• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.205-229
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• 2012

This paper presents a new nine-node Lagrangian quadrilateral plate bending element (MQP9) using the Integrated Force Method (IFM) for the analysis of thin and moderately thick plate bending problems. Three degrees of freedom: transverse displacement w and two rotations ${\theta}_x$ and ${\theta}_y$ are considered at each node of the element. The Mindlin-Reissner theory has been employed in the formulation which accounts the effect of shear deformation. Many standard plate bending benchmark problems have been analyzed using the new element MQP9 for various grid sizes via Integrated Force Method to estimate defections and bending moments. These results of the new element MQP9 are compared with those of similar displacement-based plate bending elements available in the literature. The results are also compared with exact solutions. It is observed that the presented new element MQP9 is free from shear locking and produced, in general, excellent results in all plate bending benchmark problems considered.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.397-422
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• 2016

In the present work, a simple first-order shear deformation theory is developed and validated for a variety of numerical examples of the thermal buckling response of functionally graded sandwich plates with various boundary conditions. Contrary to the conventional first-order shear deformation theory, the present first-order shear deformation theory involves only four unknowns and has strong similarities with the classical plate theory in many aspects such as governing equations of motion, and stress resultant expressions. Material properties and thermal expansion coefficient of the sandwich plate faces are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction according to a simple power-law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The core layer is still homogeneous and made of an isotropic material. The thermal loads are considered as uniform, linear and non-linear temperature rises within the thickness direction. The results reveal that the volume fraction index, loading type and functionally graded layers thickness have significant influence on the thermal buckling of functionally graded sandwich plates. Moreover, numerical results prove that the present simple first-order shear deformation theory can achieve the same accuracy of the existing conventional first-order shear deformation theory which has more number of unknowns.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.625-638
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• 2009

Applications of membrane mechanisms are widely found in nano-devices and nano-sensor technologies nowadays. An alternative approach for large deflection analysis of the orthotropic, elliptic membranes - subject to gravitational, uniform pressures often found in nano-sensors - is described in this paper. The material properties of membranes are assumed to be orthogonally isotropic and linearly elastic, while the principal directions of elasticity are parallel to the coordinate axes. Formulating the potential energy functional of the orthotropic, elliptic membranes involves the strain energy that is attributed to inplane stress resultant and the potential energy due to applied pressures. In the solution method, Rayleigh-Ritz method can be used successfully to minimize the resulting total potential energy generated. The set of equilibrium equations was solved subsequently by Newton-Raphson. The unparalleled model formulation capable of analyzing the large deflections of both circular and elliptic membranes is verified by making numerical comparisons with existing results of circular membranes as well as finite element solutions. The results are found in excellent agreements at all cases. Then, the parametric investigations are given to delineate the impacts of the aspect ratios and orthotropic elasticity on large static tensions and deformations of the orthotropic, elliptic membranes.

• Water Engineering Research
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.259-267
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• 2002

South Africa has developed a policy and law that calls and provides for the equitable and sustainable use of water resources. Sustainable resource use is dependent on effective resource protection. Rivers are the most important freshwater resources in the country, and there is a focus on developing and applying methods to quantify what rivers need in terms of flow and water quality. These quantified and descriptive objectives are then related to specified levels of ecological health in a classification system. This paper provides an overview of an integrated and systematic methodology, where, fer each river, and each river reach, the natural condition and the present ecological condition are described, and a level/class of ecosystem health is selected. The class will define long term management goals. This procedure requires each ecosystem component to be quantified, starting with the abiotic template. A modified flow regime is modelled for each ecosystem health class, and the resultant fluvial geomorphology and hydraulic habitats are described. Then the water chemistry is described, and the water quality changes that are likely to occur as a consequence of altered flows are predicted. Finally, the responses to the stress imposed on the biota (fish, invertebrates and vegetation) by modified flow and water quality are predicted. All of the predicted responses are translated into descriptive and/or quantitative management objectives. The paper concludes with the recognition of active method development, and the enormous challenge of applying the methods, implementing the law, and achieving river protection and sustainable resource-use.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 1995.03a
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• pp.196-202
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• 1995

Drawbead formulation is the first process together with a binder wrap process in a sheet metal forming process. The purpose of a drawbead is to control the flow of the metal into the die in panel press forming. To simulate the drawbead formation process, an elasto-plastic finite element formulation is derived from the equilibrium equation an drelated boundary conditions considering the proper contact conditons. The developed finite element program is applied to drawbead formation in the plane strain condition. The simulation of drawbead formation produces the distribution fo stress and strain along the bead and the resultant elongation of the sheet in the cavity region with respect to various cavity dimensions of the sheet as well as the punch force of a drawbead and the amount of draw-in with respect to the stroke fo a drawbead. The numerical resutls provides the fundamental information as a boundary condition to analyze the complex binder wrap phenomena and panel press forming in simple way.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.43-68
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• 2007

Using the Mindlin-Reissner plate theory, many quadrilateral plate bending elements have been developed so far to analyze thin and moderately thick plate problems via displacement based finite element method. Here new formulation has been made to analyze thin and moderately thick plate problems using force based finite element method called Integrated Force Method (IFM). The IFM is a novel matrix formulation developed in recent years for analyzing civil, mechanical and aerospace engineering structures. In this method all independent/internal forces are treated as unknown variables which are calculated by simultaneously imposing equations of equilibrium and compatibility conditions. In this paper the force based new bilinear quadrilateral plate bending element (MQP4) is proposed to analyze the thin and moderately thick plate bending problems using Integrated Force Method. The Mindlin-Reissner plate theory has been used in the formulation of this element which accounts the effect of shear deformation. Standard plate bending benchmark problems are analyzed using the proposed element MQP4 via Integrated Force Method to study its performance with respect to accuracy and convergence, and results are compared with those of displacement based 4-node quadrilateral plate bending finite elements available in the literature. The results are also compared with the exact solutions. The proposed element MQP4 is free from shear locking and works satisfactorily in both thin and moderately thick plate bending situations.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.191-195
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• 2005

In this study, we attempted to characterize the Synechococcus sp. pee 7942 mutant resultant from a disruption in the gene encoding UDP-glucose: tetrahydrobiopterin a-glucosyltransferase (BGluT). 2D­PAGE followed by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry revealed that phycocyanin rod linker protein 33K was one of the proteins expressed at lower level in the BGluT mutant. BGluT mutant cells were also determined to be more sensitive to high light stress. This is because photosynthetic O$_2$ exchange rates were significantly decreased, due to the reduced number of functional PSIs relative to the wild type cells. These results suggested that, in Synechococcus sp. pee 7942, BH4-glucoside might be involved in photosynthetic photoprotection.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.96-101
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• 2009

This paper presents a method for identifying the parameter set of inelastic constitutive equations, which is based on an Evolutionary Algorithm. The advantage of the method is that appropriate parameters can be identified even when the measured data are subject to considerable errors and the model equations are inaccurate. The design of experiments suited for the parameter identification of a material model by Chaboche under the uniaxial loading and stationary temperature conditions was first considered. Then the parameter set of the model was identified by the proposed method from a set of experimental data. In comparison to those by other methods, the resultant stress-strain curves by the proposed method correlated better to the actual material behaviors.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.703-721
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• 2016

This paper presents a wind tunnel study of wind loads of the large billboard structures with two-plate and three-plate configurations. Synchronous dynamic pressures on the surfaces of plates are measured, and the characteristics of local pressures, integrated forces on each individual plate and on the overall structures are investigated. The influences of wind direction and plate configuration on wind load characteristics, and the contributions of overall crosswind load and torque to the stress responses are examined. The results showed that the wind load characteristics of windward plate in both two- and three-plate configurations are very similar. The contribution of overall crosswind load makes the total resultant force from both alongwind and crosswind loads less sensitive to wind direction in the case of three-plate configuration. The overall torque is lower than the value specified in current codes and standards, and its contribution is less significant in both two-plate and three-plate configurations.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.175-189
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• 2020

A set of relatively simple five local shear and tension failure variables is presented and then implemented into a generalized poroelastic hydromechanical numerical model to analyze failure potential and stability of variably saturated geologic media. These five local shear and tension failure variables are formulated from geometrical relationships between the Mohr circle and the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion superimposed with the tension cutoff, which approximate together the Mohr effective stress failure envelope. Finally, fully coupled groundwater flow and land deformation in two variably saturated geologic media, which are associated with a slope (Case 1) and a tunnel (Case 2), respectively, and their failure potential and stability are simulated using the resultant hydromechanical numerical model. The numerical simulation results of both cases show that shear and tension failure potential and stability of variably saturated geologic media can be analyzed numerically simply and efficiently and even better by using the five local shear and tension failure variables as a set than by using the conventional factors of safety against shear and tension failures only.