• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.191-194
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• 2001

A partially coupled thermo-piezoelectric-mechanical triangular finite element model of composite laminates with surface bonded piezoelectric actuators, subjected to externally applied mechanical load, temperature change load, electric field load is developed. The governing differential equations are obtained by applying the principle of free energy and variational techniques. A higher order zigzag theory displacement field is employed to accurately capture the transverse shear and normal effects in laminated composite plates of arbitrary thickness. Nonconforming shape functions by Specht are employed in the transverse displacement variables. Numerical examples demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed triangular plate element.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.9-12
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• 2005

Recently, research on the morphing wing is an interesting issue to develop the capability of the wing such as improving the lift and reduction of drag during the operation of an aircraft by changing the wing shape from one configuration to another. A more efficient weight reduction of the wing using smart or morphing wing concept can be achieved in comparison with the conventional flaps. In this study, it is investigated the behaviors of the morphing wing using Macro Fiber Composite (MFC) actuators. Generally, MFC is the piezocomposite actuator with the rectangular PZT fiber and epoxy matrix, and uses the interdigitated electrode to produce more powerful actuation in the in-plane direction. Furthermore, it can produce the twisting actuation as compared with the traditional PZT actuators. In the formulation, the first-order shear deformation plate theory is used, and finite element method is adopted in the numerical analysis of the model. Results show the characteristics of the static behavior of the morphing wing according to the change of the actuation voltage.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.249-265
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• 2016

A bimorph piezoelectric energy harvester is developed for harvesting energy under the vortex induced vibration and it is integrated to a host structure of a trapezoidal plate without changing its passive dynamic properties. It is aimed to select trapezoidal plate as similar to a vertical fin-like structure which could be a part of an air vehicle. The designed energy harvester consists of an aluminum beam and two identical multi fiber composite (MFC) piezoelectric patches. In order to understand the dynamic characteristic of the trapezoidal plate, finite element analysis is performed and it is validated through an experimental study. The bimorph piezoelectric energy harvester is then integrated to the trapezoidal plate at the most convenient location with minimal structural displacement. The finite element model is constructed for the new combined structure in ANSYS Workbench 14.0 and the analyses performed on this particular model are then validated via experimental techniques. Finally, the energy harvesting performance of the bimorph piezoelectric energy harvester attached to the trapezoidal plate is also investigated through wind tunnel tests under the air load and the obtained results indicate that the system is a viable one for harvesting reasonable amount of energy.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.303-320
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• 2011

Comparing to active damage monitoring, impact localization on composite by using time reversal focusing method has several difficulties. First, the transfer function of the actuator-sensor path is difficult to be obtained because of the limitation that no impact experiment is permitted to perform on the real structure and the difficulty to model it because the performance of real aircraft composite is much more complicated comparing to metal structure. Second, the position of impact is unknown and can not be controlled as the excitation signal used in the active monitoring. This makes it not applicable to compare the difference between the excitation and the focused signal. Another difficulty is that impact signal is frequency broadband, giving rise to the difficulty to process virtual synthesis because of the highly dispersion nature of frequency broadband Lamb wave in plate-like structure. Aiming at developing a practical method for on-line localization of impact on aircraft composite structure which can take advantage of time reversal focusing and does not rely on the transfer function, a PZT sensor array based phase synthesis time reversal impact imaging method is proposed. The complex Shannon wavelet transform is presented to extract the frequency narrow-band signals from the impact responded signals of PZT sensors. A phase synthesis process of the frequency narrow-band signals is implemented to search the time reversal focusing position on the structure which represents the impact position. Evaluation experiments on a carbon fiber composite structure show that the proposed method realizes the impact imaging and localization with an error less than 1.5 cm. Discussion of the influence of velocity errors and measurement noise is also given in detail.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.999-1022
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• 2016

The use of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) to strengthen steel structures has attracted the attention of researchers greatly. Previous studies demonstrated bonding of CFRP plates to the steel sections has been a successful method to increase the mechanical properties. However, the main limitation to popular use of steel/CFRP strengthening system is the concern on durability of bonding between steel and CFRP in various environmental conditions. The paper evaluates the performance of I-section steel beams strengthened with pultruded CFRP plate on the bottom flange after exposure to diverse conditions including natural tropical climate, wet/dry cycles, plain water, salt water and acidic solution. Four-point bending tests were performed at specific intervals and the mechanical properties were compared to the control beam. Besides, the ductility of the strengthened beams and distribution of shear stress in adhesive layer were investigated thoroughly. The study found the adhesive layer was the critical part and the performance of the system related directly to its behavior. The highest strength degradation was observed for the beams immersed in salt water around 18% after 8 months exposure. Besides, the ductility of all strengthened beams increased after exposure. A theoretical procedure was employed to model the degradation of epoxy adhesive.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.99-115
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• 2020

This article deals with the dynamic analysis in pad concrete foundation containing Silica nanoparticles (SiO₂) subject to seismic load. In order to control the foundation smartly, a piezoelectric layer covered the foundation. The weight of the building by a column on the foundation is assumed with an external force in the middle of the structure. The foundation is located in soil medium which is modeled by spring elements. The Mori-Tanaka law is utilized for calculating the equivalent mechanical characteristics of the concrete foundation. The Kevin-Voigt model is adopted to take into account the structural damping. The concrete structure is modeled by a thick plate and the governing equations are deduced using Hamilton's principle under the assumption of higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT). The differential quadrature method (DQM) and the Newmark method are applied to obtain the seismic response. The effects of the applied voltage to the smart layer, agglomeration and volume percent of SiO₂ nanoparticles, damping of the structure, geometrical parameters and soil medium of the structure are assessed on the dynamic response. It has been demonstrated by the numerical results that by applying a negative voltage, the dynamic deflection is reduced significantly. Moreover, silica nanoparticles reduce the dynamic deflection of the concrete foundation.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.145-158
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• 2014

The objective of this study is to improve the survivability and reliability of the FBG sensor network in the structural health monitoring (SHM) system. Therefore, a model reconstruction soft computing recognition algorithm based on support vector regression (SVR) is proposed to achieve the high reliability of the FBG sensor network, and the grid search algorithm is used to optimize the parameters of SVR model. Furthermore, in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model reconstruction algorithm, a SHM system based on an eight-point fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor network is designed to monitor the foreign-object low velocity impact of a CFRP composite plate. Simultaneously, some sensors data are neglected to simulate different kinds of FBG sensor network failure modes, the predicting results are compared with non-reconstruction for the same failure mode. The comparative results indicate that the performance of the model reconstruction recognition algorithm based on SVR has more excellence than that of non-reconstruction, and the model reconstruction algorithm almost keeps the consistent predicting accuracy when no sensor, one sensor and two sensors are invalid in the FBG sensor network, thus the reliability is improved when there are FBG sensors are invalid in the structural health monitoring system.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.99-117
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• 2015

The Stonecutters Bridge (SCB) in Hong Kong is the third-longest cable-stayed bridge in the world with a main span stretching 1,018 m between two 298 m high single-leg tapering composite towers. A Wind and Structural Health Monitoring System (WASHMS) is being implemented on SCB by the Highways Department of The Hong Kong SAR Government, and the SCB-WASHMS is composed of more than 1,300 sensors in 15 types. In order to establish a linkage between structural health monitoring and maintenance management, a Structural Health Rating System (SHRS) with relevant rating tools and indices is devised. On the basis of a 3D space frame finite element model (FEM) of SCB and model updating, this paper presents the development of an SHR-oriented 3D multi-scale FEM for the purpose of load-resistance analysis and damage evaluation in structural element level, including modeling, refinement and validation of the multi-scale FEM. The refined 3D structural segments at deck and towers are established in critical segment positions corresponding to maximum cable forces. The components in the critical segment region are modeled as a full 3D FEM and fitted into the 3D space frame FEM. The boundary conditions between beam and shell elements are performed conforming to equivalent stiffness, effective mass and compatibility of deformation. The 3D multi-scale FEM is verified by the in-situ measured dynamic characteristics and static response. A good agreement between the FEM and measurement results indicates that the 3D multi-scale FEM is precise and efficient for WASHMS and SHRS of SCB. In addition, stress distribution and concentration of the critical segments in the 3D multi-scale FEM under temperature loads, static wind loads and equivalent seismic loads are investigated. Stress concentration elements under equivalent seismic loads exist in the anchor zone in steel/concrete beam and the anchor plate edge in steel anchor box of the towers.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.891-906
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• 2019

This study considers the instability behavior of sandwich plates considering magnetorheological (MR) fluid core and piezoelectric reinforced facesheets. As facesheets at the top and bottom of structure have piezoelectric properties they are subjected to 3D electric field therefore they can be used as actuator and sensor, respectively and in order to control the vibration responses and loss factor of the structure a proportional-derivative (PD) controller is applied. Furthermore, Halpin-Tsai model is used to determine the material properties of facesheets which are reinforced by graphene platelets (GPLs). Moreover, because the core has magnetic property, it is exposed to magnetic field. In addition, Kelvin-Voigt theory is applied to calculate the structural damping of the piezoelectric layers. In order to consider environmental forces applied to structure, the visco-Pasternak model is assumed. In order to consider the mechanical behavior of structure, sinusoidal shear deformation theory (SSDT) is assumed and Hamilton's principle according to piezoelasticity theory is employed to calculate motion equations and these equations are solved based on differential cubature method (DCM) to obtain the vibration and modal loss factor of the structure subsequently. The effect of different factors such as GPLs distribution, dimensions of structure, electro-magnetic field, damping of structure, viscoelastic environment and boundary conditions of the structure on the vibration and loss factor of the system are considered. In order to indicate the accuracy of the obtained results, the results are validated with other published work. It is concluded from results that exposing magnetic field to the MR fluid core has positive effect on the behavior of the system.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.587-614
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• 2014

In recent years the interest in online monitoring of lightweight structures with ultrasonic guided waves is steadily growing. Especially the aircraft industry is a driving force in the development of structural health monitoring (SHM) systems. In order to optimally design SHM systems powerful and efficient numerical simulation tools to predict the behaviour of ultrasonic elastic waves in thin-walled structures are required. It has been shown that in real industrial applications, such as airplane wings or fuselages, conventional linear and quadratic pure displacement finite elements commonly used to model ultrasonic elastic waves quickly reach their limits. The required mesh density, to obtain good quality solutions, results in enormous computational costs when solving the wave propagation problem in the time domain. To resolve this problem different possibilities are available. Analytical methods and higher order finite element method approaches (HO-FEM), like p-FEM, spectral elements, spectral analysis and isogeometric analysis, are among them. Although analytical approaches offer fast and accurate results, they are limited to rather simple geometries. On the other hand, the application of higher order finite element schemes is a computationally demanding task. The drawbacks of both methods can be circumvented if regions of complex geometry are modelled using a HO-FEM approach while the response of the remaining structure is computed utilizing an analytical approach. The objective of the paper is to present an efficient method to couple different HO-FEM schemes with an analytical description of an undisturbed region. Using this hybrid formulation the numerical effort can be drastically reduced. The functionality of the proposed scheme is demonstrated by studying the propagation of ultrasonic guided waves in plates, excited by a piezoelectric patch actuator. The actuator is modelled utilizing higher order coupled field finite elements, whereas the homogenous, isotropic plate is described analytically. The results of this "semi-analytical" approach highlight the opportunities to reduce the numerical effort if closed-form solutions are partially available.