• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제6권5_6호
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• pp.595-618
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• 2010

This paper describes the application of a wireless sensor network to a 31 meter-tall medieval tower located in the city of Trento, Italy. The effort is motivated by preservation of the integrity of a set of frescoes decorating the room on the second floor, representing one of most important International Gothic artworks in Europe. The specific application demanded development of customized hardware and software. The wireless module selected as the core platform allows reliable wireless communication at low cost with a long service life. Sensors include accelerometers, deformation gauges, and thermometers. A multi-hop data collection protocol was applied in the software to improve the system's flexibility and scalability. The system has been operating since September 2008, and in recent months the data loss ratio was estimated as less than 0.01%. The data acquired so far are in agreement with the prediction resulting a priori from the 3-dimensional FEM. Based on these data a Bayesian updating procedure is employed to real-time estimate the probability of abnormal condition states. This first period of operation demonstrated the stability and reliability of the system, and its ability to recognize any possible occurrence of abnormal conditions that could jeopardize the integrity of the frescos.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.177-201
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• 2014

With the increased size and flexibility of the tower and blades, structural vibrations are becoming a limiting factor towards the design of even larger and more powerful wind turbines. Research into the use of vibration mitigation devices in the turbine tower has been carried out but the use of dampers in the blades has yet to be investigated in detail. Mitigating vibrations will increase the design life and hence economic viability of the turbine blades and allow for continual operation with decreased downtime. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of Semi-Active Tuned Mass Dampers (STMDs) in reducing the edgewise vibrations in the turbine blades. A frequency tracking algorithm based on the Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT) technique is used to tune the damper. A theoretical model has been developed to capture the dynamic behaviour of the blades including the coupling with the tower to accurately model the dynamics of the entire turbine structure. The resulting model consists of time dependent equations of motion and negative damping terms due to the coupling present in the system. The performances of the STMDs based vibration controller have been tested under different loading and operating conditions. Numerical analysis has shown that variation in certain parameters of the system, along with the time varying nature of the system matrices has led to the need for STMDs to allow for real-time tuning to the resonant frequencies of the system.

• Advances in environmental research
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.173-183
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• 2014

A comprehensive mathematical model was developed for this study to estimate on-site and off-site GHG emissions from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The model was applied to three different hybrid WWTPs (S-WWTP, J-WWTP, and T-WWTP) including anaerobic, anoxic, and aerobic process, located in Seoul City, South Korea. Overall on-site and off-site GHG emissions from S-WWTP, J-WWTP, and T-WWTP were $305,253kgCO_2e/d$, $282,682kgCO_2e/d$, and $117,942kgCO_2e/d$, respectively. WWTP treating higher amounts of wastewater produced more on-site and off-site GHG emissions. On average, the percentage contribution of on-site and off-site emissions was 3.03% and 96.97%. The highest amount of on-site GHG emissions was generated from anoxic process and the primary on-site GHG was nitrous oxide ($N_2O$). Off-site GHG emissions related to electricity consumption for unit operation was much higher than that related to production of chemicals for on-site usage. Recovery and reuse of biogas significantly reduced the total GHG emissions from WWTPs. The results obtained from this study can provide basic knowledge to understand the source and amount of GHG emissions from WWTPs and strategies to establish lower GHG emitting WWTPs.

• Advances in environmental research
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• 제3권3호
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• pp.231-251
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• 2014

The present study examines the phosphate adsorption potential and behavior of mixture of Ground Burnt Patties (GBP), a solid waste generated from cooking fuel used in earthen stoves and Red Soil (RS), a natural substance in fixed bed column mode operation. The characterization of adsorbent was done by Proton Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE), and Proton Induced ${\gamma}$-ray Emission (PIGE) methods. The FTIR spectroscopy of spent adsorbent reveals the presence of absorbance peak at $1127cm^{-1}$ which appears due to P = O stretching, thus confirming phosphate adsorption. The effects of bed height (10, 15 and 20 cm), flow rate (2.5, 5 and 7.5 mL/min) and initial phosphate concentration (5 and 15 mg/L) on breakthrough curves were explored. Both the breakthrough and exhaustion time increased with increase in bed depth, decrease in flow rate and influent concentration. Thomas model, Yoon-Nelson model and Modified Dose Response model were used to fit the column adsorption data using nonlinear regression analysis while Bed Depth Service Time model followed linear regression analysis under different experimental condition to evaluate model parameters that are useful in scale up of the process. The values of correlation coefficient ($R^2$) and the Sum of Square Error (SSE) revealed the Modified Dose Response model as the best fitted model to the experimental data. The adsorbent mixture responded effectively to the desorption and reusability experiment. The results of this finding advocated that mixture of GBP and RS can be used as a low cost, highly efficient adsorbent for phosphate removal from aqueous solution.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• 제8권2호
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• pp.171-184
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• 2017

This study presents the effect of hydraulic retention time (HRT) on the characteristics of emission of three major greenhouse gases (GHGs) including $CH_4$, $CO_2$ and $N_2O$ during operation of a sequencing batch reactor for aerobic oxidation of methane with denitrification (AeOM-D SBR). Dissolved $N_2O$ concentration increased, leveled-off and slightly decreased as the HRT increased from 0.25 to 1d. Concentration of the dissolved $N_2O$ was higher at the shorter HRT, which was highly associated with the lowered C/N ratio. A longer HRT resulted in a higher C/N ratio with a sufficient carbon source produced by methanotrophs via methane oxidation, which provided a favorable condition for reducing $N_2O$ formation. With a less formation of the dissolved $N_2O$, $N_2O$ emission rate was lower at a longer HRT condition due to the lower C/N ratio. Opposite to the $N_2O$ emission, emission rates of $CH_4$ and $CO_2$ were higher at a longer HRT. Longer HRT resulted in the greater total GHGs emission as $CO_2$ equivalent which was doubled when the HRT increased from 0.5d to 1.0 d. Contribution of $CH_4$ onto the total GHGs emission was most dominant accounting for 98 - 99% compared to that of $N_2O$ (< 2%).

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.1-10
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• 2017

The operation of subway trains induces secondary structure-borne vibrations in the nearby underground spaces. The vibration, along with the associated noise, can cause annoyance and adverse physical, physiological, and psychological effects on humans in dense urban environments. Traditional tethered instruments restrict the rapid measurement and assessment on such vibration effect. This paper presents a novel approach for Wireless Smart Sensor (WSS)-based autonomous evaluation system for the subway train-induced vibrations. The system was implemented on a MEMSIC's Imote2 platform, using a SHM-H high-sensitivity accelerometer board stacked on top. A new embedded application VibrationLevelCalculation, which determines the International Organization for Standardization defined weighted acceleration level, was added into the Illinois Structural Health Monitoring Project Service Toolsuite. The system was verified in a large underground space, where a nearby subway station is a good source of ground excitation caused by the running subway trains. Using an on-board processor, each sensor calculated the distribution of vibration levels within the testing zone, and sent the distribution of vibration level by radio to display it on the central server. Also, the raw time-histories and frequency spectrum were retrieved from the WSS leaf nodes. Subsequently, spectral vibration levels in the one-third octave band, characterizing the vibrating influence of different frequency components on human bodies, was also calculated from each sensor node. Experimental validation demonstrates that the proposed system is efficient for autonomously evaluating the subway train-induced ambient vibration of underground spaces, and the system holds the potential of greatly reducing the laboring of dynamic field testing.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제69권4호
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• pp.407-416
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• 2019

This paper develops a wireless sensor for online fatigue crack detection and failure warning based on crack-induced nonlinear ultrasonic modulation. The wireless sensor consists of packaged piezoelectric (PZT) module, an excitation/sensing module, a data acquisition/processing module, a wireless communication module, and a power supply module. The packaged PZT and the excitation/sensing module generate ultrasonic waves on a structure and capture the response. Based on nonlinear ultrasonic modulation created by a crack, the data acquisition/processing module periodically performs fatigue crack diagnosis and provides failure warning if a component failure is imminent. The outcomes are transmitted to a base through the wireless communication module where two-levels duty cycling media access control (MAC) is implemented. The uniqueness of the paper lies in that 1) the proposed wireless sensor is developed specifically for online fatigue crack detection and failure warning, 2) failure warning as well as crack diagnosis are provided based on crack-induced nonlinear ultrasonic modulation, 3) event-driven operation of the sensor, considering rare extreme events such as earthquakes, is made possible with a power minimization strategy, and 4) the applicability of the wireless sensor to steel welded members is examined through field and laboratory tests. A fatigue crack on a steel welded specimen was successfully detected when the overall width of the crack was around $30{\mu}m$, and a failure warnings were provided when about 97.6% of the remaining useful fatigue lives were reached. Four wireless sensors were deployed on Yeongjong Grand Bridge in Souht Korea. The wireless sensor consumed 282.95 J for 3 weeks, and the processed results on the sensor were transmitted up to 20 m with over 90% success rate.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• 제4권2호
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• pp.155-177
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• 2019

Operation and Maintenance (O&M) phase is the main contributor to the total lifecycle cost of a building. Previous studies have described that Building Information Models (BIM), if available with detailed asset information and their properties, can enable rapid troubleshooting and execution of O&M tasks by providing the required information of the facility. Despite the potential benefits, there is still rarely BIM with Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) assets and properties that are available for O&M. BIM is usually not in possession for existing buildings and generating BIM manually is a time-consuming process. Hence, there is a need for an automated approach that can reconstruct the MEP systems in BIM. Previous studies investigated automatic reconstruction of BIM using architectural drawings, structural drawings, or the combination with photos. But most of the previous studies are limited to reconstruct the architectural and structural components. Note that mechanical components in the building typically require more frequent maintenance than architectural or structural components. However, the building mechanical drawings are relatively more complex due to various type of symbols that are used to represent the mechanical systems. In order to address this challenge, this paper proposed a symbol recognition framework that can automatically recognize the different type of symbols in the building mechanical drawings. This study applied vector-based computer vision techniques to recognize the symbols and their properties (e.g., location, type, etc.) in two vector-based input documents: 2D drawings and the symbol description document. The framework not only enables recognizing and locating the mechanical component of interest for BIM reconstruction purpose but opens the possibility of merging the updated information into the current BIM in the future reducing the time of repeated manual creation of BIM after every renovation project.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.303-317
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• 2019

Magneto-rheological fluid (MRF) rotatory dampers are normally used for controlling the constant rotation of machines and engines. In this research, such a device is proposed to act as variable stiffness device to alleviate the rotational oscillation existing in the many engineering applications, such as motor. Under such thought, the main purpose of this work is to characterize the nonlinear torque-angular displacement/angular velocity responses of an MRF based variable stiffness device in oscillatory motion. A rotational hysteresis model, consisting of a rotatory spring, a rotatory viscous damping element and an error function-based hysteresis element, is proposed, which is capable of describing the unique dynamical characteristics of this smart device. To estimate the optimal model parameters, a modified whale optimization algorithm (MWOA) is employed on the captured experimental data of torque, angular displacement and angular velocity under various excitation conditions. In MWOA, a nonlinear algorithm parameter updating mechanism is adopted to replace the traditional linear one, enhancing the global search ability initially and the local search ability at the later stage of the algorithm evolution. Additionally, the immune operation is introduced in the whale individual selection, improving the identification accuracy of solution. Finally, the dynamic testing results are used to validate the performance of the proposed model and the effectiveness of the proposed optimization algorithm.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제29권4호
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• pp.279-297
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• 2019

Strong winds threaten the safety of vehicles on long-span bridges considerably, which could force traffic authorities to reduce speed limits or even close these bridges to traffic. In order to maintain the safe and economic operation of a bridge, a reasonable evaluation of the driving safety on that bridge is needed. This paper aims at carrying outdriving safety analyses for three types of vehicles on a long-span bridge in crosswinds by considering the aerodynamic interference between the bridge and the vehicles based on the wind-vehicle-bridge coupling vibration analysis. Firstly, CFD numerical simulations along with previously obtained wind tunnel testing results were used to determine the aerodynamic force coefficients of the three types of vehicles on the bridge. Secondly, the dynamic responses of the bridge and the vehicles under crosswinds were simulated, and based on those, the driving safety analyses for the three types of vehicles on the bridge were carried out for both cases considering and not considering the aerodynamic interference between the vehicles and the bridge. Finally, the effect of the aerodynamic interference on the safety of the vehicles was investigated. The results show that the aerodynamic interference between the bridge and the vehicles not only affectsthe accident critical wind speed but also the accident type for all three types of vehicles. Such effects are also different for each of the three types of vehicles being studied.