• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.113-131
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• 2022

A rockburst is a common disaster in deep-tunnel excavation engineering, especially for high-geostress areas. An anomalously low friction effect is one of the most important inducements of rockbursts. To elucidate the correlation between an anomalously low friction effect and a rockburst, we establish a two-dimensional prediction model that considers the discontinuous structure of a rock mass. The degree of freedom of the rotation angle is introduced, thus the motion equations of the blocks under the influence of a transient disturbing force are acquired according to the interactions of the blocks. Based on the two-dimensional discontinuous block model of deep rock mass, a rockburst prediction model is established, and the initiation process of ultra-low friction rockburst is analyzed. In addition, the intensity of a rockburst, including the location, depth, area, and velocity of ejection fragments, can be determined quantitatively using the proposed prediction model. Then, through a specific example, the effects of geomechanical parameters such as the different principal stress ratios, the material properties, a dip of principal stress on the occurrence form and range of rockburst are analyzed. The results indicate that under dynamic disturbance, stress variation on the structural surface in a deep rock mass may directly give rise to a rockburst. The formation of rockburst is characterized by three stages: the appearance of cracks that result from the tension or compression failure of the deformation block, the transformation of strain energy of rock blocks to kinetic energy, and the ejection of some of the free blocks from the surrounding rock mass. Finally, the two-dimensional rockburst prediction model is applied to the construction drainage tunnel project of Jinping II hydropower station. Through the comparison with the field measured rockburst data and UDEC simulation results, it shows that the model in this paper is in good agreement with the actual working conditions, which verifies the accuracy of the model in this paper.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.407-426
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• 2022

Superior to traditional welded studs, high strength friction-grip bolted shear connectors facilitate the assembling and demounting of the composite members, which maximizes the potential for efficiency in the construction and retrofitting of new and old structures respectively. Hence, it is necessary to investigate the structural properties of high strength friction-grip bolts used in steel concrete composite beams. By means of push-out tests, an experimental study was conducted on post-installed high strength friction-grip bolts, considering the effects of different bolt size, concrete strength, bolt tensile strength and bolt pretension. The test results showed that bolt shear fracture was the dominant failure mode of all specimens. Based on the load-slip curves, uplifting curves and bolt tensile force curves between the precast concrete slab and steel beam obtained by push-out tests, the anti-slip performance of steel-concrete interface and shear behavior of bolt shank were studied, including the quantitative analysis of anti-slip load, and anti-slip stiffness, frictional coefficient, shear stiffness of bolt shank and ultimate shear capacity. Meanwhile, the interfacial anti-slip stiffness and shear stiffness of bolt shank were defined reasonably. In addition, a total of 56 push-out finite element models verified by the experimental results were also developed, and used to conduct parametric analyses for investigating the shear behavior of high-strength bolted shear connectors in steel-concrete composite beams. Finally, on ground of the test results and finite element simulation analysis, a new design formula for predicting shear capacity was proposed by nonlinear fitting, considering the bolt diameter, concrete strength and bolt tensile strength. Comparison of the calculated value from proposed formula and test results given in the relevant references indicated that the proposed formulas can give a reasonable prediction.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.7
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• pp.2387-2395
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• 2021

Seismic qualifications of electrical equipment, such as cabinet systems, have been emerging as the key area of nuclear power plants in Korea since the 2016 Gyeongju earthquake, including the high-frequency domain. In addition, electrical equipment was sensitive to the high-frequency ground motions during the past earthquake. Therefore, this paper presents the rocking behavior of the electrical cabinet system subjected to Reg. 1.60 and UHS. The high fidelity finite element (FE) model of the cabinet related to the shaking table test data was developed. In particular, the first two global modes of the cabinet from the experimental test were 16 Hz and 24 Hz, respectively. In addition, 30.05 Hz and 37.5 Hz were determined to be the first two local modes in the cabinet. The high fidelity FE model of the cabinet using the ABAQUS platform was extremely reconciled with shaking table tests. As a result, the dynamic properties of the cabinet were sensitive to electrical instruments, such as relays and switchboards, during the shaking table test. In addition, the amplification with respect to the vibration transfer function of the cabinet was observed on the third floor in the cabinet due to localized impact corresponding to the rocking phenomenon of the cabinet under Reg.1.60 and UHS. Overall, the rocking of the cabinet system can be caused by the low-frequency oscillations and higher peak horizontal acceleration.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.2682-2695
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• 2021

This paper aims to evaluate the structural dynamic responses and damage/failure of the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant under the free drop impact of spent fuel cask (SFC) and fuel assembly (FA) during the on-site transportation. At the present Part I of this paper, the large-scale SFC model free drop test and the corresponding numerical simulations are performed. Firstly, a composite target which is composed of the protective structure, i.e., a thin RC plate (representing the inverted U-shaped slab in the loading shaft) and/or an autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) blocks sacrificial layer, as well as a thick RC plate (representing the bottom slab in the loading shaft) is designed and fabricated. Then, based on the large dropping tower, the free drop test of large-scale SFC model with the mass of 3 t is carried out from the height of 7 m-11 m. It indicates that the bottom slab in the loading shaft could not resist the free drop impact of SFC. The composite protective structure can effectively reduce the damage and vibrations of the bottom slab, and the inverted U-shaped slab could relieve the damage of the AAC blocks layer dramatically. Furthermore, based on the finite element (FE) program LS-DYNA, the corresponding refined numerical simulations are performed. By comparing the experimental and numerical damage and vibration accelerations of the composite structures, the present adopted numerical algorithms, constitutive models and parameters are validated, which will be applied in the further assessment of drop impact effects of full-scale SFC and FA on prototype nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the next Part II of this paper.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.385-394
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• 2022

Recently, an increasing number of cutting-edged studies have shown that designing a smart active control for real-time implementation requires piles of hard-work criteria in the design process, including performance controllers to reduce the tracking errors and tolerance to external interference and measure system disturbed perturbations. This article proposes an effective artificial-intelligence method using these rigorous criteria, which can be translated into general control plants for the management of civil engineering installations. To facilitate the calculation, an efficient solution process based on linear matrix (LMI) inequality has been introduced to verify the relevance of the proposed method, and extensive simulators have been carried out for the numerical constructive model in the seismic stimulation of the active rigidity. Additionally, a fuzzy model of the neural network based system (NN) is developed using an interconnected method for LDI (linear differential) representation determined for arbitrary dynamics. This expression is constructed with a nonlinear sector which converts the nonlinear model into a multiple linear deformation of the linear model and a new state sufficient to guarantee the asymptomatic stability of the Lyapunov function of the linear matrix inequality. In the control design, we incorporated H Infinity optimized development algorithm and performance analysis stability. Finally, there is a numerical practical example with simulations to show the results. The implication results in the RMS response with as well as without tuned mass damper (TMD) of the benchmark building under the external excitation, the El-Centro Earthquake, in which it also showed the simulation using evolved bat algorithmic LMI fuzzy controllers in term of RMS in acceleration and displacement of the building.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.55-66
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• 2022

Tall buildings are often subjected to steady and unsteady forces due to external wind flows. Measurement and mitigation of these forces becomes critical to structural design in engineering applications. Over the last few decades, many approaches such as modification of the external geometry of structures have been investigated to mitigate wind-induced load. One such proven geometric modification involved the rounding of sharp corners. In this work, we systematically analyze the impact of rounded corner radii on the reducing the flow-induced loading on a square cylinder. We perform 3-Dimensional (3D) simulations for high Reynolds number flows (Re=1 × 105) which are more likely to be encountered in practical applications. An Improved Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation (IDDES) method capable of capturing flow accurately at large Reynolds numbers is employed in this study. The IDDES formulation uses a k-ω Shear Stress Transport (SST) model for near-wall modelling that prevents mesh-induced separation of the boundary layer. The effects of these corner modifications are analyzed in terms of the resulting variations in the mean and fluctuating components of the aerodynamic forces compared to a square cylinder with no geometric changes. Plots of the angular distribution of the mean and fluctuating coefficient of pressure along the square cylinder's surface illustrate the effects of corner modifications on the different parts of the cylinder. The windward corner's separation angle was observed to decrease with an increase in radius, resulting in a narrower and longer recirculation region. Furthermore, with an increase in radius, a reduction in the fluctuating lift, mean drag, and fluctuating drag coefficients has been observed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.85 no.3
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• pp.337-351
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• 2023

In this paper, the shear behavior of soft filling in rectangular-hollow concrete specimens was simulated using the 2D particle flow code (PFC2D). The laboratory-measured properties were used to calibrate some PFC2D micro-properties for modeling the behavior of geo-materials. The dimensions of prepared and modeled samples were 100 mm×100 mm. Some disc type narrow bands were removed from the central part of the model and different lengths of bridge areas (i.e., the distance between internal tips of two joints) with lengths of 30 mm, 50 mm, and 70 mm were produced. Then, the middle of the rectangular hollow was filled with cement material. Three filling sizes with dimensions of 5 mm×5 mm, 10 mm×5 mm, and 15 mm×5 mm were provided for different modeled samples. The parallel bond model was used to calibrate and re-produce these modeled specimens. Therefore, totally, 9 different types of samples were designed for the shear tests in PFC2D. The shear load was gradually applied to the model under a constant loading condition of 3 MPa (σc/3). The loading was continued till shear failure occur in the modeled concrete specimens. It has been shown that both tensile and shear cracks may occur in the fillings. The shear cracks mainly initiated from the crack (joint) tips and coalesced with another one. The shear displacements and shear strengths were both increased as the filling dimensions increased (for the case of a bridge area with a particular fixed length).

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.508-514
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• 2022

Piezoelectric composite films which are enabled by inorganic piezoelectric nanomaterials-embedded polymer, have attracted enormous attention as a sustainable power source for low powered electronics, because of their ease of fabrication and flexible nature. However, the absorption of applied stress by the soft polymeric matrices is a major issue that must be solved to expand the fields of piezoelectric composite applications. Herein, a flexible and porous piezoelectric composite (piezoelectric sponge) comprised of BaTiO₃ nanoparticles and polydimethylsiloxane was developed using template method to enhance the energy conversion efficiency by minimizing the stress that vanishes into the polymer matrix. In the porous structure, effective stress transfer can occur between the piezoelectric active materials in compression mode due to direct contact between the ceramic particles embedded in the pore-polymer interface. The piezoelectric sponge with 30 wt% of BaTiO₃ particles generated an open-circuit voltage of ~12 V and a short-circuit current of ~150 nA. A finite element method-based simulation was conducted to theoretically back up that the piezoelectric output performance was effectively improved by introducing the sponge structure. Furthermore, to demonstrate the feasibility of pressure detecting applications using the BaTiO₃ particles-embedded piezoelectric sponge, the composite was arranged in a 3 × 3 array and integrated into a single pressure sensor. The fabricated sensor array successfully detected the shape of the applied pressure. This work can provide a cost-effective, biocompatible, and structural strategy for realizing piezoelectric composite-based energy harvesters and self-powered sensors with improved energy conversion efficiency.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.55-78
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• 2022

The main aim of this paper is the identification of the model parameters for the constitutive model of concrete and concrete-like materials capable of representing full set of 3D failure mechanisms under various stress states. Identification procedure is performed taking into account multi-scale character of concrete as a structural material. In that sense, macro-scale model is used as a model on which the identification procedure is based, while multi-scale model which assume strong coupling between coarse and fine scale is used for numerical simulation of experimental results. Since concrete possess a few clearly distinguished phases in process of deformation until failure, macro-scale model contains practically all important ingredients to include both bulk dissipation and surface dissipation. On the other side, multi-scale model consisted of an assembly micro-scale elements perfectly fitted into macro-scale elements domain describes localized failure through the implementation of embedded strong discontinuity. This corresponds to surface dissipation in macro-scale model which is described by practically the same approach. Identification procedure is divided into three completely separate stages to utilize the fact that all material parameters of macro-scale model have clear physical interpretation. In this way, computational cost is significantly reduced as solving three simpler identification steps in a batch form is much more efficient than the dealing with the full-scale problem. Since complexity of identification procedure primarily depends on the choice of either experimental or numerical setup, several numerical examples capable of representing both homogeneous and heterogeneous stress state are performed to illustrate performance of the proposed methodology.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2022

This work elaborately investigates the influences of the guideway geometry parameters and track irregularity on the dynamic performances of the suspended monorail vehicle-guideway system (SMVGS). Firstly, a spatial dynamic analysis model of the SMVGS is established by adopting ANSYS parameter design language. Then, the dynamic interaction between a vehicle with maximum design load and guideway is investigated by numerical simulation and field tests, revealing the vehicle-guideway dynamic features. Subsequently, the influences of the guideway geometry parameters and track irregularity on the dynamic performances of the SMVGS are analyzed and discussed in detail, and the reasonable ranges of several key geometry parameters of the guideway are also obtained. Results show that the vehicle-guideway dynamic responses change nonlinearly with an increase of the guideway span, and especially the guideway dynamic performances can be effectively improved by reducing the guideway span; based on a comprehensive consideration of all performance indices of the SMVGS, the deflection-span ratio of the suspended monorail guideway is finally recommended to be 1/1054~1/868. The train load could cause a large bending deformation of the pier, which would intensify the car-body lateral displacement and decrease the vehicle riding comfort; to well limit the bending deformation of the pier, its cross-section dimension is suggested to be more than 0.8 m×0.8 m. The addition of the track irregularity amplitude has small influences on the displacements and stress of the guideway; however, it would significantly increase the vehicle-guideway vibrations and rate of load reduction of the driving tyre.