• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.19 no.5 s.66
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• pp.16-25
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• 2005

The effect of vertical riser support system on the dynamic behaviour of a classical spar platform is investigated. Spar platform generally uses buoyancy-can riser support system, but as water depth gets deeper the alternative riser support system is required due to safety and cost issues. The alternative riser support system is to hang risers off the spar platform using pneumatic cylinders rather than the buoyancy-can. The existing numerical model for hull/mooring/riser coupled dynamics analysis treats riser as an elastic rod truncated at the keel (truncated riser model), thus, in this model, the effect of riser support system can not be modeled correctly. Due to this reason, the truncated riser model tends to overestimate the spar pitch and heave motion. To evaluate more realistic global spar motion, mechanical coupling among risers, guide frames and support cylinders inside of spar moon-pool should be modeled. In the newly developed model, the risers are extended through the moon-pool by using nonlinear finite element methods with realistic boundary condition at multiple guide frames. In the simulation, the vertical tension from pneumatic cylinders is modeled by using ideal-gas equation and the vertical tension from buoyancy-cans is modeled as constant top tension. The different dynamic characteristics between buoyancy-can riser support system and pneumatic riser support system are extensively studied. The alternative riser support system tends to increase spar heave motion and needs damper system to reduce the spar heave motion.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.617-627
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• 2011

This paper presents the results of analytical simulation of shake-table responses of a 1:5 scale 10-story reinforcement concrete(RC) residential building model by using the PERFORM-3D program. The following conclusion are drawn based on the observation of correlation between experiment and analysis; (1) The analytical model simulated fairly well the global elastic behavior under the excitations representative of the earthquake with the return period of 50 years. Under the design earthquake(DE) and maximum considered earthquake(MCE), this model shows the nonlinear behavior, but does not properly simulate the maximum responses, and stiffness and strength degradation in experiment. The main reason is considered to be the assumption of elastic slab. (2) Although the analytical model in the elastic behavior closely simulated the global behavior, there were considerable differences in the distribution of resistance from the wall portions. (3) Under the MCE, the shear deformation of wall was relatively well simulated with the flexural deformation being overestimated by 10 times that of experiment. This overestimation is presumed to be partially due to the neglection of coupling beams in modeling.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.215-238
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• 2009

This paper introduces an improved modal pushover analysis (IMPA) which can effectively evaluate the seismic response of multi-span continuous bridge structures on the basis of modal pushover analysis (MPA). Differently from previous modal pushover analyses which cause the numerical unstability because of the occurrence of reversed relation between the pushover load and displacement, the proposed method eliminates this numerical instability and, in advance the coupling effects induced from the direct application of modal decomposition by introducing an identical stiffness ratio for each dynamic mode at the post-yielding stage together with an approximate elastic deformation. In addition to these two introductions, the use of an effective seismic load, calculated from the modal spatial force and applied as the distributed load, makes it possible to predict the dynamic responses of all bridge structures through a simpler analysis procedure than those in conventional modal pushover analyses. Finally, in order to establish validity and applicability of the proposed method, correlation studies between a rigorous nonlinear time history analysis and the proposed method were conducted for multi-span continuous bridges.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.145-171
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• 2015

Due to earthquakes, many structures suffered extensive damages that were attributed to the torsional effect caused by mass, stiffness or strength eccentricity. Due to this type of asymmetry torsional moments are generated that are imposed by means of additional shear forces developed at the vertical resisting structural elements of the buildings. Although the torsional effect on the response of reinforced concrete buildings was the subject of extensive research over the last decades, a quantitative index measuring the amplification of the shear forces developed at the vertical resisting elements due to lateral-torsional coupling valid for both elastic and elastoplastic response states is still missing. In this study a reliable index capable of assessing the torsional effect is proposed. The performance of the proposed index is evaluated and its correlation with structural response quantities like displacements, interstorey drift, base torque, shear forces and upper diaphragm's rotation is presented. Torsionally stiff, mass eccentric single-story and multistory structures, subjected to bidirectional excitation, are considered and nonlinear dynamic analyses are performed using natural records selected for three hazard levels. It was found that the proposed index provides reliable prediction of the magnitude of torsional effect for all test examples considered.

• Multiscale and Multiphysics Mechanics
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.143-156
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• 2016

Reinforced concrete (RC) structures require advanced analysis techniques for better estimation of their seismic responses, especially in the case of exhibiting complex three-dimensional coupling of torsional and flexural behaviors. This study focuses on validating a numerical approach for evaluating the seismic response of a three-dimensional unsymmetrical RC structure through the participation in the SMART 2013 international benchmark program. The benchmark program provides material properties, detailed drawings of the RC structure, and input ground motions for the seismic response evaluation. In this study, nonlinear constitutive models of concrete and rebar were formed and local tests were conducted to verify the constitutive models in finite element analysis. Elastic calibration of the finite element model of the SMART 2013 RC structure was performed by comparing numerical and experimental results in modal and linear time history analyses. Using the calibrated model, nonlinear earthquake analysis and seismic fragility analysis were performed to estimate the behavior and vulnerability of the RC structure with various ground motions.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.233-243
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• 2019

In this paper, numerical and experimental studies are performed to investigate the liquid impact on a free falling wedge. In the numerical simulation, the structure is assumed to be rigid and the elastic response is ignored. The fully nonlinear coupling between wedge and water is considered by an auxiliary function method based on the Boundary Element Method (BEM). At the intersection of the wedge surface and liquid surface, two coincident nodes are used to decouple the boundary conditions. The Eulerian free surface conditions in the local coordinate system are adopted to update the deformed free surface. In the experiments, five pressure sensors are fixed on each side of the wedge which is released from an experimental installation. Steel and aluminum wedges that have different structural elasticity are used in the experiments to investigate the influence of structural elasticity on the impact force. Numerical results are compared with experimental data and they agree very well. The influence of fluid gravity, body mass, initial entry speed and deadrise angle on the impact pressure are further investigated.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.351-361
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• 2017

Reinforced concrete(RC) structural walls are major lateral load-resisting structural member in building structures. Generally these RC structural walls are coupled with each other by the coupling beams and slabs, and therefore they behave as RC coupled structural wall system. In the design of these coupled structural wall systems, member forces are calculated using elastic structural analysis. These elastic analysis methodologies for the design of coupled structural wall system was not reasonable because it can not consider their ultimate behavior and assure economic feasibility. Performance based design and moment redistribution method to solve these problems is regarded as a reasonable alternative design method for RC coupled structural wall system. However, it is not verified under various design parameters. In this study, nonlinear analysis of RC coupled structural wall system was performed according to various design parameters such as reinforcement ratio, ultimate concrete strain and wall height. Based on analysis results, design considerations for coupled RC structural wall system was proposed.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.89-98
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• 1993

As the construction of nuclear power plants are increased, nuclear wastes disposal has been faced as a serious problem. If nuclear wastes are to be buried in the underground stratum, thermo-mechanical behavior of stratum must be analyzed, because high temperature distribution has a significant effect on tunnel and surrounding stratum. In this study, in order to analyze the structural behavior of the underground which is subject to concentrated heat sources, a coupling method of nonlinear finite elements and linear boundary elements is proposed. The nonlinear finite elements (NFE) are applied in the vicinity of nuclear depository where thermo-mechanical stress is concentrated. The boundary elements are also used in infinite domain where linear behavior is expected. Using the similar method as for the problem in mechanical field, the coupled nonlinear finite element-boundary element (NFEBE) is developed. It is found that NFEBE method is more efficient than NFE which considers nonlinearity in the whole domain for the nuclear wastes depository that is expected to exhibit local nonlinearity behavior. The effect of coefficients of the rock mass such as Poisson's ratio, elastic modulus, thermal diffusivity and thermal expansion coefficient is investigated through the developed method. As a result, it is revealed that the displacements around tunnel are largely dependent on the thermal expansion coefficients.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.219-227
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• 2007

The dynamic performance of air foil bearings relies on a coupling between a thin air film and an elastic foil structure. A number of successful analytical techniques to predict dynamic performance have been developed. However, the evaluation of its dynamic characteristic is still not enough because of the mechanical complexity of the foil structure and strong nonlinear behavior of friction force. This work presents a nonlinear transient analysis method to predict dynamic performance of foil bearings. In this method, time dependent Reynolds equation is used to calculate pressure distribution and a finite element method is used to model the bump foil structure. The analysis is treated with a direct implicit integration technique that can handle nonlinear problems and the stick-slip algorithm is used to consider friction force. Using this method the response to the mass unbalance excitation is investigated for various design parameters and operating conditions. The results of analysis show that foil bearing is very effective on the restriction of vibration at the resonance frequency compared to the rigid surface bearings and the effectiveness depends on the operating conditions, static load and a amount of mass unbalance. In addition, there exist optimum values of friction coefficient, bump foil stiffness and number of circumferential slit with regards to minimizing dynamic response at the resonance frequency. These optimum values are system dependent.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.91-102
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• 2023

To study the evaluation standard and control limit of mortar filling layer void length, in this paper, the train sub-model was developed by MATLAB and the track-bridge sub-model considering the mortar filling layer void was established by ANSYS. The two sub-models were assembled into a train-track-bridge coupling dynamic model through the wheel-rail contact relationship, and the validity was corroborated by the coupling dynamic model with the literature model. Considering the randomness of fastening stiffness, mortar elastic modulus, length of mortar filling layer void, and pier settlement, the test points were designed by the Box-Behnken method based on Design-Expert software. The coupled dynamic model was calculated, and the support vector regression (SVR) nonlinear mapping model of the wheel-rail system was established. The learning, prediction, and verification were carried out. Finally, the reliable probability of the amplification coefficient distribution of the response index of the train and structure in different ranges was obtained based on the SVR nonlinear mapping model and Latin hypercube sampling method. The limit of the length of the mortar filling layer void was, thus, obtained. The results show that the SVR nonlinear mapping model developed in this paper has a high fitting accuracy of 0.993, and the computational efficiency is significantly improved by 99.86%. It can be used to calculate the dynamic response of the wheel-rail system. The length of the mortar filling layer void significantly affects the wheel-rail vertical force, wheel weight load reduction ratio, rail vertical displacement, and track plate vertical displacement. The dynamic response of the track structure has a more significant effect on the limit value of the length of the mortar filling layer void than the dynamic response of the vehicle, and the rail vertical displacement is the most obvious. At 250 km/h - 350 km/h train running speed, the limit values of grade I, II, and III of the lengths of the mortar filling layer void are 3.932 m, 4.337 m, and 4.766 m, respectively. The results can provide some reference for the long-term service performance reliability of the ballastless track-bridge system of HRS.