• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.97-104
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• 2018

A connected control method for the adjacent buildings has been studied to reduce dynamic responses. In these studies, seismic loads were generally used as an excitation. Recently, multi-hazards loads including earthquake and strong wind loads are employed to investigate control performance of various control systems. Accordingly, strong wind load as well as earthquake load was adopted to evaluate control performance of adaptive smart coupling control system against multi-hazard. To this end, an artificial seismic load in the region of strong seismicity and an artificial wind load in the region of strong winds were generated for control performance evaluation of the coupling control system. Artificial seismic and wind excitations were made by SIMQKE and Kaimal spectrum based on ASCE 7-10. As example buildings, two 20-story and 12-story adjacent buildings were used. An MR (magnetorheological) damper was used as an adaptive smart control device to connect adjacent two buildings. In oder to present nonlinear dynamic behavior of MR damper, Bouc-Wen model was employed in this study. After parametric studies on MR damper capacity, optimal command voltages for MR damper on each seismic and wind loads were investigated. Based on numerical analyses, it was shown that the adaptive smart coupling control system proposed in this study can provide very good control performance for Multi-hazards.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.223-231
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• 2019

The properties of Electroactive Polymer (EAP) materials are attracting the attention of engineers and scientists from many different disciplines. From the point-of-view of robotics, Ionic Polymer Metal Composites (IPMC) belong to the most developed group of the EAP class. To allow effective design of IPMC-actuated mechanisms with large induced strains, it is necessary to have adequate analytical tools for predicting the behavior of IPMC actuators as well as simulating their response as part of prototyping methodologies. This paper presents a novel IPMC motor construction. To simulate the bending behavior that is the dominant phenomenon of motor movement process, a nonlinear model is used. To accomplish the motor design, the IPMC model was identified via a series of experiments. In the proposed model, the curvature output and current transient fields accurately track the measured responses, which is verified by measurements. In this research, a three-dimensional Finite Element Method (FEM) model of the IPMC motor, composed of IPMC actuators, simultaneously determines the mechanical and electrical characteristics of the device and achieves reliable analysis results. The principle of the proposed drive and the output signals are illustrated in this paper. The proposed modelling approach can be used to design a variety of controllers and motors for effective micro-robotic applications, where soft and complex motion are required.

• International journal of steel structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1107-1124
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• 2018

The structural behavior of reinforced concrete coupled shear wall structures is greatly influenced by the behavior of their coupling beams. This paper presents a process of the seismic analysis of reinforced concrete coupled shear wall-frame system linked by hysteretic dampers at each floor. The hysteretic dampers are located at the middle portion of the linked beams which most of the inelastic damage would be concentrated. This study concerned particularly with wall-frame structures that do not twist. The proposed method, which is based on the energy equilibrium method, offers an important design method by the result of increasing energy dissipation capacity and reducing damage to the wall's base. The optimum distribution of yield shear force coefficients is to evenly distribute the damage at dampers over the structural height based on the cumulative plastic deformation ratio of the dissipation device. Nonlinear dynamic analysis indicates that, with a proper set of damping parameters, the wall's dynamic responses can be well controlled. Finally, based on the total plastic strain energy and its trend through the height of the buildings, a prediction equation is suggested.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.28-34
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• 2021

Among the currently available types of fuel, LNG emits a relatively small amount of nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide when it burns in the engine. However, since LNG is a flammable material, leakage during bunkering can lead to accidents, such as fires. Therefore, it is necessary to install a remote operation emergency shut-down (ESD) valve to block the flow and leakage of LNG in an emergency situation that occurs during bunkering. The ESD valve uses a hydraulic driving device consisting of a hydraulic control valve and a hydraulic motor to control globe valve disc displacement, which regulates the flow path for LNG transfer. At this time, there are various nonlinearities in hydraulic driving devices; hence, it is necessary to design a controller with robust control performance against these uncertainties. In this study, modeling of the ESD valve was carried out, and a sliding mode controller to control the displacement of the globe valve disc was designed. As a result, it was confirmed that the designed control performance could be achieved by overcoming nonlinearity characteristics using the designed controller.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2022

In recent years, various studies have been conducted on oscillating-water-column-type wave energy converters (OWC-WECs) with multiple chambers with the objective of efficiently utilizing the limited space of offshore/onshore structures. In this study, a numerical investigation based on a numerical wave tank was conducted on single, dual, and triple OWC chambers to examine the hydrodynamic performances and the energy conversion characteristics of the multiple water columns. The boundary value problem with the Laplace equation was solved by using a numerical wave tank based on a finite element method. The validity of the current numerical method was confirmed by comparing it with the measured data in the previous experimental research. We undertook a series of numerical simulations and observed that the water column motion of sloshing mode in a single chamber can be changed into the piston motion of different phases in multiple OWC chambers. Therefore, the piston motion in the multiple chambers can generate considerable airflow at a specific resonant frequency. In addition, the division of the OWC chamber results in a reduction of the time-dependent variability of the final output power from the device. As a result, the application of the multiple chambers leads to an increase of the energy conversion performance as well as a decrease of the variability of the wave energy converter.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.283-294
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• 2022

In this study, a new seismic retrofit scheme of building structures is developed by combining a steel moment frame and steel slit plates to be installed inside of an existing reinforced concrete frame. This device has the energy dissipation capability of slit dampers with slight loss of stiffness compared to the conventional steel frame reinforcement method. In order to investigate the seismic performance of the retrofit system, it was installed inside of a reinforced concrete frame and tested under cyclic loading. Finite element analysis was carried out for validation of the test results, and it was observed that the analysis and the test results match well. An analytical model was developed to apply the retrofit system to a commercial software to be used for seismic retrofit design of an example structure. The effectiveness of the retrofit scheme was investigated through nonlinear time-history response analysis (NLTHA). The cyclic loading test showed that the steel frame with slit dampers provides significant increase in strength and ductility to the bare structure. According to the analysis results of a case study building, the proposed system turned out to be effective in decreasing the seismic response of the model structure below the given target limit state.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.577-588
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• 2022

Oil refineries' Fluid Catalytic Cracking Units (FCCU) when in full operation may exhibit strong fluid dynamics caused by turbulent flow in the piping system that may induce vibrations in other mechanical and structural components of the Unity. This paper reports on the experimental-theoretical-computational program performed to get the vibration properties and the dynamic response amplitudes to find out alternative solutions to attenuate the excessive vibrations that were causing fatigue fractures in components of the bottle like reactor-regenerator of an FCC unit in operation in an existing oil refinery in Brazil. Solutions to the vibration problem were sought with the aid of a 3D finite element model calibrated with the results obtained from experimental measurements. A short description of the found solutions is given and their effectiveness are shown by means of numerical results. The solutions were guided by the concepts of structural stiffening and dynamic control performed by a nonlinear pendulum controller whose mechanical design was based on parameters determined by means of a parametric study carried out with 2D and 3D mathematical models of the coupled pendulum-structure system. The effectiveness of the proposed solutions is evaluated in terms of the fatigue life of critical welded connections.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.59-69
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• 2022

The use of dampers is being considered a means to improve the seismic performance of buildings. It may take considerable time and effort to find an optimal design solution since repeated three-dimensional nonlinear time history analyses are required. Therefore, a preliminary design procedure for seismic retrofit using hysteretic dampers was proposed in this study. In the proposed procedure, the amount of retrofit (required number of dampers) is estimated from the capacity curve of the building before retrofit and allowable story drift of the building. In combining the capacity curves of the building and the dampers, the deformation demand for the dampers can be easily checked against their deformation capacity. The equations to transform the device displacement to roof displacement for the combination of capacity curves are developed. The proposed procedure was applied to the seismic retrofit design of sample buildings. The study found that the estimated capacity curve was very close to the actual capacity curve obtained from the pushover analysis, which can determine an appropriate configuration to meet the required seismic performance.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.343-358
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• 2023

The superelastic viscous damper (SVD) is a hybrid passive control device comprising a viscoelastic damper and shape memory alloy (SMA) cables connected in series. The SVD is an innovative damper through which a large amount of seismic energy can dissipate. The current study assessed the seismic collapse induced by steel moment-resisting frames (SMRFs) equipped with SVDs and compared them with the performance of special MRFs and buckling restrained brace frames (BRBFs). For this purpose, nonlinear dynamic and incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) were conducted in OpenSees software. Both 5- and 9-story special MRFs, BRBFs, and MRFs equipped with the SVDs were examined. The results indicated that the annual exceedance rate for maximum residual drifts of 0.2% and 0.5% for the BRBFs and MRFs with SVDs, respectively, were considerably less than for SMRFs with reduced-beam section (RBS) connections and that the seismic performances of these structures were enhanced with the use of the BRB and SVD. The probability of collapse due to residual drift in the SVD, BRB, and RBS frames in the 9-story structure was 1.45, 1.75, and 1.05 times greater than for the 5-story frame.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.257-270
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• 2023

In this study, the feasibility and applicability of a friction damper with a vertical installation scheme are investigated. This device is composed of a steel section and two friction hinges at both ends which dissipate seismic energy. Due to its small width and vertical installation scheme, the proposed damper can minimize the interference with architectural functions. To evaluate the performance of the proposed damper, its mechanical behavior is theoretically evaluated and the required formulas for the yield strength and elastic stiffness are derived. The theoretical formulas are verified by establishing the analytical model of the damper in the SAP2000 software and comparing their results. To further investigate the performance of the developed damper, the provided analytical model is applied to a 4-story reinforced concrete (RC) structure and its performance is evaluated before and after retrofit under the Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE) hazard level. The seismic performance is thoroughly evaluated in terms of maximum interstory drift ratio, displacement time history, residual displacement, and energy dissipation. The results show that the proposed damper can be efficiently used to protect the structure against seismic loads.