• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.219-240
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• 2007

An analytical-numerical procedure has been presented in this paper to take into account the nonlinear effects of concrete cracking and time-dependent effects of creep and shrinkage in the concrete portion of the continuous composite beams under service load. The procedure is analytical at the element level and numerical at the structural level. The cracked span length beam element consisting of uncracked zone in middle and cracked zones near the ends has been proposed to reduce the computational effort. The progressive nature of cracking of concrete has been taken into account by division of the time into a number of time intervals. Closed form expressions for stiffness matrix, load vector, crack lengths and mid-span deflection of the beam element have been presented in order to reduce the computational effort and bookkeeping. The procedure has been validated by comparison with the experimental and analytical results reported elsewhere and with FEM. The procedure can be readily extended for the analysis of composite building frames where saving in computational effort would be very considerable.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.357-372
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• 2001

In this paper, cantilevered tall structures are treated as cantilever bars with varying cross-section for the analysis of their free longitudinal (or axial) vibrations. Using appropriate transformations, exact analytical solutions to determine the longitudinal natural frequencies and mode shapes for a one step non-uniform bar are derived by selecting suitable expressions, such as exponential functions, for the distributions of mass and axial stiffness. The frequency equation of a multi-step bar is established using the approach that combines the transfer matrix procedure or the recurrence formula and the closed-form solutions of one step bars, leading to a single frequency equation for any number of steps. The Ritz method is also applied to determine the natural frequencies and mode shapes in the vertical direction for cantilevered tall structures with variably distributed stiffness and mass. The formulae proposed in this paper are simple and convenient for engineering applications. Numerical example shows that the fundamental longitudinal natural frequency and mode shape of a 27-storey building determined by the proposed methods are in good agreement with the corresponding measured data. It is also shown that the selected expressions are suitable for describing the distributions of axial stiffness and mass of typical tall buildings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.713-739
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• 2007

Nowadays computers can perform symbolic computations in addition to mere number crunching operations for which they were originally designed. Symbolic computation opens up exciting possibilities in Structural Mechanics and engineering. Classical areas have been increasingly neglected due to the advent of computers as well as general purpose finite element software. But now, classical analysis has reemerged as an attractive computer option due to the capabilities of symbolic computation. The repetitive cycles of simultaneous - equation sets required by the finite element technique can be eliminated by solving a single set in symbolic form, thus generating a truly closed-form solution. This consequently saves in data preparation, storage and execution time. The power of Symbolic computation is demonstrated by six examples by applying symbolic computation 1) to solve coupled shear wall 2) to generate beam element matrices 3) to find the natural frequency of a shear frame using transfer matrix method 4) to find the stresses of a plate subjected to in-plane loading using Levy's approach 5) to draw the influence surface for deflection of an isotropic plate simply supported on all sides 6) to get dynamic equilibrium equations from Lagrange equation. This paper also presents yet another computationally efficient and accurate numerical method which is based on the concept of derivative of a function expressed as a weighted linear sum of the function values at all the mesh points. Again this method is applied to solve the problems of 1) coupled shear wall 2) lateral buckling of thin-walled beams due to moment gradient 3) buckling of a column and 4) static and buckling analysis of circular plates of uniform or non-uniform thickness. The numerical results obtained are compared with those available in existing literature in order to verify their accuracy.

• Interaction and multiscale mechanics
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.321-332
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• 2009

Recent development in composites containing phase-transforming particles, such as vanadium dioxide or barium titanate, reveals the overall stiffness and viscoelastic damping of the composites may be unbounded (Lakes et al. 2001, Jaglinski et al. 2007). Negative stiffness is induced from phase transformation predicted by the Landau phase transformation theory. Although this unbounded phenomenon is theoretically supported with the composite homogenization theory, detailed stress analyses of the composites are still lacking. In this work, we analyze the stress distribution of the Hashin-Shtrikman (HS) composite and its two-dimensional variant, namely a circular inclusion in a square plate, under the assumption that the Young's modulus of the inclusion is negative. Assumption of negative stiffness is a priori in the present analysis. For stress analysis, a closed form solution for the HS model and finite element solutions for the 2D composite are presented. A static loading condition is adopted to estimate the effective modulus of the composites by the ratio of stress to average strain on the loading edges. It is found that the interfacial stresses between the circular inclusion and matrix increase dramatically when the negative stiffness is so tuned that overall stiffness is unbounded. Furthermore, it is found that stress distributions in the inclusion are not uniform, contrary to Eshelby's theorem, which states, for two-phase, infinite composites, the inclusion's stress distribution is uniform when the shape of the inclusion has higher symmetry than an ellipse. The stability of the composites is discussed from the viewpoint of deterioration of perfect interface conditions due to excessive interfacial stresses.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.709-729
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• 2004

This paper presents numerical and experimental investigations on damage detection of mono-coupled multistory buildings using natural frequency as only diagnostic parameter. Frequency equation of a mono-coupled multistory building is first derived using the transfer matrix method. Closed-form sensitivity equation is established to relate the relative change in the stiffness of each story to the relative changes in the natural frequencies of the building. Damage detection is then performed using the sensitivity equation with its special features and minimizing the norm of an objective function with an inequality constraint. Numerical and experimental investigations are finally conducted on a mono-coupled 3-story building model as an application of the proposed algorithm, in which the influence of modeling error on the degree of accuracy of damage detection is discussed. A mono-coupled 10-story building is further used to examine the capability of the proposed algorithm against measurement noise and incomplete measured natural frequencies. The results obtained demonstrate that changes in story stiffness can be satisfactorily detected, located, and quantified if all sensitive natural frequencies to damaged stories are available. The proposed damage detection algorithm is not sensitive to measurement noise and modeling error.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.27-35
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• 2007

This study presents a non -prismatic beam element for modeling the elastic and inelastic behavior of the steel beam, which has the post-Northridge connections in steel moment frames that are subjected to earthquake ground motions. The elastic stiffness matrix for non-prismatic members with reduced beam section (RES) connection is in the closed-form. The plasticity model is of a discrete type and is composed of a series of nonlinear hinges connected by rigid links. The hardening rules can model the inelastic behavior for monotonic and random cyclic loading, and the effects of local buckling. Verification and calibration of the model are presented in a companion paper.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.21-46
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• 2011

The natural frequencies of continuous systems depend on the governing partial differential equation and can be numerically estimated using the finite element method. The accuracy and convergence of the finite element method depends on the choice of basis functions. A basis function will generally perform better if it is closely linked to the problem physics. The stiffness matrix is the same for either static or dynamic loading, hence the basis function can be chosen such that it satisfies the static part of the governing differential equation. However, in the case of a rotating beam, an exact closed form solution for the static part of the governing differential equation is not known. In this paper, we try to find an approximate solution for the static part of the governing differential equation for an uniform rotating beam. The error resulting from the approximation is minimized to generate relations between the constants assumed in the solution. This new function is used as a basis function which gives rise to shape functions which depend on position of the element in the beam, material, geometric properties and rotational speed of the beam. The results of finite element analysis with the new basis functions are verified with published literature for uniform and tapered rotating beams under different boundary conditions. Numerical results clearly show the advantage of the current approach at high rotation speeds with a reduction of 10 to 33% in the degrees of freedom required for convergence of the first five modes to four decimal places for an uniform rotating cantilever beam.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.16 no.6 s.73
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• pp.833-846
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• 2004

This study presents a non-prismatic beam element for modeling the elastic behavior of steel beams, which have the post-Northridge connections in steel moment frames. The elastic stiffness matrix, including the shear effects for non-prismatic members with reduced beam section (RBS) connection, is in closed form. A simplified approach is also suggested, which uses a prismatic beam element to model beams with the RBS connection. This method can estimate quiteexactly the maximum story drift ratios of frames with the RBS connection. The effects of reduced beam section connection on the elastic stiffness of steel moment frames were investigated. The selection of a proper model to account for deformations at the joint might have a more important role in estimating the maximum story drift ratios of frames with better accuracy than the RBS cutouts.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.2A
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• pp.233-242
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• 2008

This study presents a non-prismatic beam element for modeling the elastic and inelastic behavior of steel beams, which have the post-Northridge(cover plate) connections in steel moment frames that are subjected to earthquake ground motions. The elastic stiffness matrix for non-prismatric members with increased beam section (IBS) connection is in the closed-form. The plasticity model is of a discrete type and is composed of a series of nonlinear hinges connected by rigid links. The hardening rules can model the inelastic behavior for monotonic and random cyclic loading, and the effects of local buckling. Moreover the determination of yield surfaces, stiffness parameters, and hardening (or softening) rule parameters for IBS beam element were described. Analytical results of the IBS beam element show good correlation with test data and FEM results.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.159-168
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• 2005

An improved stability design method for beam-columns of plane frames is proposed based on system buckling analysis and second-order elastic analysis. For this, the tangent stiffness matrix of beam-column elements is first derived using stability functions and a procedure for evaluating effective buckling lengths is reviewed using elastic system buckling analysis. And then the second-order analysis procedure is presented considering $P-\Delta$ effects and is compared with the closed-form solution through numerical examples. Design examples showing the validity of the proposed method we presented and their numerical results are compared with those obtained from the conventional stability design methods. Finally some useful conclusions are drawn.