• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.17-37
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• 2022

This paper discusses an improved unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV, configuration characterized by telescopic booms to optimize the flight mechanics and fuel consumption of the aircraft at various loading/flight conditions.The starting point consists of a full-composite smaller UAV which was derived by a general aviation ultralight motorized aircraft ULM. The present design, named ToBoFlex, extends the two-booms configuration to a three tons aircraft. To adapt the design to needs relevant to different applications, new solutions were proposed in aerodynamic fields and materials and structural areas. Different structural solutions were reported. To optimize aircraft endurance, the innovative concept of Telescopic Tail Boom was considered along with two different tails architecture. A new structural configuration of the fuselage was proposed. Further consideration of hydrogen fuel cell electric propulsion is now being studied in collaboration between the Polytechnic of Turin and Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University which could be the starting point of future investigations.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.136-141
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• 2007

This paper introduces an artificial neuron which is a nano composite continuous sensor. The continuous nano sensor is fabricated as a thin and narrow polymer film sensor that is made of carbon nanotubes composites with a PMMA or a silicone matrix. The sensor can be embedded onto a structure like a neuron in a human body and it can detect deteriorations of the structure. The electrochemical impedance and dynamic strain response of the neuron change due to deterioration of the structure where the sensor is located. A network of the long nano sensor can form a structural neural system to provide large area coverage and an assurance of the operational health of a structure without the need for actuators and complex wave propagation analyses that are used with other methods. The artificial neuron is expected to effectively detect damage in large complex structures including composite helicopter blades and composite aircraft and vehicles.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.427-439
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• 2007

The exploitation of fibre reinforced polymer composites, as external reinforcement is an evergreen and well-known technique for improving the structural performance of reinforced concrete structures. The demand to use FRP composites in the civil engineering industry is mainly due to its high strength, light weight, and stiffness. This paper exemplifies the shear strength of partially precracked reinforced concrete rectangular beams repaired with externally bonded Bi-Directional Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) Fabrics strips. All specimens were cast in the laboratory environment without any internal shear reinforcement. The test parameters were longitudinal tensile reinforcement, shear span to effective depth ratio, spacing of CFRP strips, and orientation of CFRP reinforcement. It mainly focuses on the shear capacity and modes of failure of the CFRP strengthened shear beams. Results have shown that the CFRP repaired beams attained a shear enhancement of 32% and 107.64% greater than the control beams. This study underscores that the CFRP strip technique significantly enhanced the shear capacity of precracked reinforced concrete rectangular beams without any internal shear reinforcement.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1993.11a
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• pp.75-79
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• 1993

The Thermally Stimulated Current(TSC) method has been allied to study the influence of the structural change and interface on the electrical properties of epoxy composites. Three DGBA- MeTHPA matrix model samples mixed different ratios arts silica(SiO$_2$) filled sample and silaln treating-filled sample have been studied. Above room temperature, the relaxation mode ${\alpha}$ peak associated with T$\_$g/ has been located at 110$^{\circ}C$. Below glass transition temperature(T$\_$g/), three relaxation modes are observed in all samples : a ${\beta}$ mode situated at 10$^{\circ}C$, a ${\gamma}$ mode located at -40$^{\circ}C$ and a $\delta$mode appeared in -120$^{\circ}C$, which may be due to segmental motion, side chains, substitution and terminal groups. The analysis of its fine structure indicates that constitution of elementary processes is characterized by the activation energy and relaxation time. Also the change of the molecular structure and their thermal motion are compared with the relaxation mode and conduction mechanism in TSC spectra through the dielectric properties and FTIR measurements.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.211-223
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• 2008

A number of studies have suggested that the use of high ductile and high shear materials, such as Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) and High Performance Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Composites (HPFRCC), significantly enhances the shear capacity of structural elements, even with/without shear reinforcements. The present study emphasizes the development of a nonlinear model of shear behaviour of a HPFRCC panel for application to the seismic retrofit of reinforced concrete buildings. To model the shear behaviour of HPFRCC panels, the original Modified Compression Field Theory (MCFT) for conventional reinforced concrete panels has been newly revised for reinforced HPFRCC panels, and is referred to here as the HPFRCC-MCFT model. A series of experiments was conducted to assess the shear behaviour of HPFRCC panels subjected to pure shear, and the proposed shear model has been verified through an experiment involving panel elements under pure shear. The proposed shear model of a HPFRCC panel has been applied to the prediction of seismic retrofitted reinforced concrete buildings with in-filled HPFRCC panels. In retrofitted structures, the in-filled HPFRCC element is regarded as a shear spring element of a low-rise shear wall ignoring the flexural response, and reinforced concrete elements for beam or beam-column member are modelled by a finite plastic hinge zone model. An experimental study of reinforced concrete frames with in-filled HPFRCC panels was also carried out and the analysis model was verified with correlation studies of experimental results.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.72 no.6
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• pp.763-774
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• 2019

The main aim of this paper is enhancing design of traditional laminated composite plates subjected to static loads. In this regard, this paper suggests embedding a lightweight porous layer in the middle of laminated composite as the core layer of the resulted sandwich plate. The static responses of the suggested structures with uniform, symmetric and non-symmetric porosity distributions are compared to optimize their design. Using the first order shear deformation theories, the static governing equations of the suggested laminated composite plates with a porous layer (LCPPL) rested on two-parameter foundation are obtained. A finite element method is also utilized to solve the governing equations of LCPPLs. Effects of laminated composite and porosity characteristics as well as geometry dimension, edges' boundary conditions and foundation coefficients on the static deflection and stress distribution of the suggested composite plates have been investigated. The results reveal that the use of core between the layers of laminated composites leads to a sharp reduction in the static deflections of LCPPLs. Furthermore, in compare with perfect cores, the use of porous core between the layers of laminated composite plates can offer a considerable reduction in structural weight without a significant difference in their static responses.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.471-478
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• 2016

This paper describes a method to design a lightweight modular bridge for a railway infrastructure system. A lightweight design was achieved using the material selection method. Aluminum extrusions and honeycomb sandwich composites were selected as the best materials to reduce the weight of the upper structure of a conventional modular bridge made of carbon-steel material. The structural integrity of the lightweight modular bridge was evaluated under vertical and wind loads. The twisting and bending natural frequencies were also evaluated to investigate its dynamic characteristics. The results showed that the structural integrity and natural frequencies of the lightweight modular bridge, made of aluminum extrusion and sandwich composites, satisfied the design requirements. Moreover, it was found that the weight of the conventional modular bridge made of carbon steel could be reduced by a maximum of 47% using lightweight materials.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.61-65
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• 2016

Composites are materials that are widely used in industries such as automobile and aircraft. The composite material is required as a material for using in a high temperature environment as well as acting as a high pressure environment like the nozzle part of the ship. It is important to know the properties of composites. Result values obtained substituting the properties of matrix and fiber numerically have an large error compared with experimental value. In this study we utilize CASADsolver EDISON program for using Finite Element Method. Properties by substituting the fiber and Matrix properties of the composite material properties were compared with those measured in the experiment and calculated by the empirical properties.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.129-138
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• 2000

Composites are finding increasing use in a wide variety of engineering applications due to their outstanding mechanical properties. A number of studies have focused on the development of new materials as well as the response of composite structures to static and dynamic loads by assuming the external driving forces to be deterministic. However, there ate many situations in practice where the exciting forces vary randomly. In this work, the nonlinear response of laminated composite plates excited by stochastic loading is studied by the finite element method. Classical, first-order and third-order shear theories for plates are used in the finite element formulation. Since most composites exhibit significant nonlinearity in the shear stress-strain law, this is included in the present analysis.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.801-814
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• 2012

The strain rate effects on the interaction between a Mode I matrix crack and an inclined elliptic matrix-inclusion interface under dynamic tensile loadings were investigated numerically, and the results are in agreement with previous experimental data. It is found, for a given material system, that there are the first and the second critical strain rates, by which three kinds of the subsequent crack growth patterns can be classified in turn with the increasing strain rate, namely, the crack deflection, the double crack mode and the perpendicular crack penetration. Moreover, such a crack deflection/penetration behavior is found to be dependent on the relative interfacial strength, the inclined angle and the inclusion size. In addition, it is shown that the so-called strain rate effect on the dynamic strength of granule composites can be induced directly from the structural dynamic response of materials, not be entirely an intrinsic material property.