• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제8권3호
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• pp.207-215
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• 2019

Application of nanotechnology can be used to tailor made cementitious composites owing to small dimension and physical behaviour of resulting hydration products. Because of high aspect ratio and extremely high strength, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are perfect reinforcing materials. Hence, there is a great prospect to use CNTs in developing new generation cementitious materials. In the present paper, a parametric study has been conducted on cementitious composites reinforced by two types of multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) designated as Type I CNT (10-20 nm outer dia.) and Type II CNT (30-50 nm outer dia.) with various concentrations ranging from 0.1% to 0.5% by weight of cement. To evaluate important properties such as flexural strength, strain to failure, elastic modulus and modulus of toughness of the CNT admixed specimens at different curing periods, flexural bending tests were performed. Results show that composites with Type II CNTs gave more strength as compared to Type I CNTs. The highest increase in strength (flexural and compressive) is of the order of 22% and 33%, respectively, compared to control samples. Modulus of toughness at 28 days showed highest improvement of 265% for Type II 0.3% CNT composites. It is obvious that an optimum percentage of CNT could exists for composites to achieve suitable reinforcement behaviour and desired strength properties. Based on the parametric study, a tentative optimum CNT concentration (0.3% by weight of cement) has been proposed. Scanning electron microscope image shows perfect crack bridging mechanism; several of the CNTs were shown to act as crack arrestors across fine cracks along with some CNTs breakage.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제8권2호
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• pp.165-180
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• 1999

The cost effectiveness of using steel roof systems for residential buildings is becoming increasingly apparent with the decrease in manufacturing cost of steel components, reliability and efficiency in construction practices, and the economic and environmental concerns. While steel has been one of the primary materials for structural systems, it is only recently that its use for residential buildings is being explored. A comprehensive system for the design of residential steel roof truss systems is presented. In the first stage of the research the design curves obtained from the AISI-LRFD code for the manufactured cross-sections were verified experimentally. Components of the truss systems were tested in order to determine their member properties when subjected to axial force and bending moments. In addition, the experiments were simulated using finite element analysis to provide an additional source of verification. The second stage of the research involved the development of an integrated design approach that would automatically design a lowest cost roof truss given minimal input. A modified genetic algorithm was used to handle sizing, shape and topology variables in the design problem. The developed methodology was implemented in a software system for the purpose of designing the lowest cost truss that would meet the AISI code provisions and construction requirements given the input parameters. The third stage of the research involved full-scale testing of a typical residential steel roof designed using the developed software system. The full scale testing established the factor of safety while validating the analysis and design procedures. Evaluation of the test results indicates that designs using the present approach provide a structure with enough reserve strength to perform as predicted and are very economical.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.85-110
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• 2005

This paper aims at formulating various statistical models for the study of a ten year Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) data collected from various WIM stations in Hong Kong. In order to study the bridge live load model it is important to determine the mathematical distributions of different load affecting parameters such as gross vehicle weights, axle weights, axle spacings, average daily number of trucks etc. Each of the above parameters is analyzed by various stochastic processes in order to obtain the mathematical distributions and the Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) method is adopted to calculate the statistical parameters, expected values and standard deviations from the given samples of data. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) method of approach is used to check the suitability of the statistical model selected for the particular parameter and the Monte Carlo method is used to simulate the distributions of maximum value stochastic processes of a series of given stochastic processes. Using the statistical analysis approach the maximum value of gross vehicle weight and axle weight in bridge design life has been determined and the distribution functions of these parameters are obtained under both free-flowing traffic and dense traffic status. The maximum value of bending moments and shears for wide range of simple spans are obtained by extrapolation. It has been observed that the obtained maximum values of the gross vehicle weight and axle weight from this study are very close to their legal limitations of Hong Kong which are 42 tonnes for gross weight and 10 tonnes for axle weight.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• 제4권4호
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• pp.279-295
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• 2015

The article presents a theoretical-experimental approach developed for modeling the coefficient of sliding friction in the dynamic system tool-workpiece in slide diamond burnishing of low-alloy unhardened steels. The experimental setup, implemented on conventional lathe, includes a specially designed device, with a straight cantilever beam as body. The beam is simultaneously loaded by bending (from transverse slide friction force) and compression (from longitudinal burnishing force), which is a reason for geometrical nonlinearity. A method, based on the idea of separation of the variables (time and metric) before establishing the differential equation of motion, has been applied for dynamic modeling of the beam elastic curve. Between the longitudinal (burnishing force) and transverse (slide friction force) forces exists a correlation defined by Coulomb's law of sliding friction. On this basis, an analytical relationship between the beam deflection and the sought friction coefficient has been obtained. In order to measure the deflection of the beam, strain gauges connected in a "full bridge" type of circuit are used. A flexible adhesive is selected, which provides an opportunity for dynamic measurements through the constructed measuring system. The signal is proportional to the beam deflection and is fed to the analog input of USB DAQ board, from where the signal enters in a purposely created virtual instrument which is developed by means of Labview. The basic characteristic of the virtual instrument is the ability to record and visualize in a real time the measured deflection. The signal sampling frequency is chosen in accordance with Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem. In order to obtain a regression model of the friction coefficient with the participation of the diamond burnishing process parameters, an experimental design with 55 experimental points is synthesized. A regression analysis and analysis of variance have been carried out. The influence of the factors on the friction coefficient is established using sections of the hyper-surface of the friction coefficient model with the hyper-planes.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제41권6호
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• pp.711-734
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• 2012

The foundation of a tall building frame resting on settable soil mass undergoes differential settlements which alter the forces in the structural members significantly. For tall buildings it is essential to consider seismic forces in analysis. The building frame, foundation and soil mass are considered to act as single integral compatible structural unit. The stress-strain characteristics of the supporting soil play a vital role in the interaction analysis. The resulting differential settlements of the soil mass are responsible for the redistribution of forces in the superstructure. In the present work, the nonlinear interaction analysis of a two-bay ten-storey plane building frame- layered soil system under seismic loading has been carried out using the coupled finite-infinite elements. The frame has been considered to act in linear elastic manner while the soil mass to act as nonlinear elastic manner. The subsoil in reality exists in layered formation and consists of various soil layers having different properties. Each individual soil layer in reality can be considered to behave in nonlinear manner. The nonlinear layered system as a whole will undergo differential settlements. Thus, it becomes essential to study the structural behaviour of a structure resting on such nonlinear composite layered soil system. The nonlinear constitutive hyperbolic soil model available in the literature is adopted to model the nonlinear behaviour of the soil mass. The structural behaviour of the interaction system is investigated as the shear forces and bending moments in superstructure get significantly altered due to differential settlements of the soil mass.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.281-303
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• 2014

In order to suppress the wind-induced vibrations of the Canton Tower, a pair of active mass driver (AMD) systems has been installed on the top of the main structure. The structural principal directions in which the bending modes of the structure are uncoupled are proposed and verified based on the orthogonal projection approach. For the vibration control design in the principal X direction, the simplified model of the structure is developed based on the finite element model and modified according to the field measurements under wind excitations. The AMD system driven by permanent magnet synchronous linear motors are adopted. The dynamical models of the AMD subsystems are determined according to the open-loop test results by using nonlinear least square fitting method. The continuous variable gain feedback (VGF) control strategy is adopted to make the AMD system adaptive to the variation in the intensity of wind excitations. Finally, the field tests of free vibration control are carried out. The field test results of AMD control show that the damping ratio of the first vibration mode increases up to 11 times of the original value without control.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제60권6호
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• pp.1001-1019
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• 2016

The connector is the most important part of a composite beam and promotes a composite action between a steel beam and concrete slab. This paper presents the experiment results for three large-scale beams with a newly puzzle shape of crestbond. The behavior of this connector in a composite beam was investigated, and the results were correlated with those obtained from push-out-test specimens. Four-point-bending load testing was carried out on steel-concrete composite beam models to consider the effects of the concrete strength, number of transverse rebars in the crestbond, and width of the concrete slab. Then, the deflection, ultimate load, and strains of the concrete, steel beam, and crestbond; the relative slip between the steel beam and the concrete slab at the end of the beams; and the failure mechanism were observed. The results showed that the general behavior of a steel-concrete composite beam using the newly puzzle shape of crestbond shear connectors was similar to that of a steel-concrete composite beam using conventional shear connectors. These newly puzzle shape of crestbond shear connectors can be used as shear connectors, and should be considered for application in composite bridges, which have a large number of steel beams.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.473-481
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• 2017

Steel plate shear wall (SPSW) system has been increasingly used for lateral loads resisting system since 1980s when the utilization of post-buckling strength of SPSW was realized. The structural response of SPSWs largely depends on the behavior of the surrounded beams. The beams are normally required to behave in the elastic region when the SPSW fully buckled and formed the tension field action. However, most modern design codes do not specify how this requirement can be achieved. This paper presents theoretical investigation and design procedures of manually calculating the plastic flexural capacity of the beams of SPSWs and can be considered as an extension to the previous work by Qu and Bruneau (2011). The reduction in the plastic flexural capacity of beam was considered to account for the presence of shear stress that was altered towards flanges at the boundary region, which can be explained by Saint-Venant's principle. The reduction in beam web was introduced and modified based on the research by Qu and Bruneau (2011), while the shear stress in the web in this research is excluded due to the boundary effect. The plastic flexural capacity of the beams is given by the superposition of the contributions from the flanges and the web. The developed equations are capable of predicting the plastic moment of the beams subjected to combined shear force, axial force, bending moment, and tension fields induced by yielded infill panels. Good agreement was found between the theoretical results and the data from previous research for flexural capacity of beams.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제78권1호
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• pp.87-102
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• 2021

Long span cross-rope suspension structure is an innovative structural system evolved from typical Cross-Rope Suspension (CRS) guyed tower, a type of supporting system with short span suspension cable supporting overhead power transmission lines. In mountainous areas, the span length of suspension cable was designed to be extended to hundreds or over one thousand meters, which is applicable for crossing deep valleys. Vortex Induced Vibration (VIV) of overhead power transmission lines was considered to be one of the major factors of its fatigue and service life. In this paper, VIV and its controlling by Stockbridge damper for long span CRS was discussed. Firstly, energy balance method and finite element method for assessing VIV of CRS were presented. An approach of establishing FE model of long span CRS structure with dampers was introduced. The effect of Stockbridge damper for overall vibration of CRS was compared in both theoretical and numerical approaches. Results indicated that vibration characteristics of conductor in long span CRS compared with traditional tower-line system. Secondly, analysis on long span CRS including Stockbridge damper showed additional dampers installed were essential for controlling maximum dynamic bending stresses of conductors at both ends. Moreover, factors, including configuration and mass of Stockbridge damper, span length of suspension cable and conductor and number of spans of conductor, were assessed for further discussion on VIV controlling of long span CRS.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제32권5호
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• pp.571-582
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• 2019

This study aimed to assess the feasibility on the wide and long 9%Ni steel plate for use in the LNG storage inner tank shell. First, 5-m-wide and 15-m-long 9%Ni steel plates were test manufactured from a steel mill and specimens taken from the plates were tested for strength, toughness, and flatness to verify their performance based on international standards and design specifications. Second, plates with a thickness of 10 mm and 25 mm, a width of 4.8~5.0 m, and a length of 15 m were test fabricated by subjecting to pretreatment, beveling, and roll bending resulting in a final width of 4.5~4.8 m and a length of 14.8m with fabrication errors identical to conventional plates. Third, welded specimens obtained via shield metal arc welding used for vertical welding of inner tank shell and submerged arc welding used for horizontal welding were also tested for strength, toughness and ductility. Fourth, verification of shell plate material and fabrication was followed by test erection using two 25-mm-thick, 4.5-m-wide and 14.8-m-long 9%Ni steel plates. No undesirable welding failure or deformation was found. Finally, parametric design using wide and long 9%Ni steel plates was carried out, and a simplified design method to determine the plate thickness along the shell height was proposed. The cost analysis based on the parametric design resulted in about 2% increase of steel weight; however, the construction cost was reduced about 6% due to large reduction in welding work.