• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.569-586
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• 2020

The behavior of composite steel-concrete beams depends on the transmission of forces between two parts: the concrete slab and the steel I-beam. The shear connector is responsible for the interaction between these two parts. Recently, an alternative shear connector, called Truss Type connector, has been developed; it aligns efficient structural behavior, fast construction and implementation, and low cost when compared to conventional connectors applied in composite structures. However, there is still a lack of full understanding of the mechanical behavior of the Truss Type connector, due to its novelty. Thus, this study aims to analyze the influence of variation of geometric and physical parameters on the shear resistance of the Truss Type connector. In order to investigate those parameters, a non-linear finite element model, able to simulate push-out tests of Truss Type connectors, was specifically developed and validated with experimental results. A thorough parametric study, varying the height, the angle between rods, the diameter, and the concrete strength, was conducted to evaluate the shear resistance of the Truss Type connector. In addition, an equation to predict the resistance of the original Truss Type shear connector was proposed.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.197-228
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• 2016

In the present study, thermo-electro-mechanical vibration characteristics of functionally graded piezoelectric (FGP) Timoshenko nanobeams subjected to in-plane thermal loads and applied electric voltage are carried out by presenting a Navier type solution for the first time. Three kinds of thermal loading, namely, uniform, linear and non-linear temperature rises through the thickness direction are considered. Thermo-electro-mechanical properties of FGP nanobeam are supposed to vary smoothly and continuously throughout the thickness based on power-law model. Eringen's nonlocal elasticity theory is exploited to describe the size dependency of nanobeam. Using Hamilton's principle, the nonlocal equations of motion together with corresponding boundary conditions based on Timoshenko beam theory are obtained for the free vibration analysis of graded piezoelectric nanobeams including size effect and they are solved applying analytical solution. According to the numerical results, it is revealed that the proposed modeling can provide accurate frequency results of the FGP nanobeams as compared to some cases in the literature. In following a parametric study is accompanied to examine the effects of several parameters such as various temperature distributions, external electric voltage, power-law index, nonlocal parameter and mode number on the natural frequencies of the size-dependent FGP nanobeams in detail. It is found that the small scale effect and thermo-electrical loading have a significant effect on natural frequencies of FGP nanobeams.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.607-622
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• 2018

A non-linear finite element model (FEM) was constructed using a three-dimensional software (ATENA-3D) to investigate the effect of strengthening on the behavior of prestressed hollow-core (PHC) slabs with or without openings. The slabs were strengthened using near surface mounted (NSM)-carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. The constructed model was validated against experimental results that were previously reported by the authors. The validated FEM was then used to conduct an extensive parametric study to examine the influence of prestressing reinforcement ratio, compressive strength of concrete and strengthening reinforcement ratio on the behavior of such slabs. The FEM results showed good agreement with the experimental results where it captured the cracking, yielding, and ultimate loads as well as the mid-span deflection with a reasonable accuracy. Also, an overall enhancement in the structural performance of these slabs was achieved with an increase in prestressing reinforcement ratio, compressive strength of concrete, external reinforcement ratio. The presence of openings with different dimensions along the flexural or shear spans reduced significantly the capacity of the PHC slabs. However, strengthening these slabs with 2 and 4 (64 and $128mm^2$ that represent reinforcement ratios of 0.046 and 0.092%) CFRP strips was successful in restoring the original strength of the slab and enhancing post-cracking stiffness and load carrying capacity.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.377-397
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• 2018

In the present investigation, thermal buckling and free vibration characteristics of functionally graded (FG) Timoshenko nanobeams subjected to nonlinear thermal loading are carried out by presenting a Navier type solution. The thermal load is assumed to be nonlinear distribution through the thickness of FG nanobeam. Thermo-mechanical properties of FG nanobeam are supposed to vary smoothly and continuously throughout the thickness based on power-law model and the material properties are assumed to be temperature-dependent. Eringen's nonlocal elasticity theory is exploited to describe the size dependency of nanobeam. Using Hamilton's principle, the nonlocal equations of motion together with corresponding boundary conditions based on Timoshenko beam theory are obtained for the thermal buckling and vibration analysis of graded nanobeams including size effect. Moreover, in following a parametric study is accompanied to examine the effects of the several parameters such as nonlocal parameter, thermal effect, power law index and aspect ratio on the critical buckling temperatures and natural frequencies of the size-dependent FG nanobeams in detail. According to the numerical results, it is revealed that the proposed modeling can provide accurate frequency results of the FG nanobeams as compared some cases in the literature. Also, it is found that the small scale effects and nonlinear thermal loading have a significant effect on thermal stability and vibration characteristics of FG nanobeams.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.233-242
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• 2019

Early detection of damage bonding state such as insufficient bonding strength and interface partial contact defect for the explosive clad pipe is crucial in order to avoid sudden failure and even catastrophic accidents. A generalized and efficient model of the explosive clad pipe can reveal the relationship between bonding state and vibration characteristics, and provide foundations and priory knowledge for bonding state detection by signal processing technique. In this paper, the slender explosive clad pipe is regarded as two parallel elastic beams continuously joined by an elastic layer, and the elastic layer is capable to describe the non-uniform bonding state. By taking the characteristic beam modal functions as the admissible functions, the Rayleigh-Ritz method is employed to derive the dynamic model which enables one to consider inhomogeneous system and any boundary conditions. Then, the proposed model is validated by both numerical results and experiment. Parametric studies are carried out to investigate the effects of bonding strength and the length of partial contact defect on the natural frequency and forced response of the explosive clad pipe. A potential method for identifying the bonding quality of the explosive clad pipe is also discussed in this paper.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.78 no.4
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• pp.455-471
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• 2021

The present work focuses on experimental and numerical performance of the ferrocement RC walls reinforced with welded steel mesh, expanded steel mesh, fiber glass mesh and tensar mesh individually. The experimental program comprised twelve RC walls having the dimensions of 450 mm×100 mm×1000 mm under concentric compression loadings. The studied variables are the type of reinforcing materials, the number of mesh layers and volume fraction of reinforcement. The main aim is to assess the influence of engaging the new inventive materials in reinforcing the composite RC walls. Non-linear finite element analysis; (NLFEA) was carried out to simulate the behavior of the composite walls employing ANSYS-10.0 Software. Parametric study is also demonstrated to check out the variables that can mainly influence the mechanical behavior of the model such as the change of wall dimensions. The obtained numerical results indicated the acceptable accuracy of FE simulations in the estimation of experimental values. In addition, the strength gained of specimens reinforced with welded steel mesh was higher by amount 40% compared with those reinforced with expanded steel mesh. Ferrocement specimens tested under axial compression loadings exhibit superior ultimate loads and energy absorbing capacity compared to the conventional reinforced concrete one.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.131-143
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• 2023

Constitutive equations in a nuclear reactor safety analysis code are mostly empirical correlations developed from experiments, which always accompany uncertainties. The accuracy of the code can be improved by modifying the constitutive equations fitting wider range of data with less uncertainty. Thus, the sensitivity of the code with respect to the constitutive equations is evaluated quantitatively in the paper to understand the room for improvement of the code. A new methodology is proposed which first starts by dividing the thermal hydraulic conditions into multiple sub-regimes using self-organizing map (SOM) clustering method. The sensitivity analysis is then conducted by multiplying an arbitrary set of coefficients to the constitutive equations for each sub-divided thermal-hydraulic regime with SOM to observe how the code accuracy varies. The randomly chosen multiplier coefficient represents the uncertainty of the constitutive equations. Furthermore, the set with the smallest error with the selected experimental data can be obtained and can provide insight which direction should the constitutive equations be modified to improve the code accuracy. The newly proposed method is applied to a steady-state experiment and a transient experiment to illustrate how the method can provide insight to the code developer.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.163-173
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• 2024

Fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) have a proven strength enhancement capability when installed into Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams. The brittle failure of traditional FRP strengthening systems has attracted researchers to develop novel materials with improved strength and ductility properties. One such material is that known as polyethylene terephthalate (PET). This study presents a numerical investigation of the flexural behavior of reinforced concrete beams externally strengthened with PET-FRP systems. This material is distinguished by its large rupture strain, leading to an improvement in the ductility of the strengthened structural members compared to conventional FRPs. A three-dimensional (3-D) finite element (FE) model is developed in this study to predict the load-deflection response of a series of experimentally tested beams published in the literature. The numerical model incorporates constitutive material laws and bond-slip behavior between concrete and the strengthening system. Moreover, the validated model was applied in a parametric study to inspect the effect of concrete compressive strength, PET-FRP sheet length, and reinforcing steel bar diameter on the overall performance of concrete beams externally strengthened with PET-FRP.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.69-87
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• 2014

This paper suggests a conditional simulation framework based on multiple data transformations for geostatistical simulation of compositional data. First, log-ratio transformation is applied to original compositional data in order to apply conventional statistical methodologies. As for the next transformations that follow, minimum/maximum autocorrelation factors (MAF) and indicator transformations are sequentially applied. MAF transformation is applied to generate independent new variables and as a result, an independent simulation of individual variables can be applied. Indicator transformation is also applied to non-parametric conditional cumulative distribution function modeling of variables that do not follow multi-Gaussian random function models. Finally, inverse transformations are applied in the reverse order of those transformations that are applied. A case study with surface sediment compositions in tidal flats is carried out to illustrate the applicability of the presented simulation framework. All simulation results satisfied the constraints of compositional data and reproduced well the statistical characteristics of the sample data. Through surface sediment classification based on multiple simulation results of compositions, the probabilistic evaluation of classification results was possible, an evaluation unavailable in a conventional kriging approach. Therefore, it is expected that the presented simulation framework can be effectively applied to geostatistical simulation of various compositional data.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.62 no.5
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• pp.619-629
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• 2017

This paper focuses on the study of complete dynamic modeling and maximum dynamic load carrying capacity computation of N-flexible links and N-flexible joints mobile manipulator undergoing large deformation. Nonlinear dynamic analysis relies on the Timoshenko theory of beams. In order to model the system completely and precisely, structural and joint flexibility, nonlinear strain-displacement relationship, payload, and non-holonomic constraints will be considered to. A finite element solution method based on mixed method is applied to model the shear deformation. This procedure is considerably more involved than displacement based element and shear deformation can be readily included without inducing the shear locking in the element. Another goal of this paper is to present a computational procedure for determination of the maximum dynamic load of geometrically nonlinear manipulators with structural and joint flexibility. An effective measure named as Moment-Height Stability (MHS) measure is applied to consider the dynamic stability of a wheeled mobile manipulator. Simulations are performed for mobile base manipulator with two flexible links and joints. The results represent that dynamic stability constraint is sensitive when calculating the maximum carrying load. Furthermore, by changing the trajectory of end effector, allowable load also changes. The effect of torsional spring parameter on the joint deformation is investigated in a parametric sensitivity study. The findings show that, by the increase of torsional stiffness, the behavior of system approaches to a system with rigid joints and allowable load of robot is also enhanced. A comparison is also made between the results obtained from small and large deformation models. Fluctuation range in obtained figures for angular displacement of links and end effector path is bigger for large deformation model. Experimental results are also provided to validate the theoretical model and these have good agreement with the simulated results.