• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.61 no.2
• /
• pp.41-50
• /
• 2019

Stiffness characteristic of subgrade is one of the most important aspects for the design and evaluation of pavement and railway. However, adequate field testing methods for evaluating the stiffness characteristics of the subgrade have not been developed yet. In this study, an in-situ dynamic stiffness analyzer (IDSA) is developed to evaluate the characteristics of subgrade stiffness along the depth, and its performance is evaluated in elastic materials and a compacted soil. The IDSA consists of a falling hammer system, a connecting rod, and a tip module. Four strain gauges and an accelerometer are installed at the tip of the rod to analyze the dynamic response of the tip generated by the drop of hammer. Based on the Boussinesq's method, the stiffness and Young's modulus of the specimens can be calculated. The performance of IDSA was tested on three elastic materials with different hardness and a compacted soil. For the repeatability of test performance, the dynamic signals for force and displacement of the tip are averaged from the hammer impact tests performed five times at the same drop height. The experimental results show that the peak force, peak displacement, and the duration depend on the hardness of the elastic materials. After calculating the stiffness and elastic modulus, it is revealed that as the drop height of hammer increases, the stiffness and elastic moduli of MC nylon and the compacted soil rapidly increase, while those of urethanes less increase.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.12 no.5
• /
• pp.515-527
• /
• 2017

Recently, Friction dampers become popular due to the desirable performance in the energy dissipation of lateral loads. A lot of research which has been conducted on these dampers results in developing friction dampers with low sensitivity to the number of cycles and temperature increases. Friction dampers impose high residual drifts to the buildings because of low post-yield stiffness of the damper which results from increasing lateral displacement and period of buildings. This issue can be more critical under strong aftershocks which results in increasing of structural damages. In this paper, in addition to the assessment of aftershock on steel buildings equipped with friction dampers, methods for controlling residual drifts and decreasing the costs of retrofitting are investigated. Utilizing rigid connections as a lateral dual system and activating lateral stiffness of gravity columns by adding elastic braces are as an example of effective methods investigated in this research. The results of nonlinear time history analyses on the low to medium rise steel frames equipped with friction dampers illustrate a rise in residual drifts as the result of aftershocks. In addition, the results show that different slip loads of friction damper can affect the residual drifts. Furthermore, elastic stories in comparison to rigid connections can reduce residual drifts of buildings in an effective fashion, when most slip loads of friction dampers are considered.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.1-24
• /
• 2014

The present study deals with two dimensional electro-elastic analysis of a functionally graded piezoelectric (FGP) cylinder under internal pressure. Energy method and first order shear deformation theory (FSDT) are employed for this purpose. All mechanical and electrical properties except Poisson ratio are considered as a power function along the radial direction. The cylinder is subjected to uniform internal pressure. By supposing two dimensional displacement and electric potential fields along the radial and axial direction, the governing differential equations can be derived in terms of unknown electrical and mechanical functions. Homogeneous solution can be obtained by imposing the appropriate mechanical and electrical boundary conditions. This proposed solution has capability to solve the cylinder structure with arbitrary boundary conditions. The previous solutions have been proposed for the problem with simple boundary conditions (simply supported cylinder) by using the routine functions such as trigonometric functions. The axial distribution of the axial displacement, radial displacement and electric potential of the cylinder can be presented as the important results of this paper for various non homogeneous indexes. This paper evaluates the effect of a local support on the distribution of mechanical and electrical components. This investigation indicates that a support has important influence on the distribution of mechanical and electrical components rather than a cylinder with ignoring the effect of the supports. Obtained results using present method at regions that are adequate far from two ends of the cylinder can be compared with previous results (plane elasticity and one dimensional first order shear deformation theories).

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
• /
• v.18 no.3E
• /
• pp.191-198
• /
• 2006

The objective of this study is to examine fracture characteristics of concrete at early ages, i.g. critical stress intensity factor, critical crack-tip opening displacement, fracture energy, and bilinear softening curve based on the concepts of effective-elastic crack model and cohesive crack model. A wedge splitting test for Mode I was performed on cubic wedge specimens with a notch at the edge. By experimenting with various strengths and ages, load-crack mouth opening curves were obtained, and the results were analyzed by linear elastic fracture mechanics and FEM(finite element method). The results from the test and analysis showed that critical stress intensity factor and facture energy increased while critical crack-tip opening displacement decreased with concrete aging from 1 day to 28 days. Four parameters of bilinear softening curve from 1 day to 28 days were obtained from a numerical analysis. The obtained fracture parameters and bilinear softening curves at early ages from this study are to be used as a fracture criterion and an input data for the finite element analysis of concrete at early ages.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.82 no.3
• /
• pp.313-323
• /
• 2022

Steel laminated elastomeric bearings are commonly used in bridge structures to control displacements and rotations and transfer forces from the superstructure to the substructure. Proper knowledge of design, fabrication and erection procedures is important to ensure stability and adequate structural performance during the lifetime of the bridge. Difference in elevations sometimes leads to large size gaps between the bearing and the girder which makes the grout thickness that is commonly used for leveling deviate beyond standards. This paper investigates the structural response of High Strength Fiber Reinforced Cementitious (HSFRC) thin plinths that are used to close gaps between bearing pads and precast girders. An experimental program was developed for this purpose where HSFRC plinths of different size were cast and tested under vertical loads that simulate bridge loading in service. The structural performance of the plinths was closely monitored during testing, mainly crack propagation, vertical reaction and displacement. Analytically, the HSFRC plinth was analyzed using the beam on elastic foundation theory as the supporting elastomeric bearing pads are highly compressible. Closed form solutions were derived for induced displacement and forces and comparisons were made between analytical and experimental results. Finally, recommendations were made to facilitate the practical use of HSFRC plinths in bridge construction based on its enhanced load carrying capacity in shear and flexure.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.335-346
• /
• 2023

For structures with underground basement walls, the soil-structure-interaction between the side soil and the walls affects the response of the system. There is interest in quantifying the relationship between the lateral earth pressure and the wall displacement using p-y curves. To date, passive p-y curves in available limited studies were assumed elastic-perfectly plastic. In reality, the relationship between earth pressure and wall displacement is complex. This paper focuses on studying the development of passive p-y curves behind rigid walls supporting granular soils. The study aims at identifying the different components of the passive p-y relationship and proposing a rigorous non-linear p-y model in place of simplified elastic-plastic models. The results of the study show that (1) the p-y relationship that models the stress-displacement response behind a rigid basement wall is highly non-linear, (2) passive p-y curves are affected by the height of the wall, relative density, and depth below the ground surface, and (3) passive p-y curves can be expressed using a truncated hyperbolic model that is defined by a limit state passive pressure that is determined using available logarithmic spiral methods and an initial slope that is expressed using a depth-dependent soil stiffness model.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.297-320
• /
• 2005

In recent years the pure displacement formulation for plate elements has not been as popular as other formulations. We revisit the pure displacement formulation for shear-deformable plate elements and propose a family of N-node, displacement-compatible, fully-integrated, pure-displacement, triangular, Mindlin plate elements, MIN-N. The development has been motivated by the relative simplicity of the pure displacement formulation and by the success of the existing 3-node plate element, MIN3. The formulation of MIN3 is generalized to obtain the MIN-N family, which possesses complete, fully compatible kinematic fields, in which the interpolation functions for transverse displacement are one degree higher than those for rotations. General element-level formulas for the thin-limit Kirchhoff constraints are developed. The 6-node, 18 degree-of-freedom element MIN6, with cubic displacement and quadratic rotations, is implemented and tested extensively. Numerical results show that MIN6 exhibits good performance for both static and dynamic analyses in the linear, elastic regime. The results illustrate that the fully-integrated MIN6 element has excellent performance in the thin limit, even for coarse meshes, and that it does not require shear relaxation.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.201-215
• /
• 2019

A new approach of analyzing the displacements and stress of the surrounding rock for shallow tunnels excavated under non-axisymmetric displacement boundary conditions on a vertical surface is investigated in this study. In the proposed approach, by using a virtual image technique, the shear stress of the vertical ground surface is revised to be zero, and elastic solutions of the surrounding rock are obtained before stress revision. To revise the vertical normal stress and shear stress of horizontal ground surface generated by the combined action of the actual and image sinks, the harmonic functions and corresponding stress function solutions were adopted. Based on the Boussinesq's solutions and integral method, the horizontal normal stress of the vertical ground surface is revised to be zero. Based on the linear superposition principle, the final solution of the displacements and stress were proposed by superimposing the solutions obtained by the virtual image technique and the stress revision on the horizontal and vertical ground surfaces. Furthermore, the ground settlements and lateral displacements of the horizontal and vertical ground surfaces are derived by the proposed approach. The proposed approach was well verified by comparing with the numerical method. The discussion based on the proposed approach in the manuscript shows that smaller horizontal ground settlements will be induced by lower tunnel buried depths and smaller limb distances. The proposed approach for the displacement and stress of the surrounding rocks can provide some practical information about the surrounding rock stability analysis of shallow tunnels excavated under non-axisymmetric displacement boundary conditions on a vertical surface.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.1085-1103
• /
• 2016

The present paper is aimed to evaluate and compare the effective elastic properties of CNT- and graphene-based nanocomposites using 3-D nanoscale representative volume element (RVE) based on continuum mechanics using finite element method (FEM). Different periodic displacement boundary conditions are applied to the FEM model of the RVE to evaluate various elastic constants. The effects of the matrix material, the volume fraction and the length of reinforcements on the elastic properties are also studied. Results predicted are validated with the analytical and/or semiempirical results and the available results in the literature. Although all elastic stiffness properties of CNT- and graphene-based nanocomposites are found to be improved compared to the matrix material, but out-of-plane and in-plane stiffness properties are better improved in CNT- and graphene-based nanocomposites, respectively. It is also concluded that long nanofillers (graphene as well as CNT) are more effective in increasing the normal elastic moduli of the resulting nanocomposites as compared to the short length, but the values of shear moduli, except $G_{23}$ of CNT nanocomposite, of nanocomposites are slightly improved in the case of short length nanofillers (i.e., CNT and graphene).

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.30 no.10 s.253
• /
• pp.1219-1226
• /
• 2006

The ASTM test standard recommends the use of the compact tension specimen for creep crack growth rates measurement. In the creep crack growth rate test, the displacement rate due to creep is obtained by subtracting the contribution of elastic and plastic components from the total load line displacement rate based on displacement partitioning method fur determining $C^*-integral$, which involves Ramberg-Osgood (R-O) fitting procedures. This paper investigates the effect of the R-O fitting procedures on plastic displacement rate estimates in creep crack growth testing, via detailed two-dimensional and three-dimensional finite element analyses of the standard compact tension specimen. Four different R-O fitting procedures are considered; (i) fitting the entire true stress-strain data up to the ultimate tensile strength, (ii) fitting the true stress-strain data from 0.1% strain to 0.8 of the true ultimate strain, (iii) fitting the true stress-strain data only up to 5% strain, and (iv) fitting the engineering stress-strain data. It is found that the last two procedures provide reasonably accurate plastic displacement rates and thus should be recommended in creep crack growth testing. Moreover, several advantages of fitting the engineering stress-strain data over fitting the true stress-strain data only up to 5% strain are discussed.