• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.221-238
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• 2016

One of the objectives of this study is to implement the direct calculation of the torsional moment of inertia for non-circular cross-sections, which is based on the St. Venant torsion formulation and the finite element method. Recently the proposed method provides a unique calculation of the torsional rigidity of simply and multiply connected cross-sections. Next, free vibration analyses of cylindrical and non-cylindrical helices with non-circular cross-sections are solved by a curved two-nodded mixed finite element based on the Timoshenko beam theory. Some thin-thick closed or open sections are handled and the natural frequencies of cylindrical and non-cylindrical helices are compared with the literature and the commercial finite element program SAP2000.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.605-628
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• 2016

The energy absorption characteristics of diamond core sandwich cylindrical columns under axial crushing process depend greatly on the amount of material which participates in the plastic deformation. Both the single-objective and multi-objective optimizations are performed for columns under axial crushing load with core thickness and helix pitch of the honeycomb core as design variables. Models are optimized by multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm to achieve maximum specific energy absorption (SEA) capacity and minimum peak crushing force (PCF). Results show that optimization improves the energy absorption characteristics with constrained and unconstrained peak crashing load. Also, it is concluded that the aluminum tube has a better energy absorption capability rather than steel tube at a certain peak crushing force. The results justify that the interaction effects between the honeycomb and column walls greatly improve the energy absorption efficiency. A ranking technique for order preference (TOPSIS) is then used to sort the non-dominated solutions by the preference of decision makers. That is, a multi-criteria decision which consists of MOPSO and TOPSIS is presented to find out a compromise solution for decision makers. Furthermore, local and global sensitivity analyses are performed to assess the effect of design variable values on the SEA and PCF functions in design domain. Based on the sensitivity analysis results, it is concluded that for both models, the helix pitch of the honeycomb core has greater effect on the sensitivity of SEA, while, the core thickness has greater effect on the sensitivity of PCF.