• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2003

W-beam guardrail system has been the most popular roadside safety device around the world. Through large plastic deformation and corresponding energy dissipation, a W-beam guardrail system contains and re-directs out-of-control vehicles so as to reduce the impact damage on the vehicle occupants and the vehicles themselves. In this paper, our recent experiments on 1 : 3.75 downscaled W-beam and the beam-post system are reported. The static and impact test results on the load characteristics, the global response and the local cross-sectional distortion are reveled. The effects of three different end-boundary conditions for the beam-only testing are examined. It is found that the load characteristics are much dependent on the combined contribution of the local cross-sectional distortion and the end-supporting conditions. The energy Partitioning between the beam and the supporting Posts in the beam-Post-system testing were also examined. The results showed that the energy dissipation partitioning changed with the input impact energy. Finally, a simple mass-spring model is developed to assess the dynamic response of a W-beam guardrail system in response to an impact loading. The model's prediction agrees well with the experimental results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.295-312
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• 2001

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new type of steel reinforced concrete (SRC) beam-column joints and to examine the structural performance of the proposed joints, which simplify the construction procedure of steel fabrication, welding works, concrete casting and joint strengthening. In the proposed beam-column joints, the steel element of columns forms continuously built-in crossing of H-sections (${\Box}$), with adjacent flanges of column being connected by horizontal stiffeners in a joint at the level of the beam flanges. In addition, simplified lateral reinforcement (${\Box}$) is adopted in a joint to confine the longitudinal reinforcing bars in columns. Experimental and analytical studies have been carried out to estimate the structural performance of the proposed joints. Twelve cruciform specimens and seven SRC beam-column subassemblage specimens were prepared and tested. The following can be concluded from this study: (1) SRC subassemblages with the proposed beam-column joints show adequate seismic performances which are superior to the demand of the current code; (2) The yield and ultimate strength capacities of the beam-to-column connections can be estimated by analysis based on the yield line theory; (3) The skeleton curves and the ultimate shear capacities of the beam-column joint panel are predicted with a fair degree of accuracy by considering a simple stress transfer mechanism.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.271-277
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• 2023

This article investigates the effect of viscoelastic foundations on the waves' dispersion in a beam made of ceramic-metal functionally graded material (FGM) with microstructural defects. The beam is considered to be shear deformable, and a simple three-unknown sinusoidal integral higher-order shear deformation beam theory is applied to represent the beam's displacement field. Novel to this study is the investigation of the impact of viscosity damping on imperfect FG beams, utilizing a few-unknowns theory. The stresses and strains are obtained using the two-dimensional elasticity relations of FGM, neglecting the normal strain in the beam's depth direction. The variational operation is employed to define the dispersion relations of the FGM beam. The influences of the material gradation exponent, the beam's thickness, the porosity, and visco-Pasternak foundation parameters are represented. Results showed that phase velocity was inversely proportional to the damping and porosity of the beams. Additionally, the foundation viscous damping had a stronger influence on wave velocity when porosity volume fractions were low.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.575-583
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• 2009

As the height of buildings rises, new structural systems are being applied other than theexisting S, RC, and SRC to decrease the weight of buildings and to make their construction more efficient, CFT structureshad been applied in many building construction projects due to their superior structural performance and construction efficiency. CFT structures need a diaphragm to harmoniously transmit the beam flange load to the column and the opponent beam in connections. Especially, on the right and left sides of the column other beams are connected, The establishment of a diaphragm for the lower part flange load delivery of the beam and guarantee for concrete filing capacity difficulty have (What does this mean?). In this paper, connection details are proposed in the form of a welded vertical plate with a circular hole on the CFT column's interior to harmoniously transmit the lower-part beam flange load to the column and the opponent beam. Thesediaphragm details use the concrete anchor effect in the beam flange load delivery, with the concrete-filled CFT column interior piercing the hole of the perforated plate, and a perforated board is established vertically to improve the concrete filling capacity. To analyze the structural performance of the proposed connection details, five simple tension specimens were made with the following parameters: with our without vertical and horizontal perforated plates, shear hole number, concrete filled or not, thickness of the perforated plate, etc. Then experimental tests were performed on these specimens.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.623-640
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• 2015

This paper presents techniques to harvest higher voltage from piezoelectric cantilever energy harvester by structural alteration. Three different energy harvesting structures are considered namely, stepped cantilever beam, stepped cantilever beam with rectangular and trapezoidal cavity. The analytical model of three energy harvesting structures are developed using Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. The thickness, position of the rectangular cavity and the taper angle of the trapezoidal cavity is found to shift the neutral axis away from the surface of the piezoelectric element which in turn increases the generated voltage. The performance of the energy harvesters is evaluated experimentally and is compared with regular piezoelectric cantilever energy harvester. The analytical and experimental investigations reveal that, the proposed energy harvesting structures generate higher output voltage as compared to the regular piezoelectric cantilever energy harvesting structure. This work suggests that through simple structural modifications higher energy can be harvested from the widely reported piezoelectric cantilever energy harvester.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.481-495
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• 2017

The present article examines the static response of multilayered magneto-electro-elastic (MEE) beam in thermal environment through finite element (FE) methods. On the basis of the minimum total potential energy principle and the coupled constitutive equations of MEE material, the FE equilibrium equations of cantilever MEE beam is derived. Maxwell's equations are considered to establish the relation between electric field and electric potential; magnetic field and magnetic potential. A simple condensation approach is employed to solve the global FE equilibrium equations. Further, numerical evaluations are made to examine the influence of different in-plane and through-thickness temperature distributions on the multiphysics response of MEE beam. A parametric study is performed to evaluate the effect of stacking sequence and different temperature profiles on the direct and derived quantities of MEE beam. It is believed that the results presented in this article serve as a benchmark for accurate design and analysis of the MEE smart structures in thermal applications.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.141-156
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• 1994

In this paper, the effect of material elasticity was evaluated through a simple model as proposed by Wang and Yu (1991), for yield mechanisms of a cantilever beam under tip pulse loading. The beam was assumed rigid-perfectly plastic but instead of the usual fully clamped constraints at its root, an elastic-perfectly plastic rotational spring was introduced there so the system had a certain capacity to absorb elastic energy. Compared with a rigid-perfectly plastic beam without a spring root, the present beam-spring model showed differences in the initial plastic hinge position and the minimum magnitude of the dynamic force needed to produce a plastic failure. It was also shown that various failure responses may happen while the hinge travels along the beam segment towards the root, rather than a unique response mode as in a rigid perfectly plastic analysis.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1993.11a
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• pp.356-358
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• 1993

With a focused laser beam, we make a microscopic change on a thin film, and organize the overall system that can observe the change with a microscope. This system utilizes the energy of a laser beam which is focused by a simple lense system. That is a laser beam which has its waist at working distance of a lense. The microscopic change induced by the energy of laser beam focused through a lense can be observed in real time. The experiment with this system shows that the 10mW He-Ne 632.8nm laser can change the black vinyl instantaneously.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.1158-1167
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• 1995

In this study, the dynamic instabilities of a beam, subjected to periodic short impulsive loading, are investigated using simple 2-DoF beam model. The behaviors of beam model whose axial motions are constrained are studied for the case of elastic and elastic-plastic behavior. In the case of elastic behavior, the chaotic responses due to the periodic pulse are identified, and the characteristics of the behavior are analysed by investigating the fractal attractors in the Poincare map. The short-term and long-term responses of the beam are unpredictable because of the extreme sensitivities to parameters, a hallmark of chaotic response. In the case of elastic-plastic behavior, the responses are governed by the plastic strains which occur continuously and irregularly as time increases. Thus the characteristics of the response behavior change continuously due to the plastic strain increments, and are unpredictable as well as the elastic case.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.59-70
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• 2018

In this paper, geometrically non-linear analysis of a functionally graded simple supported beam is investigated with porosity effect. The material properties of the beam are assumed to vary though height direction according to a prescribed power-law distributions with different porosity models. In the nonlinear kinematic model of the beam, the total Lagrangian approach is used within Timoshenko beam theory. In the solution of the nonlinear problem, the finite element method is used in conjunction with the Newton-Raphson method. In the study, the effects of material distribution such as power-law exponents, porosity coefficients, nonlinear effects on the static behavior of functionally graded beams are examined and discussed with porosity effects. The difference between the geometrically linear and nonlinear analysis of functionally graded porous beam is investigated in detail. Also, the effects of the different porosity models on the functionally graded beams are investigated both linear and nonlinear cases.