the baseline list. Finally, the continuously monitoring bridge acceleration data during strong typhoon events are employed to validate the reliability of proposed method in tracking the changing modal parameters. Results show that the proposed method can automatically track the modal parameters in disastrous scenarios and provide valuable references for condition assessment of the bridge structure.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.647-664
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• 2006

In this study, an improved finite element formulation with a scheme of solution for the large deflection analysis of inextensible prismatic and nonprismatic slender beams is developed. For this purpose, a three-noded Lagrangian beam-element with two dependent degrees of freedom per node (i.e., the vertical displacement, y, and the actual slope, $dy/ds=sin{\theta}$, where s is the curved coordinate along the deflected beam) is used to derive the element stiffness matrix. The element stiffness matrix in the global xy-coordinate system is achieved by means of coordinate transformation of a highly nonlinear ($6{\times}6$) element matrix in the local sy-coordinate. Because of bending with large curvature, highly nonlinear expressions are developed within the global stiffness matrix. To achieve the solution after specifying the proper loading and boundary conditions, an iterative quasi-linearization technique with successive corrections are employed considering these nonlinear expressions to remain constant during all iterations of the solution. In order to verify the validity and the accuracy of this study, the vertical and the horizontal displacements of prismatic and nonprismatic beams subjected to various cases of loading and boundary conditions are evaluated and compared with analytic solutions and numerical results by available references and the results by ADINA, and excellent agreements were achieved. The main advantage of the present technique is that the solution is directly obtained, i.e., non-incremental approach, using few iterations (3 to 6 iterations) and without the need to split the stiffness matrix into elastic and geometric matrices.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.343-356
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• 2024

This paper presents an analytical solution for correctly predicting the Lateral-Torsional Buckling critical moment of simply supported castellated beams, the solution covers uniformly distributed loads combined with compressive loads. For this purpose, the castellated beam section with hexagonal-type perforation is treated as an arrangement of double "T" sections, composed of an upper T section and a lower T section. The castellated beam with regular openings is considered as a periodic repeating structure of unit cells. According to the kinematic model, the energy principle is applied in the context of geometric nonlinearity and the linear elastic behavior of materials. The differential equilibrium equations are established using Galerkin's method and the tangential stiffness matrix is calculated to determine the critical lateral torsional buckling loads. A Finite Element simulation using ABAQUS software is performed to verify the accuracy of the suggested analytical solution, each castellated beam is modelled with appropriate sizes meshes by thin shell elements S8R, the chosen element has 8 nodes and six degrees of freedom per node, including five integration points through the thickness, the Lanczos eigen-solver of ABAQUS was used to conduct elastic buckling analysis. It has been demonstrated that the proposed analytical solution results are in good agreement with those of the finite element method. A parametric study involving geometric and mechanical parameters is carried out, the intensity of the compressive load is also included. In comparison with the linear solution, it has been found that the linear stability underestimates the lateral buckling resistance. It has been confirmed that when high axial loads are applied, an impressive reduction in critical loads has been observed. It can be concluded that the obtained analytical solution is efficient and simple, and offers a rapid and direct method for estimating the lateral torsional buckling critical moment of simply supported castellated beams.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.93-105
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• 2022

The degrees of freedom (DOFs) of high-rise structures increase rapidly due to the need for refined analysis, which poses a challenge toward a computationally efficient method for numerical analysis of high-rise structures using the finite element method (FEM). This paper presented an efficient iterative method, an algebraic multigrid (AMG) with a Jacobi overrelaxation smoother preconditioned conjugate gradient method (AMG-CG) used for solving large-scale structural system equations running on heterogeneous platforms with parallel accelerator graphics processing units (GPUs) enabled. Furthermore, an AMG-CG FEM application framework was established for the numerical analysis of high-rise structures. In the proposed method, the coarsening method, the optimal relaxation coefficient of the JOR smoother, the smoothing times, and the solution method for the coarsest grid of an AMG preconditioner were investigated via several numerical benchmarks of high-rise structures. The accuracy and the efficiency of the proposed FEM application framework were compared using the mature software Abaqus, and there were speedups of up to 18.4x when using an NVIDIA K40C GPU hosted in a workstation. The results demonstrated that the proposed method could improve the computational efficiency of solving structural system equations, and the AMG-CG FEM application framework was inherently suitable for numerical analysis of high-rise structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.3
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• pp.291-309
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• 2023

This paper addresses the finite element modeling of functionally graded porous (FGP) beams for free vibration and buckling behaviour cases. The formulated finite element is based on simple and efficient higher order shear deformation theory. The key feature of this formulation is that it deals with Euler-Bernoulli beam theory with only three unknowns without requiring any shear correction factor. In fact, the presented two-noded beam element has three degrees of freedom per node, and the discrete model guarantees the interelement continuity by using both C⁰ and C¹ continuities for the displacement field and its first derivative shape functions, respectively. The weak form of the governing equations is obtained from the Hamilton principle of FGP beams to generate the elementary stiffness, geometric, and mass matrices. By deploying the isoparametric coordinate system, the derived elementary matrices are computed using the Gauss quadrature rule. To overcome the shear-locking phenomenon, the reduced integration technique is used for the shear strain energy. Furthermore, the effect of porosity distribution patterns on the free vibration and buckling behaviours of porous functionally graded beams in various parameters is investigated. The obtained results extend and improve those predicted previously by alternative existing theories, in which significant parameters such as material distribution, geometrical configuration, boundary conditions, and porosity distributions are considered and discussed in detailed numerical comparisons. Determining the impacts of these parameters on natural frequencies and critical buckling loads play an essential role in the manufacturing process of such materials and their related mechanical modeling in aerospace, nuclear, civil, and other structures.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.145-163
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• 2024

The evaluation of dynamic characteristics of bridges under operational traffic loads is a crucial aspect of bridge structural health monitoring. In the vehicle-bridge interaction (VBI) system, the vibration responses of bridge exhibit time-varying characteristics. To address this issue, an accurate time-frequency analysis method that combines the autoregressive power spectrum based empirical wavelet transform (AR-EWT) and local maximum synchrosqueezing transform (LMSST) is proposed to identify the time-varying instantaneous frequencies (IFs) of the bridge in the VBI system. The AR-EWT method decomposes the vibration response of the bridge into mono-component signals. Then, LMSST is employed to identify the IFs of each mono-component signal. The AR-EWT combined with the LMSST method (AR-EWT+LMSST) can resolve the problem that LMSST cannot effectively identify the multi-component signals with weak amplitude components. The proposed AR-EWT+LMSST method is compared with some advanced time-frequency analysis techniques such as synchrosqueezing transform (SST), synchroextracting transform (SET), and LMSST. The results demonstrate that the proposed AR-EWT+LMSST method can improve the accuracy of identified IFs. The effectiveness and applicability of the proposed method are validated through a multi-component signal, a VBI numerical model with a four-degree-of-freedom half-car, and a VBI model experiment. The effect of vehicle characteristics, vehicle speed, and road surface roughness on the identified IFs of bridge are investigated.