• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제78권1호
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• pp.53-66
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• 2021

The determination of the damage index to reveal the performance level of a structure can constitute the seismic risk generalization approach based on the parametric analysis. This study implemented this concept to one kind of civil engineering structure that is the concrete gravity dam. Different cases of the structure exhibit their individual responses, which constitute different considerations. Therefore, this approach allows the parametric study of concrete as well as soil for evaluating the seismic nature in the generalized case. To ensure that the target algorithm applicable to most of the concrete gravity dams, a very simple procedure has been considered. In order to develop a correlated algorithm (by response surface methodology; RSM) between the ground motion and the structural property, randomized sampling was adopted through a stochastic method called half-fractional central composite design. The responses in the case of fluid-foundation-dam interaction (FFDI) make it more reliable by introducing the foundation as being bounded by infinite elements. To evaluate the seismic generalization of FFDI models, incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) was carried out under the impacts of various earthquake records, which have been selected from the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center data. Here, the displacement-based damage indexed fragility curves have been generated to show the variation in the seismic pattern of the dam. The responses to the sensitivity analysis of the various parameters presented here are the most effective controlling factors for the concrete gravity dam. Finally, to establish the accuracy of the proposed approach, reliable verification was adopted in this study.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제42권2호
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• pp.173-190
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• 2022

With the development of spatial structures, the joints are becoming more and more complex to connect tubular members of spatial structures. In this study, an approach is proposed to establish high-efficiency finite element model of multiplanar KTX-joint with the weld geometries accurately simulated. Ultimate bearing capacity the KTX-joint is determined by the criterion of deformation limit and failure mechanism of chord wall buckling is studied. Size effect of fillet weld on the joint ultimate bearing capacity is preliminarily investigated. Based on the validated finite element model, a parametric study is performed to investigate the effects of geometric and loading parameters of KT-plane brace members on ultimate bearing capacity of the KTX-joint. The effect mechanism is revealed and several design suggestions are proposed. Several simple reinforcement methods are adopted to constrain the chord wall buckling. It is concluded that the finite element model established by proposed approach is capable of simulating static behaviors of multiplanar KTX-joint; chord wall buckling with large indentation is the typical failure mode of multiplanar KTX-joint, which also increases chord wall displacements in the axis directions of brace members in orthogonal plane; ultimate bearing capacity of the KTX-joint increases approximately linearly with the increase of fillet weld size within the allowed range; the effect mechanism of geometric and loading parameters are revealed by the assumption of restraint region and interaction between adjacent KT-plane brace members; relatively large diameter ratio, small overlapping ratio and small included angle are suggested for the KTX-joint to achieve larger ultimate bearing capacity; the adopted simple reinforcement methods can effectively constrain the chord wall buckling with the design of KTX-joint converted into design of uniplanar KT-joint.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제33권1호
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• pp.1-9
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• 2023

The unconfined compression strength (UCS) of soils is commonly used either before or during the construction of geo-structures. In the pre-design stage, UCS as a mechanical property is obtained through a laboratory test that requires cumbersome procedures and high costs from in-situ sampling and sample preparation. As an alternative way, the empirical model established from limited testing cases is used to economically estimate the UCS. However, many parameters affecting the 1D soil compression response hinder employing the traditional statistical analysis. In this study, gene expression programming (GEP) is adopted to develop a prediction model of UCS with common affecting soil properties. A total of 79 undisturbed soil samples are collected, of which 54 samples are utilized for the generation of a predictive model and 25 samples are used to validate the proposed model. Experimental studies are conducted to measure the unconfined compression strength and basic soil index properties. A performance assessment of the prediction model is carried out using statistical checks including the correlation coefficient (R), the root mean square error (RMSE), the mean absolute error (MAE), the relatively squared error (RSE), and external criteria checks. The prediction model has achieved excellent accuracy with values of R, RMSE, MAE, and RSE of 0.98, 10.01, 7.94, and 0.03, respectively for the training data and 0.92, 19.82, 14.56, and 0.15, respectively for the testing data. From the sensitivity analysis and parametric study, the liquid limit and fine content are found to be the most sensitive parameters whereas the sand content is the least critical parameter.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제30권6호
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• pp.565-577
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• 2022

In this study, a series of three-dimensional numerical parametric study was conducted to investigate deformation mechanisms of an existing box culvert due to an adjacent multi-propped basement excavation in clays. Field measurements from an excavation case history are first used to calibrate a baseline Hardening Soil Small Strain (HS-small) model, which is subsequently adopted for parametric study. Results indicate that the basement-box culvert interaction along the basement centerline can be considered as a plane strain condition when the length of excavation (L) reaches 14 H_e (i.e., final excavation depth). If a plane strain condition (i.e., L/H_e=12.0) is assumed for analyzing the basement-box culvert interaction of a short excavation (i.e., L/H_e=2.0), the maximum settlement and horizontal movement of the box culvert are overestimated significantly by up to 15.7 and 5.1 times, respectively. It is also found that the deformation of box culvert can be greatly affected by the basement excavation if the distance between the box culvert and retaining wall is less than 1.5 H_e. The induced deformation in the box culvert can be dramatically reduced by improving the ground inside the excavation or implementing other precautionary measures. For example, by adding jet grouting columns within the basement and installing an isolation wall behind the retaining structures, the maximum settlements of box culvert are shown to reduce by 37.2% and 13.4%, respectively.

• PNF and Movement
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.9-17
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• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of chest mobilization and stretching exercises on maximal inspiratory pressure and maximal expiratory pressure in healthy adults who use computers for extended periods of time each day due to coronavirus disease 2019. Methods: Twenty-five healthy adults in their 20s and without respiratory disease (15 female, 10 male) took part in this study. Two types of thoracic mobilizing exercises using a Theraband and three types of stretching exercises using a foam roller were performed. Maximum inspiratory pressure and maximum expiratory pressure were measured three times each before and after the interventions. In terms of statistical methods, the maximum inspiratory pressure due to chest mobility and stretching was compared with the maximum expiratory pressure using parametric paired t-test and non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results: Maximum inspiratory pressure (p = .012) and maximum expiratory pressure (p = .006) showed significant differences before and after chest mobilization exercise and stretching among the participants. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that chest mobilization and stretching exercises are effective exercise methods for improving maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressure. They suggest that these exercises can prevent respiratory muscle weakness and improve aerobic fitness in healthy people as well as those in need of cardiorespiratory physiotherapy.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제45권2호
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• pp.175-191
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• 2022

A review of previous studies shows that although there is a considerable difference between buckling loads of structures under follower and non-follower lateral loads, only the buckling load of FGM elliptical cylindrical shell under non-follower lateral load was investigated in the literature. This study is the first to obtain the buckling load of elliptical FGM cylindrical shells under follower lateral load and also make a comparison between buckling loads of elliptical FGM cylindrical shells under follower and non-follower lateral loads. Moreover, this research is the first one to derive the load potential function of elliptical cylindrical shell. In this regard, the FGM cylindrical elliptical shell was modeled using the semi-analytical finite strip method and based on the First Shear Deformation Theory (FSDT). The shell is discretized by strip elements aligned in the longitudinal direction. The Lagrangian and harmonic shape functions were considered in the circumference and longitudinal directions, respectively. The buckling pressure of the shell under follower and non-follower lateral loads was obtained from eigenvalue problem. The results obtained from the model were compared with those presented in the literature to evaluate the validity of the model. A comparison index was defined to compare the buckling loads of the shell under follower and non-follower lateral load. A parametric study was carried out to investigate the effects of material properties and shell geometry characteristics on the comparison index. For the elliptical cylindrical shells with length-to-radius ratio greater than 16 and major-to-minor axis ratio greater than 0.6, the comparison index reaches to more than 20 percent which is significant. Moreover, the maximum difference is about 30 percent in some cases. The results obtained from the parametric study indicate that the buckling load of long elliptical cylindrical shell under non-follower load is not reliable.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제31권3호
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• pp.237-248
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• 2022

Nowadays, more and more subway tunnels were planed and constructed underneath the ground of urban cities to relieve the congested traffic. Potential damage may occur in existing tunnel if the new tunnel is constructed too close. So far, previous studies mainly focused on the tunnel-tunnel interactions with circular shape. The difference between circular and horseshoe shaped tunnel in terms of deformation mechanism is not fully investigated. In this study, three-dimensional numerical parametric studies were carried out to explore the effect of different tunnel shapes on the complicated tunnel-tunnel interaction problem. Parameters considered include volume loss, tunnel stiffness and relative density. It is found that the value of volume loss play the most important role in the multi-tunnel interactions. For a typical condition in this study, the maximum invert settlement and gradient along longitudinal direction of horseshoe shaped tunnel was 50% and 96% larger than those in circular case, respectively. This is because of the larger vertical soil displacement underneath existing tunnel. Due to the discontinuous hoop axial stress in horseshoe shaped tunnel, significant shear stress was mobilized around the axillary angles. This resulted in substantial bending moment at the bottom plate and side walls of horseshoe shaped tunnel. Consequently, vertical elongation and horizontal compression in circular existing tunnel were 45% and 33% smaller than those in horseshoe case (at monitored section X/D = 0), which in latter case was mainly attributed to the bending induced deflection. The radial deformation stiffness of circular tunnel is more sensitive to the Young's modulus compared with horseshoe shaped tunnel. This is because of that circular tunnel resisted the radial deformation mainly by its hoop axial stress while horseshoe shaped tunnel do so mainly by its flexural rigidity. In addition, the reduction of soil stiffness beneath the circular tunnel was larger than that in horseshoe shaped tunnel at each level of relative density, indicating that large portion of tunneling effect were undertaken by the ground itself in circular tunnel case.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제35권6호
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• pp.617-626
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• 2023

In this study, three-dimensional numerical parametric study was conducted to explore deformation mechanisms of grouped piled-raft-foundation due to lateral load in clays. Effects of load intensity, loading angle, soil stiffness, pile diameter, pile spacing and pile length on foundation deformations were explored. It is found that the smallest and largest movements of pile foundation are induced when the loading angles are 0° and 30°~60°, respectively. By increasing loading angle from 0° to 30°~60°, the resultant horizontal movements and settlements increase by up to 20.0% and 57.1%, respectively. Since connection beams can substantially increase integrity of four piled raft foundation, resultant horizontal movements, settlements and bending moments induced in the piled raft foundation decrease by up to 54.0%, 8.8% and 46.3%, respectively. By increasing soil stiffness five times, resultant horizontal movements and settlements of pile foundation decrease by up to 61.7% and 13.0%, respectively. It is indicated that effects of connection beam and soil stiffness on settlements of pile foundation are relatively small. When pile diameter is less than 1.4 m, deformations of piled raft foundation decrease substantially as a reduction in the pile diameter. Two dimensional groups are proposed to develop calculation charts of horizontal movements and settlements of pile foundation. The proposed calculation charts can directly estimate movements of piled raft foundation under arbitrary loading, ground and pile conditions.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제33권1호
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• pp.103-119
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• 2024

In this paper, the non-linear behavior of masonry-infill and bare steel frames using different beam-column connections under monotonic static loading was investigated through a parametric study. Numerical models were carried out using one- and two-dimensional modelling to validate the experimental results. After validating the experimental results by using these models, a parametric study was carried out to model the behavior of these frames using flushed, extended, and welded connections. The results showed that using the welded or extended connection is more efficient than using the flushed type in masonry-infilled steel frames, since the lateral capacities, initial stiffness, and toughness have been increased by 155%, 601%, and 165%, respectively in the case of using welded connections compared with those used in bare frames. The FE investigation was broadened to study the influence of the variation of the uniaxial column loads on the lateral capacities of the bare/infill steel frames. As the results showed when increasing the amount of uniaxial loading on the columns, whether in tension or compression, causes the lateral load capacity of the columns to decrease by 26% for welded infilled steel frames. Finally, the influence of using different types of beam-to-column connections on the vertical capacities of the bare/infill steel frames under settlement effect was also studied. As a result, it was found that, the vertical load capacity of all types of frames and with using any type of connections is severely reduced, and this decrease may reach 62% for welded infilled frames. Furthermore, the flushed masonry-infilled steel frame has a higher resistance to the vertical loads than the flushed bare steel frame by 133%.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제51권5호
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• pp.543-562
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• 2024

While the external axial compressive load is applied to only the shell edge of stringer-stiffened shell in the most of numerical and analytical previous studies (entitled as conventional approach), a part of external load is applied to the stringers in real conditions. It leads to decrease the accuracy of the axial buckling load calculated by the conventional eigenvalue analysis approach performed in the most of previous studies. In this study, the distribution of stress in the pre-buckling analysis was enhanced by applying the axial external compressive load to both shell and stringers to perform an accurate eigenvalue analysis of the stringer-stiffened composite shell. In this regard, a model was developed in FORTRAN environment to simulate the laminated stringer-stiffened shell under axial compressive load using finite strip method. The axial buckling load of the shell was obtained through eigenvalue analysis. A comparison was made between the results obtained from the model and those available in the previous studies to evaluate the validity of the results obtained from the model. Through a parametric study, the effects of different parameters such as stringer properties and composite layup on the buckling load of the shell under different loading patterns were investigated. The results indicated that in some cases, the axial buckling load obtained for the conventional approach used in the most of previous studies is significantly overestimated or underestimated due to neglecting the stringer in distribution of external load applied to the stringer-stiffened shell. According to the results obtained from the parametric study, some graphs were derived to show the accuracy of the axial buckling load obtained from the conventional approach utilized in the literature.