• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.111-127
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• 2010

This paper studies the effects of spatially varying ground motions on the responses of a bridge frame located on a canyon site. Compared to the spatial ground motions on a uniform flat site, which is the usual assumptions in the analysis of spatial ground motion variation effects on structures, the spatial ground motions at different locations on surface of a canyon site have different intensities owing to local site amplifications, besides the loss of coherency and phase difference. In the proposed approach, the spatial ground motions are modelled in two steps. Firstly, the base rock motions are assumed to have the same intensity and are modelled with a filtered Tajimi-Kanai power spectral density function and an empirical spatial ground motion coherency loss function. Then, power spectral density function of ground motion on surface of the canyon site is derived by considering the site amplification effect based on the one dimensional seismic wave propagation theory. Dynamic, quasi-static and total responses of the model structure to various cases of spatially varying ground motions are estimated. For comparison, responses to uniform ground motion, to spatial ground motions without considering local site effects, to spatial ground motions without considering coherency loss or phase shift are also calculated. Discussions on the ground motion spatial variation and local soil site amplification effects on structural responses are made. In particular, the effects of neglecting the site amplifications in the analysis as adopted in most studies of spatial ground motion effect on structural responses are highlighted.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.47-67
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• 2014

This study has been motivated to examine the performance of a wireless sensor system under the typhoons as well as to analyze the effect of the typhoons on the bridge's vibration responses and the variation of cable forces. During the long-term field experiment on a real cable-stayed bridge in years 2011-2012, the bridge had experienced two consecutive typhoons, Bolaven and Tembin, and the wireless sensor system had recorded data of wind speeds and vibration responses from a few survived sensor nodes. In this paper, the wireless structural health monitoring of stay cables under the two consecutive typhoons is presented. Firstly, the wireless monitoring system for cable-stayed bridge is described. Multi-scale vibration sensor nodes are utilized to measure both acceleration and PZT dynamic strain from stay cables. Also, cable forces are estimated by a tension force monitoring software based on vibration properties. Secondly, the cable-stayed bridge with the wireless monitoring system is described and its wireless monitoring capacities for deck and cables are evaluated. Finally, the structural health monitoring of stay cables under the attack of the two typhoons is described. Wind-induced deck vibration, cable vibration and cable force variation are examined based on the field measurements in the cable-stayed bridge under the two consecutive typhoons.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.301-329
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• 2017

Impedance-based damage detection method has been known as an innovative tool with various successful implementations for structural health monitoring of civil structures. To monitor the local critical area of a structure, the impedance-based method utilizes the high-frequency impedance responses sensed by piezoelectric sensors as the local dynamic features. In this paper, current advances and future challenges of the impedance-based structural health monitoring are presented. Firstly, theoretical background of the impedance-based method is outlined. Next, an overview is given to recent advances in the wireless impedance sensor nodes, the interfacial impedance sensing devices, and the temperature-effect compensation algorithms. Various research works on these topics are reviewed to share up-to-date information on research activities and implementations of the impedance-based technique. Finally, future research challenges of the technique are discussed including the applicability of wireless sensing technology, the predetermination of effective frequency bands, the sensing region of impedance responses, the robust compensation of noise and temperature effects, the quantification of damage severity, and long-term durability of sensors.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.633-646
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• 2014

A semi-analytical numerical approach for the effective structural dynamic response analysis of spar floating substructure for offshore wind turbine subject to wave-induced excitation is introduced in this paper. The wave-induced rigid body motions at the center of mass are analytically solved using the dynamic equations of rigid ship motion. After that, the flexible structural dynamic responses of spar floating substructure for offshore wind turbine are numerically analyzed by letting the analytically derived rigid body motions be the external dynamic loading. Restricted to one-dimensional sinusoidal wave excitation at sea state 3, pitch and heave motions are considered. Through the numerical experiments, the time responses of heave and pitch motions are solved and the wave-induced dynamic displacement and effective stress of flexible floating substructure are investigated. The hydrodynamic interaction between wave and structure is modeled by means of added mass and wave damping, and its modeling accuracy is verified from the comparison of natural frequencies obtained by experiment with a 1/100 scale model.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.85 no.5
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• pp.607-620
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• 2023

The classical optimal control (COC) method has been widely used for linear quadratic regulator (LQR) problems of structural control. However, the equation of motion of the structure is incorporated into the optimization model as the constraint condition for the LQR problem, which needs to be solved through the Riccati equation under certain assumptions. In this study, an explicit optimal control (EOC) method is proposed based on the explicit time-domain method (ETDM). By use of the explicit formulation of structural responses, the LQR problem with the constraint of equation of motion can be transformed into an unconstrained optimization problem, and therefore the control law can be derived directly without solving the Riccati equation. To further optimize the weighting parameters adopted in the control law using the gradient-based optimization algorithm, the sensitivities of structural responses and control forces with respect to the weighting parameters are derived analytically based on the explicit expressions of dynamic responses of the controlled structure. Two numerical examples are investigated to demonstrate the feasibility of the EOC method and the optimization scheme for weighting parameters involved in the control law.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.87 no.5
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• pp.431-450
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• 2023

In this study, it is intended to perform nonlinear time-history analyses of nuclear power plant structures (NPP) under near-fault earthquakes showing directivity pulse and fling-step characteristics. Simulation procedures based on cycloidal pulse and far-fault ground motions are also used to simulate near-fault motions showing forward-directivity and fling-step characteristics and the structural responses are compared with those of the recorded near-fault ground motions. Because it is aimed to determine specifically the pulse type characteristics of near-fault ground motions on NPPs, all the ground motions are normalized to have a PGA of 0.3 g. Depending on the obtained results it can be underlined that although near-fault ground motion has the potential to cause damage mostly on structural systems having larger periods, it may also have noticeable effects on the responses of rigid structures, like NPP containment buildings. On the other hand, simulated near-fault motions can help us to get an insight into the near-fault mechanism as well as an approximate visualization of the structural responses under near-fault earthquakes.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.101-108
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• 2001

In the previous study, an improved QRD (QR Decomposition)-ILS(Iterative Least-Squares) method is proposed to estimate the structural parameters at the element level using response data alone without using any information of excitation measurements for the assessment of local damages and deterioration in complex and large structural systems. But for a complex and large structural system, where response measurement at every dynamic degree of freedom(DDOF) is not possible, the absence of some observation points of responses and its effect on the proposed SI method must be studied In the paper, a QRD-ILS technique that utilizes the known intact stiffness information estimated based on the visual inspection, field measurements and/or NDT tests is proposed to identify local damages of fracture critical members using measured responses only at limited DDOFs. A numerical example is used to illustrate the application of this technique. The results indicate that the proposed SI technique is very simple but efficient, since no input information are required with only limited observations.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.81 no.5
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• pp.647-664
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• 2022

The powerful data mapping capability of computational deep learning methods has been recently explored in academic works to develop strategies for structural health monitoring through appropriate characterization of dynamic responses. In many cases, these studies concern laboratory prototypes and finite element models to validate the proposed methodologies. Therefore, the present work aims to investigate the capability of a deep learning algorithm called Sparse Autoencoder (SAE) specifically focused on detecting structural alterations in real-case studies. The idea is to characterize the dynamic responses via SAE models and, subsequently, to detect the onset of abnormal behavior through the Shewhart T control chart, calculated with SAE extracted features. The anomaly detection approach is exemplified using data from the Z24 bridge, a classical benchmark, and data from the continuous monitoring of the San Vittore bell-tower, Italy. In both cases, the influence of temperature is also evaluated. The proposed approach achieved good performance, detecting structural changes even under temperature variations.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1995.04a
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• pp.99-106
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• 1995

The seismic responses of a base Isolated Pressurized Water Reactor(PWR) are investigated using a mathematical model which expresses the superstructure as a linear lumped mass-spring and the seismic Isolator as an equivalent spring-damper. Time history analyses are performed for the 1940 El Centre earthquake with linear amplification. In the analysis 5% of structural damping is used for the superstructure. The effects of high damping rubber bearing on seismic response of the superstructure in base isolated system are evaluated for four stiffness model types. The acceleration responses in base isolated PWR superstructure with high damping rubber bearings are much smaller than those in fixed base structure. In the higher strain region where stiffness behaves non-linearly, the acceleration responses modelled by one equivalent stiffness are smaller than those in nonlinear spring model, and the higher stiffness spring model of isolator exhibits larger peak acceleration response at superstructure in the frequency range above 2.0 Hz. when subjected to linearly amplified 1940 El Centre earthquake.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1995.04a
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• pp.107-113
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• 1995

This paper presents the earthquake response analysis results on the Large-Scale Seismic Test (LSST)structure which was built at Hualien in Taiwan. The seismic analysis is carried out using a computer code KIESSI, which has been developed based on the three-dimensional axisymmetric finite element method incorporating infinite elements for the far field soil region. The soil and structural properties obtained from the post-correlation study of the forced vibration tests (FVT) are utilized to predict seismic responses. The ground accelerations recorded at a site 56.5 m from the test structure are used as control motions. It has been found that the predicted responses are reasonably compared with the observed responses.