• Computers and Concrete
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.305-319
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• 2015

On mesoscopic level, concrete can be treated as a three-phase composite material consisting of mortar, aggregates and interfacial transition zone (ITZ) between mortar and aggregate. A lot of research has confirmed that ITZ plays a crucial role in the mechanical fracture process of concrete. The aim of the present study is to propose a numerical method on mesoscale to analyze the failure mechanism of reinforced concrete (RC) structures under mechanical loading, and then it will help precisely predict the damage or the cracking initiation and propagation of concrete. Concrete is meshed by means of the Rigid Body Spring Model (RBSM) concept, while the reinforcing steel bars are modeled as beam-type elements. Two kinds of RC members, i.e. subjected to uniaxial tension and beams under bending, the fracture process of concrete and the distribution of cracks, as well as the load-deflection relationships are investigated and compared with the available test results. It is found that the numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental observations, indicating that the model can successfully simulate the failure process of the RC members.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.290-297
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• 1998

In this paper, we propose to a method to estimate the elasto-plastic buckling for single layer latticed domes. First, we assume that each member consists of the rigid zone and elastic spring at both end joint, the elastic element and three elasto-plastic spring to judge for yeilding the member. Next, the member which has most influence on buckling for structures is determined by a distributed pattern of the strain energy which is calculated through linear eigenvalue analysis. And then, normalized slenderness ratio of the element is derived considering the axial force at elastic buckling load. Later, we execute elasto-plastic nonlinear analysis that based on loading increasement method and displacement increasement method. From this results, we discusses the effect of the joint rigidity and the half open angle $\theta$$_{0}$ on the buckling strength of single layer lattice domes ; (1) how the joint rigidity contributes to the reduction of buckling loads, (2) how the reduction can be interrelated to compressive strength curves in terms of the generalized slenderness for the member most relevant to the overall buckling of domes.s.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.359-368
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• 2001

A new knee-ankle-foot-orthosis(KAFO) which uses an automatically-controlled electromechanical wrap spring clutch for the knee joint was developed in the present study. It was found that the output voltage from the foot switches of the developed KAFO was proportionally increased with respect to the applied load. The output voltage from the infrared sensor also decreased as the knee flexion angle increased. The knee joint system for the new KAFO weighs only 780g lighter than any other commercially available developed system. In addition, the solenoid reduces the reaction time for the automatic control of the knee joint. The static torque of the clutch was measured for three persons, and it satisfied the normal knee extension moment during the pre-swing. Three-dimensional gait analyses for three different gait patterns (normal gait, locked-knee gait, controlled-knee gait) from five normal subjects were conducted. Controlled-knee gait showed the maximum knee flexion angle of 40.56$\pm9.55^{\circ}$ and the maximum knee flexion moment of 0.20$\pm$0.07Nm/kg at similar periods in the normal gait. Our KAFO system satisfies both stability during stance phase and free knee flexion during the swing phase at the proper period during the gait cycle. Therefore, our KAFO system would be very useful in various low extremity orthotic applications.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.702-710
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• 1999

U-shaped bellows are usually used to piping system pressure sensor and controller for refriger-ator. Bellows subjected to internal pressure are designed for the purpose of absorbing deformation. Internal pressure on the convolution sidewall and end collar will be applied to an axial load tend-ing to push the collar away from the convolutions. To find out deformation behavior of bellow sub-jected to internal pressure the axisymmetric shell theory using the finite element method is adopted in this paper. U-shaped bellows can be idealized by series of conical frustum-shaped ele-ments because it is axisymmetric shell structure. The displacements of nodal points due to small increment of force are calculated by the finite element method and the calculated nodal displace-ments are added to r-z cylindrical coordinates of nodal points. The new stiffness matrix of the sys-tem using the new coordinates of nodal points is adopted to calculate the another increments of nodal displacement that is the step by step method is used in this paper. The force required to deflect bellows axially is a function of the dimensions of the bellows and the materials from which they are made. Spring constant is analyzed according to the changing geometric factors of U-shaped bellows. The FEM results were agreed with experiment. Using developed FORTRAN PROGRAM the internal pressure vs. deflection characteristics of a particu-lar bellows can be predicted by input of a few factors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.78-84
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• 2017

Compared to other types of power, hydraulic energy is the most commonly used for heavy vehicles and ships because it has fewer location and space constraints, and its controllability can be maintained even under adverse conditions. Operators have controlled a main control valve of ship winches by pushing or pulling the lever, which is directly connected to the spool. However, because of the spatial arrangement, the importance of remote control valves has emerged. In this paper, experiments of the hysteresis characteristics were performed by analyzing the remote-control valve using a valve tester and RA2300. The validity was verified by comparing with the analytical model using SimulationX as the hydraulic analysis program. This study examined the effects of the spool's notch (Non, End-mill, and Spherical) and the effects of stiffness and pre-load of the spool spring on Spool stroke, open area, and hysteresis characteristics. It is considered possible to reduce the cost and the, trial and error process in designing remote-control valves in the future.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• summer
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• pp.1504-1506
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• 2004

Photovoltaic and wind power generation have an advantage of unpolluted and unlimited amount of energy resource. Since there is such an advantage in these energies, But photovoltaic system and wind system cannot always generate stable output with ever-changing weather condition. In this paper, the auxiliary power generator for hybrid system(photovoltaic 500[W], wind power generation 400[W]) was suggested. the auxiliary power generator that uses elastic energy of spiral spring to photovoltaic system was also added for present system. when output of photovoltaic system gets lower than 24[V], power was continuously supplied to load through the inverter by charging energy of spiral spring operates in DC generator.

• Composites Research
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.439-446
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• 2022

In this study, fiber-reinforced composite coil springs for automobiles were manufactured using the braiding method, and mechanical tests and damage evaluation were performed to confirm their safety. Through the analysis of the load-displacement behavior, the stiffness of the springs was evaluated to meet the specifications. In addition, the distribution of voids and the impregnation rate on the spring wire section were analyzed to clearly understand the criteria for the mechanical properties of the composite material. Moreover, the tested springs were visually inspected to confirm the damaged parts, and the failure mode was analyzed by observing crack initiation and propagation behavior of cross-sectional samples taken from the crack and failure adjacent areas of springs using SEM.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.547-554
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• 2022

This paper studies the static stability of an axially graded column with the power-law gradient varying along the axial direction. For a nonhomogeneous column with one end linked to a rotational spring and loaded by a compressive force, respectively, an Euler problem is analyzed by solving a boundary value problem of an ordinary differential equation with varying coefficients. Buckling loads through the characteristic equation with the aid of the Bessel functions are exactly given. An alternative way to approximately determine buckling loads through the integral equation method is also presented. By comparing approximate buckling loads with the exact ones, the approximate solution is simple in form and enough accurate for varying power-law gradients. The influences of the gradient index and the rotational spring stiffness on the critical forces are elucidated. The critical force and mode shapes at buckling are presented in graph. The critical force given here may be used as a benchmark to check the accuracy and effectiveness of numerical solutions. The approximate solution provides a feasible approach to calculating the buckling loads and to assessing the loss of stability of columns in engineering.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.81-89
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• 2008

Shear test procedure for concrete-dowel interaction was proposed along with determination of dowel support reaction factor or shear spring stiffness constant using the spreadsheet example. For this task, three AASHTO-type standard specimens were prepared to simulate behavior of the jointed concrete pavement. A side support system was adopted to minimize twisting of the test specimen which had been observed in a preliminary test. A typical elastic behavior of the dowel-concrete interaction was observed from several test loops of loading, unloading and reloading procedures. However load versus slab displacement represents to be nonlinear. Test results show that the dowel support reaction factor ranges from 550-880 GN/m3, which is 1.4-2.2 times greater than 407GN/m3 proposed by Yoder and Witczak. This is because less torsional distraction was occurred with the help of a side support system adopted in this experiment. The dowel support reaction factor or shear spring stiffness constant obtained from the procedures proposed in this paper may be used as a reference data for the structural analysis of jointed concrete pavement.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.769-777
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• 2015

In this study, the rheological models were introduced and developed to reflect rate dependent tensile behaviour of concrete. In general, mechanical properties(e.g. strength, elasticity, and fracture energy) of concrete are increased under high loading rates. The strength of concrete shows high rate dependency among its mechanical properties, and the tensile strength has higher rate dependency than the compressional strength. To simulate the rate dependency of concrete, original spring set of RBSN(Rigid-Body- Spring-Network) model was adjusted with viscous and friction units(e.g. dashpot and Coulomb friction component). Three types of models( 1) visco-elastic, 2) visco-plastic, and 3) visco-elasto- plastic damage models) are considered, and the constitutive relationships for the models are derived. For validation purpose, direct tensile test were simulated, and characteristics of the three different rheological models were compared with experimental stress-strain responses. Simulation result of the developed visco-elasto-plastic damage(VEPD) model demonstrated well describing and fitting with experimental results.