• International journal of steel structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1397-1409
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• 2018

Stiffened plates with high slenderness parameters show large out-of-plane deflections, due to elastic buckling, which may occur before the plates reach their ultimate strength. From a serviceability point of view, restriction of out-of-plane deflections exceeding the fabrication tolerance is of primary importance. Compressive strength at the serviceability limit state (SLS) for slender stiffened plates under uniaxial stress was investigated through nonlinear elasto-plastic finite element analysis, considering both geometric and material nonlinearity. Both normal and high-performance steel were considered in the study. The SLS was defined based on a deflection limit and an elastic buckling strength. Probabilistic distributions of the SLS strengths were obtained through Monte Carlo simulations, in association with the response surface method. On the basis of the obtained statistical distributions, partial safety factors were proposed for SLS. Comparisons with the ultimate strength of different design codes e.g. Japanese Code, AASHTO, and Canadian Code indicate that AASHTO and Canadian Code provide significantly conservative design, while Japanese Code matches well with a 5% non-exceedance probability for compressive strength at SLS.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1569-1582
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• 2015

This study explores the lateral deflections of diagonal braces in concentrically-braced earthquake-resisting frames. The performance of this widely-used system is often compromised by the flexural buckling of slender braces in compression. In addition to reducing the compressive resistance, buckling may also cause these members to undergo sizeable lateral deflections which could damage surrounding structural components. Different approaches have been used in the past to predict the mid-length lateral deflections of cyclically loaded steel braces based on their theoretical deformed geometry or by using experimental data. Expressions have been proposed relating the mid-length lateral deflection to the axial displacement ductility of the member. Recent experiments were conducted on hollow and concrete-filled circular hollow section (CHS) braces of different lengths under cyclic loading. Very slender, concrete-filled tubular braces exhibited a highly ductile response, undergoing large axial displacements prior to failure. The presence of concrete infill did not influence the magnitude of lateral deflection in relation to the axial displacement, but did increase the number of cycles endured and the maximum axial displacement achieved. The corresponding lateral deflections exceeded the deflections observed in the majority of the previous experiments that were considered. Consequently, predictive expressions from previous research did not accurately predict the mid-height lateral deflections of these CHS members. Mid-length lateral deflections were found to be influenced by the member non-dimensional slenderness (${\bar{\lambda}}$) and hence a new expression was proposed for the lateral deflection in terms of member slenderness and axial displacement ductility.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.355-374
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• 2016

This paper presents and compares a one-dimensional (1D) bending theory for piezoelectric thin beam-type structures with resistive-inductive electrodes to ANSYS$^{(R)}$ three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) analysis. In particular, the lateral deflections and vibrations of slender piezoelectric beams are considered. The peculiarity of the piezoelectric beam model is the modeling of electrodes in such a manner that is does not fulfill the equipotential area condition. The case of ideal, perfectly conductive electrodes is a special case of our 1D model. Two-coupled partial differential equations are obtained for the lateral deflection and for the voltage distribution along the electrodes: the first one is an extended Bernoulli-Euler beam equation (second-order in time, forth order in space) and the second one the so-called Telegrapher's equation (second-order in time and space). Analytical results of our theory are validated by 3D electromechanically coupled FE simulations with ANSYS$^{(R)}$. A clamped-hinged beam is considered with various types of electrodes for the piezoelectric layers, which can be either resistive and/or inductive. A natural frequency analysis as well as quasi-static and dynamic simulations are performed. A good agreement between the extended beam theory and the FE results is found. Finally, the practical relevance of this type of electrodes is shown. It is found that the damping capability of properly tuned resistive or resistive-inductive electrodes exceeds the damping performance of beams, where the electrodes are simply linked to an optimized impedance.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.221-236
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• 2023

The lateral component of turbulence and the vortices shed in the wake of a structure result in introducing dynamic wind load in the acrosswind direction and the resulting level of motion is typically larger than the corresponding alongwind motion for a dynamically sensitive structure. The underlying source mechanisms of the acrosswind load may be classified into motion-induced, buffeting, and Strouhal components. This study proposes a frequency domain framework to decompose the overall load into these components based on output-only measurements from wind tunnel experiments or full-scale measurements. First, the total acrosswind load is identified based on measured acceleration response by solving the inverse problem using the Kalman filter technique. The decomposition of the combined load is then performed by modeling each load component in terms of a Bayesian filtering scheme. More specifically, the decomposition and the estimation of the model parameters are accomplished using the unscented Kalman filter in the frequency domain. An aeroelastic wind tunnel experiment involving a tall circular cylinder was carried out for the validation of the proposed framework. The contribution of each load component to the acrosswind response is assessed by re-analyzing the system with the decomposed components. Through comparison of the measured and the re-analyzed response, it is demonstrated that the proposed framework effectively decomposes the total acrosswind load into components and sheds light on the overall underlying mechanism of the acrosswind load and attendant structural response. The delineation of these load components and their subsequent modeling and control may become increasingly important as tall slender buildings of the prismatic cross-section that are highly sensitive to the acrosswind load effects are increasingly being built in major metropolises.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.10 no.4_5
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• pp.331-351
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• 2012

In this study an output-only system identification technique for civil structures under ambient vibrations is carried out, mainly focused on using the Stochastic Subspace Identification (SSI) based algorithms. A newly developed signal processing technique, called Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA), capable to smooth a noisy signal, is adopted for preprocessing the measurement data. An SSA-based SSI algorithm with the aim of finding accurate and true modal parameters is developed through stabilization diagram which is constructed by plotting the identified system poles with increasing the size of data matrix. First, comparative study between different approaches, with and without using SSA to pre-process the data, on determining the model order and selecting the true system poles is examined in this study through numerical simulation. Finally, application of the proposed system identification task to the real large scale structure: Canton Tower, a benchmark problem for structural health monitoring of high-rise slender structures, using SSA-based SSI algorithm is carried out to extract the dynamic characteristics of the tower from output-only measurements.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.107-131
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• 2016

The need for a more affordable, reliable, clean and secure energy has led to explorations in non-traditional sources, particularly renewable energies. Wind is one of the cleanest energy sources that plays a significant role in augmenting sustainability. Wind turbines, as energy convertors, are usually tall and slender structures, and depending on their location (inland or offshore), they can be subject to high wind and/or strong wave loadings. These loads can cause severe vibrations with detrimental effects on energy production, structural lifecycle and initial cost. A dissipativity analysis study was carried out to know whether wind turbine towers require damping enhancement or rigidity modifications for vibration suppression. The results suggest that wind turbines are lightly damped structures and damping enhancement is a potential solution for vibration lessening. Accordingly, the paper investigates different damping enhancement techniques for vibration mitigation. The efficacy of tuned mass damper (TMD), tuned liquid column damper (TLCD), tuned sloshing damper (TSD), and viscous damper (VD) to reduce vibrations is investigated. A comparison among these devices, in terms of robustness and effectiveness, is conducted. The VD can reduce both displacement and acceleration responses of the tower, better than other types of dampers, for the same control effort, followed by TMD, TSD, and finally TLCD. Nevertheless, the use of VDs raises concerns about where they should be located in the structure, and their application may require additional design considerations.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.87-94
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• 2017

Steel structures often require strengthening due to the increasing life loads, or repair caused by corrosion or fatigue cracking. Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) is one of the materials used to strengthen steel structures. Most studies on strengthening steel structures have been carried out on steel beams and steel columns under centric compression load. No independent article, to the author's knowledge, has studied the effect of CFRP strengthening on steel columns under eccentric compression load, and it seems that there is a lack of understanding on behavior of CFRP strengthening on steel columns under eccentric compression load. However, this study explored the use of adhesively bonded CFRP flexible sheets on retrofitting square hollow section (SHS) steel columns under the eccentric compression load, using numerical investigations. Finite Element Method (FEM) was employed for modeling. To determine ultimate load of SHS steel columns, eight specimens with two types of section (Type A and B), strengthened using CFRP sheets, were analyzed under different coverage lengths, the number of layers, and the location of CFRP composites. Two specimens were analyzed without strengthening (control) to determine the increasing rate of the ultimate load in strengthened steel columns. ANSYS was used to analyze the SHS steel columns. The results showed that the CFRP composite had no similar effect on the slender and stocky SHS steel columns. The results also showed that the coverage length, the number of layers, and the location of CFRP composites were effective in increasing the ultimate load of the SHS steel columns.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.69-78
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• 2018

In current research, it was attempted a preliminary design and evaluation of non-uniform ultra high-strength concrete (UHSC) truss members. UHSC used here has the compressive strength of 180 MPa, the tensile strength of 8 to 20 MPa, and the tensile strain after cracks up to 2%. By the three-dimensional finite element stress analysis as well as strut-tie approach on concrete solid beams, the non-uniform truss shape of UHSC truss was designed with the architectural esthetic concept. In a series of examples, to compare with conventional concrete members, the proposed UHSC truss members have advantages in capabilities of the slender design with minimum weight with high performances under transverse loadings as well as the aesthetically non-uniform design for spatial structures.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.1 s.31
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• pp.23-28
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• 1999

For offshore structures, dynamic analysis becomes increasingly important as water depth increases and structural configuration becomes more slender. In the case of dynamic analysis of frame structures, much computer time and high cost are required due to many degrees of freedom, In this paper, a new technique of permutating a segment of frame structure to a beam is developed, which is called here Beam Permutation Technique. The technique is based on definition of stiffness matrix of the beam which is obtained by defining the actions(or forces) required to obtain unit translation or rotation for each degree of freedom wiht al other degree of freedom restrained to zero displacement or rotation. In the technique, an assumption is made that relative positions of nodes in the ends of the segment are not variable, The technique can significantly reduce the degrees of freedom of frame structures and thus the computiong time in dynamic analysis. The natural frequencies and static displacements of the permutated beam are obtained and compared to those of ANSYS with a good agreement.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.201-216
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• 2019

This scientific paper provides a theoretical, numerical and experimental analysis of local stability of axially compressed columns made of thin-walled rectangular concrete-filled steel tubes (CFSTs), with the consideration of initial geometric imperfections. The work presented introduces the theory of elastic critical stresses in local buckling of rectangular wall members under uniform compression. Moreover, a numerical calculation method for the determination of the critical stress coefficient is presented, using a differential equation for a slender wall with a variety of boundary conditions. For comparison of the results of the numerical analysis with those collected by experiments, a new model is created to study the behaviour of the composite members in question by means of the ABAQUS computational-graphical software whose principles are based on the finite element method (FEM). In modelling the analysed members, the actual boundary and loading conditions and real material properties are taken into account, obtained from the experiments and material tests on these members. Finally, the results of experiments on such members are analysed and then compared with the numerical values. In conclusion, several recommendations for the design of axially compressed composite columns made of rectangular concrete-filled thin-walled steel tubes are suggested as a result of this comparison.