• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.487-497
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• 2017

Semi-active devices use the building's own motion to produce resistive forces and are thus strictly dissipative and require little power. Devices that independently control the binary open/closed valve state can enable novel device hysteresis loops that were not previously possible. However, some device hysteresis loops cannot be obtained without active analog valve control allowing slower, controlled release of stored energy, and is presents an ongoing limitation in obtaining the full range of possibilities offered by these devices. This in silico study develops a proportional-derivative feedback control law using a validated nonlinear device model to track an ideal diamond-shaped force-displacement response profile using active analog valve control. It is validated by comparison to the ideal shape for both sinusoidal and random seismic input motions. Structural application specific spectral analysis compares the performance for the non-linear, actively controlled case to those obtained with an ideal, linear model to validate that the potential performance will be retained when considering realistic nonlinear behaviour and the designed valve control approach. Results show tracking of the device force-displacement loop to within 3-5% of the desired ideal curve. Valve delay, rather than control law design, is the primary limiting factor, and analysis indicates a ratio of valve delay to structural period must be 1/10 or smaller to ensure adequate tracking, relating valve performance to structural period and overall device performance under control. Overall, the results show that active analog feedback control of energy release in these devices can significantly increase the range of resetable, valve-controlled semi-active device performance and hysteresis loops, in turn increasing their performance envelop and application space.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.149-162
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• 2011

The aim of this research is a comprehensive review and evaluation of beam theories resting on elastic foundations that used to model mode-I delamination in multidirectional laminated composite by DCB specimen. A compliance based approach is used to calculate critical strain energy release rate (SERR). Two well-known beam theories, i.e. Euler-Bernoulli (EB) and Timoshenko beams (TB), on Winkler and Pasternak elastic foundations (WEF and PEF) are considered. In each case, a closed-form solution is presented for compliance versus crack length, effective material properties and geometrical dimensions. Effective flexural modulus ($E_{fx}$) and out-of-plane extensional stiffness ($E_z$) are used in all models instead of transversely isotropic assumption in composite laminates. Eventually, the analytical solutions are compared with experimental results available in the literature for unidirectional ($[0^{\circ}]_6$) and antisymmetric angle-ply ($[{\pm}30^{\circ}]_5$, and $[{\pm}45^{\circ}]_5$) lay-ups. TB on WEF is a simple model that predicts more accurate results for compliance and SERR in unidirectional laminates in comparison to other models. TB on PEF, in accordance with Williams (1989) assumptions, is too stiff for unidirectional DCB specimens, whereas in angle-ply DCB specimens it gives more reliable results. That it shows the effects of transverse shear deformation and root rotation on SERR value in composite DCB specimens.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.163-172
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• 2014

Magnetite was chosen as a typical adsorbent to study its phosphate adsorption capacity in water body with low concentration of phosphorus (below $2mg\;PL^{-1}$). Magnetite was collected from Luoyang City, Henan Province, China. In this research, three factors have been studied to describe the adsorption of phosphate on magnetite, which was solution concentration (concentration ranging from 0.1 to $2.5mg\;PL^{-1}$), suspension pH (1 to 13) and temperature (ranging from $10^{\circ}C$ to $40^{\circ}C$). In addition, the modified samples had been characterized with XRD and FE-SEM image. The results show that iron ions contains in magnetite were the main factors of phosphorus removal. The behavior of phosphorus adsorption to substrates could be fitted to both Langmuir and Freundlich isothermal adsorption equations in the low concentration phosphorus water. The theoretical saturated adsorption quantity of magnetite is 0.158 mg/g. pH has great influence on the phosphorus removal of magnetite ore by adsorption. And pH of 3 can receive the best results. While temperature has little effect on it. Magnetite was greatly effective for phosphorus removal in the column experiments, which is a more practical reflection of phosphorous removal combing the adsorption isotherm model and the breakthrough curves. According to the analysis of heavy metals release, the release of heavy metals was very low, they didn't produce the secondary pollution. The mechanism of uptake phosphate is in virtue of chemisorption between phosphate and ferric ion released by magnetite oxidation. The combined investigation of the magnetite showed that it was better substrate for water body with low concentration of phosphorus.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.19-30
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• 2022

The static strength and fatigue crack resistance of the aircraft skin structures depend on the materials used and joint type. Most of the commercial aircraft's skin panel structures are made from aluminium alloy and carbon fibre reinforced epoxy. In this study, the fatigue resistance of four joint configurations (metal/metal, metal/composite, composite/composite and composite/metal) with riveted, adhesive bonded, and hybrid joining techniques are investigated with experiments and finite element analysis. The fatigue tests were tension-tension because of the typical nature of the loads on aircraft skin panels susceptible of experimenting fatigue. Experiment results suggest that the fatigue life of hybrid joints is superior to adhesive bonded joints, and these in turn much better than conventional riveted joints. Thanks to the fact that, for hybrid joints, the adhesive bond provides better load distribution and ensures load-carrying capacity in the event of premature adhesive failure while rivets induce compressive residual stresses in the joint. Results from FE tool ABAQUS analysis for adhesive bonded and hybrid joints agrees with the experiments. From the analysis, the energy release rate for adhesive bonded joints is higher than that of hybrid joints in both opening (mode I) and shear direction (mode II). Most joints show higher energy release rate in mode II. This indicates that the joints experience fatigue crack in the shear direction, which is responsible for crack opening.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.277-290
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• 2023

In order to study the mechanical properties of basalt fiber reinforced ultra-fine fly ash concrete (BFUFARC), the effects of ultra-fine fly ash (UFA) content, basalt fiber content, basalt fiber length and water reducing agent content on the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and flexural strength of the composite material were studied through experimental and theoretical analysis. Also, a scanning electron microscope (SEM) was employed to analyze the mesoscopic structure in the fracture surface of composite material specimens at magnifications of 500 and 3500. Besides, the energy release rate (G_c) and surface free energy (γ_s) of crack tip cracking on BFUFARC in different basalt fiber content were studied from the perspective of fracture mechanics. Further, the cracking resistance, reinforcement, and toughening mechanisms of basalt fibers on concrete substrate were revealed by surface free energy of BFUFARC. The experimental results indicated that basalt fiber content is the main influence factor on the splitting tensile strength of BFUFARC. In case that fiber content increased from 0 to 0.3%, the concrete surface free energy at the tip of single-sided crack showed a trend of increased at first and then decreased. The surface free energy reached at maximum, about 3.59 × 10^-5 MN/m. During the process of increasing fiber content from 0 to 0.1%, G_C-2_γS showed a gradually decreasing trend. As a result, an appropriate amount of basalt fiber can play a preventing cracking role by increasing the concrete surface free energy, further effectively improve the concrete splitting tensile performance.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.181-188
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• 2018

A sidestream contains the filtrate or concentrate from the belt filter press, filter backwash and supernatant from sludge digesters. The sidestream flow, which heads back into the sewage treatment train, is about 1-3% less than the influent flow. However, the sidestream can increase the nutrient load since it contains high concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen. In this study, the removal of PO4-P with organic matter characteristics and bacteriological changes during the sidestream treatment via ladle furnace (LF) slag was investigated. The sidestream used in this study consisted of 11-14% PO4-P and 3.2-3.6% soluble chemical oxygen demand in influent loading rates. LF slag, which had a relatively high $Ca^{2+}$ release compared to other slags, was used to remove $PO_4-P$ from the sidestream. The phosphate removal rates increased as the slag particle size decreased 19.1% (2.0-4.0 mm, 25.2% (1.0-2.0 mm) and 79.9% (0.5-1.0 mm). The removal rates of dissolved organic carbon, soluble chemical oxygen demand, color and aromatic organic matter ($UV_{254}$) were 17.6, 41.7, 90.2 and 77.3%, respectively. Fluorescence excitation-emission matrices and liquid chromatography-organic carbon detection demonstrated that the sidestream treatment via LF slag was effective in the removal of biopolymers. However, the removal of dissolved organic matter was not significant during the treatment. The intact bacterial biomass decreased from $1.64{\times}10^8cells/mL$ to $1.05{\times}10^8cells/mL$. The use of LF slag was effective for the removal of phosphate and the removal efficiency of phosphate was greater than 80% for up to 100 bed volumes.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.185-190
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• 2002

To improve the solubility of poorly water-soluble drug and to develop a sustained release tablets, the need for the technique, the formation of solid dispersion with polymeric materials that can potentially enhance the dissolution rate and extent of drug absorption was considered in this study. The 1:1, 1:4, and 1:5 solid dispersions were prepared by spray drying method using PVP K30, ethanol and methylene chloride. The dissolution test was carried out at in phosphate buffer solution at $37^{\circ}C$ in 100 rpm. Solid dispersed drugs were examined using differential scanning calorimetry and scanning electron microscopy, wherein it was found that felodipine is amorphous in the PVP K30 solid dispersion. Felodifine SR tablets were prepared by direct compressing the powder mixture composed of solid dispersed felodipine, lactose, Eudragit and magnesium stearate using a single punch press. In order to develop a sustained-release preparation containing solid dispersed felodipine, a comparative dissolution study was done using commercially existing product as control. The dissolution rate of intact felodipine, solid dispersed felodipine and its physical mixture, respectively, were compared by the dissolution rates for 30 minutes. The dissolution rates of felodipine for 30 minutes from 1:1, 1:4, 1:5 PVP K30 solid dispersion were 70%, 78% and 90%. However, dissolution rate offelodipine from the physical mixture was 5% of drug for 30 minutes. Our developed product Felodipine SR Tablet showed dissolution of 17%, 50% and 89% for 1, 4, and 7 hours. This designed oral delivery system is easy to manufacture, and drug releases behavior is highly reproducible and offers advantages over the existing commercial product. The dissolution rate of felodipine was significantly enhanced, following the formation of solid dispersion. The solid dispersion technique with water-soluble polymer could be used to develop a solid dispersed felodipine SR tablet.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.47-67
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• 2014

Due to thermal expansion, the structural behaviour of beams in steel structures subjected to temperature increase will be affected. This may result in the failure of the structural members or connection due to extra internal force in the beam induced by the thermal increase. A method to release some of the thermally generated internal force in the members is to allow for some movements at the end supports of the member. This can be achieved by making the plane of the end-plate of the connection slanted instead of vertical as in conventional design. The present paper discusses the mechanical behaviour of beams with bolted slant end-plate connection under symmetrical gravity loads, subjected to temperature increase. Analyses have been carried out to investigate the reduction in internal force with various angles of slanting, friction factor at the surface of the connection, and allowable temperature increase in the beam. The main conclusion is that higher thermal increase is tolerable when slanting connection is used, which means the risk of failure of structures can be reduced.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.495-510
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• 2015

The applications of water jet cutting (WJC) in coal mine have progressed slowly. In this paper, we analyzed the possibility and reasonableness of WJC application to pressure relief in hard coal seam, simulated the distributive characteristics of stress and energy fields suffered by hard coal roadway wallrock and the internal relationships of the fields to the instability due to WJC (including horizontal radial slot and vertical annular slot) on roadway wallrock. The results showed that: (1) WJC can unload hard coal seam effectively by inducing stress release and energy dissipation in coal mass near its slots; its annular slots also can block or weaken stress and energy transfer in coal mass; (2) the two slots may cause "the beam structure" and "the small pillar skeleton", and "the layered energy reservoir structure", respectively, which lead to the increase in stress concentration and energy accumulation in coal element mass near the slots; (3) the reasonable design and optimization of slots' positions and their combination not only can significantly reduce the scope of stress concentration and energy accumulation, but also destroy coal mass structure on a larger scale to force stress to transfer deeper coal mass.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2016

Purpose: The 2015 Korean Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) outbreaks resulted in 186 cases, with 8% (15 persons) of these being nurses. This study aimed to examine MERS-CoV infection status of clinical nurses and to evaluate perception for infection control. Methods: We investigated the MERS-CoV infection status of nurses using MERS-CoV press release data. We examined and analysed perception for Infection control of 121 nurses of the three MERS intensive therapeutic hospitals in July 2015. Results: One to six nurses per hospital in total 8 health care facilities were infected with MERS-CoV. They mainly had short clinical careers and were unaware of infection possibility. The personal and organizational infection control levels that nurses perceive were low and the relationship between two levels was statistically significant. Conclusion: For promoting health protection and infectious disease management competency of nurses, it is necessary to prepare institutional system for controlling infectious disease.