• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.15-39
• /
• 2013

The sensitivities of a structural response due to variation of its design parameters are prerequisite in the majority of the algorithms used for fundamental problems in engineering as system uncertainties, identification and probabilistic assessments etc. The paper presents the concept of probabilistic sensitivity of suspension bridges with respect to near-fault ground motion. In near field earthquake ground motions, large amplitude spectral accelerations can occur at long periods where many suspension bridges have significant structural response modes. Two different types of suspension bridges, which are Bosporus and Humber bridges, are selected to investigate the near-fault ground motion effects on suspension bridges random response sensitivity analysis. The modulus of elasticity is selected as random design variable. Strong ground motion records of Kocaeli, Northridge and Erzincan earthquakes are selected for the analyses. The stochastic sensitivity displacements and internal forces are determined by using the stochastic sensitivity finite element method and Monte Carlo simulation method. The stochastic sensitivity displacements and responses obtained from the two different suspension bridges subjected to these near-fault strong-ground motions are compared with each other. It is seen from the results that near-fault ground motions have different impacts stochastic sensitivity responses of suspension bridges. The stochastic sensitivity information provides a deeper insight into the structural design and it can be used as a basis for decision-making.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.487-498
• /
• 2018

Buckling-restrained braces are passive control devices with high level of energy dissipation ability. However, they suffer from low post-yield stiffness which makes them vulnerable to severe ground motions, especially near-field earthquakes. Among the several methods proposed to improve resistance of BRB frames, mega-brace configuration can be a solution to increase frame lateral strength and stiffness and improve distribution of forces to prevent large displacement in braces. Due to the limited number of research regarding the performance of such systems, the current paper aims to assess seismic performance of BRB frames with mega-bracing arrangement under near-field earthquakes via a detailed probabilistic framework. For this purpose, a group of multi-story mega-BRB frames were modelled by OpenSEES software platform. In the first part of the paper, simplified procedures including nonlinear pushover and Incremental Dynamic Analysis were conducted for performance evaluation. Two groups of near-fault seismic ground motions (Non-pulse and Pulse-like records) were considered for analyses to take into account the effects of record-to-record uncertainties, as well as forward directivity on the results. In the second part, seismic reliability analyses are conducted in the context of performance based earthquake engineering. Two widely-known EDP-based and IM-based probabilistic frameworks are employed to estimate collapse potential of the structures. Results show that all the structures can successfully tolerate near-field earthquakes with a high level of confidence level. Therefore, mega-bracing configuration can be an effective alternative to conventional BRB bracing to withstand near-field earthquakes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2004.03b
• /
• pp.391-398
• /
• 2004

The propagation mechanism of a detonation pressure with fully coupled charge is clarified and the blasting pressure propagated in rock mass is derived from the application of shock wave theory. Probabilistic distribution is obtained by using explosion tests on emulsion and rock property tests on granite in Seoul and then the probabilistic distribution of the blasting pressure is derived from their properties. The probabilistic distributions of explosive properties and rock properties show a normal distribution so that the blasting pressure propagated in rock can be also regarded as a normal distribution. Parametric analysis was performed to pinpoint the most influential parameter that affects the blasting pressure and it was found that the detonation velocity is the most sensitive parameter. Moreover, uncertainty analysis was performed to figure out the effect of each parameter uncertainty on the uncertainty of blasting pressure. Its result showed that uncertainty of natural rock properties constitutes the main portion of blasting pressure uncertainty rather than that of explosive properties.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
• /
• 2006.04a
• /
• pp.275-282
• /
• 2006

System algorithms estimated by deterministic input may occur the error between predicted and actual output. Especially, actual system can't predict the exact outputs due to uncertainty and tolernce of input parameters. A single output to a set of inputs has a limited value without the variation. Hence, we should consider various scatters caused by the load assessment, material characteristics, stress analysis and manufacturing methods in order to perform the robust design or etimate the reliability of structure. The system design with uncertainty should perform the probabilistic structural optimization with the statistical response and the reliability. This method calculated the probability distributions of the characteristics such as stress by combining stress analysis, response surface methodology and Monte Carlo simulation and got the probabilistic sensitivity. The sensitivity of structural response with respect to in constant design variables was estimated by fracture probability. Therefore, this paper proposed the probabilistic reliability design method for fracture of uncorved freight end beam and the design criteria by fracture probability.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.203-207
• /
• 2015

This paper introduces a probabilistic analysis method in order to analyze the effect of manufacturing tolerance on induction motor performance occurring in massive production. The univariate dimension reduction method is adapted to predict probabilistic characteristics of a performance function due to certain probabilistic distributions of design variables. Moreover, the sensitivity information on mean and variance of the performance function is estimated, and then the effect of randomness of individual design variables on the probability performance function is analyzed. The effectiveness and accuracy of the method is investigated with a mathematical model and an induction motor.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
• /
• 2002.10a
• /
• pp.346-353
• /
• 2002

The risk of bearing failure is evaluated through the seismic response analysis of a bridge considering the probabilistic characteristics of structural properties such as the mass of superstructure, the stiffness of pier, and the translational and rotational stiffness of the foundation as well as seismic loadings during the bridge service lift. The effect of pounding between adjacent vibration units on the risk of bearing failure is also investigated. The probabilistic characteristics of structural properties are obtained by the Monte Carlo simulations based on the probabilistic characteristics of basic random variables included in the structural properties. From the simulation results, the failure probability of fixed bearings attached on the abutment is found to be much higher than those placed on the piers. It is also found that the pounding effect significantly increases the failure probability of bearings. In the simply supported bridges, the risk of bearing failure increases as the number of bridge spans increase. Therefore, the failure probability of fixed bearing due to the effects of pounding phenomena and the number of bridge spans should be considered in the seismic desist of bearings.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.33 no.5
• /
• pp.641-652
• /
• 2019

This paper investigates the effect of aftershocks on the seismic performance of self-centering (SC) prestressed concrete frames using the probabilistic seismic demand analysis methodology. For this purpose, a 4-story SC concrete frame and a conventional reinforced concrete (RC) frame are designed and numerically analyzed through nonlinear dynamic analyses based on a set of as-recorded mainshock-aftershock seismic sequences. The peak and residual story drifts are selected as the demand parameters. The probabilistic seismic demand models of the SC and RC frames are compared, and the SC frame is found to have less dispersion of peak and residual story drifts. The results of drift demand hazard analyses reveal that the SC frame experiences lower peak story drift hazards and significantly reduced residual story drift hazards than the RC frame when subjected to the mainshocks only or the mainshock-aftershock sequences, which demonstrates the advantages of the SC frame over the RC frame. For both the SC and RC frames, the influence of as-recorded aftershocks on the drift demand hazards is small. It is shown that artificial aftershocks can produce notably increased drift demand hazards of the RC frame, while the incremental effect of artificial aftershocks on the drift demand hazards of the SC frame is much smaller. It is also found that aftershock polarity does not influence the drift demand hazards of both the SC and RC frames.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.23 no.6
• /
• pp.61-66
• /
• 2005

A probabilistic approach for evaluating failure risk is suggested in this paper. Probabilistic fracture analyses were performed for a pressurized pipe of a Cr-Mo steel reflecting variation of material properties at high temperature. A crack was assumed to be located along the weld fusion line. Probability density functions of major variables were determined by statistical analyses of material creep and creep crack growth data measured by the previous experimental studies by authors. Distributions of these variables were implemented in Monte Carlo simulation of this study. As a fracture parameter for characterizing growth of a fusion line crack between two materials with different creep properties, $C_t$ normalized with $C^*$ was employed. And the elapsed time was also normalized with tT, Resultingly, failure probability as a function of operating time was evaluated fur various cases. Conventional deterministic life assessment result was turned out to be conservative compared with that of probabilistic result. Sensitivity analysis for each input variable was conducted to understand the most influencing variable to the analysis results. Internal pressure, creep crack growth coefficient and creep coefficient were more sensitive to failure probability than other variables.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.2 no.5
• /
• pp.345-366
• /
• 2005

This work presents an assessment of the computational performance of a vector-parallel implementation of probabilistic model for concrete cracking in 3D. This paper shows the continuing efforts towards code optimization as reported in earlier works Paz, et al. (2002a,b and 2003). The probabilistic crack approach is based on the direct Monte Carlo method. Cracking is accounted by means of 3D interface elements. This approach considers that all nonlinearities are restricted to interface elements modeling cracks. The heterogeneity governs the overall cracking behavior and related size effects on concrete fracture. Computational kernels in the implementation are the inexact Newton iterative driver to solve the non-linear problem and a preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG) driver to solve linearized equations, using an element by element (EBE) strategy to compute matrix-vector products. In particular the paper analyzes code behavior using OpenMP directives in parallel vector processors (PVP), such as the CRAY SV1 and CRAY T94. The impact of the memory architecture on code performance, and also some strategies devised to circumvent this issue are addressed by numerical experiment.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.71 no.2
• /
• pp.165-173
• /
• 2019

This paper investigates the probability of failure of reinforced concrete beams for limit state of collapse for flexure and shear. The influence of randomness of the variables on the failure probability is also examined. The Indian standard code for plain and reinforced concrete IS456:2000 is used for the design of beams. Probabilistic models are developed for flexure and shear according to IS456:2000. The loads considered acting on the beam are live load and dead load only. Random variables associated with the limit state equation such as grade of concrete, grade of steel, live load and dead load are identified. Probability of failure is evaluated based on the limit state equation using First Order Reliability Method (FORM). Importance of the random variables on the limit state equations are observed and the variables are accordingly reduced. The effect of the reduced parameters is checked on the probability of failure. The results show the role of each parameter on the design of beam. Thus, the Indian standard guidelines for plain and reinforced concrete IS456:2000 is investigated with the probabilistic and risk-based analysis and design for a simple beam. The results obtained are also compared with the literature and accordingly some suggestions are made.