• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.405-417
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• 2023

While ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) is commonly reinforced with micro straight steel fibers in existing applications, studies have indicated that the use of deformed steel macro-fibers leads to enhanced ductility and post-peak responses for UHPC structural elements, which is of particular importance for earthquake-resistant structures. However, there are potential concerns regarding the use of UHPC reinforced with macro-fibers due to the issues of workability and fiber distribution. The objective of this study was to address these issues by extensively investigating the restricted and non-restricted deformability, filling ability, horizontal and vertical velocities, and passing ability of UHPC containing macro hooked-end steel fibers. A new approach is suggested to examine the homogeneity of fiber distribution in UHPC. The influences of ultra-fine fillers and steel macro-fibers on the workability of fresh UHPC and the mechanics of hardened UHPC were examined. It was found that although increasing the ratio of quartz powder to cement led to an improvement in the workability and tensile strain hardening behavior of UHPC, it reduced the fiber distribution homogeneity. The addition of 1% volume fraction of macro-fibers in UHPC improved workability, but reduced its compressive strength, which is contrary to the effect of micro-fiber inclusion in UHPC.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.393-402
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• 2017

Many vibration-based global damage detection methods attempt to extract modal parameters from vibration signals as the main structural features to detect damage. The local flexibility method is one promising method that requires only the first few fundamental modes to detect not only the location but also the extent of damage. Generally, the mode shapes in the lateral degree of freedom are extracted from lateral vibration signals and then used to detect damage for a beam structure. In this study, a new approach which employs the mode shapes in the rotary degree of freedom obtained from the macro-strain vibration signals to detect damage of a beam structure is proposed. In order to facilitate the application of mode shapes in the rotary degree of freedom for beam structures, the local flexibility method is modified and utilized. The proposed rotary approach is verified by numerical and experimental studies of simply supported beams. The results illustrate potential feasibility of the proposed new idea. Compared to the method that uses lateral measurements, the proposed rotary approach seems more robust to noise in the numerical cases considered. The sensor configuration could also be more flexible and customized for a beam structure. Primarily, the proposed approach seems more sensitive to damage when the damage is close to the supports of simply supported beams.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.565-583
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• 2013

Existing numerical models for strain-hardening cement-based composites (SHCC) are short of providing sufficiently accurate solutions to the failure patterns of coupling beams of different designs. The objective of this study is to develop an effective model that is capable of simulating the nonlinear behavior of SHCC coupling beams subjected to cyclic loading. The beam model proposed in this study is a macro-scale plane stress model. The effects of cracks on the macro-scale behavior of SHCC coupling beams are smeared in an anisotropic model. In particular, the influence of the defined crack orientations on the simulation accuracy is explored. Extensive experimental data from coupling beams with different failure patterns are employed to evaluate the validity of the proposed SHCC coupling beam models. The results show that the use of the suggested shear stiffness retention factor for damaged SHCC coupling beams is able to effectively enhance the simulation accuracy, especially for shear-critical SHCC coupling beams. In addition, the definition of crack orientation for damaged coupling beams is found to be a critical factor influencing the simulation accuracy.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.109.1-109
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• 2002

This paper presents a macro/micro flip chip mounting head system for precise force control. In the proposed macro/ micro system, the macro actuator is conventional do servomotor with a ball screw mechanism and the micro actuator is a voice coil motor(VCM) that consists of four NdFeB magnets and a winded moving coil. For force control, a sensitive strain-gauge force sensor is mounted in the micro actuator. Through harmonic motion between macro and micro actuator, we would like to get precise contact force control when small sized flip chip is mounted on flexible substrate in high speed. In order to show the effectiveness of the proposed macro/micro flip chip mounting head system, we com...

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.19-32
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• 2007

This paper is concentrated on the behaviors of five different types of fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) in uniaxial tension and flexural impact. The complete stress-strain responses in tension were acquired through a systematic experimental program. It was found that the tensile peak strains of concrete with micro polyethylene (PEF) fiber are about 18-31% higher than that of matrix concrete, those for composite with macro polypropylene fiber is 40-83% higher than that of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC). The fracture energy of composites with micro-fiber is 23-67% higher than that of matrix concrete; this for macro polypropylene fiber and steel fiber FRCs are about 150-210% and 270-320% larger than that of plain concrete respectively. Micro-fiber is more effective than macro-fiber for initial crack impact resistance; however, the failure impact resistance of macro-fiber is significantly larger than that of microfiber, especially macro-polypropylene-fiber.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.315-334
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• 2015

This study's primary aim is to check the existence of a representative volume element for granular materials and determine the link between the properties (responses) of macro structures and the size of the discrete particle assembly used to represent a constitutive relation in a two-scale model. In our two-scale method the boundary value problem on the macro level was solved using finite element method, based on the Cosserat continuum; the macro stresses and modulus were obtained using a solution of discrete particle assemblies at certain element integration points. Meanwhile, discrete particle assemblies were solved using discrete element method under boundary conditions provided by the macro deformation. Our investigations focused largely on the size effects of the discrete particle assembly and the radius of the particle on macro properties, such as deformation stiffness, bearing capacity and the residual strength of the granular structure. According to the numerical results, we suggest fitting formulas linking the values of different macro properties (responses) and size of discrete particle assemblies. In addition, this study also concerns the configuration and displacement fluctuation of discrete particle assemblies on the micro level, accompanied with the evolution of bearing capacity and deformation on the macro level.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.8
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• pp.29-37
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• 2022

A three-dimensional analysis is required to interpret the drainage behavior of an improved ground with vertical drains, and the macroelement method enables efficient interpretation considering the three-dimensional drainage effect of vertical drains under two-dimensional plane strain condition. In this study, a novel finite element analysis program was developed by applying the macroelement method to the vacuum consolidation method used in ground improvement practice. The conventional macroelement method was used to calculate the amount of drainage from the vertical drain by setting the excess porewater pressure in the drainage material to zero; however, the program developed in this study was improved to consider negative excess porewater pressure as an actual vacuum consolidation condition. To verify the performance of the program, because of a comparison with the measurement values at the site where the vacuum consolidation method was applied, results predicted by the program and field measurement data showed similar settlement behavior.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.3
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• pp.305-315
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• 2018

Interaction of lateral loading, combined with axial force needs to be determined with care in reinforced concrete (RC) one-dimensional structural members (1D SMs) such as beam-columns (BCs) and columns. RC 1D SMs under heavy axial loading are known to fail by brittle mode and small lateral displacements. In this paper, a macro element-based algorithm is proposed to analyze the RC 1D SMs under monotonic or cyclic combined loading. The 1D SMs are discretized into macro-elements (MEs) located between the critical sections and the inflection points. The critical sections are discretized into fixed rectangular finite elements (FRFE). The nonlinear behavior of confined and unconfined concretes and steel elements are considered in the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm has been validated by the results of experimental tests carried out on full-scale RC structural members. The evolution of ultimate strain at extreme compression fiber of a rectangular RC section for different orientations of lateral loading shows that the ultimate strain decreases with increasing the axial force. In the examined cases, this ultimate strain ranges from 0.0024 to 0.0038. Therefore, the 0.003 value given by ACI-318 code for ultimate strain, is not conservative and valid for the combined load cases with significant values of axial force (i.e. for the axial forces heavier than 70% of the ultimate axial force).

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.314-319
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• 2003

In the micro hole punching, the size and shape of burr and burnish zone are very important factors to evaluate quality of micro holes which depend on punch-die clearance, strain rate, workpiece material and etc. To get micro holes with small burr and wide burnish zone for industrial demands, not only the parametric study but also a study on fracture behavior in shear band are necessary. In this study, 100 $\mu$m, 25 $\mu$m micro holes in diameter were fabricated on brass (Cu63/Zn37) and SUS 316 foils as aspect ratio 1:1, and the characteristics of micro holes was investigated comparing with those of macro holes over several mm by scanning electron microscopic views and section views. Like macro hole, micro hole is also composed of 4 portions, rollover. burnish zone, fracture zone and burr, and it shows similar fracture behavior in shear band. But by high strain rate (10$^2$∼10$^3$s$^{-1}$ ) condition unlike that of macro hole fabrication and by the increment of relative grain size in the direction of the workpiece thickness, fracture zone is not observed.

• Advances in biomechanics and applications
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.23-40
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• 2014

This paper examines the blood chamber of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) under static loading conditions and standard operating temperatures. The LVAD's walls are made of a temperature-sensitive polymer (ChronoFlex C 55D) and are covered with a titanium nitride (TiN) nano-coating (deposited by laser ablation) to improve their haemocompatibility. A loss of cohesion may be observed near the coating-substrate boundary. Therefore, a micro-scale stress-strain analysis of the multilayered blood chamber was conducted with FE (finite element) code. The multi-scale model included a macro-model of the LVAD's blood chamber and a micro-model of the TiN coating. The theories of non-linear elasticity and elasto-plasticity were applied. The formulated problems were solved with a finite element method. The micro-scale problem was solved for a representative volume element (RVE). This micro-model accounted for the residual stress, a material model of the TiN coating, the stress results under loading pressures, the thickness of the TiN coating and the wave parameters of the TiN surface. The numerical results (displacements and strains) were experimentally validated using digital image correlation (DIC) during static blood pressure deformations. The maximum strain and stress were determined at static pressure steps in a macro-scale FE simulation. The strain and stress were also computed at the same loading conditions in a micro-scale FE simulation.