• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제75권6호
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• pp.747-769
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• 2020

This paper provides a semi-analytical approach to investigate the variations of 3D displacement components, electric potential, stresses, electric displacements and transverse vibration frequencies in laminated piezoelectric composite plates based on the scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM) and the precise integration algorithm (PIA). The proposed approach can analyze the static and dynamic responses of multilayered piezoelectric plates with any number of laminae, various geometrical shapes, boundary conditions, thickness-to-length ratios and stacking sequences. Only a longitudinal surface of the plate is discretized into 2D elements, which helps to improve the computational efficiency. Comparing with plate theories and other numerical methods, only three displacement components and the electric potential are set as the basic unknown variables and can be represented analytically through the transverse direction. The whole derivation is built upon the three dimensional key equations of elasticity for the piezoelectric materials and no assumptions on the plate kinematics have been taken. By virtue of the equilibrium equations, the constitutive relations and the introduced set of scaled boundary coordinates, three-dimensional governing partial differential equations are converted into the second order ordinary differential matrix equation. Furthermore, aided by the introduced internal nodal force, a first order ordinary differential equation is obtained with its general solution in the form of a matrix exponent. To further improve the accuracy of the matrix exponent in the SBFEM, the PIA is employed to make sure any desired accuracy of the mechanical and electric variables. By virtue of the kinetic energy technique, the global mass matrix of the composite plates constituted by piezoelectric laminae is constructed for the first time based on the SBFEM. Finally, comparisons with the exact solutions and available results are made to confirm the accuracy and effectiveness of the developed methodology. What's more, the effect of boundary conditions, thickness-to-length ratios and stacking sequences of laminae on the distributions of natural frequencies, mechanical and electric fields in laminated piezoelectric composite plates is evaluated.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• 제11권5호
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• pp.323-331
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• 2020

With the increasing demand on reverse osmosis (RO) membranes for water purification worldwide, the number of disposed membrane elements is expected to increase accordingly. Thus, recycling and reuse of end-of-life RO membranes should be a global environmental action. In this work, we aim to reuse the spent RO membrane for nanofiltration (NF) and ultrafiltration (UF) process by subjecting the spent membrane to solvent and oxidizing solution treatment, respectively. Our results showed that solvent-treated RO membrane could perform as good as commercial NF membrane by achieving similar separation efficiencies, but with reduced water permeability due to membrane surface fouling. By degrading the polyamide layer of RO membrane, the transformed membrane could achieve high water permeability (85.6 L/㎡.h.bar) and excellent rejection against macromolecules (at least 87.4%), suggesting its reuse potential as UF membrane. More importantly, our findings showed that in-situ transformation on the spent RO membrane using solvent and oxidizing solution could be safely conducted as the properties of the entire spiral wound element did not show significant changes upon prolonged exposure of these two solutions. Our findings are important to open up new possibilities for the discarded RO membranes for reuse in NF and UF process, prolonging the lifespan of spent membranes and promoting the sustainability of the membrane process.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• 제2권3호
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• pp.217-228
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• 2012

As the size of container ships continues to increase, not many existing harbors can host the super-container ship due to its increased draft and the corresponding dredging requires huge budget. In addition, the minimization of waiting and loading/offloading time is the most important factor in harbor competitiveness. In this regard, mobile-harbor concept has been developed in Korea to achieve much improved harbor capacity and efficiency. In developing the concept, one of the most important elements is the operability of crane between two or more floating bodies in side-by-side arrangement. The container ship is to be stationed through a hawser connection to an outside-harbor fixed-pile station with the depth allowing its large draft. The mobile harbors with smart cranes are berthed to the sides of its hull for loading/offloading containers and transportation. For successful operation, the relative motions between the two or more floating bodies with hawser/fender connections have to be within allowable range. Therefore, the reliable prediction of the relative motions of the multiple floating bodies with realistic mooring system is essential to find the best hull particulars, hawser/mooring/fender arrangement, and crane/docking-station design. Time-domain multi-hull-mooring coupled dynamic analysis program is used to assess the hydrodynamic interactions among the multiple floating bodies and the global performance of the system. Both collinear and non-collinear wind-wave-current environments are applied to the system. It is found that the non-collinear case can equally be functional in dynamics view compared to the collinear case but undesirable phenomena associated with vessel responses and hawser tensions can also happen at certain conditions, so more care needs to be taken.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제51권5호
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• pp.755-771
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• 2014

Environmental changes, especially global climate change, are creating new challenges to the development of the Arctic regions, which have substantial energy resources. And attention to offshore structures has increased with oil and gas development. The structural impact response of an explosion-resistant profiled blast walls normally changes when it operates in low temperatures. The main objectives of this study are to investigate the structural response of blast walls in low temperature and suggest useful guidelines for understanding the characteristics of the structural impact response of blast walls subjected to hydrocarbon explosions in Arctic conditions. The target temperatures were based on the average summer temperature ($-20^{\circ}C$), the average winter temperature ($-40^{\circ}C$) and the coldest temperature recorded (approximately $-68^{\circ}C$) in the Arctic. The nonlinear finite element analysis was performed to design an explosion-resistant profiled blast wall for use in Arctic conditions based on the behaviour of material properties at low temperatures established by performing a tensile test. The conclusions and implications of the findings are discussed.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제14권2호
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• pp.151-159
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• 2018

Annually, the global production of construction aggregates reaches over 40 billion tons, making aggregates the largest mining sector by volume and value. Currently, the aggregate industry is shifting from sand to hard rock as a result of legislation limiting the extraction of natural sands and gravels. A major implication of this change in the aggregate industry is the need for understanding rock fragmentation and energy absorption to produce more cost-effective aggregates. In this paper, we focused on incorporating dynamic rock and soil mechanics to understand the effects of loading rate and water saturation on the rock fragmentation and energy absorption of three different sandstones (Red, Berea and Buff) with different pore sizes. Rock core samples were prepared in accordance to the ASTM standards for compressive strength testing. Saturated and dry samples were subsequently prepared and fragmented via fast and dynamic compressive strength tests. The particle size distributions of the resulting fragments were subsequently analyzed using mechanical gradation tests. Our results indicate that the rock fragment size generally decreased with increasing loading rate and water content. In addition, the fragment sizes in the larger pore size sample (Buff sandstone) were relatively smaller those in the smaller pore size sample (Red sandstone). Notably, energy absorption decreased with increased loading rate, water content and rock pore size. These results support the conclusion that rock fragment size is positively correlated with the energy absorption of rocks. In addition, the rock fragment size increases as the energy absorption increases. Thus, our data provide insightful information for improving cost-effective aggregate production methods.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• 제7권3호
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• pp.229-249
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• 2020

This paper is the logical follow-up of four papers by the author on the subject "aerodynamics in Mars atmosphere". The aim of the papers was to evaluate the influence of two Mars atmosphere models (NASA Glenn and GRAM-2001) on aerodynamics of a capsule (Pathfinder) entering the Mars atmosphere and also to verify the feasibility of evaluating experimentally the ambient density and the ambient pressure by means of the methods by McLaughlin and Cassanto respectively, therefore to correct the values provided by the models. The study was carried out computationally by means of: i) a code integrating the equations of dynamics of an entry capsule for the computation of the trajectories, ii) two Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) codes for the solution of the 2-D, axial-symmetric and 3-D flow fields around the capsule in the altitude interval 50-100 km. The computations verified that the entry trajectories of Pathfinder from the two models, in terms of the Mach, Reynolds and Knudsen numbers, were very different. The aim of the present paper is to continue this study, considering other aerodynamic problems and then to provide a contribution to a long series of papers on the subject "aerodynamics in Mars atmosphere". More specifically, the present paper evaluated and quantified the effects from the two models of: i) chemical reactions on aerodynamic quantities in the shock layer, ii) surface temperature, therefore of the contribution of the re-emitted molecules, on local (pressure, skin friction, etc.) and on global (drag) quantities, iii) surface recombination reactions (catalyticity) on heat flux. The results verified that the models heavily influence the flow field (as per the shock wave structure) but, apart from the surface recombination reactions, the effects of the different conditions on aerodynamics of the capsule are negligible for both models and confirmed what already found in the previous paper that, because of the higher values of density from the NASA Glenn model, the effects on aerodynamics of a entry capsule are stronger than those computed by the GRAM-2001 model.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제24권6호
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• pp.793-802
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• 2019

The centrifuge model test is usually used for two-dimensional deformation and instability study of the soil slopes. As a typical loose slope, the municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill is easy to slide with large deformation, under high water levels or large earthquakes. A series of centrifuge model tests of landfill slide induced by rising water level and earthquake were carried out. The particle image velocimetry (PIV), laser displacement transducer (LDT) and marker tracer (MT) methods were used to measure the deformation of the landfill under different centrifugal accelerations, water levels and earthquake magnitudes. The PIV method realized the observation of continuous deformation of the landfill model, and its results were consistent with those by LDT, which had higher precision than the MT method. The deformation of the landfill was mainly vertically downward and increased linearly with the rising centrifugal acceleration. When the water level rose, the horizontal deformation of the landfill developed gradually due to the seepage, and a global slide surface formed when the critical water level was reached. The seismic deformation of the landfill was mainly vertical at a low water level, but significant horizontal deformation occurred under a high water level. The results of the tests and analyses verified the applicability of PIV in the two-dimensional deformation measurement in the centrifuge model tests of the MSW landfill, and provide an important basis for revealing the instability mechanism of landfills under extreme hydraulic and seismic conditions.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• 제2권3호
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• pp.269-282
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• 2015

Civil structures should be designed with the lowest cost and longest lifetime possible and without service failure. The efficient and sustainable use of materials in building design and construction has always been at the forefront for civil engineers and environmentalists. Timber is one of the best contenders for these purposes particularly in terms of aesthetics; fire protection; strength-to-weight ratio; acoustic properties and seismic resistance. In recent years, timber has been used in commercial and taller buildings due to these significant advantages. It should be noted that, since the launch of the modern building standards and codes, a number of different structural systems have been developed to stabilise steel or concrete multistorey buildings, however, structural analysis of high-rise and multi-storey timber frame buildings subjected to lateral loads has not yet been fully understood. Additionally, timber degradation can occur as a result of biological decay of the elements and overloading that can result in structural damage. In such structures, the deficient members and joints require strengthening in order to satisfy new code requirements; determine acceptable level of safety; and avoid brittle failure following earthquake actions. This paper investigates performance assessment and damage assessment of older multi-storey timber buildings. One approach is to retrofit the beams in order to increase the ductility of the frame. Experimental studies indicate that Sprayed Fibre Reinforced Polymer (SFRP) repairing/retrofitting not only updates the integrity of the joint, but also increases its strength; stiffness; and ductility in such a way that the joint remains elastic. Non-linear finite element analysis ('pushover') is carried out to study the behaviour of the structure subjected to simulated gravity and lateral loads. A new global index is re-assessed for damage assessment of the plain and SFRP-retrofitted frames using capacity curves obtained from pushover analysis. This study shows that the proposed method is suitable for structural damage assessment of aged timber buildings. Also SFRP retrofitting can potentially improve the performance and load carrying capacity of the structure.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제6권5_6호
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• pp.579-593
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• 2010

Low-power radio frequency (RF) chip transceiver technology and the associated structural health monitoring platforms have matured recently to enable high-rate, lossless transmission of measurement data across large-scale sensor networks. The intrinsic value of these advanced capabilities is the allowance for high-quality, rapid operational modal analysis of in-service structures using distributed accelerometers to experimentally characterize the dynamic response. From the analysis afforded through these dynamic data sets, structural identification techniques can then be utilized to develop a well calibrated finite element (FE) model of the structure for baseline development, extended analytical structural evaluation, and load response assessment. This paper presents a case study in which operational modal analysis is performed on a three-span prestressed reinforced concrete bridge using a wireless sensor network. The low-power wireless platform deployed supported a high-rate, lossless transmission protocol enabling real-time remote acquisition of the vibration response as recorded by twenty-nine accelerometers at a 256 Sps sampling rate. Several instrumentation layouts were utilized to assess the global multi-span response using a stationary sensor array as well as the spatially refined response of a single span using roving sensors and reference-based techniques. Subsequent structural identification using FE modeling and iterative updating through comparison with the experimental analysis is then documented to demonstrate the inherent value in dynamic response measurement across structural systems using high-rate wireless sensor networks.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제51권4호
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• pp.547-564
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• 2014

This study focuses on the application of an active tuned mass damper (ATMD) for controlling the seismic response of an 11-story building. The control action is achieved by combination of a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method. FLC is used to handle the uncertain and nonlinear phenomena while PSO is used for optimization of FLC parameters. The FLC system optimized by PSO is called PSFLC. The optimization process of the FLC system has been performed for an 11-story building under the earthquake excitations recommended by International Association of Structural Control (IASC) committee. Minimization of the top floor displacement has been used as the optimization criteria. The results obtained by the PSFLC method are compared with those obtained from ATMD with GFLC system which is proposed by Pourzeynali et al. and non-optimum FLC system. Based on the parameters obtained from PSFLC system, a global controller as PSFLCG is introduced. Performance of the designed PSFLCG has been checked for different disturbances of far-field and near-field ground motions. It is found that the ATMD system, driven by FLC with the help of PSO significantly reduces the peak displacement of the example building. The results show that the PSFLCG decreases the peak displacement of the top floor by about 10%-30% more than that of the FLC system. To show the efficiency and superiority of the adopted optimization method (PSO), a comparison is also made between PSO and GA algorithms in terms of success rate and computational processing time. GA is used by Pourzeynali et al for optimization of the similar system.