• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.591-614
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• 2002

This paper presents experimental and numerical analyses of the thermomechanical behaviour that takes place in SAE1020 mild steel cylindrical specimens during the conventional tensile test. A set of experiments has been carried out in order to obtain the stress-strain curve and the diameter evolution at the neck which allow, in turn, to derive the elastic and hardening parameters characterizing the material response. Temperature evolutions have also been measured for a high strain rate situation. Moreover, a finite element large strain thermoelastoplasticity-based formulation is proposed and used to simulate the deformation process during the whole test. Some important aspects of this formulation are discussed. Finally, the results provided by the simulation are experimentally validated.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.599-613
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• 2006

A method for the dynamical analysis of FE discretized uncertain linear and nonlinear structures is presented. This method is based on the moment equation approach, for which the differential equations governing the response first and second-order statistical moments must be solved. It is shown that they require the cross-moments between the response and the random variables characterizing the structural uncertainties, whose governing equations determine an infinite hierarchy. As a consequence, a closure scheme must be applied even if the structure is linear. In this sense the proposed approach is approximated even for the linear system. For nonlinear systems the closure schemes are also necessary in order to treat the nonlinearities. The complete set of equations obtained by this procedure is shown to be linear if the structure is linear. The application of this procedure to some simple examples has shown its high level of accuracy, if compared with other classical approaches, such as the perturbation method, even for low levels of closures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.335-346
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• 2005

The T-stress of cracks in elastic sheets is solved by using the fractal finite element method (FFEM). The FFEM, which had been developed to determine the stress intensity factors of cracks, is re-applied to evaluate the T-stress which is one of the important fracture parameters. The FFEM combines an exterior finite element model with a localized inner model near the crack tip. The mesh geometry of the latter is self-similar in radial layers around the tip. The higher order Williams series is used to condense the large numbers of nodal displacements at the inner model near the crack tip to a small set of unknown coefficients. Numerical examples revealed that the present approach is simple and accurate for calculating the T-stresses and the stress intensity factors. Some errors of the T-stress solutions shown in the previous literature are identified and the new solutions for the T-stress calculations are presented.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.157-171
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• 1994

A general approach to the dynamic time-history analysis of the reactor core is presented in this paper as a part of the fuel assembly qualification program. Several detailed core models are set up to reflect the placement of the fuel assemblies within the core shroud. Peak horizontal responses are obtained for each model for the motions induced form earthquake. The dynamic responses such as fuel assembly deflected shapes and spacer grid impact loads are carefully investigated. Also, the sensitivity responses are obtained for the earthquake motions and the fuel assembly non-linear response characteristics are discussed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.277-301
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• 1996

A finite element model of a beam element with flexible connections is used to investigate the effect of the randomness in the stiffness values on the modal properties of the structural system. The linear behavior of the connections is described by a set of random fixity factors. The element mass and stiffness matrices are function of these random parameters. The associated eigenvalue problem leads to eigenvalues and eigenvectors which are also random variables. A second order perturbation technique is used for the solution of this random eigenproblem. Closed form expressions for the 1st and 2nd order derivatives of the element matrices with respect to the fixity factors are presented. The mean and the variance of the eigenvalues and vibration modes are obtained in terms of these derivatives. Two numerical examples are presented and the results are validated with those obtained by a Monte-Carlo simulation. It is found that an almost linear statistical relation exists between the eigenproperties and the stiffness of the connections.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.277-296
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• 2009

The paper investigates the dynamic behaviour of stiffened panels. The coupled differential equations for eccentric stiffening configuration are first derived. Then a semi-analytical procedure for dynamic analysis of stiffened panels is presented. Unlike finite element or finite strip methods, where the plate is discretized into a set of elements or strips, the plate in this procedure is treated as a single element. The potential energy of the structure is first expressed in terms generalized functions that describe the longitudinal and transverse displacement profiles. The resulting non-linear strain energy functions are then transformed into unconstrained optimization problem in which mathematical programming techniques are employed to determine the magnitude of the lowest natural frequency and the associated mode shape for pre-selected plate/stiffener geometric parameters. The described procedure is verified with other numerical methods for several stiffened panels. Results are then presented showing the variation of the natural frequency with plate/stiffener geometric parameters for various stiffening configurations.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.279-299
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• 2010

A methodology on application of the discrete singular convolution (DSC) technique to the free vibration analysis of thin plates with curvilinear quadrilateral platforms is developed. In the proposed approach, irregular physical domain is transformed into a rectangular domain by using geometric coordinate transformation. The DSC procedures are then applied to discretization of the transformed set of governing equations and boundary conditions. For demonstration of the accuracy and convergence of the method, some numerical examples are provided on plates with different geometry such as elliptic, trapezoidal having straight and parabolic sides, sectorial, annular sectorial, and plates with four curved edges. The results obtained by the DSC method are compared with those obtained by other numerical and analytical methods. The method is suitable for the problem considered due to its generality, simplicity, and potential for further development.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.739-753
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• 2014

There have been many packages that can be employed to analyze plane frames. However, because most structural analysis packages suffer from closeness of system, it is very difficult to integrate it with an optimization package. To overcome the difficulty, we proposed a possible alternative, DAMDO, which integrate Design, Analysis, Modeling, Definition, and Optimization phases into an integrative environment. The DAMDO methodology employs neural networks to integrate structural analysis package and optimization package so as not to need directly to integrate these two packages. The key problem of the DAMDO approach is how to generate a set of reasonable random designs in the first phase. According to the characteristics of optimized plane frames, we proposed the ratio variable approach to generate them. The empirical results show that the ratio variable approach can greatly improve the accuracy of the neural networks, and the plane frame optimization problems can be solved by the DAMDO methodology.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1992.04a
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• pp.84-88
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• 1992

Laser beam hardenling of 12%-Cr steel has been evaluated by using a continuous wave 3 kW CO$\_$2/ laser with a hardening mirror set. Experiment was performed on the optimum hardening condition with a laser power of 2.85kW and travel speed of 10 and 5 m/min. Multi passes have been alsotried to find the hardening characteristics of partly overlapped zone. The black paint to use at high temperature was adopted to increases the absorptivity of laser beam energy with the wavelength of 10.6 .mu. m at the surface of bese metal. The microstructure of the hardened layers was observed by using a light microscopy. SEM and TEM. A fine lamellar martensite formed in the hardened zones exhibits very high Vickers microhardness of 600 Hv, whereas the tempered martesite distributes in the base metal with Vickers microhardness of 240 Hv. It has been found that laser hardening with multi pass showed no significant drop of the hardness between adjacent passes.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.559-576
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• 2008

Having established the initial geometry and cable force of a typical three span suspension bridge under permanent load, the additional maximum response of the cable and the stiffening girder due to live load are determined, by means of an analytic procedure, considering the girder first hinged at its ends and then continuous through the main towers. The problem of interaction between the cable and the stiffening girder is examined taking under due consideration the second order effects, whereby, through the analogy to a fictitious tensioned beam under transverse load, a closed -form solution is achieved by means of a simple quadratic equation. It is found that the behavior of the whole system is governed by five simple dimensionless parameters which enable a quick determination of all the relevant design magnitudes of the bridge. Moreover, by introducing these parameters, a set of diagrams is presented, which enable the estimation of the influence of the geometric and loading data on the response and permit its immediate evaluation for preliminary design purposes.