• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.665-683
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• 2006

The strength behaviors of Fiber Reinforced Plastics (FRP) Composites can be greatly influenced by the properties of constitutive materials, the laminate structures, and load conditions etc, accompanied by many uncertainty factors. So the reliability study on FRP is an important subject of research. Many achievements have been made in reliability studies based on the probability theory, but little has been done on the roles played by fuzzy variables. In this paper, a fuzzy reliability model for FRP laminates is established first, in which the loads are considered as random variables and the strengths as fuzzy variables. Then a numerical model is developed to assess the fuzzy reliability. The Monte Carlo simulation method is utilized to compute the reliability of laminas under the maximum stress criterion. In the second part of this paper, a generalized fuzzy reliability model (GFRM) is proposed. By virtue of the fact that there may exist a series of states between the failure state and the function state, a fuzzy assumption for the structure state together with the probabilistic assumption for strength parameters is adopted to construct the GFRM of composite materials. By defining a generalized limit state function, the problem is converted to the conventional reliability formula that enables the first-order reliability method (FORM) applicable in calculating the reliability index. Several examples are worked out to show the validity of the models and the efficiency of the methods proposed in this paper. The parameter sensitivity analysis shows that some of the mean values of the strength parameters have great influence on the laminated composites' reliability. The differences resulting from the application of different failure criteria and different fuzzy assumptions are also discussed. It is concluded that the GFRM is feasible to use, and can provide an effective and synthetic method to evaluate the reliability of a system with different types of uncertainty factors.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.158-166
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• 2008

Member force, strain and stress distribution of a section are obtained for prestressed steel and concrete(PSSC) composite bridge subjected to dead and live load in order to interpret the effect of prestressing and deformation of tendon. The stress and strain distribution and moment capacity are obtained for both noncomposite and composite section and for allowable stress limit state, yield limit state and strength limit state. Reliability analysis is conducted after assuming limit states for deflection, stress and flexural strength. Comparing that the reliability index for stress is near 0 for example section which is designed to satisfy the allowable stress exactly, the reliability indexes for deflection and flexural strength are high. Reliability of PSSC girder which is designed based on allowable stress of bridge design code is high for deflection and flexural strength.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.214-224
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• 2008

Member force, strain and stress distribution of a section are obtained for optimized standard 25m~45m PSSC composite bridge subjected to dead and live load in order to interpret the effect of prestressing and deformation of tendon. The stress and strain distribution and moment capacity are obtained for both noncomposite and composite section and for allowable stress limit state, yield limit state and strength limit state. Reliability analysis is conducted after assuming limit states for stress and flexural strength. The reliability index for standard PSSC composite bridge which is designed to satisfy the allowable stress for flexural strength are higher than 3.5 which is required reliability indexes on American code for LRFD. Reliability of PSSC girder which is designed based on allowable stress of bridge design code is high for flexural strength.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.113-131
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• 2011

Excessive wind-induced motion in tall buildings can cause discomfort, affect health, and disrupt the daily activities of the occupants of a building. Dynamic vibration absorbers such as the tuned mass dampers (TMDs) can be used to reduce the wind-induced motion below a specified tolerable serviceability limit state (SLS) criterion. This study investigates whether the same probability of not exceeding specified wind-induced motion levels can be achieved by torsionally sensitive structures without/with linear/nonlinear TMDs subjected to partially correlated wind forces, if they are designed to just meet the same SLS criterion. For the analyses, different structures and the uncertainty in the response, wind load and perception of motion is considered. Numerical results indicate that for structures that are designed or retrofitted without or with optimum linear TMDs and satisfying the same SLS criterion, their probability of exceeding the considered criterion is very consistent, if the inherent correlation between the wind forces is considered in design. However, this consistency deteriorates if nonlinear TMDs are employed. Furthermore, if the correlation is ignored in the design, in many cases a slightly unconservative design, as compared to the designed by considering correlation, is achieved.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.223-227
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• 2004

The pultruded structural shapes are usually composed of thin-walled plate elements. Because the composite material has relatively low elastic moduli, the design of pultruded compression members may not be governed by the material strength limit state but by the stability limit state such as the local buckling or the global buckling. Therefore, the stability limit state must be checked to design pultruded columns. In this research, the local buckling analysis of pultruded I-shape column was conducted for various composite materials using the closed-form solution. To establish the design guidelines for the local buckling of pultruded I-shape compression members, the simplified form of equation to find the local buckling coefficient of pultruded I-shape column was proposed as a function of mechanical properties and the width ratio of plate components using the results obtainde by the closed-form solution. In order to verify the validity of proposed solution, the results obtained by the proposed approximate solution were compared with those of the closed-form solution and the experimental results.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.85 no.3
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• pp.369-379
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• 2023

Reliability-Based Design Optimization (RBDO) is an appropriate framework for obtaining optimal designs by taking uncertainties into account. Large-scale problems with implicit limit state functions and problems with discrete design variables are two significant challenges to traditional RBDO methods. To overcome these challenges, this paper proposes a hybrid method to perform RBDO of structures that links Firefly Algorithm (FA) as an optimization tool to advanced (finite element) reliability methods. Furthermore, the Genetic Algorithm (GA) and the FA are compared based on the design cost (objective function) they achieve. In the proposed method, Weighted Simulation Method (WSM) is utilized to assess reliability constraints in the RBDO problems with explicit limit state functions. WSM is selected to reduce computational costs. To performing RBDO of structures with finite element modeling and implicit limit state functions, a First-Order Reliability Method (FORM) based on the Direct Differentiation Method (DDM) is utilized. Four numerical examples are considered to assess the effectiveness of the proposed method. The findings illustrate that the proposed RBDO method is applicable and efficient for RBDO problems with discrete and continuous design variables and finite element modeling.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.644-650
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• 1998

In this paper , a state space model for flexible beam is presented using the assumed-modes approach. The state space equation is derived for a flexible beam in which one end is connected to a motor and is driven by a torque equation and the other end is free. Many of the transfer function proposed thus far use the torque to the flexible beam as the input and the tip deflection of the flexible beam as the output. The Technique for the analysis and synthesis of the dual-input describing function(DIDF) is introduced here and the construction of a non-linear compensator, based on this technique, is proposed. This non-linear compensator, properly connected in the direct path of a closed-loop linear or non-linear control system. The above non-linear network is used to compensate linear and non-linear systems for instability, limit cycles, low speed of response and static accuracy. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is demonstrated through computer simulation and experimental results.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.109-116
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• 1994

In this paper, various reliability analysis methods for calculating a probability of failure are investigated for their accuracy and efficiency. Crude Monte Carlo method is used as a basis for the comparison of various numerical results. For the sampling methods, Importance Sampling method and Directional Simulation method are considered for overcoming a drawback of Crude Monte Carlo method. For the approximate methods, conventional Rackwitz-Fiessler method. 3-parameter Chen-Lind method, and Rosenblatt transformation method are compared on the basis of First order reliability method. As a Second-order reliability method, Curvature-Fitting paraboloid method, Point-fitting paraboloid method, and Log-likelihood function method are explored in order to verify the accuracy of the reliability calculation results. These methods mentioned above would have some difficulty unless the limit state equation is expressed explicitly in terms of random design variables. Thus, there is a need to develop some general reliability methods for the case where an implicit limit state equation is given. For this purpose, Response surface method is used where the limit state equation is approximated by regression analysis of the response surface outcomes resulted from the structural analysis. From the application of these various reliability methods to three examples, it is found that Directional Simulation method and Response Surface method are very efficient and recommendable for the general reliability analysis problem cases.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.1105-1106
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• 2009

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2006.04a
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• pp.857-864
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• 2006

Due to the difficulties in numerical generation of random fields that satisfy not only the probabilistic distribution but the spectral characteristics as well. it is relatively hard to find an exact response variability of a structural response with a specific random field which has its features in the spatial and spectral domains. In this study. focusing on the fact that the random field assumes a constant over the domain under consideration when the correlation distance tends to infinity, a semi-theoretical solution of response variability is proposed for in-plane and plate bending structures. In this procedure, the probability density function is used directly resulting in a semi-exact solution for the random field in the state of random variable. It is particularly noteworthy that the proposed methodology provides response variability for virtually any type of probability density functions.