• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.5
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• pp.535-546
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• 2018

The objective of this study is to understand the behaviour of hollow core slabs strengthened with FRP and hybrid techniques through numerical and analytical studies. Different strengthening techniques considered in this study are (i) External Bonding (EB) of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) laminates, (ii) Near Surface Mounting (NSM) of CFRP laminates, (iii) Bonded Overlay (BO) using concrete layer, and (iv) hybrid strengthening which is a combination of bonded overlay and NSM or EB. In the numerical studies, three-dimensional Finite Element (FE) models of hollow core slabs were developed considering material and geometrical nonlinearities, and a phased nonlinear analysis was carried out. The analytical calculations were carried out using Response-2000 program which is based on Modified Compression Field Theory (MCFT). Both the numerical and analytical models predicted the behaviour in agreement with experimental results. Parametric studies indicated that increase in the bonded overlay thickness increases the peak load capacity without reducing the displacement ductility. The increase in FRP strengthening ratio increased the capacity but reduced the displacement ductility. The hybrid strengthening technique was found to increase the capacity of the hollow core slabs by more than 100% without compromise in ductility when compared to their individual strengthening schemes.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.431-441
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• 2018

This study provides fragility-based assessment of seismic performance of reinforced concrete bridges. Seismic fragility curves were created using nonlinear analysis (NA) and artificial neural networks (ANNs). Nonlinear response history analyses were performed, in order to calculate the seismic performances of the bridges. To this end, 306 bridge-earthquake cases were considered. A multi-layered perceptron (MLP) neural network was implemented to predict the seismic performances of the selected bridges. The MLP neural networks considered herein consist of an input layer with four input vectors; two hidden layers and an output vector. In order to train ANNs, 70% of the numerical results were selected, and the remained 30% were employed for testing the reliability and validation of ANNs. Several structures of MLP neural networks were examined in order to obtain suitable neural networks. After achieving the most proper structure of neural network, it was used for generating new data. A total number of 600 new bridge-earthquake cases were generated based on neural simulation. Finally, probabilistic seismic safety analyses were conducted. Herein, fragility curves were developed using numerical results, neural predictions and the combination of numerical and neural data. Results of this study revealed that ANNs are suitable tools for predicting seismic performances of RC bridges. It was also shown that yield stresses of the reinforcements is one of the important sources of uncertainty in fragility analysis of RC bridges.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.437-447
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• 2023

Inclined piles are commonly used in civil engineering constructions where significant lateral resistance is required. Many researchers proved their positive performance on the seismic behavior of the supported structure and the piles themselves. However, most of these numerical studies were done within the framework of linear elastic or elastoplastic soil behavior, neglecting therefore the soil non-linearity at low and moderate soil strains which is questionable and could be misleading in dynamic analysis. The main objective of this study is to examine the influence of the pile inclination on the seismic performance of the soil-pile-structure system when both the linear elastic and the nonlinear soil models are employed. Based on the comparative responses, the adequacy of the soil's linear elastic behavior will be therefore evaluated. The analysis is conducted by generating a three-dimensional finite difference model, where a full interaction between the soil, structure, and inclined piles is considered. The numerical survey proved that the pile inclination can have a significant impact on the internal forces generated by seismic activity, specifically on the bending moment and shear forces. The main disadvantages of using inclined piles in this system are the bending forces at the head and pile-to-head connection. It is crucial to account for soil nonlinearity to accurately assess the seismic response of the soil-pile-structure system.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.456-463
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• 2005

An analytical procedure to analyze reinforced concrete (RC) beams subject to monotonic loadings is proposed on the basis of the moment-curvature relations of RC sections. Unlike previous analytical models which result the overestimation of stiffnesses and underestimation of structural deformations induced from ignoring the shear deformation and assuming perfect-bond condition between steel and concrete, the proposed relation considers the rigid-body-motion due to anchorage slip at the fixed end. The advantages of the proposed relation, compared with the previous numerical models, are on the promotion in effectiveness of analysis and reflection of influencing factors which must be considered in nonlinear analysis of RC beam by taking into account the nonlinear effects into the simplifying moment-curvature relation. Finally, correlation studies between analytical and experimental results are conducted to establish the applicability of the proposed model to the nonlinear analysis of RC structures.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1019-1039
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• 2016

In this paper, a parallel algorithm of nonlinear dynamic analysis of three-dimensional (3D) reinforced concrete (RC) frame structures based on the platform of graphics processing unit (GPU) is proposed. Time integration is performed using Newmark method for nonlinear implicit dynamic analysis and parallelization strategies are presented. Correspondingly, a parallel Preconditioned Conjugate Gradients (PCG) solver on GPU is introduced for repeating solution of the equilibrium equations for each time step. The RC frames were simulated using fiber beam model to capture nonlinear behaviors of concrete and reinforcing bars. The parallel finite element program is developed utilizing Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA). The accuracy of the GPU-based parallel program including single precision and double precision was verified in comparison with ABAQUS. The numerical results demonstrated that the proposed algorithm can take full advantage of the parallel architecture of the GPU, and achieve the goal of speeding up the computation compared with CPU.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2006.04a
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• pp.514-519
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• 2006

This paper presents a new nonlinear analysis algorithm which uses the equivalent nodal load for the element stiffness. The equivalent nodal load represents the influence of the stiffness change such as the addition of elements, the deletion of elements, and/or the partial change of element stiffness. The nonlinear analysis of structures using the equivalent load improves the efficiency very much because the inverse of the structural stiffness matrix, which needs a large amount of computation to calculate, is reused in each loading step. In this paper, the concept of nonlinear analysis using the equivalent load for the element stiffness is described and some numerical examples are provided to verify it.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.857-879
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• 2013

Numerical damage assessment of Van train station building consisting of three RC blocks due to 2011 Van Earthquakes by nonlinear dynamic analysis is presented. The structural model is created with rigid-end offsets and plastic hinges for nonlinear analysis. Rigid-end offsets are considered for connection areas and proposed for wall-supported elements. In wall-supported elements, walls take place in a limited part of the columns. Nonlinear dynamic analysis of the building with and without rigid-end offsets is performed by using real earthquake records and results are compared. The results show that rigid-end offsets have significant effects on the seismic behavior of the structures.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.309-314
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• 2001

In this study, the nonlinear soil structure interaction analysis method based on finite element and boundary element method is developed. In the seismic region, the nonlinearity of near field soil has to be considered for more exact reflection of soil-structure interaction effect. Thus, nonlinear finite element program coupled with boundary elements is developed for nonlinear soil-structure interaction analysis. Using the developed numerical algorithm, the nonlinear soil-structure interaction analysis is performed and responses due to dynamic forces and seismic excitation are investigated. The developed method is verified by comparing with previous studies.

• Proceeding of KASS Symposium
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.170-174
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• 2006

This paper presents a new nonlinear analysis algorithm which uses the equivalent nodal load for the element stiffness. The equivalent nodal load represents the influence of the stiffness change such as the addition of elements, the deletion of elements, and/or the partial change of element stiffness. The nonlinear analysis of structures using the equivalent load improves the efficiency very much because the inverse of the structural stiffness matrix, which needs a large amount of computation to calculate, is reused in each loading step. In this paper, the concept of nonlinear analysis using the equivalent load for the element stiffness is described and some numerical examples are provided to verify it.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.2
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• pp.205-224
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• 2022

This paper presents a refined finite element formulation for nonlinear static and dynamic analysis of sliding cable structures, overcoming the limitation of the existing approaches that neglect or approximate the friction, pulley dimension, temperature and geometric nonlinearity. A new family of elements with the same framework is proposed, consisting of the cable-pulley (CP) elements considering sliding friction, and the non-sliding cable-pulley (NSCP) elements considering static friction. Thereafter, the complete procedure of static and dynamic analysis using the proposed elements is developed, with the capability of accurately dealing with the friction at each pulley. Several examples are utilized to verify the validity and accuracy of the proposed elements and analysis strategy, and investigate the frictional, thermal and pulley-dimension effects as well. The numerical examples show that the results obtained in this work are in good accordance with the existing works when using the same approximations of friction, pulley dimension and temperature. By avoiding the approximations, the proposed formulation can be effectively adopted in predicting the more precise nonlinear responses of sliding cable structures.