• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.281-290
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• 2003

A series of connection tests of portal frames which were composed of cold-formed steel studs and rafters was carried out to study the moment-rotation relation, the rotational rigidity, and the yield and the ultimate moment of the connections. The main factors of the tests were the thickness, the shape of the connecting members which were made of mild steel, and the torsional restraints of the test specimens. The test results were compared with those obtained through the non-linear analysis, for verification. The secant stiffness estimated from the experimental moment-rotation curve was proposed for the rotational rigidity of semi-rigid connections, and its validity was verified in the structural frame analysis.

• Journal of Ship and Ocean Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.26-33
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• 2004

PFFEM software, PFADS has been developed for the vibration predictions and analysis of coupled system structures in medium-to-high frequency ranges. PFFEM is numerical method which solves energy governing equation using finite element technique for complicated structures where the exact solutions are not available. Through the upgrades, present PFADS R3 could cover the general beam and plate structures including various kinds of beam-plate rigid joints and other joint systems such as spring-damper junction and rigid bar connection. This software is composed of 3 parts; translator, model converter and solver. The translator makes its own FE-model from bulk data of commercial FE software, and the model converter is used to convert FE-model to PFFE-model automatically. The solver calculates vibrational energy density and intensity for PFFE-model by solving global matrix equations of PFFEM. For the applications of real transportation systems, a container ship model has been examined with respect to major parameters, and reliable results have been obtained.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.207-231
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• 1999

A versatile 4-node shell element which is useful for the analysis of arbitrary shell structures is presented. The element is developed by flat shell approach, i.e., by combining a membrane element with a Mindlin plate element. The proposed element has six degrees of freedom per node and permits an easy connection to other types of finite elements. In the plate bending part, an improved Mindlin plate has been established by the combined use of the addition of non-conforming displacement modes (N) and the substitute shear strain fields (S). In the membrane part, the nonconforming displacement modes are also added to the displacement fields to improve the behavior of membrane element with drilling degrees of freedom and the modified numerical integration (M) is used to overcome the membrane locking problem. Thus the element is designated as NMS-4F. The rigid link correction technique is adopted to consider the effect of out-of-plane warping. The shell element proposed herein passes the patch tests, does not show any spurious mechanism and does not produce shear and membrane locking phenomena. It is shown that the element produces reliable solutions even for the distorted meshes through the analysis of benchmark problems.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.673-687
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• 2023

In this study, the weight and the connections type layout of low-rise eccentrically braced frame (EBF) have been optimized based on performance-based design method. For this purpose, two objective functions were defined based on two different aspects on rigid connections, in one of which minimization and in the other one, maximization of the number of rigid connections was considered. These two objective functions seek to increase the area under the pushover curve, in addition to the reduction of the weight and selection of the optimum connections type layout. The performance of these objective functions was investigated in optimal design of a three-story eccentrically braced frame, using two meta-heuristic algorithms: Enhanced Colliding Bodies Optimization (ECBO) and Enhanced Vibrating Particles System (EVPS). Then, the reliability indices of the optimal designs for both objective functions were calculated for the story lateral drift limits using Monte-Carlo Simulation (MCS) method. Based on the reliability assessment results of the optimal designs and taking the three levels of safety into account, the final designs were selected and their specifications were compared.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.459-465
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• 2012

This study analyzed the effect of semi-rigid rafter-purlin cross-linking connection and driven steel pipe base on the static behavior of plastic greenhouse (PG). To promote the time and cost efficiency of the assembly process, each cross-linking connections of space arch type grid that consists of rafter and purlin is linked with steel-wire buckles, and each end of the rafters was driven directly to the ground to support the PG structure. However, in the design process, cross-linking connections and bases are idealized by being categorized as fully rigid or frictionless pinned, which does not appropriately reflect actual conditions. This study takes a full-scale loading test of PG and analyzes the effect of member cross-linking connections and driven steel pipe base on the behavior of a structure. The analysis provided a basis for determining the rigidity factor of member cross-linking nodes needed for finite element analysis, and the reliability of the result regarding the static behavior of PG.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.16 no.5 s.72
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• pp.683-694
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• 2004

Advanced analysis and optimal design of semi-rigid space steel frames were presented. The advanced analysis can predict the combined nonlinear effects of connection, geometry, and material on the behavior and strength of semi-rigid frames. The Kishi-Chen power model was used to describe the nonlinear behavior of semi-rigid connections. Geometric nonlinearity was determined using stability functions. Material nonlinearity was determined using the Column Research Council (CRC) tangent modulus and the parabolic function. The direct search method proposed by Choi and Kim was used as optimization technique. One by one, the member with the largest unit value evaluated using the LRFD interaction equation were placed adjacent to a larger member selected from the database. The objective function was assumed to be the weight of steel frame, while the constraint functions were load-carrying capacities, deflections, inter-story drifts, and the ductility requirements. The member sizes determined using the proposed method were compared to those derived from the conventional LRFD method.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.15 no.6 s.67
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• pp.661-672
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• 2003

The advanced analysis and optimal design of semi-rigid frame were presented. Advanced analysis can predict the combined nonlinear effects of connection, geometry, and material on the behavior and strength of semi-rigid frames. The Kishi-Chen power model was used to describe the nonlinear behavior of semi-rigid connections. Geometric nonlinearity was determined using stability functions. On the other hand, material nonlinearity was determined using the Column Research Council (CRC) tangent modulus and parabolic function. The direct search method proposed by Choi and Kim was used as optimization technique. The member with the largest unit value evaluated using the LRFD interaction equation was replaced one by one with an adjacent larger member selected from the database. The objective function was assumed as the weight of steel frame, with the constraint functions accounting for load-carrying capacities, deflections. inter-story drifts, and ductility requirement. Member sizes determined by the proposed method were compared with those derived using the conventional LRFD method.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.373-385
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• 2019

This paper presents a useful in-plane structural analysis of low-rise blind-bolted composite frames with semi-rigid joints. Analytical models were used to predict the moment-rotation relationship of the composite beam-to-column flush endplate joints that produced accurate and reliable results. The comparisons of the analytical model with test results in terms of the moment-rotation response verified the robustness and reliability of the model. Abaqus software was adopted to conduct frame analysis considering the material and geometrical non-linearities. The flexural behaviour of the composite frames was studied by applying the lateral loads incorporating wind and earthquake actions according to the Australian standards. A wide variety of frames with a varied number of bays and storeys was analysed to determine the bending moment envelopes under different load combinations. The design models were finalized that met the strength and serviceability limit state criteria. The results from the frame analysis suggest that among lateral loads, wind loads are more critical in Australia as compared to the earthquake loads. However, gravity loads alone govern the design as maximum sagging and hogging moments in the frames are produced as a result of the load combination with dead and live loads alone. This study provides a preliminary analysis and general understanding of the behaviour of low rise, semi-continuous frames subjected to lateral load characteristics of wind and earthquake conditions in Australia that can be applied in engineering practice.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.535-546
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• 2011

In this paper, semi-rigid elasto-plastic post-buckling analysis of a space frame was performed using various explicit arc-length methods. Various explicit arc-length methodsand a large-deformation and small-strain elasto-plastic 3D space frame element with semi-rigid connections and plastic hinges were developed. This element can be appliedto both explicit and implicit numerical algorithms. In this study, the Dynamic Relaxation method was adopted in the predictor and corrector processesto formulate an explicit arc-length algorithm. The developed "explicit-predictor" or "explicit-corrector" were used in the elasto-plastic post-buckling analysis. The Eulerian equations for a beam-column with finite rotation, which considers the bowing effects, were adopted for the elastic system and extended to theinelastic system with a plastic hinge concept. The derived tangent stiffness matrix was asymmetrical due to the finite rotation. The joint connection elements were introduced for semi-rigidity using a static condensation technique. Semi-rigid elasto-plastic post-buckling analyses were carried out to demonstrate the potential of the developed explicit arc-length method and advanced space frame element in terms of accuracy and efficiency.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.157-185
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• 2014

This paper examines the behaviour of two types of practical open beam-to-tubular column connection details subjected to combined moment, axial and/or shear loads. Detailed continuum finite element models are developed and validated against available experimental results, and extended to deal with flexural, axial and shear load interactions. A numerical investigation is then carried out on the behaviour of selected connections with different stiffness and strength characteristics under various load combination scenarios. The influence of applied levels of axial tensile or compressive loads on the bending stiffness and capacity is examined and discussed. Additionally, the interaction effects between shear forces and co-existing bending and axial loads are examined and shown to be comparatively insignificant in terms of stiffness and capacity in most cases. It is also shown that the range of connections considered in this paper can provide rotational ductility levels in excess of those required under typical design scenarios. Based on these findings, a simplified component-based representation is proposed and described, and its ability to represent the connection response under combined loading is verified using results from detailed numerical simulations.