• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.915-934
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• 2015

Within the context of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), it is often the case that structural systems are described by uncertainty, both with respect to their parameters and the characteristics of the input loads. For the purposes of system identification, efficient modeling procedures are of the essence for a fast and reliable computation of structural response while taking these uncertainties into account. In this work, a reduced order metamodeling framework is introduced for the challenging case of nonlinear structural systems subjected to earthquake excitation. The introduced metamodeling method is based on Nonlinear AutoRegressive models with eXogenous input (NARX), able to describe nonlinear dynamics, which are moreover characterized by random parameters utilized for the description of the uncertainty propagation. These random parameters, which include characteristics of the input excitation, are expanded onto a suitably defined finite-dimensional Polynomial Chaos (PC) basis and thus the resulting representation is fully described through a small number of deterministic coefficients of projection. The effectiveness of the proposed PC-NARX method is illustrated through its implementation on the metamodeling of a five-storey shear frame model paradigm for response in the region of plasticity, i.e., outside the commonly addressed linear elastic region. The added contribution of the introduced scheme is the ability of the proposed methodology to incorporate uncertainty into the simulation. The results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed methodology for accurate prediction and simulation of the numerical model dynamics with a vast reduction of the required computational toll.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.6
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• pp.727-740
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• 2008

A down hole vertical seismic array is a sequence of instruments installed at various depths in the earth to record the ground motion at multiple points during an earthquake. Numerous studies demonstrate the unique utility of vertical seismic arrays for studying in situ site response and soil behavior. Examples are given of analyses made at two sites to show the value of data from vertical seismic arrays. The sites examined are the Lotung, Taiwan SMART1 array and a new site installed at Jingliao, Taiwan. Details of the installation of the Jingliao array are given. ARX models are theoretically the correct process models for vertical wave propagation in the layered earth, and are used to linearly map deeper sensor input signals to shallower sensor output signals. An example of Event 16 at the Lotung array is given. This same data, when examined in detail with a Bayesian inference model, can also be explained by nonlinear filters yielding commonly accepted soil degradation curves. Results from applying an ARMAX model to data from the Jingliao vertical seismic array are presented. Estimates of inter-transducer soil increment resonant frequency, shear modulus, and damping ratio are presented. The shear modulus varied from 50 to 150 MPa, and damping ratio between 8% and 15%. A new hardware monitoring system - TerraScope - is an affordable 4-D down-hole seismic monitoring system based on independent, microprocessor-controlled sensor Pods. The Pods are nominally 50 mm in diameter, and about 120 mm long. An internal 16-bit micro-controller oversees all aspects of instrumentation, eight programmable gain amplifiers, and local signal storage.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.348-354
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• 2007

Polymer actuators, which are also called as smart materials, change their shapes when electrical, chemical, thermal, or magnetic energy is applied to them and are useful in wide variety of applications such as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), machine components, and artificial muscles. For this study, Polyaniline/carbon-nanotube polymer actuator that is one of electroactive polymer actuators was prepared. Since the nonlinear phenomena of hysteresis and a step response are essential considerations for practical use of polymer actuators, we have investigated the movement of the Polyaniline/carbon-nanotube polymer actuator and have developed an integrated model that can be used for simulating and predicting the hysteresis and a step response during actuation. The Preisach hysteresis model, one of the most popular phenomenological models of hysteresis, were used for describing the hysteretic behavior of Polyaniline/carbon-nanotube polymer actuator while the ARX method, one of system identification techniques, were used for modeling a step response. In this paper, we first expain details in preparation of the Polyaniline/carbon-nanotube polymer then present the mathematical description of our model, the extraction of the parameters, simulation results from the model, and finally a comparison with measured data.