• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.77-89
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• 2015

As the exploitation of oil and gas resources advances into deeper waters and harsher environments, the design and analysis of the flexible risers has become the research focus in the offshore engineering filed. Due to the complexity of the components and the sliding between the adjacent layers, the bending response of the flexible risers is highly non-linear. This paper presents the finite element analysis of the flexible risers under bending loads. The detailed finite element model of the flexible riser is established in ABAQUS software. This finite element model incorporates all the fine details of the riser to accurately predict its nonlinear structural behavior. Based on the finite element model, the bending moment-curvature relationships of a flexible riser under various axisymmetric loads have been investigated. The results have been compared with the analytical ones obtained from the literature and good agreements have been found. Moreover, the stress of the tendon armors has been studied. The non-linear relationship between the armor tendons' stress and the bending loads has been obtained.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.83-99
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• 2014

This study is devoted to estimate higher-mode effects for multi-story structures with considering soil-structure interaction subjected to decomposed parts of near-fault ground motions. The soil beneath the super-structure is simulated based on the Cone model concept. Two-dimensional structural models of 5, 15, and 25-story shear buildings are idealized by using nonlinear stick models. The ratio of base shears for the soil-MDOF structure system to those obtained from the equivalent soil-SDOF structure system is selected as an estimator to quantify the higher-mode effects. The results demonstrate that the trend of higher-mode effects is regular for pulse component and has a descending variation with respect to the pulse period, whereas an erratic pattern is obtained for high-frequency component. Moreover, the effect of pulse component on higher modes is more significant than high-frequency part for very short-period pulses and as the pulse period increases this phenomenon becomes vice-versa. SSI mechanism increases the higher-mode effects for both pulse and high-frequency components and slenderizing the super-structure amplifies such effects. Furthermore, for low story ductility ranges, increasing nonlinearity level leads to intensify the higher-mode effects; however, for high story ductility, such effects mitigates.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.699-712
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• 2015

Bracing structures with off-centre bracing system is one of the new resistant systems that frequently used in the frame with pin connections. High ductility, high-energy dissipation and decrease of base shear are advantages of this bracing system. However, beside these advantages, reconstruction and hard repair of off-centre bracing system cause inappropriate performance in the earthquake. Therefore, in this paper, the goal is investigating the behavior of this type of bracing system with ductile element (circular dissipater), in order to providing replacement of damaged member without needing repair or reconstruction of the general system. To achieve this purpose, some numerical studies have been performed using ANSYS software, a frame with off-centre bracing system and optimum eccentricity (OBS-C-O) and another frame with the same identifications without ductile element (OBS) has been created. In order to investigate precisely on the optimum placement of circular elements under monotonic load again three steal frames were modeled. Furthermore, the behavior of this general system investigated for the first time, linear and nonlinear behavior of these two steel frames compared to each other, to achieve the benefit of using the circular element in an off-centre bracing system. Eventually, the analytical results revealed that the performance of steel ring at the end of off-centre braces system illustrating as a first defensive line and buckling fuse in the off-centre bracing system.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.661-669
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• 2018

Engineering system problems consist of multi-objective optimisation and the performance analysis is generally time consuming. To optimise the system concerning its performance, many researchers perform the optimisation using an approximation model. The Response Surface Method (RSM) is usually used to predict the system performance in many research fields, but it shows prediction errors for highly nonlinear problems. To create an appropriate metamodel for marine systems, Lee (2015) compares the prediction accuracy of the approximation model, and multi-objective optimal design framework is proposed based on a confirmed approximation model. The proposed framework is composed of three parts: definition of geometry, generation of approximation model, and optimisation. The major objective of this paper is to confirm the applicability/usability of the proposed optimal design framework and evaluate the prediction accuracy based on sensitivity analysis. We have evaluated the proposed framework applicability in derrick structure optimisation considering its structural performance.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.37-55
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• 2013

An important issue in the design of soil-nailing systems, as long-term retaining walls, is to assess their stability during seismic events. As such, this study is aimed at simulating the dynamic behavior and failure pattern of nailed structures using two series of numerical analyses, namely dynamic time history and pseudo-static. These numerical simulations are performed using the Finite Difference Method (FDM). In order to consider the actual response of a soil-nailed structure, nonlinear soil behaviour, soil-structure interaction effects, bending resistance of structural elements and construction sequences have been considered in the analyses. The obtained results revealed the efficiency of both analysis methods in simulating the seismic failure mechanism. The predicted failure pattern consists of two sliding blocks enclosed by three slip surfaces, whereby the bottom nails act as anchors and the other nails hold a semi-rigid soil mass. Moreover, it was realized that an increase in the length of the lowest nails is the most effective method to improve seismic stability of soil-nailed structures. Therefore, it is recommended to first estimate the nails pattern for static condition with the minimum required static safety factor. Then, the required seismic stability can be obtained through an increase in the length of the lowest nails. Moreover, placement of additional long nails among lowest nails in existing nailed structures can be considered as a simple retrofitting technique in seismic prone areas.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.733-744
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• 2019

Wind speed forecasting is critical for a variety of engineering tasks, such as wind energy harvesting, scheduling of a wind power system, and dynamic control of structures (e.g., wind turbine, bridge, and building). Wind speed, which has characteristics of random, nonlinear and uncertainty, is difficult to forecast. Nowadays, machine learning approaches (generalized regression neural network (GRNN), back propagation neural network (BPNN), and extreme learning machine (ELM)) are widely used for wind speed forecasting. In this study, two schemes are proposed to improve the forecasting performance of machine learning approaches. One is that optimization algorithms, i.e., cross validation (CV), genetic algorithm (GA), and particle swarm optimization (PSO), are used to automatically find the optimal model parameters. The other is that the combination of different machine learning methods is proposed by finite mixture (FM) method. Specifically, CV-GRNN, GA-BPNN, PSO-ELM belong to optimization algorithm-assisted machine learning approaches, and FM is a hybrid machine learning approach consisting of GRNN, BPNN, and ELM. The effectiveness of these machine learning methods in wind speed forecasting are fully investigated by one-year field monitoring data, and their performance is comprehensively compared.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.387-407
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• 2010

In this paper, using perturbation and Galerkin method, the response of a resonant viscoelastic microbeam to an electric actuation is obtained. The microbeam is under axial load and electrical load. It is assumed that midplane is stretched, when the beam is deflected. The equation of motion is derived using the Newton's second law. The viscoelastic model is taken to be the Kelvin-Voigt model. In the first section, the static deflection is obtained using the Galerkin method. Exact linear symmetric mode shape of a straight beam and its deflection function under constant transverse load are used as admissible functions. So, an analytical expression that describes the static deflection at all points is obtained. Comparing the result with previous research show that using deflection function as admissible function decreases the computation errors and previous calculations volume. In the second section, the response of a microbeam resonator system under primary and secondary resonance excitation has been obtained by analytical multiple scale perturbation method combined with the Galerkin method. It is shown, that a small amount of viscoelastic damping has an important effect and causes to decrease the maximum amplitude of response, and to shift the resonance frequency. Also, it shown, that an increase of the DC voltage, ratio of the air gap to the microbeam thickness, tensile axial load, would increase the effect of viscoelastic damping, and an increase of the compressive axial load would decrease the effect of viscoelastic damping.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.159-167
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• 2010

This paper demonstrates numerical techniques for complex large-scale modeling with microplane constitutive theories for reinforced high strength concrete, which for these applications, is defined to be around the 7000 psi (48 MPa) strength as frequently found in protective structural design. Applications involve highly impulsive loads, such as an explosive detonation or impact-penetration event. These capabilities were implemented into the authors' finite element code, ParaAble and the PRONTO 3D code from Sandia National Laboratories. All materials are explicitly modeled with eight-noded hexahedral elements. The concrete is modeled with a microplane constitutive theory, the reinforcing steel is modeled with the Johnson-Cook model, and the high explosive material is modeled with a JWL equation of state and a programmed burn model. Damage evolution, which can be used for erosion of elements and/or for post-analysis examination of damage, is extracted from the microplane predictions and computed by a modified Holmquist-Johnson-Cook approach that relates damage to levels of inelastic strain increment and pressure. Computation is performed with MPI on parallel processors. Several practical analyses demonstrate that large-scale analyses of this type can be reasonably run on large parallel computing systems.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.405-420
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• 2019

In this study, vibration characteristics of offshore wind turbine tower (WTT) with gravity-based foundation (GBF) are identified from dynamic responses under wave-induced excitations. The following approaches are implemented to achieve the objective. Firstly, the operational modal analysis methods such as frequency domain decomposition (FDD) and stochastic subspace identification (SSI) are selected to estimate modal parameters from output-only dynamic responses. Secondly, a GBF WTT model composed of superstructure, substructure and foundation is simulated as a case study by using a structural analysis program, MIDAS FEA. Thirdly, wave pressures acting on the WTT structure are established by nonlinear regular waves which are simulated from a computational fluid software, Flow 3D. Wave-induced acceleration responses of the target structure are analyzed by applying the simulated wave pressures to the GBF WTT model. Finally, modal parameters such as natural frequencies and mode shapes are estimated from the output-only acceleration responses and compared with the results from free vibration analysis. The effect of wave height and period on modal parameter extraction is also investigated for the mode identification of the GBF WTT.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2021

This article discusses the issue of optimizing controller design issues, in which the artificial intelligence (AI) evolutionary bat (EB) optimization algorithm is combined with the fuzzy controller in the practical application of the building. The controller of the system design includes different sub-parts such as system initial condition parameters, EB optimal algorithm, fuzzy controller, stability analysis and sensor actuator. The advantage of the design is that for continuous systems with polytypic uncertainties, the integrated H2/H∞ robust output strategy with modified criterion is derived by asymptotically adjusting design parameters. Numerical verification of the time domain and the frequency domain shows that the novel system design provides precise prediction and control of the structural displacement response, which is necessary for the active control structure in the fuzzy model. Due to genetic algorithm (GA), we use a hierarchical conditions of the Hurwitz matrix test technique and the limits of average performance, Hierarchical Fitness Function Structure (HFFS). The dynamic fuzzy controller proposed in this paper is used to find the optimal control force required for active nonlinear control of building structures. This method has achieved successful results in closed system design from the example.