• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.173-190
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• 2011

As a practical and effective seismic resisting technology, the base isolation system has seen extensive applications in buildings and bridges. However, a few problems associated with conventional lead-rubber bearings have been identified after historical strong earthquakes, e.g., excessive permanent deformations of bearings and potential unseating of bridge decks. Recently the applications of shape memory alloys (SMA) have received growing interest in the area of seismic response mitigation. As a result, a variety of SMA-based base isolators have been developed. These novel isolators often lead to minimal permanent deformations due to the self-centering feature of SMA materials. However, a rational design approach is still missing because of the fact that conventional design method cannot be directly applied to these novel devices. In light of this limitation, a displacement-based design approach for highway bridges with SMA isolators is proposed in this paper. Nonlinear response spectra, derived from typical hysteretic models for SMA, are employed in the design procedure. SMA isolators and bridge piers are designed according to the prescribed performance objectives. A prototype reinforced concrete (RC) highway bridge is designed using the proposed design approach. Nonlinear dynamic analyses for different seismic intensity levels are carried out using a computer program called "OpenSees". The efficacy of the displacement-based design approach is validated by numerical simulations. Results indicate that a properly designed RC highway bridge with novel SMA isolators may achieve minor damage and minimal residual deformations under frequent and rare earthquakes. Nonlinear static analysis is also carried out to investigate the failure mechanism and the self-centering ability of the designed highway bridge.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.417-434
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• 2002

This paper explores the possibility of using a combination of the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and the Hilbert transform (HT), termed the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) method, to identify the modal damping ratios of the structure with closely spaced modal frequencies. The principle of the HHT method and the procedure of using the HHT method for modal damping ratio identification are briefly introduced first. The dynamic response of a two-degrees-of-freedom (2DOF) system under an impact load is then computed for a wide range of dynamic properties from well-separated modal frequencies to very closely spaced modal frequencies. The natural frequencies and modal damping ratios identified by the HHT method are compared with the theoretical values and those identified using the fast Fourier transform (FFT) method. The results show that the HHT method is superior to the FFT method in the identification of modal damping ratios of the structure with closely spaced modes of vibration. Finally, a 36-storey shear building with a 4-storey light appendage, having closely spaced modal frequencies and subjected to an ambient ground motion, is analyzed. The modal damping ratios identified by the HHT method in conjunction with the random decrement technique (RDT) are much better than those obtained by the FFT method. The HHT method performing in the frequency-time domain seems to be a promising tool for system identification of civil engineering structures.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2020.12a
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• pp.13-22
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• 2020

Reinforcement steel fixing is a skilled and manually intensive construction trade. Current practice for the quality assessment of reinforcement steel fixing is normally performed by fabricators and has high potential in having errors due to the tedious nature of the work. In order to overcome the current inspection limitation, this study presents an approach that provides visual assistance and inspection enhancement for inspectors to assess the dimensional layout of reinforcement steel fixing. To this end, this study aims to establish an end-to-end framework for rebar layout quality inspection using laser scanning and Augmented Reality (AR). The proposed framework is composed of three parts: (1) the laser-scanned rebar data processing; (2) the rebar inspection procedure integrating with AR; and (3) the checking and fixing the rebar layout through AR visualization. In order to investigate the feasibility of the proposed framework, a case study assessing the rebar layout of a lab-scaled formwork containing two rebar layers is conducted. The results of the case studies demonstrate that the proposed approach using laser scanning and AR has the potential to produce an intuitive and accurate quality assessment for the rebar layout.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.85-100
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• 2001

In this paper, an analytical procedure for solving several static and dynamic problems of non-uniform beams is proposed. It is shown that the governing differential equations for several stability, free vibration and static problems of non-uniform beams can be written in the from of a unified self-conjugate differential equation of the second-order. There are two functions in the unified equation, unlike most previous researches dealing with this problem, one of the functions is selected as an arbitrary expression in this paper, while the other one is expressed as a functional relation with the arbitrary function. Using appropriate functional transformation, the self-conjugate equation is reduced to Bessel's equation or to other solvable ordinary differential equations for several cases that are important in engineering practice. Thus, classes of exact solutions of the self-conjugate equation for several static and dynamic problems are derived. Numerical examples demonstrate that the results calculated by the proposed method and solutions are in good agreement with the corresponding experimental data, and the proposed procedure is a simple, efficient and exact method.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.186-195
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• 2008

This paper studies the operating characteristics of the high voltage flyback converter including the resonant elements. The detailed mode analysis and the design procedure are presented in designing a high voltage flyback converter. To verify and to confirm the validities of the presented analysis and design procedure, the computer simulation and the experiments have been performed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.357-372
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• 2008

This study investigates effect of uncertainty in natural vibration period on the seismic demand. It is shown that since this uncertainty affects the acceleration and displacement responses differently, two ratios, one relating peak acceleration responses and the other relating the peak displacement responses, are not equal and both must be employed in evaluating and defining the critical seismic demand. The evaluation of the ratios is carried out using more than 200 strong ground motion records. The results suggest that the uncertainty in the natural vibration period impacts significantly the statistics of the ratios relating the peak responses. By using the statistics of the ratios, a procedure and sets of empirical equations are developed for estimating the probability consistent seismic demand for both linear and nonlinear systems.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.45-66
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• 2018

Two years ago, an emergency arbitrator procedure in accordance with the international arbitration rule has been finally adopted in Korea?a decade after its introduction. Arbitral institutions provide interim measures in the course of tribunal proceedings to avoid litigation in open court that is often expensive and time-consuming. An emergency arbitrator procedure offers an urgent relief prior to the constitution of an arbitral tribunal, thus enhancing the speed and effectiveness of the arbitration procedure even further. Although most of the arbitral institutions interpret that the emergency arbitration rulings are binding on the parties, enforcing the emergency arbitration provisions have some difficulties in practice, and it is not clear whether or not arbitral interim measures will be enforceable under the newly adopted provisions in Korea. In this study, experiences in other countries are explored in seeking for the possible problems and solutions of enforcing the emergency arbitration rulings. For example, Singapore and Hong Kong insert terms such as "finality," "enforceable in the same manner as an order or direction of the Court," "same effect as an arbitral tribunal or interim measures" in their emergency arbitrator legislation to enhance enforcement. Moreover, "urgency inherent" are considered.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.155-180
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• 2014

The safety of road vehicles on the ground in crosswind has been investigated for many years. One of the most important fundamentals in the safety analysis is aerodynamic characteristics of a vehicle in crosswind. The most common way to study the aerodynamic characteristics of a vehicle in crosswind is wind tunnel tests to measure the aerodynamic coefficients and/or pressure coefficients of the vehicle. Due to the complexity of wind tunnel test equipment and procedure, the features of flow field around the vehicle are seldom explored in a wind tunnel, particularly for the vehicle moving on the ground. As a complementary to wind tunnel tests, the numerical method using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be employed as an effective tool to explore the aerodynamic characteristics of as well as flow features around the vehicle. This study explores crosswind effects on a high-sided lorry on the ground with and without movement through CFD simulations together with wind tunnel tests. Firstly, the aerodynamic forces on a stationary lorry model are measured in a wind tunnel, and the results are compared with the previous measurement results. The CFD with unsteady RANS method is then employed to simulate wind flow around and wind pressures on the stationary lorry. The numerical aerodynamic forces are compared with the wind tunnel test results. Furthermore, the same CFD method is extended to investigate the moving vehicle on the ground in crosswind. The results show that the CFD results match with wind tunnel test results and the current way using aerodynamic coefficients from a stationary vehicle in crosswind is acceptable. The CFD simulation can provide more insights on flow field and pressure distribution which are difficult to be obtained by wind tunnel tests.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.5 no.2_3
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• pp.181-192
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• 2005

The effective length method for flexural (column) buckling has been used for many decades but its use is somewhat limited in various contemporary design codes to moderately slender structures with elastic critical load factor (${\lambda}_{cr}$) less than 3 to 5. In pace with the use of higher grade steel in recent years, the influence of buckling in axial buckling resistance of a column becomes more important and the over-simplified assumption of effective length factor can lead to an unsafe, an uneconomical or a both unsafe and uneconomical solution when some members are over-designed while key elements are under-designed. Effective length should not normally be taken as the distance between nodes multiplied by an arbitrary factor like 0.85, 1.0, 2.0 etc. Further, the classification of non-sway and sway-sensitive frames makes the conventional design procedure tedious to use and, more importantly, limited to simple regular frames. This paper describes the practical use of second-order analysis with section capacity check allowing for $P-{\delta}$ and $P-{\Delta}$ effects together with member and system imperfections. Most commercial software considers only the $P-{\Delta}$ effect, but not member and frame imperfections nor $P-{\delta}$ effect, and engineers must be very careful in their uses. A verification problem is also given for validation of software for this type of powerful second-order analysis and design. It is a trend for popular and advanced national design codes in using the second-order analysis as a norm for analysis and design of steel structures while linear analysis may only be used in very simple structures.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.10 no.4_5
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• pp.443-458
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• 2012

The structural health monitoring (SHM) benchmark study on optimal sensor placement problem for the instrumented Canton Tower has been launched. It follows the success of the modal identification and model updating for the Canton Tower in the previous benchmark study, and focuses on the optimal placement of vibration sensors (accelerometers) in the interest of bettering the SHM system. In this paper, the sensor placement problem for the Canton Tower and the benchmark model for this study are first detailed. Then an information entropy based sensor placement method with the purpose of damage detection is proposed and applied to the benchmark problem. The procedure that will be implemented for structural damage detection using the data obtained from the optimal sensor placement strategy is introduced and the information on structural damage is specified. The information entropy based method is applied to measure the uncertainties throughout the damage detection process with the use of the obtained data. Accordingly, a multi-objective optimal problem in terms of sensor placement is formulated. The optimal solution is determined as the one that provides equally most informative data for all objectives, and thus the data obtained is most informative for structural damage detection. To validate the effectiveness of the optimally determined sensor placement, damage detection is performed on different damage scenarios of the benchmark model using the noise-free and noise-corrupted measured information, respectively. The results show that in comparison with the existing in-service sensor deployment on the structure, the optimally determined one is capable of further enhancing the capability of damage detection.