• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.415-427
• /
• 2024

Explosion experiments were conducted using a rectangular concrete structure filled with hydrogen-air mixture (29.0%). In addition, the effect of ignition location on explosion was investigated. The impact on overpressure and flame was increased with the increasing distance of the ignition source from the vent. Importantly, depending on the ignition location the incident pressure was up to 24.4 times higher, while the reflected pressure was 8.7 times higher. Additionally, a maximum external overpressure of 30.01 kPa was measured at a distance of 2.4 m from the vent, predicting damage to humans at the injury level (1% fatality probability). Whereas, no significant damage would occur at a distance of 7.4 m or more from the vent.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.37 no.4
• /
• pp.158-163
• /
• 2023

Objects adrift can cause considerable damage to coastal infrastructure and property during tsunami and storm surge events. Despite the potential for harm, the drifting behavior of these objects remains poorly understood, thereby hindering effective prediction and mitigation of collision damage. To address this gap, this study employed a motion analysis program to track a drifting container's location using images from an existing laboratory experiment. The container's trajectory and velocity were calculated based on the positions of five markers strategically placed at its four corners and center. Our findings indicate that the container's maximum drift velocity and distance are directly influenced by the scale of the solitary wave and inversely related to the container's weight. Specifically, heavier containers are less likely to be displaced by solitary waves, while larger waves can damage coastal structures more. This study offers new insights into container drift behavior induced by solitary waves, with implications for enhancing coastal infrastructure design and devising mitigation strategies to minimize the risk of collision damage.

• Advances in Computational Design
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.13-36
• /
• 2023

The Puebla-Morelos Earthquake (Mw 7.1) occurred in Mexico in 2017 causing 44 buildings to collapse in Mexico City. This work evaluates the non-linear response of a 6-story reinforced concrete (RC) frame prototype model with masonry infill walls on upper floors. The prototype model was designed using provisions prescribed before 1985 and was subjected to seismic excitations recorded during the earthquakes of 1985 and 2017 in different places in Mexico City. The building response was assessed through a damage index (DI) that considers low-cycle fatigue of the steel reinforcement in columns of the first floor, where the steel was modeled including buckling as was observed in cases after the 2017 earthquake. Isocurves were generated with 72 seismic records in Mexico City representing the level of iso-demand on the structure. These isocurves were compared with the location of 16 collapsed (first-floor column failure) building cases consistent with the prototype model. The isocurves for a value greater than 1 demarcate the location where fatigue failure was expected, which is consistent with the location of 2 of the 16 cases studied. However, a slight increase in axial load (5%) or decrease in column cross-section (5%) had a significant detrimental effect on the cumulated damage, increasing the intensity of the isocurves and achieving congruence with 9 of the 16 cases, and having the other 7 cases less than 2 km away. Including column special detailing (tight stirrup spacing and confined concrete) was the variable with the greatest impact to control the cumulated damage, which was consistent with the absence of severe damage in buildings built in the 70s and 80s.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.29-46
• /
• 2005

In this study, a wavelet packet based method is proposed for identifying damage occurrence and damage location for beam-like structures. This method assumes that the displacement or the acceleration response time histories at various locations along a beam-like structure both before and after damage are available for damage assessment. These responses are processed through a proper level of wavelet packet decomposition. The wavelet packet signature (WPS) that consists of wavelet packet component signal energies is calculated. The change of the WPS curvature between the baseline state and the current state is then used to identify the locations of possible damage in the structure. Two numerical studies, one on a 15-storey shear-beam building frame and another on a simply-supported steel beam, and an experimental study on a simply-supported reinforced concrete beam are performed to validate the proposed method. Results show the WPS curvature change can be used to locate both single and sparsely-distributed multiple damages that exist in the structure. Also the accuracy of assessment does not seem to be affected by the presence of 20-15dB measurement noise. One advantage of the proposed method is that it does not require any mathematical model for the structure being monitored and hence can potentially be used for practical application.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.485-496
• /
• 2017

In this paper, damage detection has been introduced as an optimization problem and a two-step method has been proposed that can detect the location and severity of damage in truss structures precisely and reduce the volume of computations considerably. In the first step, using the residual force vector concept, the suspected damaged members are detected which will result in a reduction in the number of variables and hence a decrease in the search space dimensions. In the second step, the precise location and severity of damage in the members are identified using the genetic algorithm and the results of the first step. Considering the reduced search space, the algorithm can find the optimal points (i.e. the solution for the damage detection problem) with less computation cost. In this step, the Efficient Correlation Based Index (ECBI), that considers the structure's first few frequencies in both damaged and healthy states, is used as the objective function and some examples have been provided to check the efficiency of the proposed method; results have shown that the method is innovatively capable of detecting damage in truss structures.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.3 no.4
• /
• pp.475-494
• /
• 2007

This paper deals with the development of an innovative distributed construction system based on smart prefabricated concrete elements for the real-time condition assessment of civil infrastructure. So far, two reduced-scale prototypes have been produced, each consisting of a $0.2{\times}0.3{\times}5.6$ m RC beam specifically designed for permanent instrumentation with 8 long-gauge Fiber Optic Sensors (FOS) at the lower edge. The sensing system is Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG)-based and can measure finite displacements both static and dynamic with a sample frequency of 625 Hz per channel. The performance of the system underwent validation in the laboratory. The scope of the experiment was to correlate changes in the dynamic response of the beams with different damage scenarios, using a direct modal strain approach. Each specimen was dynamically characterized in the undamaged state and in various damage conditions, simulating different cracking levels and recurrent deterioration scenarios, including cover spalling and corrosion of the reinforcement. The location and the extent of damage are evaluated by calculating damage indices which take account of changes in frequency and in strain-mode-shapes. The outcomes of the experiment demonstrate how the damage distribution detected by the system is fully compatible with the damage extent appraised by inspection.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.105-128
• /
• 2014

The stochastic damage locating vector (SDLV) method has been studied extensively in recent years because of its potential to determine the location of damage in structures without the need for measuring the input excitation. The SDLV method has been shown to be a particularly useful tool for damage localization in steel truss bridges through numerical simulation and experimental validation. However, several issues still need clarification. For example, two methods have been suggested for determining the observation matrix C identified for the structural system; yet little guidance has been provided regarding the conditions under which the respective formulations should be used. Additionally, the specific layout of the sensors to achieve effective performance with the SDLV method and the associated relationship to the specific type of truss structure have yet to be explored. Moreover, how the location of truss members influences the damage localization results should be studied. In this paper, these three issues are first investigated through numerical simulation and subsequently the main results are validated experimentally. The results of this paper provide guidance on the effective use of the SDLV method.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.127-140
• /
• 2006

In this study, a wavelet-based covariance-driven system identification technique is proposed for damage assessment of structures under ambient excitation. Assuming the ambient excitation to be a white-noise process, the covariance computation is shown to be able to separate the effect of random excitation from the response measurement. Wavelet transform (WT) is then used to convert the covariance response in the time domain to the WT magnitude plot in the time-scale plane. The wavelet coefficients along the curves where energy concentrated are extracted and used to estimate the modal properties of the structure. These modal property estimations lead to the calculation of the stiffness matrix when either the spectral density of the random loading or the mass matrix is given. The predicted stiffness matrix hence provides a direct assessment on the possible location and severity of damage which results in stiffness alteration. To demonstrate the proposed wavelet-based damage assessment technique, a numerical example on a 3 degree-of-freedom (DOF) system and an experimental study on a three-story building model, which are all under a broad-band excitation, are presented. Both numerical and experimental results illustrate that the proposed technique can provide an accurate assessment on the damage location. It is however noted that the assessment of damage severity is not as accurate, which might be due to the errors associated with the mode shape estimations as well as the assumption of proportional damping adopted in the formulation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
• /
• v.15 no.9 s.102
• /
• pp.1108-1117
• /
• 2005

A robust damage detection method using short-time Fourier transform and beating phenomena is presented as an estimating tool of the healthiness of large structures. The present technique makes use of beating phenomena that manifest themselves when two signals of similar frequencies are added or subtracted. Unlike most existing methods based on vibration signals, the present approach does not require an analytic model for target structures. Furthermore, the main advantage of the proposed method compared to the competing diagnostic method using vibration data is its robustness. The proposed method is not affected by the amplitude of exciting signals and the location of exciting points. From a measuring view point. the location of sensing point have no influence on the performance of the present method. With a view to verifying the effectiveness of this method. a series of experiments are made and the results show its possibility as a robust damage diagnostic method.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
• /
• 1999.10a
• /
• pp.194-200
• /
• 1999

Localized damage to a structure affects its dynamic properties, and much work has been undertaken investigating the variation of natural frequencies, damping ratios and mode shapes. This paper presents a technique based on wavelet transform to detect the existences and locations of structural damages. The procedure operates solely on the mode shape from the damaged structure, and does not require a priori knowledge of the undamaged structure. The procedure is developed using a 32-story shear building model. Applying wavelet transform to the mode shape successfully identifies the location of damage. The procedure is best suited to the mode shape obtained from the fundamental natural frequency. The wavelet coefficients from the higher mode shapes can be used to verify the location of damage, but they are not as sensitive as the wavelet coefficients of the lower mode shapes.