• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.8 no.10
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• pp.421-426
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• 2019

In this paper, we propose a method to visualize the geometric features of the contact region between proteins in a protein complex. When proteins or ligands are represented as curved surfaces with irregularities, the property that the two surfaces contact each other without intersections is called shape compatibility. Protein-Protein or Protein-Ligand docking researches have shown that shape complementarity, chemical properties, and entropy play an important role in finding contact regions. Usually, after finding a region with high shape complementarity, we can predict the contact region by using residual polarity and hydrophobicity of amino acids belonging to this region. In the research for predicting the contact region, it is necessary to investigate the geometrical features of the contact region in known protein complexes. For this purpose, it is essential to visualize the geometric features of the molecular surface. In this paper, we propose a method to find the contact region, and visualize the geometric features of it as normal vectors and mean curvatures of the protein complex.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.228-235
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• 2021

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) are currently being used in various transport applications such as drones, unmanned aerial vehicles, and automobiles. The power required is different according to the type of use, purpose, and the conditions adjusted using a cell stack. The fuel cell stack is compressed to reduce the size and prevent fuel leakage. The unit cells that make up the cell stack are subjected to compression by clamping force, which makes geometrical changes in the porous media and it impacts on cell performance. In this study, finite elements method (FEM) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis for the deformed unit cell considering the effects of clamping force is performed. First, structural analysis using the FEM technique over the deformed gas diffusion layer (GDL) considering compression is carried out, and the resulting porosity changed in the GDL is calculated. The PEMFC model is then verified by a three-dimensional, two-phase fuel cell simulation applying the physical properties and geometry obtained before and after compression. The detailed simulation results showed different concentration distributions of fuel between the original and deformed geometry, resulting in the difference in the distribution of current density is represented at compressed GDL region with low oxygen concentration.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.631-643
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• 2021

The aim of this work is to study the hygro-thermo-mechanical bending responses of simply supported FG plate resting on a Winkler-Pasternak elastic foundation. The effect transverse shear strains is taken into account in which the zero transverse shear stress condition on the top and bottom surfaces of the plate is ensured without using any shear correction factors. The developed model contains only four unknowns variable which is reduced compared to other HSDTs models. The material properties of FG-plate are supposed to vary across the thickness of the plate according to power-law mixture. The differential governing equations are derived based on the virtual working principle. Numerical outcomes of bending analysis of FG plates under hygro-thermo-mechanical loads are performed and compared with those available in the literature. The effects of the temperature, moisture concentration, elastic foundation parameters, shear deformation, geometrical parameters, and power-law-index on the dimensionless deflections, axial and transverse shear stresses of the FG-plate are presented and discussed.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.1-8
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• 2020

This study presents a shear strength estimation model, in which the shear failure of a reinforced concrete (RC) member is assumed to be governed by the flexure-shear mechanism. Two shear demand curves and corresponding potential capacity curves for cracked tension and uncracked compression zones are derived, for which the bond mechanism developed between reinforcing bars and surrounding concrete is considered in flexural analysis. The shear crack concentration factor is also addressed to consider the so-called size effect induced in large RC members. In addition,unlike exising methods, a new formulation was addressed to consider the interaction between the shear contributions of concrete and stirrup. To verify the proposed method, an extensive shear database was established, and it appeared that the proposed method can capture the shear strengths of the collected test specimens regardless of their material properties, geometrical features, presence of stirrups, and bond characteristics.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.169-193
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• 2022

By the present paper, both experimental and analytical models have been proposed to study the vibration behavior of partially bio-sourced sandwich panel with orthogonally stiffened core. For a variable mass fraction of Alfa fibers from 5% to 15%, impregnated in a Medapoxy STR resin, this panel were manufactured by molding the orthogonally stiffened core then attached it with both skins. Using simply supported boundary conditions, a free vibration test was carried out using an impact hammer for predicting the natural frequencies, the mode shapes and the damping coefficient versus the fibers content. In addition, an analytical model based on the Higher order Shear Deformation Theory (HSDT) was developed to predict natural frequencies and the mode shapes according to Navier's solution. From the experimental test, we have found that the frequency increases with the increase in the mass fraction of the fibers until 10%. Beyond this fraction, the frequencies give relatively lower values. For the analytical model, variation of the natural frequencies increased considerably with side-to-thickness ratio (a/H) and equivalent thickness of the core to thickness of the face (h_s/h). We concluded that, the vibration behavior was significantly influenced by geometrical and mechanical properties of the partially bio-sourced sandwich panel.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.5
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• pp.685-697
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• 2022

Nanotechnology has become one of the interesting technique used in material science and engineering. However, it is low used in civil engineering structures. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the static behavior of concrete plates reinforced with silica-nanoparticles. Due to agglomeration effect of silica-nanoparticles in concrete, Voigt's model is used for obtaining the equivalent nano-composite properties. Furthermore, the plate is simulated mathematically with higher order shear deformation theory. For a large use of this study, the concrete plate is assumed resting on a Pasternak elastic foundation, including a shear layer, and Winkler spring interconnected with a Kerr foundation. Using the principle of virtual work, the equilibrium equations are derived and by the mean of Hamilton's principle the energy equations are obtained. Finally, based on Navier's technique, closed-form solutions of simply supported plates have been obtained. Numerical results are presented considering the effect of different parameters such as volume percent of SiO₂ nanoparticles, mechanical loads, geometrical parameters, soil medium, on the static behavior of the plate. The most findings of this work indicate that the use of an optimum amount of SiO₂ nanoparticles on concretes increases better mechanical behavior. In addition, the elastic foundation has a significant impact on the bending of concrete slabs.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.437-454
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• 2022

Elliptic-braced simple resisting frame as a new lateral bracing system installed in the middle bay of frame in building facades has been recently introduced. This system not only creates a problem for opening space from the architectural viewpoint but also improves the structural behavior. Despite the researches on the seismic performance of lateral bracing systems, there are few studies performed on the effect of the stiffness parameters on the elastic story drift and calculation of period in simple braced steel frames. To overcome this shortcoming, in this paper, for the first time, an analytical solution is presented for calculating elastic lateral stiffness in a simple steel frame equipped with elliptic brace subjected to lateral load. In addition, for the first time, in this study, a precise formulation has been developed to evaluate the elastic stiffness variation in a steel frame equipped with a two-dimensional single-story single-span elliptic brace using strain energy and Castigliano's theorem. Thus, all the effective factors, including axial and shear loads as well as bending moments of elliptic brace could be considered. At the end of the analysis, the lateral stiffness can be calculated by an improved and innovative relation through the energy method based on the geometrical properties of the employed sections and specification of the used material. Also, an equivalent element of an elliptic brace was presented for the ease of modeling and use in linear designs. Application of the proposed relation have been verified through a variety of examples in OpenSees software. Based on the results, the error percentage between the elastic stiffness derived from the developed equations and the numerical analyses of finite element models was very low and negligible.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.51-65
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• 2023

In this paper, the effect of deepness on in-plane free vibration behavior of a curved functionally graded (FG) nanobeam based on nonlocal elasticity theory has been investigated. Differential equations and boundary conditions have been developed based on Hamilton's principle. In order to figure out the size effect, nonlocal theory has been adopted. Properties of material vary in radial direction. By using Navier solution technique, the amount of natural frequencies has been obtained. Also, to take into account the deepness effect on vibrations, thickness to radius ratio has been considered. Differences percentage between results of cases in which deepness effect is included and excluded are obtained and influences of power-law exponent, nonlocal parameter and arc angle on these differences percentage are studied. Results show that arc angle and power law exponent parameters have the most influences on the amount of the differences percentage due to deepness effect. It has been observed that the inclusion of geometrical deep term and material distribution results in an increase in sensitivity of dimensionless natural frequency about variation of aforementioned parameters and a change in variation range of natural frequency. Finally, several numerical results of deep and shallow curved functionally graded nanobeams with different geometry dimensions are presented, which may serve as benchmark solutions for the future research in this field.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.4
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• pp.443-459
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• 2023

This study investigates the theoretical thermal buckling analyses of thick porous rectangular functionally graded (FG) plates with different geometrical boundary conditions resting on a Winkler-Pasternak elastic foundation using a new higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT). This new theory has only four unknowns and involves indeterminate integral variables in which no shear correction factor is required. The variation of material properties across the plate's thickness is considered continuous and varied following a simple power law as a function of volume fractions of the constituents. The effect of porosity with two different types of distribution is also included. The current formulation considers the Von Karman nonlinearity, and the stability equations are developed using the virtual works principle. The thermal gradients are involved and assumed to change across the FG plate's thickness according to nonlinear, linear, and uniform distributions. The accuracy of the newly proposed theory has been validated by comparing the present results with the results obtained from the previously published theories. The effects of porosity, boundary conditions, foundation parameters, power index, plate aspect ratio, and side-to-thickness ratio on the critical buckling temperature are studied and discussed in detail.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.633-647
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• 2022

This paper presents the results from reliability analyses of the current Eurocode 4 (EN 1994-1-1) and AISC 360-16 design models for predicting the resistance of headed stud shear connectors within profiled steel sheeting, when the ribs are oriented transverse to the supporting beam. For comparison purposes, the performance of the alternative "Luxembourg" and "Stuttgart" model were also considered. From an initial database of 611 push-out tests, 269 cases were included in the study, which ensured that the results were valid over a wide range of geometrical and material properties. It was found that the current EN 1994-1-1 design rules deliver a corrected partial safety factor γ_M^* of around 2.0, which is significantly higher than the target value 1.25. Moreover, 179 tests fell within the domain of the concrete-related failure design equation. Notwithstanding this, the EN 1994-1-1 equations provide satisfactory results for re-entrant profiled sheeting. The AISC 360-16 design equation for steel failure covers 263 of the tests in the database and delivers 𝛾_M^*≈2.0. Conversely, whilst the alternative "Stuttgart" model provides an improvement over the current codes, only a corrected partial safety factor of 𝛾_M^*=1.47 is achieved. Finally, the alternative "Luxembourg" design model was found to deliver the required target value, with a corrected partial safety factor 𝛾_M^* between 1.21 and 1.28. Given the fact that the Luxembourg design model is the only model that achieved the target values required by EN 1990, it is recommended as a potential candidate for inclusion within the second generation of Eurocodes.