• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.395-409
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• 1998

This paper concerns the development and implementation of an orthotropic, stress resultant elasto-plastic finite element model for the collapse load analysis of reinforced concrete plates. The model implements yield line plasticity theory for reinforced concrete. The behaviour of the yield functions are studied, and modifications introduced to ensure a robust finite element model of cases involving bending and twisting stress resultants ($M_x$, $M_y$, $M_{xy}$). Onset of plasticity is always governed by the general yield-line-model (YLM), but in some cases a switch to the stress resultant form of the von Mises function is used to ensure the proper evolution of plastic strains. Case studies are presented, involving isotropic and orthotropic plates, to assess the behaviour of the yield line approach. The YLM function is shown to perform extremely well, in predicting both the collapse loads and failure mechanisms.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1997.04a
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• pp.79-86
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• 1997

In this study, pre-postprocessing toolbox is developed to perform elasto-plastic analyze of underground structures with transient ground water flow. This toolbox is composed of three modules. The first is the data input processor for the structural analysis. The preprocessing Is using GUI (Graphic User Interface), which is consist of dialog box, pull down, and short-cut icon, etc. The second is the structural analysis module. The analysis is based on the elasto-plastic finite element method involving additional options such as ground excavation effect, transient ground water flow, and rock bolts behavior. The last is the postprocessing module. The postprocessing is able to verify the result of the structural analysis by the graphical simulation which visualizes the element mesh, the node displacements, the element stress states, the stress contour, the ground water surface, and the rock bolt stresses. Since various options are considered separately in this toolbox, it is easy to modify the module of each processing, and to update other functional modules for the given analysis conditions.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.323-342
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• 2013

In the case of seismic-resistant composite dual moment resisting and eccentrically braced frames, the current design practice is to avoid the disposition of shear connectors in the expected plastic zones, and consequently to consider a symmetric moment or shear plastic hinges, which occur only in the steel beam or link. Even without connectors, the real behavior of the hinge may be different from the symmetric assumption since the reinforced concrete slab is connected to the steel element close to the hinge locations, and also due to contact friction between the concrete slab and the steel element. At a larger level, the structural response in the case of important seismic motions depends directly on the elasto-plastic behavior of elements and hinges. The numerical investigation presented in this study summarizes the results of elasto-plastic analyses of several steel frames, considering the interaction of the steel beam with the concrete slab. Several parameters, such as the inter-story drift, plastic rotation requirements and behavior factors q were monitored. In order to obtain accurate results, adequate models of plastic hinges are proposed for both the composite short link and composite reduced beam sections.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.151-154
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• 2002

In this paper, the effect of the crack growth length on the plastic zone size at the crack tip and the crack growth lives of the DENT specimen under constant amplitude cyclic loading were studied. The plastic zone size was calculated by nonlinear static method in commercial finite element analysis program, MSC/NASTRAN and the crack growth lives were also calculated by using compliance function considering geometric shape in MSC/FATIGUE. The calculated plastic zone size increased proportional to the crack length. And comparison of calculated plastic zone size and crack growth lives with the experimental results shows a good agreement.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.767-778
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate how a fully restrained bolted beam splice affects the connection behavior as a column-tree connection in steel special moment frames under cyclic loading when located within the plastic hinge zone. The impacts of this attachment in protected zone are observed by using nonlinear finite element analyses. This type of splice connection is designed as slip-critical connection and thereby, the possible effects of slippage of the bolts due to a possible loss of pretension in the bolts are also investigated. The 3D models with solid elements that have been developed includes three types of connections which are the connection having fully restrained beam splice located in the plastic hinge location, the connection having fully restrained beam splice located out of the plastic hinge and the connection without beam splice. All connection models satisfied the requirement for the special moment frame connections providing sufficient flexural resistance, determined at column face stated in AISC 341-16. In the connection model having fully restrained beam splice located in the plastic hinge, due to the pretension loss in the bolts, the friction force on the contact surfaces is exceeded, resulting in a relative slip. The reduction in the energy dissipation capacity of the connection is observed to be insignificant. The possibility of the crack occurrence around the bolt holes closest to the column face is found to be higher for the splice connection within the protected zone.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.988-1003
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• 2021

Existing elastic analysis methods cannot be adhered to in order to assess the structural integrity of a reactor vessel and internals for a beyond design basis earthquake. Elasto-plastic analysis methods are required, and the factors that affect the elasto-plastic behavior of reactor materials should be taken into account. In this study, a material behavior model was developed that considers the irradiation embrittlement effect, which affects the elasto-plastic behavior of the reactor material. This was used to perform the elasto-plastic time history analyses of the reactor vessel and its internals for beyond design basis earthquake. For this investigation, appropriate beyond design basis earthquakes and reliable finite element models were used. Based on the analysis results, consideration was given to the load reduction effect and the margin change. These were transferred to the internals due to the plastic deformation of the reactor vessel.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.6
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• pp.651-665
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• 2019

Past earthquakes have shown that appropriately designed and detailed buildings with shear walls have great performance such a way that a considerable portion of inelastic energy dissipation occurs in these structural elements. A plastic hinge is fundamentally an energy diminishing means which decrease seismic input energy through the inelastic deformation. Plastic hinge development in a RC shear wall in the areas which have plastic behavior depends on the ground motions characteristics as well as shear wall details. One of the most generally used forms of structural walls is flanged RC wall. Because of the flanges, these types of shear walls have large in-plane and out-of-plane stiffness and develop high shear stresses. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the main characteristics of these structural components and provide a more comprehensive expression of plastic hinge length in the application of performance-based seismic design method and promote the development of seismic design codes for shear walls. In this regard, the effects of axial load level, wall height, wall web and flange length, as well as various features of earthquakes, are examined numerically by finite element methods and the outcomes are compared with consistent experimental data. Based on the results, a new expression is developed which can be utilized to determine the length of plastic hinge area in the flanged RC shear walls.

• Interaction and multiscale mechanics
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.237-255
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• 2013

In this paper, a meshfree-enriched finite element method (ME-FEM) is introduced for the large deformation analysis of nonlinear path-dependent problems involving contact. In linear ME-FEM, the element formulation is established by introducing a meshfree convex approximation into the linear triangular element in 2D and linear tetrahedron element in 3D along with an enriched meshfree node. In nonlinear formulation, the area-weighted smoothing scheme for deformation gradient is then developed in conjunction with the meshfree-enriched element interpolation functions to yield a discrete divergence-free property at the integration points, which is essential to enhance the stress calculation in the stage of plastic deformation. A modified variational formulation using the smoothed deformation gradient is developed for path-dependent material analysis. In the industrial metal forming problems, the mortar contact algorithm is implemented in the explicit formulation. Since the meshfree-enriched element shape functions are constructed using the meshfree convex approximation, they pose the desired Kronecker-delta property at the element edge thus requires no special treatments in the enforcement of essential boundary condition as well as the contact conditions. As a result, this approach can be easily incorporated into a conventional displacement-based finite element code. Two elasto-plastic problems are studied and the numerical results indicated that ME-FEM is capable of delivering a volumetric locking-free and pressure oscillation-free solutions for the large deformation problems in metal forming analysis.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1995.04a
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• pp.17-27
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• 1995

For the post-buckling and elasto-plastic analysis of shell structures, the total Lagrangian formulation is presented based upon the degenerated shell element. Geometrically correct formulation is developed by updating the direction of normal vectors in the iteration process and evaluating the total Green-Lagrange stain corresponding U total displacements. In the calculation of the stiffness matrix, the element formulation takes into account the effect of finite rotation increments by retaining second order rotation terms in the incremental displacement field. The selective or reduced integration scheme using the heterosis element is applied in order to overcome both shear locking phenomena and the zero energy mode. The load/displacement incremental scheme is adopted for geometric non-linear F .E. analysis. Based on such methodology, the computer program is developed and numerical examples to demonstrate the accuracy and the effectiveness of the proposed shell element are presented and compared with references's results.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.03a
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• pp.151-158
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• 2002

In the present design concept, the nonlinear behaviour of bridges is at lowed under large earthquake. The nonlinearity is, however, localized like pier, bearing, etc. Especially, pier columns are most important members for seismic performance. It is, however, difficult to solve the problem how the nonlinearity of columns should be modelled. In this study, the fiber element is used for modelling pier column. The element is a kind of structural elements like frame element, and it can model the distributed plasticity of plastic hinge. A 3 span continous bridge is taken for seismic analysis. First, the nonlinear static analysis the column at fixed support are performed so that the characteristics of column is analyzed. Second, Linear and nonlinear dynamic analysises using simplified model for longitudinal direction are carried out and the results are analyzed.