• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.1832-1842
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• 2014

A novel probabilistic small signal stability analysis (PSSSA) method considering load correlation is proposed in this paper. The superiority Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) technique combined with Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) is utilized to investigate the probabilistic small signal stability of power system in presence of load correlation. LHS helps to reduce the sampling size, meanwhile guarantees the accuracy and robustness of the solutions. The correlation coefficient matrix is adopted to represent the correlations between loads. Simulation results of the two-area, four-machine system prove that the proposed method is an efficient and robust sampling method. Simulation results of the 16-machine, 68-bus test system indicate that load correlation has a significant impact on the probabilistic analysis result of the critical oscillation mode under a certain degree of load uncertainty.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.375-390
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• 2011

Composite beam, which combined the material characteristic of the steel and concrete, has been widely used in the construction of various building and bridge system. For the effective application of the composite beam, the composite action on the composite interface between the concrete element and the steel element should be achieved by shear connectors. The behavioral characteristics of composite beam are related with the degree of interaction and the degree of shear connection according to the shear strength and shear stiffness of the stud shear connectors. These two concepts are also affected by the number of installed shear connector and the strength of composite materials. In this study, experimental and analytical evaluations of the degree of shear connection affected by stud diameter were conducted, and the relationship between structural behavior and the degree of shear connection was verified. The very small difference among the ultimate loads of the specimens depending on the change of the degree of connection was possibly because of the dependence of the ultimate load on the characteristic of plastic moment of the composite beam.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.473-490
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• 2009

This paper presents a new methodology to evaluate the load carrying capacity of deteriorated non-slender concrete bridge pier columns by construction of the full P-M interaction diagrams. The proposed method incorporates the actual material properties of deteriorated columns, and accounts for amount of corrosion and exposed corroded bar length, concrete loss, loss of concrete confinement and strength due to stirrup deterioration, bond failure, and type of stresses in the corroded reinforcement. The developed structural model and the damaged material models are integrated in a spreadsheet for evaluating the load carrying capacity for different deterioration stages and/or corrosion amounts. Available experimental and analytical data for the effects of corrosion on short columns subject to axial loads combined with moments (eccentricity induced) are used to verify the accuracy of proposed model. It was observed that, for the limited available experimental data, the proposed model is conservative and is capable of predicting the load carrying capacity of deteriorated reinforced concrete columns with reasonable accuracy. The proposed analytical method will improve the understanding of effects of deterioration on structural members, and allow engineers to qualitatively assess load carrying capacity of deteriorated reinforced concrete bridge pier columns.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.357-376
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• 2009

In the design of concrete columns, it is important to provide some nominal flexural ductility even for structures not subjected to earthquake attack. Currently, the nominal flexural ductility is provided by imposing empirical deemed-to-satisfy rules, which limit the minimum size and maximum spacing of the confining reinforcement. However, these existing empirical rules have the major shortcoming that the actual level of flexural ductility provided is not consistent, being generally lower at higher concrete strength or higher axial load level. Hence, for high-strength concrete columns subjected to high axial loads, these existing rules are unsafe. Herein, the combined effects of concrete strength, axial load level, confining pressure and longitudinal steel ratio on the flexural ductility are evaluated using nonlinear moment-curvature analysis. Based on the numerical results, a new design method that provides a consistent level of nominal flexural ductility by imposing an upper limit to the axial load level or a lower limit to the confining pressure is developed. Lastly, two formulas and one design chart for direct evaluation of the maximum axial load level and minimum confining pressure are produced.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.201-213
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• 2014

Wave run-up is an important issue in offshore engineering, which is tightly related to the loads on the marine structures. In this study, a series of physical experiments have been performed to investigate the wave run-up around a vertical cylinder in transitional water depth. The wave run-ups of regular waves, irregular waves and focused waves have been presented and the characteristics in frequency domain have been investigated with the FFT and wavelet transform methods. This study focuses on the nonlinear features of the wave run-up and the interaction between the wave run-up and the cylinder. The results show that the nonlinear interaction between the waves and the structures might result wave run-up components of higher frequencies. The wave run-ups of the moderate irregular waves exhibit 2nd order nonlinear characteristics. For the focused waves, the incident waves are of strong nonlinearity and the wavelet coherence analysis reveals that the wave run-up at focal moment contains combined contributions from almost all the frequency components of the focused wave sequence and the contributions of frequency components up to 4th order harmonic levels are recommended to be included.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.6
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• pp.751-760
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• 2018

Damages in concrete structures due to aging and other factors could be a serious and immense matter. Making the best selection of the most viable and practical repairing and strengthening techniques are relatively difficult tasks using traditional methods of structural analyses. This is due to the fact that the traditional methods used for assessing aging structure are not fully capable when considering the randomness in strength, loads and cost. This paper presents a reliability-based methodology for assessing reinforced concrete members. The methodology of this study is based on probabilistic analysis, using statistics of the random variables in the performance function equations. Principles of reliability updating are used in the assessment process, as new information is taken into account and combined with prior probabilistic models. The methodology can result in a reliability index ${\beta}$ that can be used to assess the structural component by comparing its value with a standard value. In addition, these methods result in partial safety factor values that can be used for the purpose of strengthening the R/C elements of the existing structure. Calculations and computations of the reliability indices and the partial safety factors values are conducted using the First-order Reliability Method and Monte Carlo simulation.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.649-662
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• 2020

The existence of a dam has potential effects on the surrounding wind environment especially when it is located in mountainous areas. In this situation, the long-span bridge over the reservoir can easily be exposed to non-uniform incoming flows, affecting its wind-resistance performance. This paper presents a study on the aerostatic stability of such a bridge. Wind tunnel tests were first carried out to investigate the wind environment above a mountainous reservoir. The results show that the angle of attack and the wind speed along the bridge axis show obvious non-uniform characteristics, which is related to the inflow direction. When winds come from the south where the river is winding, the angle of attack varies along the span direction significantly. The finite element model for the bridge was established using ANSYS software, and effects of non-uniform wind loads on the aerostatic stability were computed. Non-uniform angle of attack and wind speed are unfavorable to the aerostatic stability of the bridge, especially the former. When the combined action of non-uniform angle of attack and wind speed is considered, the critical wind speed of aerostatic instability is further reduced. Moreover, the aerostatic stability of the bridge is closely related to the dam height.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.37-52
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• 2010

Special-shape arch bridge for self-balance (SBSSAB) in Zhongshan City is a kind of new fashioned spatial combined arch bridge composed of inclined steel arch ribs, curved steel box girder and inclined suspenders, and the mechanical behavior of the SBSSAB is particularly complicated. The SBSSAB is aesthetic in appearance, and design of the SBSSAB is artful and particular. In order to roundly investigate the mechanical behavior of the SBSSAB, 3-D finite element models for spatial member and shell were established to analyze the mechanical properties of the SBSSAB using ANSYS. Finite element analyses were conducted under several main loading cases, moreover deformation and strain values for control section of the SBSSAB under several main loading cases were proposed. To ensure the safety and rationality for optimal design of the SBSSAB and also to verify the reliability of its design and calculation theories, the 1/10 scale model tests were carried out. The measured results include the load checking calculation, lane loading and crowd load, and dead load. A good agreement is achieved between the experimental and analytical results. Both experimental and analytical results have shown that the SBSSAB is in the elastic state under the planned test loads, which indicates that the SBSSAB has an adequate load-capacity. The calibrated finite-element model that reflects the as-built conditions can be used as a baseline for health monitoring and future maintenance of the SBSSAB.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.427-444
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• 2012

This paper presented a new aerial platform-AERORail for rail transport and its structure evolution based on the elastic stiffness of cable; through the analysis on the cable properties when the cable supported a small service load with high-tensile force, summarized the theoretical basis of the AERORail structure and the corresponding simplified analysis model. There were 60 groups of experiments for a single naked cable model under different tensile forces and different services loads, and 48 groups of experiments for the cable with rail combined structure model. The experimental results of deflection characteristics were compared with the theoretical values for these two types of structures under the same conditions. It proved that the results almost met the classical cable theory. The reason is that a small deflection was required when this structure was applied. After the tension increments tests with moving load, it is verified that the relationships between the structure stiffness and tension force and service load are simple. Before further research and applications are made, these results are necessary for the determination of the reasonable and economic tensile force, allowable service load for the special span length for this new platform.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2007

This paper presents a PID automatic gain-tuning algorithm for the electronic throttle valve which is driven by wire. Since the system characteristics of position control for electronic throttle valve are so complicated that both the real time robustness and the manufacturing cost must be considered for mass production. To resolve this paradox, a kind of algorithm called RLS (Recursive Least Square) is adopted for the control of the ETB (Electronic Throttle Body). Using this algorithm, the PID gains can be adjusted automatically with the estimated system parameters. Furthermore, a pre-filter is supplemented for the sake of the robustness against the friction and loads. From the industrial requests for the system, the design specifications are decided as follows: the settling time should be less than 1sec and the overshoot should be kept below 3%. The results of the experiments based on this approach show that the high robustness can be achieved while the system stability is satisfied steadily. A parameter estimation scheme and a gain-tuning algorithm have been properly combined and utilized in this research and the effectiveness is verified through the real experiments.