• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.567-576
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• 2017

Design of piezoelectric energy harvester for a wide operating frequency range is a challenging problem and is currently being investigated by many researchers. Widening the operating frequency is required, as the energy is harvested from ambient source of vibration which consists of spectrum of frequency. This paper presents a new technique to increase the operating frequency range which is achieved by designing a harvester featured by a propped cantilever beam with variable over hang length. The proposed piezoelectric energy harvester is modeled analytically using Euler Bernoulli beam theory and the effectiveness of the harvester is demonstrated through experimentation. The results from analytical model and from experimentation reveal that the proposed energy harvester generates an open circuit output voltage ranging from 36.43 V to 11.94 V for the frequency range of 27.24 Hz to 48.47 Hz. The proposed harvester produces continuously varying output voltage and power in the broadened operating frequency range.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.37-60
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• 2008

Structural health monitoring of existing infrastructure is currently an important field of research, where elaborate experimental programs and advanced analytical methods are used in identifying the current state of health of critical and important structures. The paper outlines two methods of system identification of beam-like reinforced concrete structures representing bridges, through static measurements, in a distributed damage scenario. The first one is similar to the stiffness method, re-cast and the second one to flexibility method. A least square error (LSE) based solution method is used for the estimation of flexural rigidities and damages of simply supported, cantilever and propped cantilever beam from the measured deformation values. The performance of both methods in the presence of measurement errors is demonstrated. An experiment on an un-symmetrically damaged simply supported reinforced concrete beam is used to validate the developed method. A method for damage prognosis is demonstrated using a generalized, indeterminate, propped cantilever beam.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.109-118
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• 1992

Lateral bracing has long been used in design practice to enhance the carrying capacity of the lateral buckling of the beam. Many factors, critically important to lateral bracing performance, do not appear in design formulas. Some of these factors are discussed in this study for the application to short I - beams under repeated loadings through parametric studies with an analytical model : the brace location along the length of the beam, the height of the bracing above the shear center of the beam, and the strength and stiffness of the brace. The parametric studies are carried out using a propped cantilever arrangement, and also using a geometrically (fully) nonlinear beam model for the brace as well as the beam to capture the system buckling. An idealized bracing system is configured to restrain lateral motion, but not rotation. A multiaxial cyclic plasticity model is also implemented to better represent cyclic metal plasticity in conjunction with a consistent return mapping algorithm.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.169-184
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• 2003

This paper presents a generic modelling of composite steel-concrete beams with elastic shear connection. It builds on the well-known seminal technique of Newmark, Siess and Viest, in order to formulate the partial interaction formulation for solution under a variety of end conditions, and lends itself well for modification to enable direct quantification of effects such as shrinkage, creep, and limited shear connection slip capacity. This application is possible because the governing differential equations are set up and solved in a fashion whereby inclusion of the kinematic and static end conditions merely requires a statement of the appropriate constants of integration that are generated in the solution of the linear differential equations. The method is applied in the paper for the solution of the well-studied behaviour of simply supported beams with partial interaction, as well as to provide solutions for a beam encastr$\acute{e}$ at its ends, and for a propped cantilever.