• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.673-691
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• 2018

The main goal of this research is to examine the in-plane and out-of-plane forced vibration of a curved nanocomposite microbeam. The in-plane and out-of-plane displacements of the structure are considered based on the first order shear deformation theory (FSDT). The curved microbeam is reinforced by functionally graded carbon nanotubes (FG-CNTs) and thus the extended rule of mixture is employed to estimate the effective material properties of the structure. Also, the small scale effect is captured using the strain gradient theory. The structure is rested on a nonlinear orthotropic viscoelastic foundation and is subjected to concentrated transverse harmonic external force, thermal and magnetic loads. The derivation of the governing equations is performed using energy method and Hamilton's principle. Differential quadrature (DQ) method along with integral quadrature (IQ) and Newmark methods are employed to solve the problem. The effect of various parameters such as volume fraction and distribution type of CNTs, boundary conditions, elastic foundation, temperature changes, material length scale parameters, magnetic field, central angle and width to thickness ratio are studied on the frequency and force responses of the structure. The results indicate that the highest frequency and lowest vibration amplitude belongs to FGX distribution type while the inverse condition is observed for FGO distribution type. In addition, the hardening-type response of the structure with FGX distribution type is more intense with respect to the other distribution types.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.487-497
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• 2020

During the last few decades, fluid viscous dampers have been significantly improved in terms of performance and reliability. Viscous dampers dissipate the input energy into heat and the increased temperature may damage internal seals of the damper. As a result, thermal compensation is crucial for almost all fluid viscous dampers. In this study, while referring to the main working principles of the recently developed bypass viscous damper in Iran, a comprehensive case study is conducted on a RC building having diagonal braces equipped with such viscous dampers. Experimental results of a small-scale bypass viscous damper is presented and it is shown that the currently available simplified Maxwell models can simulate behavior of the bypass viscous damper with good accuracy. Using a case study, contribution of bypass viscous dampers to seismic behavior of structural and non-structural elements are investigated. A designed procedure is adopted to increase damping ratio of the building from 3% to 15%. In this way, reductions of 25% and 13% in the required concrete and steel rebar materials have been achieved. From nonlinear time history analyses, it is observed that bypass viscous dampers can greatly improve seismic behavior of structural elements and non-structural elements.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.511-524
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• 2020

In this research, a simple four-variable trigonometric integral shear deformation model is proposed for the static behavior of advanced functionally graded (AFG) ceramic-metal plates supported by a two-parameter elastic foundation and subjected to a nonlinear hygro-thermo-mechanical load. The elastic properties, including both the thermal expansion and moisture coefficients of the plate, are also supposed to be varied within thickness direction by following a power law distribution in terms of volume fractions of the components of the material. The interest of the current theory is seen in its kinematics that use only four independent unknowns, while first-order plate theory and other higher-order plate theories require at least five unknowns. The "in-plane displacement field" of the proposed theory utilizes cosine functions in terms of thickness coordinates to calculate out-of-plane shear deformations. The vertical displacement includes flexural and shear components. The elastic foundation is introduced in mathematical modeling as a two-parameter Winkler-Pasternak foundation. The virtual displacement principle is applied to obtain the basic equations and a Navier solution technique is used to determine an analytical solution. The numerical results predicted by the proposed formulation are compared with results already published in the literature to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed theory. The influences of "moisture concentration", temperature, stiffness of foundation, shear deformation, geometric ratios and volume fraction variation on the mechanical behavior of AFG plates are examined and discussed in detail.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.75-94
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• 2020

The aim of this research is to investigate free vibration of a novel five layer Timoshenko microbeam which consists of a transversely flexible porous core made of Al-foam, two graphen platelets (GPL) nanocomposite reinforced layers to enhance the mechanical behavior of the structure as well as two piezo-magneto-electric face sheets layers. This microbeam is subjected to a thermal load and resting on Pasternak's foundation. To accomplish the analysis, constitutive equations of each layer are derived by means of nonlocal strain gradient theory (NSGT) to capture size dependent effects. Then, the Hamilton's principle is employed to obtain the equations of motion for five layer Timoshenko microbeam. They are subsequently solved analytically by applying Navier's method so that discretized governing equations are determined in form of dynamic matrix giving the possibility to gain the natural frequencies of the Timoshenko microbeam. Eventually, after a validation study, the numerical results are presented to study and discuss the influences of various parameters such as nonlocal parameter, strain gradient parameter, aspect ratio, porosity, various volume fraction and distributions of graphene platelets, temperature change and elastic foundation coefficients on natural frequencies of the sandwich microbeam.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.58 no.5
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• pp.757-781
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• 2016

The results of diagnostics and analysis of an industrial hall located on the premises of a thermal power plant severely damaged by fire are presented in the paper. The comprehensive failure-related diagnostics, non-destructive and destructive tests of steel and concrete materials, geodetic surveying of selected structural members, numerical modelling, static analysis and reliability assessment were focused on two basic goals: The determination of the current technical condition of the load bearing structure and the assessment of its post fire resistance as well as assessing the degree of damage and subsequent design of reconstruction measures and arrangements which would enable the safe and reliable use of the building. The current mechanical properties of the steel material obtained from the tests and measured geometric characteristics of the structural members with imperfections were employed in finite element models to study the post-fire behaviour of the structure. In order to compare the behaviour of the numerically modelled steel roof truss, subjected to the effects of fire, with the real post-fire response of the damaged structure theoretically obtained resistance, critical temperature and the time at which the structure no longer meets the required reliability criteria under its given loading are compared with real values. A very good agreement between the simulated results and real characteristics of the structure after the fire was observed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.527-544
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• 2018

The paper presents the study on a change in modal parameters and structural stiffness of cable-stayed Fiberline Bridge made entirely of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) composite used for 20 years in the fjord area of Kolding, Denmark. Due to this specific location the bridge structure was subjected to natural aging in harsh environmental conditions. The flexural properties of the pultruded GFRP profiles acquired from the analyzed footbridge in 1997 and 2012 were determined through three-point bending tests. It was found that the Young's modulus increased by approximately 9%. Moreover, the influence of the temperature on the storage and loss modulus of GFRP material acquired from the Fiberline Bridge was studied by the dynamic mechanical analysis. The good thermal stability in potential real temperatures was found. The natural vibration frequencies and mode shapes of the bridge for its original state were evaluated through the application of the Finite Element (FE) method. The initial FE model was created using the real geometrical and material data obtained from both the design data and flexural test results performed in 1997 for the intact composite GFRP material. Full scale experimental investigations of the free-decay response under human jumping for the experimental state were carried out applying accelerometers. Seven natural frequencies, corresponding mode shapes and damping ratios were identified. The numerical and experimental results were compared. Based on the difference in the fundamental natural frequency it was again confirmed that the structural stiffness of the bridge increased by about 9% after 20 years of service life. Data collected from this study were used to validate the assumed FE model. It can be concluded that the updated FE model accurately reproduces the dynamic behavior of the bridge and can be used as a proper baseline model for the long-term monitoring to evaluate the overall structural response under service loads. The obtained results provided a relevant data for the structural health monitoring of all-GFRP bridge.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.505-534
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• 2012

The present work deals with second order statistics of post buckling response of piezoelectric laminated composite cylindrical shell panel subjected to hygro-thermo-electro-mechanical loading with random system properties. System parameters such as the material properties, thermal expansion coefficients and lamina plate thickness are assumed to be independent of the temperature and electric field and modeled as random variables. The piezoelectric material is used in the forms of layers surface bonded on the layers of laminated composite shell panel. The mathematical formulation is based on higher order shear deformation shell theory (HSDT) with von-Karman nonlinear kinematics. A efficient $C^0$ nonlinear finite element method based on direct iterative procedure in conjunction with a first order perturbation approach (FOPT) is developed for the implementation of the proposed problems in random environment and is employed to evaluate the second order statistics (mean and variance) of the post buckling load of piezoelectric laminated cylindrical shell panel. Typical numerical results are presented to examine the effect of various environmental conditions, amplitude ratios, electrical voltages, panel side to thickness ratios, aspect ratios, boundary conditions, curvature to side ratios, lamination schemes and types of loadings with random system properties. It is observed that the piezoelectric effect has a significant influence on the stochastic post buckling response of composite shell panel under various loading conditions and some new results are presented to demonstrate the applications of present work. The results obtained using the present solution approach is validated with those results available in the literature and also with independent Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS).

• Advances in materials Research
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.77-91
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• 2013

High quality nanoparticles of neodymium barium niobium ($NdBa_2NbO_6$) perovskites have been synthesized using an auto ignition combustion technique for the first time. The nanoparticles thus obtained have been characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, thermo gravimetric analysis, differential thermal analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. UV-Visible absorption and photoluminescence spectra of the samples are also recorded. The structural analysis shows that the nano powder is phase pure with the average particle size of 35 nm. The band gap determined for $NdBa_2NbO_6$ is 3.9 eV which corresponds to UV-radiation for optical inter band transition with a wavelength of 370nm. The nanopowder could be sintered to 96% of the theoretical density at $1325^{\circ}C$ for 2h. The ultrafine cuboidal nature of nanopowders with fewer degree of agglomeration improved the sinterability for compactness at relatively lower temperature and time. During the sintering process the wide band gap semiconducting behavior diminishes and the material turns to a high permittivity dielectric. The microstructure of the sintered surface was examined using scanning electron microscopy. The striking value of dielectric constant ${\varepsilon}_r=43$, loss factor tan ${\delta}=1.97{\times}10^{-4}$ and the observed band gap value make it suitable for many dielectric devices.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.157-171
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• 2019

In this research, the dynamic instability region (DIR) of the sandwich nano-beams are investigated based on nonlocal strain gradient elasticity theory (NSGET) and various higher order shear deformation beam theories (HSDBTs). The sandwich piezoelectric nano-beam is including a homogenous core and face-sheets reinforced with functionally graded (FG) carbon nanotubes (CNTs). In present study, three patterns of CNTs are employed in order to reinforce the top and bottom face-sheets of the beam. In addition, different higher-order shear deformation beam theories such as trigonometric shear deformation beam theory (TSDBT), exponential shear deformation beam theory (ESDBT), hyperbolic shear deformation beam theory (HSDBT), and Aydogdu shear deformation beam theory (ASDBT) are considered to extract the governing equations for different boundary conditions. The beam is subjected to thermal and electrical loads while is resting on Visco-Pasternak foundation. Hamilton principle is used to derive the governing equations of motion based on various shear deformation theories. In order to analysis of the dynamic instability behaviors, the linear governing equations of motion are solved using differential quadrature method (DQM). After verification with validated reference, comprehensive numerical results are presented to investigate the influence of important parameters such as various shear deformation theories, nonlocal parameter, strain gradient parameter, the volume fraction of the CNTs, various distributions of the CNTs, different boundary conditions, dimensionless geometric parameters, Visco-Pasternak foundation parameters, applied voltage and temperature change on the dynamic instability characteristics of sandwich piezoelectric nano-beam.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.73-81
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• 2022

This study was aimed at designing a condenser, as a component of the organic Rankine cycle system for ships. The condenser was manufactured through press molding to achieve a bent shape to enhance the heat transfer performance, considering the shape of the heat transfer plate used in a brazing plate heat exchanger. The heat transfer plate was made of copper-nickel alloy. The required heat transfer rate for the condenser was 110 kW, and the maximum number of layers was set as 25, considering the characteristics of high-temperature brazing. Computational fluid dynamics techniques were used to perform the thermal fluid analysis, based on the ANSYS CFX (v.18.1) commercial program. The heat transfer rate of the condenser was 4.96 kW for one layer (width and length of 0.224 and 0.7 m, respectively) of the heat transfer exchanger. The fin efficiency pertaining to the heat transfer plate was approximately 20%. The heat flow analysis for one layer of the heat exchanger plate indicated that the condenser with 25 layers of heat transfer plates could achieve a heat transfer rate of 110 kW.