• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제42권6호
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• pp.733-745
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• 2022

This study proposed a robust artificial intelligence (AI) model based on the social behaviour of the imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) and artificial neural network (ANN) for modelling the deflection of reinforced concrete beams, abbreviated as ICA-ANN model. Accordingly, the ICA was used to adjust and optimize the parameters of an ANN model (i.e., weights and biases) aiming to improve the accuracy of the ANN model in modelling the deflection reinforced concrete beams. A total of 120 experimental datasets of reinforced concrete beams were employed for this aim. Therein, applied load, tensile reinforcement strength and the reinforcement percentage were used to simulate the deflection of reinforced concrete beams. Besides, five other AI models, such as ANN, SVM (support vector machine), GLMNET (lasso and elastic-net regularized generalized linear models), CART (classification and regression tree) and KNN (k-nearest neighbours), were also used for the comprehensive assessment of the proposed model (i.e., ICA-ANN). The comparison of the derived results with the experimental findings demonstrates that among the developed models the ICA-ANN model is that can approximate the reinforced concrete beams deflection in a more reliable and robust manner.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제82권1호
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• pp.81-92
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• 2022

Ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) is a composite building material with high ductility, fatigue resistance, fracture toughness, durability, and energy absorption capacity. The aim of this study is to develop a nonlinear finite element model that can simulate the response of the UHPFRC beam exposed to impact loads. A nonlinear finite element model was developed in ABAQUS to simulate the real response of UHPFRC beams. The numerical results showed that the model was highly successful to capture the experimental results of selected beams from the literature. A parametric study was carried out to investigate the effects of reinforcement ratio and impact velocity on the response of the UHPFRC beam in terms of midpoint displacement, impact load value, and residual load-carrying capacity. In the parametric study, the nonlinear analysis was performed in two steps for 12 different finite element models. In the first step, dynamic analysis was performed to monitor the response of the UHPFRC beam under impact loads. In the second step, static analysis was conducted to determine the residual load-carrying capacity of the beams. The parametric study has shown that the reinforcement ratio and the impact velocity affect maximum and residual displacement value substantially.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제41권5호
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• pp.713-730
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• 2021

The seismic performance of rigid steel frames is widely investigated, but that of semi-rigid (SR) steel frames are not studied extensively, especially for near-field earthquakes. In this paper, the performances of five and ten-story steel SR frames having different degrees of semi-rigidity are evaluated at four performance points in the four different deformation states, namely, the elastic, elasto-plastic, plastic, and near collapse states. The performances of the SR frames are measured by the response parameters including the maximum values of the top floor displacement, base shear, inter-story drift ratio, number of plastic hinges, and SRSS of plastic hinge rotations. These response parameters are obtained by the capacity spectrum method (CSM) using pushover analysis. The validity of the response parameters determined by the CSM is evaluated by the results of the nonlinear time history analysis (NLTHA) for both near and far-field earthquakes at different PGA levels, which are consistent with the performance points. Results of the study show that the plastic hinges of SR frame significantly increase in the range of plastic to near-collapse states for both near and far-field earthquakes. The effect of the degree of semi-rigidity is pronounced only at higher degrees of semi-rigidity. The predictions of the CSM are fairly well in comparison to the NLTHA.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제84권5호
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• pp.699-706
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• 2022

Settlement control techniques are critical for the safety of shield tunnel constructions, especially for facing complex situations. In this study, the shield tunnel structure from Huaita east road station to Heping Road station in Xuzhou metro No.3 line (China) is taken as engineering background, which has various complex problems of the upper-soft and lower-hard composite stratum conditions, twin curve shield tunnels, and underpass the foundation of the piled raft. The deformation characteristics of shield tunnelling passing through buildings are explored. Subsequently, comprehensive research methods of numerical simulation and field measurement are adopted to analyzing the effectiveness of settlement control by using the top grouting technique. The results show that the settlement of the buildings has obvious spatial characteristics, and the hysteresis effect can be obviously observed in soil deformation caused by shield construction. Meanwhile, the two shield constructions can cause repeated disturbances, reducing the soil deformation's hysteresis effect. Moreover, the shield tunnel's differential settlement is too large when a single line passes through, and the shield construction of the outer curve can cause more significant disturbance in the tunnel than the inside curve. Notably, the proposed process control parameters and secondary topgrouting method can effectively control the deformation of the shield tunnel, especially for the long-term deformation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제86권3호
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• pp.417-430
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• 2023

As the key part in the reinforced concrete column-steel beam (RCS) frame, the beam-column joints are usually subjected the axial force, shear force and bending moment under seismic actions. With the aim to study the seismic behavior of RCS joints with and without RC slab, the quasi-static cyclic tests results, including hysteretic curves, slab crack development, failure mode, strain distributions, etc. were discussed in detail. It is shown that the composite action between steel beam and RC slab can significantly enhance the initial stiffness and loading capacity, but lead to a changing of the failure mode from beam flexural failure to the joint shear failure. Based on the analysis of shear failure mechanism, the calculation formula accounting for the influence of RC slab was proposed to estimate shear strength of RCS joint. In addition, the finite element model (FEM) was developed by ABAQUS and a series of parametric analysis model with RC slab was conducted to investigate the influence of the face plates thickness, slab reinforcement diameter, beam web strength and inner concrete strength on the shear strength of joints. Finally, the proposed formula in this paper is verified by the experiment and FEM parametric analysis results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제47권3호
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• pp.355-363
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• 2023

The main purpose of this study is to characterize the size-dependent strain rate sensitivity in structural steel using the continue stiffness measurement (CSM) indentation. A series of experiments, such as CSM indentation and optical microscope examination, has been performed at the room temperature at different rate conditions. The results indicated that indentation hardness, strain rate, and flow stress showed size-dependent behavior. The dependency of indentation hardness, strain rate, and flow stress on the indentation size was attributed to the transition of the dislocation nucleation rate and the dislocation behaviors during the indentation process. Since both hardness and strain rate showed the size-dependent behavior, SRS tended to depend on the indentation depth. The results indicated that the SRS was quite high over 2.0 at the indentation depth of 240 nm and quickly dropping to 0.08, finally around 0.046 at large indents. The SRS values at large indentations strongly agree with the general range reported for several types of low-carbon steel in the literature (Chatfield and Rote 1974, Nguyen et al. 2018b, Luecke et al. 2005). The results from the present study can be used in both static and dynamic analyses of structures as well as to assess and understand the deformation mechanism and the stress-state of material underneath the indenter tip during the process of the indentation testing.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제86권4호
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• pp.519-533
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• 2023

This work focuses on the dynamic analysis of thermal barrier coated straight and curved turbine blades modelled as functionally graded sandwich panel under thermal environment. The pre- twisted straight/curved blade model is considered to be fixed to the hub and, the complete assembly of the hub and blade are assumed to be rotating. The functionally graded sandwich composite blade is comprised of functionally graded face-sheet material and metal alloy core. The constituents' material properties are assumed to be temperature-dependent, however, the overall properties are evaluated using Voigt's micromechanical scheme in conjunction with the modified power-law functions. The blade model kinematics is based on the equivalent single-layer shear deformation theory. The equations of motion are derived using the extended Hamilton's principle by including the effect of centrifugal forces, and further solved via 2D- isoparametric finite element approximations. The mesh refinement and validation tests are performed to illustrate the stability and accurateness of the present model. In addition, frequency characteristics of the pre-twisted rotating sandwich blades are computed under thermal environment at various sets of parametric conditions such as twist angles, thickness ratios, aspect ratios, layer thickness ratios, volume fractions, rotational velocity and blade curvatures which can be further useful for designing the blade type structures under turbine operating conditions.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.151-165
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• 2023

In this study, a simple method for the determination of the shear correction factor for composites beam with a rectangular cross section is presented. The plane stress elasticity assumption is used after simplifications of the expression of the stress distribution in the beam. The different fiber orientation angle and volume fraction are considered in this work. The studied structure is subjected to various loading type (thermal and hygrothermal). The numerical results obtained show that there is a dependence of the shear coefficient on the orientation of the fibers. The evolution of the shear correction factors depends not only on the orientation of the fibers and also on the volume fraction and the environment. the advantage of this developed formula of the shear correction factor is to obtain more precise results and to consider several parameters influencing this factor which are neglected if the latter is constant.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.363-371
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• 2022

Traditional metal dampers have disadvantages such as a higher yield point and inadequate adjustability. The experimental results show that the low yield point steel has superior energy dissipation hysteretic capacity and can be applied to seismic structures. To overcome these deficiencies, a novel compound metal damper comprising both low yield point steel plates and common steel plates is presented. The optimization objectives, including "maximum rigidity" and "full stress state", are proposed to obtain the optimal edge shape of a compound metal damper. The numerical results show that the optimized composite metal damper has the advantages such as full hysteresis curve, uniform stress distribution, more sufficient energy consumption, and it can adjust the yield strength of the damper according to the engineering requirements. In view of the mechanical characteristics of the compound metal damper, the equivalent model of eccentric cross bracing is established, and the approximate analytical solution of the yield strength and the yield displacement is proposed. A nonlinear simulation analysis is carried out for the overall aseismic capacity of three-layer-frame structures with a compound metal damper. It is verified that a compound metal damper has better energy dissipation capacity and superior seismic performance, especially for a damper with double-objective optimized shape.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제45권4호
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• pp.501-511
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• 2022

In this study, a two-dimensional model of the contact problem has been examined using the finite element method (FEM) based software ANSYS and based on the multilayer perceptron (MLP), an artificial neural network (ANN). For this purpose, a functionally graded (FG) half-infinite layer (HIL) with a crack pressed by means of two rigid blocks has been solved using FEM. Mass forces and friction are neglected in the solution. Since the problem is analyzed for the plane state, the thickness along the z-axis direction is taken as a unit. To check the accuracy of the contact problem model the results are compared with a study in the literature. In addition, ANSYS and MLP results are compared using Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination (R2), and good agreement is found. Numerical solutions are made by considering different values of external load, the width of blocks, crack depth, and material properties. The stresses on the contact surfaces between the blocks and the FG HIL are examined for these values, and the results are presented. Consequently, it is concluded that the considered non-dimensional quantities have a noteworthy influence on the contact stress distributions, and also, FEM and ANN can be efficient alternative methods to time-consuming analytical solutions if used correctly.