• Wind and Structures
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.215-224
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• 2019

Because of the particularity and complexity of direct air-cooling structures (ACS), wind parameters given in the general load codes are not suitable for the wind-resistant design. In order to investigate the wind loads of ACS, two 1/150 scaled three-span models were designed and fabricated, corresponding to a rigid model and an aero-elastic model, and wind tunnel tests were then carried out. The model used for testing the wind pressure distribution of the ACS was defined as the rigid model in this paper, and the stiffness of which was higher than that of the aero-elastic model. By testing the rigid model, the wind pressure distribution of the ACS model was studied, the shape coefficients of "A" shaped frame and windbreak walls, and the gust factor of the windbreak walls were determined. Through testing the aero-elastic model, the wind-induced dynamic responses of the ACS model was studied, and the wind vibration coefficients of ACS were determined based on the experimental displacement responses. The factors including wind direction angle and rotation of fan were taken into account in this test. The results indicated that the influence of running fans could be ignored in the structural design of ACS, and the wind direction angle had a certain effect on the parameters. Moreover, the shielding effect of windbreak walls induced that wind loads of the "A" shaped frame were all suction. Subsequently, based on the design formula of wind loads in accordance with the Chinese load code, the corresponding parameters were presented as a reference for wind-resistant design and wind load calculation of air-cooling structures.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.325-337
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• 2022

In this research, an earthquake-resistant structural system consisting of a pin-connected steel frame and a bracing with metallic fuses is proposed. Contrary to the conventional braced frames, the main structural elements are deemed to remain elastic under earthquakes and the seismic energy is efficiently dissipated by the damper-braces with an amplification mechanism. The superiority of the proposed damping system lies in easy manufacture, high yield capacity and energy dissipation, and an effortless replacement of damaged fuses after earthquake events. Furthermore, the stiffness and the yield capacity are almost decoupled in the proposed damper-brace which makes it highly versatile for performance-based seismic design compared to most other dampers. A special attention is paid to derive the theoretical formulation for nonlinear behavior of the proposed damper-brace, which is verified using analytical results. Next, a direct displacement-based design procedure is provided for the proposed system and an example structure is designed and analyzed thoroughly to check its seismic performance. The results show that the proposed system designed with the provided procedure satisfies the given performance objective and can be used for developing highly efficient low-damage structures.

• Bulletin of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.25-29
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• 1980

For the preliminary estimation of the vertical hull natural frequency, the Schlick's or Schlick-type formulae have been traditional ones and are still in common use today. Some investigators have made their efforts, based on statistical data of ships' system parameters, to extend the applicability of Schlick-type formulae to higher modes, or to utilize the Rayleigh method. For instance, the work done by Dinsenbacher et al.[5] belongs to the former and that of Nagamoto et al.[6] to the latter. In a part of his previous paper[7], the author, investigating the case of a cargo ship of medium size, suggested that provided statistically simplified curves such as trapezoid of system parameter distributions are available in hands, direct utlization of an ordinary computer program can be also an another convenient method by which we can obtain both natural frequencies and normal mode shapes. In this paper, to confirm the feasibility of the above suggestion, four high speed boats are investigated. The system parameters of them are originally given in [5]. The computer program used here is one confiled based on a calculation method derived from Myklestal-Prohl modeling of hull, transfer matrix formulation and an extended Gumbel's initial value method for solving frequency equation. The results of the investigation show that the direct calculation based on statistically oriented and reasonably assumed trapezoidal mean curves of system parameter distributions can give us natural frequencies within about 5% deviation up to several-noded modes and normal mode shapes serviceable at least up to 4- or 5-noded modes in comparision with those based on actual distributions of system parameters. For this simplified method the actual data required for input are only of ship length, displacement, total added mass, bending and shear rigidity at amidship. They are available at the early stage of design. By this method we can also easily trace variations of vibration characteristics in the course of ship design cycles.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.175-185
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• 2020

Currently, few studies have been conducted to comprehend the seismic reliability of post-tensioned (PT) CLT shear wall structures, due to the complexity of this kind of structural system as well as due to lack of a reliable structural model. In this paper, a set of 4-, 8-, 12-, and 16-storey benchmark PT CLT shear wall structures (PT-CLTstrs) were designed using the direct displacement-based design method, and their calibrated structural models were developed. The seismic reliability of each PT-CLTstr was assessed based on the fragility analysis and based on the response surface method (RSM), respectively. The fragility-based reliability index and the RSM-based reliability index were then compared, for each PT-CLTstr and for each seismic hazard level. Results show that the RSM-based reliabilities are slightly less than the fragility-based reliabilities. Overall, both the RSM and the fragility-based reliability method can be used as efficient approaches for assessing the seismic reliabilities of the PT-CLTstrs. For these studied mid- and high-rise benchmark PT-CLTstrs, following their fragility-based reliabilities, the 8-storey PT-CLTstr is subjected to the least seismic vulnerability; while, following their RSM-based reliabilities, the 4-storey PT-CLTstr is subjected to the least seismic vulnerability

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.1509-1512
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• 2003

The electric power wheelchair needs to control motor torque and speed for responding to variable actions given by handling a joystick. In this paper a DSP-based BLDC motor controller using a single dc-link current sensor is presented for electric power wheelchair. It is composed by a DSP processor and three-phase inverter module. To control torque, high speed current control is achieved by the PI controller and pulse width modulation (PWM) signals with 25 kHz carrier frequency, which is performed by 200 ${\mu}sec$ cycle. The speed controller computes the new direct current reference from the speed error and the PI control equation. The displacement value by handling the joystick is converted to reference speeds of right and left wheel motors using nonholonomic wheelchair kinematics. Experimental results show that the presented control system is enough to implement a speed servo in wheelchair driving.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.1091-1111
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• 2015

Base isolation is an effective method for protecting structures against earthquake hazard. It elongates the period of vibration and introduces supplemental damping to the structural system. The stiffness, damping and displacement are coupled forcing the code seismic design procedure to be unnecessarily complicated. In addition, the force reduction factor -a key parameter in the design procedurehas not been well addressed by seismic design codes at the high levels of damping due to the pronounced difference between pseudo and actual accelerations. In this study, a comparison has been conducted to evaluate eight different methods, in the literature, for calculating the force reduction factor due to damping. Accordingly, a simplified seismic analysis procedure has been proposed based on the well documented N2 method. Comprehensive analysis has been performed for base-isolated structure models for direct application and verification of the proposed procedure. The results have been compared with those of the European code EC8, the nonlinear time history analysis and investigations in the literature, where good agreement has been reported. In addition, a discussion has been elaborated for the resulted response of the base-isolated structure models with respect to the dynamic characteristics of the base isolation system.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.359-370
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• 2020

Prestressed ground anchors are important structural elements in geotechnical engineering. Despite their widespread usage, the design process is often significantly simplified. One of the major drawbacks of commonly used design methods is the assumption that skin friction is mobilized uniformly along an anchor's fixed length, one consequence of which is that a progressive failure phenomenon is neglected. The following paper introduces an alternative design approach - a computer algorithm employing the load-transfer method. The method is modified for the analysis of anchors and combined with a procedure for the derivation of load-transfer functions based on commonly available laboratory tests. The load-transfer function is divided into a pre-failure (hardening) and a post-failure (softening) segment. In this way, an aspect of non-linear stress-strain soil behavior is incorporated into the algorithm. The influence of post-grouting in terms of radial stress update, diameter enlargement, and grout consolidation is included. The axial stiffness of the anchor body is not held constant. Instead, it gradually decreases as a direct consequence of tensile cracks spreading in the grout material. An analysis of the program's operation is performed via a series of parametric studies in which the influence of governing parameters is investigated. Finally, two case studies concerning three investigation anchor load tests are presented.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.82-89
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• 2001

To design a structural or a mechanical system with the best performance, the main procedure of a typical design usually consists of repeated modifications of design parameters and the investigation of the system response for each set of these parameters. But this procedure requires much time, effort and experience. Sensitivity analysis can provide systematic information for improving performance of a system. The author has studied on the development of the structural analysis algorithm and suggested recently the transfer stiffness coefficient method(TSCM). This method is very suitable algorithm to a personal computer because the concept of the TSCM is based on the transfer of the nodal stiffness coefficients which are related to force and displacement vectors at each node. In this paper, a new sensitivity analysis algorithm using the concept of the TSCM is formulated for the computation of state variable sensitivity in static problems. The trust of the proposed algorithm is confirmed through the comparison with the computation results using existent sensitivity analysis algorithm and reanalysis for computation models.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.141-168
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• 2012

The Retrofit Yield Spectrum (RYS) is a new spectrum-based device that relates seismic demand of a retrofitted structure with the fundamental design parameters of the retrofit. This is obtained from superposition of Yield Point Spectra with design charts that summarize in pertinent spectrum-compatible coordinates the attributes of a number of alternative retrofit scenarios. Therefore, once the requirements for upgrading a given structure have been determined, the RYS enable direct insight of the sensitivity of the seismic response of the upgraded structure to the preliminary design decisions made while establishing the retrofit plan. By virtue of their spectrum-based origin, RYS are derived with reference to a single mode of structural vibration; a primary objective is to control the contribution of this mode in the retrofit design so as to produce a desirable distribution of damage at the ultimate limit state by removing soft storey formations and engaging the maximum number of structural members in deformation, in response to the input motion. Calculations are performed with reference to the yield-point, where secant stiffness is proportional to the flexural strength of reinforced concrete members. Derivation and use of the Retrofit Yield Spectra (RYS) refers to the seismic demand expressed either in terms of spectral acceleration, spectral displacement or interstory drift, at yield of the first storey. A reinforced concrete building that has been tested in full scale to a sequence of simulated earthquake excitations is used in the paper as a demonstration case study to examine the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.325-354
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• 2004

Slabs in buildings and bridge decks, which are restrained against lateral displacements at the edges, have ultimate strengths far in excess of those predicted by analytical methods based on yield line theory. The increase in strength has been attributed to membrane action, which is due to the in-plane forces developed at the supports. The benefits of compressive membrane action are usually not taken into account in currently available design methods developed based on plastic flow theories assuming concrete to be a rigid-plastic material. By extending the existing knowledge of compressive membrane action, it is possible to design slabs in building and bridge structures economically with less than normal reinforcement. Recent research on building and bridge structures reflects the importance of membrane action in design. This paper describes the finite element modelling of membrane action in reinforced concrete slabs through optimisation of a simple concrete model. Through a series of parametric studies using the simple concrete model in the finite element simulation of eight fully clamped concrete slabs with significant membrane action, a set of fixed numerical model parameter values is identified and computational conditions established, which would guarantee reliable strength prediction of arbitrary slabs. The reliability of the identified values to simulate membrane action (for prediction purposes) is further verified by the direct simulation of 42 other slabs, which gave an average value of 0.9698 for the ratio of experimental to predicted strengths and a standard deviation of 0.117. A 'deflection factor' is also established for the slabs, relating the predicted peak deflection to experimental values, which, (for the same level of fixity at the supports), can be used for accurate displacement determination. The proposed optimised concrete model and finite element procedure can be used as a tool to simulate membrane action in slabs in building and bridge structures having variable support and loading conditions including fire. Other practical applications of the developed finite element procedure and design process are also discussed.