• Advances in nano research
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.529-547
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• 2022

Graphene is one of the strongest, stiffest, and lightest nanoscale materials known to date, making it a potentially viable and attractive candidate for developing lightweight structural composites to prevent high-velocity ballistic impact, as commonly encountered in defense and space sectors. In-plane twist in bilayer graphene has recently revealed unprecedented electronic properties like superconductivity, which has now started attracting the attention for other multi-physical properties of such twisted structures. For example, the latest studies show that twisting can enhance the strength and stiffness of graphene by many folds, which in turn creates a strong rationale for their prospective exploitation in high-velocity impact. The present article investigates the ballistic performance of twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) nanostructures. We have employed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, augmented further by coupling gaussian process-based machine learning, for the nanoscale characterization of various tBLG structures with varying relative rotation angle (RRA). Spherical diamond impactors (with a diameter of 25Å) are enforced with high initial velocity (V_i) in the range of 1 km/s to 6.5 km/s to observe the ballistic performance of tBLG nanostructures. The specific penetration energy (E_p^*) of the impacted nanostructures and residual velocity (V_r) of the impactor are considered as the quantities of interest, wherein the effect of stochastic system parameters is computationally captured based on an efficient Gaussian process regression (GPR) based Monte Carlo simulation approach. A data-driven sensitivity analysis is carried out to quantify the relative importance of different critical system parameters. As an integral part of this study, we have deterministically investigated the resonant behaviour of graphene nanostructures, wherein the high-velocity impact is used as the initial actuation mechanism. The comprehensive dynamic investigation of bilayer graphene under the ballistic impact, as presented in this paper including the effect of twisting and random disorder for their prospective exploitation, would lead to the development of improved impact-resistant lightweight materials.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.601-612
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• 2022

The prediction of structural mechanical behaviors is vital important to early perceive the abnormal conditions and avoid the occurrence of disasters. Especially for underground engineering, complex geological conditions make the structure more prone to disasters. Aiming at solving the problems existing in previous studies, such as incomplete consideration factors and can only predict the continuous performance, the deep attention fused temporal convolution network (DATCN) is proposed in this paper to predict the spatial mechanical behaviors of structure, which integrates both the temporal effect and spatial effect and realize the cross-time prediction. The temporal convolution network (TCN) and self-attention mechanism are employed to learn the temporal correlation of each monitoring point and the spatial correlation among different points, respectively. Then, the predicted result obtained from DATCN is compared with that obtained from some classical baselines, including SVR, LR, MLP, and RNNs. Also, the parameters involved in DATCN are discussed to optimize the prediction ability. The prediction result demonstrates that the proposed DATCN model outperforms the state-of-the-art baselines. The prediction accuracy of DATCN model after 24 hours reaches 90 percent. Also, the performance in last 14 hours plays a domain role to predict the short-term behaviors of the structure. As a study case, the proposed model is applied in an underwater shield tunnel to predict the stress variation of concrete segments in space.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.375-391
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• 2022

This paper examined the impact of the cross-sectional structure on the structural results under different loading conditions of reinforced concrete (RC) members' management limited in Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP). The mechanical properties of CFRC was investigated, then, totally 32 samples were examined. Test parameters included the cross-sectional shape as square, rectangular and circular with two various aspect rates and loading statues. The loading involved concentrated loading, eccentric loading with a ratio of 0.46 to 0.6 and pure bending. The results of the test revealed that the CFRP increased ductility and load during concentrated processing. A cross sectional shape from 23 to 44 percent was increased in load capacity and from 250 to 350 percent increase in axial deformation in rectangular and circular sections respectively, affecting greatly the accomplishment of load capacity and ductility of the concentrated members. Two Artificial Intelligence Models as Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) were used to estimating the tensile and flexural strength of specimen. On the basis of the performance from RMSE and RSQR, C-Shape CFRC was greater tensile and flexural strength than any other FRP composite design. Because of the mechanical anchorage into the matrix, C-shaped CFRCC was noted to have greater fiber-matrix interfacial adhesive strength. However, with the increase of the aspect ratio and fiber volume fraction, the compressive strength of CFRCC was reduced. This possibly was due to the fact that during the blending of each fiber, the volume of air input was increased. In addition, by adding silica fumed to composites, the tensile and flexural strength of CFRCC is greatly improved.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.87 no.3
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• pp.221-229
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• 2023

Urbanization and industrialization have significantly increased the amount of solid waste produced in recent decades, posing considerable disposal problems and environmental burdens. The practice of waste utilization in concrete has gained popularity among construction practitioners and researchers for the efficient use of resources and the transition to the circular economy in construction. This study employed Lytag aggregate, an environmentally friendly pulverized fuel ash-based lightweight aggregate, as a substitute for natural coarse aggregate. At the same time, fly ash, an industrial by-product, was used as a partial substitute for cement. Concrete mix M20 was experimented with using fly ash and Lytag lightweight aggregate. The percentages of fly ash that make up the replacements were 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25%. The Compressive Strength (CS), Split Tensile Strength (STS), and deflection were discovered at these percentages after 56 days of testing. The concrete cube, cylinder, and beam specimens were examined in the explorations, as mentioned earlier. The results indicate that a 10% substitution of cement with fly ash and a replacement of coarse aggregate with Lytag lightweight aggregate produced concrete that performed well in terms of mechanical properties and deflection. The cementitious composites have varying characteristics as the environment changes. Therefore, understanding their mechanical properties are crucial for safety reasons. CS, STS, and deflection are the essential property of concrete. Machine learning (ML) approaches have been necessary to predict the CS of concrete. The Artificial Fish Swarm Optimization (AFSO), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), and Harmony Search (HS) algorithms were investigated for the prediction of outcomes. This work deftly explains the tremendous AFSO technique, which achieves the precise ideal values of the weights in the model to crown the mathematical modeling technique. This has been proved by the minimum, maximum, and sample median, and the first and third quartiles were used as the basis for a boxplot through the standardized method of showing the dataset. It graphically displays the quantitative value distribution of a field. The correlation matrix and confidence interval were represented graphically using the corrupt method.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.1
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• pp.47-56
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• 2021

This paper deals with damage detection using a Gapped Smoothing Method (GSM) combined with deep learning. Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is a model of deep learning. CNN has an input layer, an output layer, and a number of hidden layers that consist of convolutional layers. The input layer is a tensor with shape (number of images) × (image width) × (image height) × (image depth). An activation function is applied each time to this tensor passing through a hidden layer and the last layer is the fully connected layer. After the fully connected layer, the output layer, which is the final layer, is predicted by CNN. In this paper, a complete machine learning system is introduced. The training data was taken from a Finite Element (FE) model. The input images are the contour plots of curvature gapped smooth damage index. A free-free beam is used as a case study. In the first step, the FE model of the beam was used to generate data. The collected data were then divided into two parts, i.e. 70% for training and 30% for validation. In the second step, the proposed CNN was trained using training data and then validated using available data. Furthermore, a vibration experiment on steel damaged beam in free-free support condition was carried out in the laboratory to test the method. A total number of 15 accelerometers were set up to measure the mode shapes and calculate the curvature gapped smooth of the damaged beam. Two scenarios were introduced with different severities of the damage. The results showed that the trained CNN was successful in detecting the location as well as the severity of the damage in the experimental damaged beam.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.247-265
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• 2024

Measuring the fracture toughness of concrete in laboratory settings is challenging due to various factors, such as complex sample preparation procedures, the requirement for precise instruments, potential sample failure, and the brittleness of the samples. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop innovative and more effective tools to overcome these limitations. Supervised learning methods offer promising solutions. This study introduces seven machine learning algorithms for predicting concrete's effective fracture toughness (K-eff). The models were trained using 560 datasets obtained from the central straight notched Brazilian disc (CSNBD) test. The concrete samples used in the experiments contained micro silica and powdered stone, which are commonly used additives in the construction industry. The study considered six input parameters that affect concrete's K-eff, including concrete type, sample diameter, sample thickness, crack length, force, and angle of initial crack. All the algorithms demonstrated high accuracy on both the training and testing datasets, with R² values ranging from 0.9456 to 0.9999 and root mean squared error (RMSE) values ranging from 0.000004 to 0.009287. After evaluating their performance, the gated recurrent unit (GRU) algorithm showed the highest predictive accuracy. The ranking of the applied models, from highest to lowest performance in predicting the K-eff of concrete, was as follows: GRU, LSTM, RNN, SFL, ELM, LSSVM, and GEP. In conclusion, it is recommended to use supervised learning models, specifically GRU, for precise estimation of concrete's K-eff. This approach allows engineers to save significant time and costs associated with the CSNBD test. This research contributes to the field by introducing a reliable tool for accurately predicting the K-eff of concrete, enabling efficient decision-making in various engineering applications.

• Advances in materials Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.129-146
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• 2012

Polycrystalline diamond is an ideal material for parts with micro-holes and has been widely used as dies and cutting tools in automotive, aerospace and woodworking industries due to its superior wear and corrosion resistance. In this research paper, the modeling and simultaneous optimization of multiple performance characteristics such as material removal rate and surface roughness of polycrystalline diamond (PCD) with ultrasonic machining process has been presented. The fuzzy logic and taguchi's quality loss function has been used. In recent years, fuzzy logic has been used in manufacturing engineering for modeling and monitoring. Also the effect of controllable machining parameters like type of abrasive slurry, their size and concentration, nature of tool material and the power rating of the machine has been determined by applying the single objective and multi-objective optimization techniques. The analysis of results has been done using the MATLAB 7.5 software and results obtained are validated by conducting the confirmation experiments. The results show the considerable improvement in S/N ratio as compared to initial cutting conditions. The surface roughness of machined surface has been measured by using the Perthometer (M4Pi, Mahr Germany).

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.315-324
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• 2001

This paper presents the experimetal result on the viscoplastic response and collapse of the titanium alloy tubes subjected to cyclic bending. Based on the capacity of the bending machine, three different curvature-rates were used to highlight the viscoplastic behavior of the titanium alloy tubes. The Curvature-controlled experiments were conducted by the curvature-ovalization measurement apparatus which was designed by Pan et al. (1998). It can be observed from experimental data that the higher the applied curvature-rate, the greater is the degree of hardening of titanium alloy tube. However, the higher the applied curvature-rate, the greater is the degree of ovalization of tube cross-section. Furthermore, due to the greater degree of the ovalization of tube cross-section for higher curvature-rates under cyclic bending, the number of cycles to produce buckling is correspondingly reduced. Finally, the theoretical formulation, proposed by Pan and Her (1998), was modified so that it can be used for simulating the relationship between the controlled curvature and the number of cycles to produce buckling for titanium alloy tubes under cyclic bending with different curvature-rates. The theoretical simulation was compared with the experimental test data. Good agreement between the experimental and theoretical results has been achieved.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.453-470
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• 2014

This article is the result of an investigation on the influence of a Pasternak elastic foundation on the stability of exponentially graded (EG) cylindrical shells under hydrostatic pressure, based on the first-order shear deformation theory (FOSDT) considering the shear stresses. The shear stresses shape function is distributed parabolic manner through the shell thickness. The governing equations of EG orthotropic cylindrical shells resting on the Pasternak elastic foundation on the basis of FOSDT are derived in the framework of Donnell-type shell theory. The novelty of present work is to achieve closed-form solutions for critical hydrostatic pressures of EG orthotropic cylindrical shells resting on Pasternak elastic foundation based on FOSDT. The expressions for critical hydrostatic pressures of EG orthotropic cylindrical shells with and without an elastic foundation based on CST are obtained, in special cases. Finally, the effects of Pasternak foundation, shear stresses, orthotropy and heterogeneity on critical hydrostatic pressures, based on FOSDT are investigated.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.68 no.3
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• pp.325-334
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• 2018

The Nonlinear dynamic response of a sandwich plate subjected to the low velocity impact is theoretically and experimentally investigated. The Hertz law between the impactor and the plate is taken into account. Using the Extended High Order Sandwich Panel Theory (EHSAPT) and the Ritz energy method, the governing equations are derived. The skins follow the Third order shear deformation theory (TSDT) that has hitherto not reported in conventional EHSAPT. Besides, the three dimensional elasticity is used for the core. The nonlinear Von Karman relations for strains of skins and the core are adopted. Time domain solution of such equations is extracted by means of the well-known fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. The effects of core-to-skin thickness ratio, initial velocity of the impactor, the impactor mass and position of the impactor are studied in detail. It is found that these parameters play significant role in the impact force and dynamic response of the sandwich plate. Finally, some low velocity impact tests have been carried out by Drop Hammer Testing Machine. The results are compared with experimental data acquired by impact testing on sandwich plates as well as the results of finite element simulation.