• Wind and Structures
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.459-474
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• 2017

In this study an analytical expression is derived for the natural frequency of the wind turbine towers supported on flexible foundation. The derivation is based on a Euler-Bernoulli beam model where the foundation is represented by a stiffness matrix. Previously the natural frequency of such a model is obtained from numerical or empirical method. The new expression is based on pure physical parameters and thus can be used for a quick assessment of the natural frequencies of both the real turbines and the small-scale models. Furthermore, a relationship between the diagonal and non-diagonal element in the stiffness matrix is introduced, so that the foundation stiffness can be obtained from either the p-y analysis or the loading test. The results of the proposed expression are compared with the measured frequencies of six real or model turbines reported in the literature. The comparison shows that the proposed analytical expression predicts the natural frequency with reasonable accuracy. For two of the model turbines, some errors were observed which might be attributed to the difference between the dynamic and static modulus of saturated soils. The proposed analytical solution is quite simple to use, and it is shown to be more reasonable than the analytical and the empirical formulas available in the literature.

• Composites Research
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.25-32
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• 1999

A method of calculating the natural frequency corresponding to the first mode of vibration of beams and tower structures, with irregular cross sections and with arbitrary boundary conditions was developed and reported by Kim, D. H. in 1974. In this paper, the result of application of this method to the special orthotropic plates on elastic foundation with free boundaries is presented. Such plates represent the concrete highway slab and hybrid composite pavement on bridges. Any method may be used to obtain the deflection influence surfaces needed for this vibration analysis. Finite difference method is used for this purpose, in this paper. The influence of the modulus of the foundation and the aspect ratio of the plate on the natural frequency is thoroughly studied. The effect of neglecting the mass of the plates on the natural frequency, as the ratio of the point mass/masses to the plate mass increases, is also studied, in deep.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.191-208
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• 2012

Due to rapid industrialisation, large scale infrastructure development is taking place worldwide. This includes railways, high speed highways, elevated roads etc. To meet the demands of society and industry, many innovative techniques and materials are being developed. In developed nations like USA, Japan etc. for railways applications, new material like geocells, geogrids are being used successfully to enable fast movement of vehicles. The present research work was aimed to develop design methodologies for improvement of grounds subjected to cyclic loads caused by moving vehicles on roads, rail tracks etc. Deformation behavior of ballast under static and cyclic load tests was studied based on square footing test. The paper presents a study of the effect of geo-synthetic reinforcement on the (cumulative) plastic settlement, of point loaded square footing on a thick layer of granular base overlying different compressible bases. The research findings showed that inclusion of geo-synthetics significantly improves the performance of ballasted tracks and reduces the foundation area. If the area is kept same, higher speed trains can be allowed to pass through the same track with insertion of geosynthetics. Similarly, area of machine foundation may also be reduced where geosynthetics is provided in foundation. The model tests results have been validated by numerical modeling, using $FLAC^{3D}$.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.3
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• pp.213-222
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• 2018

The purpose of this paper is to study free vibration analysis of thick plates resting on Winkler foundation using Mindlin's theory with shear locking free fourth order finite element, to determine the effects of the thickness/span ratio, the aspect ratio, subgrade reaction modulus and the boundary conditions on the frequency paramerets of thick plates subjected to free vibration. In the analysis, finite element method is used for spatial integration. Finite element formulation of the equations of the thick plate theory is derived by using higher order displacement shape functions. A computer program using finite element method is coded in C++ to analyze the plates free, clamped or simply supported along all four edges. In the analysis, 17-noded finite element is used. Graphs are presented that should help engineers in the design of thick plates subjected to earthquake excitations. It is concluded that 17-noded finite element can be effectively used in the free vibration analysis of thick plates. It is also concluded that, in general, the changes in the thickness/span ratio are more effective on the maximum responses considered in this study than the changes in the aspect ratio.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.633-644
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• 2023

Taking a look at the previously published papers, it is revealed that there is a porosity index limitation (around 0.35) for the mechanical behavior analysis of the functionally graded porous (FGP) structures. Over mentioned magnitude of the porosity index, the elastic modulus falls below zero for some parts of the structure thickness. Therefore, the current paper is presented to analyze the vibrational behavior of the FGP Timoshenko beams (FGPTBs) using a novel refined formulation regardless of the porosity index magnitude. The silica aerogel foundation and various hydrothermal loadings are assumed as the source of external forces. To obtain the FGPTB's properties, the power law is hired, and employing Hamilton's principle in conjunction with Navier's solution method, the governing equations are extracted and solved. In the end, the impact of the various variables as different beam materials, elastic foundation parameters, and porosity index is captured and displayed. It is revealed that changing hygrothermal loading from non-linear toward uniform configuration results in non-dimensional frequency and stiffness pushing up. Also, Al - Al2O3 as the material composition of the beam and the porosity presence with the O pattern, provide more rigidity in comparison with using other materials and other types of porosity dispersion. The presented computational model in this paper hopes to help add more accuracy to the structures' analysis in high-tech industries.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.10
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• pp.31-40
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• 2022

This study compares elastic moduli calculated using two stiffness testing methods with different strain ranges to evaluate the stress-settlement characteristics of foundation support layers. Elastic moduli were calculated by the soil stiffness gauge (SSG) in the micro-strain range and the plate load test (PLT) in the medium strain range. To apply the elastic moduli obtained by the two testing methods with different strain ranges to the design and construction of foundation soils, the correlation between each measurement value should be identified in advance. As a result of the comparative analysis of the elastic moduli calculated using the two methods in weathered soil and rock, which are representative support layers in Korea, the calculated elastic moduli differed depending on the types of soil and stress conditions. For various soil types, the static elastic modulus obtained by the PLT was reduced by 56% because of the difference in the strain level of the test compared with the dynamic elastic modulus obtained by the SSG. Therefore, the results show that it is necessary to apply corrections to the stress distribution, stress level, and dynamic effect according to the ground stiffness to effectively use the SSG instead of the PLT.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.95-110
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• 2014

The study deals with physical modeling of space frame-pile foundation and soil system using finite element models. The superstructure frame is analyzed using complete three-dimensional finite element method where the component of the frame such as slab, beam and columns are descretized using 20 node isoparametric continuum elements. Initially, the frame is analyzed assuming the fixed column bases. Later the pile foundation is worked out separately wherein the simplified models of finite elements such as beam and plate element are used for pile and pile cap, respectively. The non-linear behaviour of soil mass is incorporated by idealizing the soil as non-linear springs using p-y curve along the lines similar to that by Georgiadis et al. (1992). For analysis of pile foundation, the non-linearity of soil via p-y curve approach is incorporated using the incremental approach. The interaction analysis is conducted for the parametric study. The non-linearity of soil is further incorporated using iterative approach, i.e., secant modulus approach, in the interaction analysis. The effect the various parameters of the pile foundation such as spacing in a group and configuration of the pile group is evaluated on the response of superstructure owing to non-linearity of the soil. The response included the displacement at the top of the frame and bending moment in columns. The non-linearity of soil increases the top displacement in the range of 7.8%-16.7%. However, its effect is found very marginal on the absolute maximum moment in columns. The hogging moment decreases by 0.005% while sagging moment increases by 0.02%.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.101-113
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• 2001

The main purpose of this paper is to present deflections of laminated composite plates on the two-parameter foundations. that is an elastic foundation with shear layer. This paper focuses on the deformation behaviour of anisotropic structures on elastic foundations. The third-order shear deformation theory is applied by using the double-fourier series. To validate the derived equations the obtained displacements for simply supported isotropic and orthotropic plates on elastic foundations are compared with those of Timoshenko and LUSAS program. The results show an excellent agreement for the isotropic and LUSAS program. The results show an excellent agreement for the isotropic and orthotropic plates on the elastic foundations. Numerical results for displacements are presented to show the effects of side-to-thickness ratio aspect ratio, material anisotropy and shear modulus of foundations.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.87-93
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• 2008

The large scale shaker can be employed to measure linear and nonlinear shear moduli of soils in situ as a function of shear strain. The method involves applying dynamic loads on a surface foundation measuring the dynamic response of the soil mass beneath the foundation with embedded instrumentation. This paper focuses on the development of a framework of the inverse analysis for the interpretation of test data to estimate linear and nonlinear shear moduli of soils along with the necessity of the inverse analysis. The suggested framework is based on the nonlinear least squares but it uses two iterative loops to account for the nonlinear behavior of soil that sensors are not located. The validity of the suggested inversion framework is tested through a series of numerical parametric studies. An example use of the suggested inversion framework is also shown. Because the field condition may affect the accuracy of suggested method, it is important to conduct a preliminary inverse analysis to quantify the discrepancy between the estimated modulus and the baseline.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.227-249
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• 2016

The objective of this work is to present a zeroth-order shear deformation theory for free vibration analysis of functionally graded (FG) nanoscale plates resting on elastic foundation. The model takes into consideration the influences of small scale and the parabolic variation of the transverse shear strains across the thickness of the nanoscale plate and thus, it avoids the employ use of shear correction factors. Also, in this present theory, the effect of transverse shear deformation is included in the axial displacements by using the shear forces instead of rotational displacements as in available high order plate theories. The material properties are supposed to be graded only in the thickness direction and the effective properties for the FG nanoscale plate are calculated by considering Mori-Tanaka homogenization scheme. The equations of motion are obtained using the nonlocal differential constitutive expressions of Eringen in conjunction with the zeroth-order shear deformation theory via Hamilton's principle. Numerical results for vibration of FG nanoscale plates resting on elastic foundations are presented and compared with the existing solutions. The influences of small scale, shear deformation, gradient index, Winkler modulus parameter and Pasternak shear modulus parameter on the vibration responses of the FG nanoscale plates are investigated.