• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.14
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• pp.181-193
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• 2004

This paper is concerned with the study of 'Knowledge Management', a paradigm of thought based on the idea that the future will be a knowledge-centered society. This paper also provides an overview of both 'what to manage' and 'how to manage' if an organization wants to develop in this environment. The process of 'Knowledge Management' begins with a decision. Presented with a myriad of information, of which we can't afford to obtain it all, what information is of value to the organization? Further, by systematically organizing not only the primary information but also that which was accumulated in the process, Knowledge Management is capable of suggesting a value-added plan of action. This research presents the necessary principles needed in order to successfully use Knowledge Management, specifically a harmony between the human and technological aspects. There cannot be a static solution to the problem, as the environment of the enterprise's problem is dynamic in nature. Throughout the process, the enterprise will constantly change its strategy and structure in order to adapt to variable knowledge, technology, strategy, regulations, consumer interest, etc... The essential constant of these problems is the importance of spending on education. Investments in educations help develope a infrastructure for Information Technology, the development of knowledge distribution strategies, and the creation of efficient Knowledge Management policy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.245-248
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• 2000

Modern aircraft composite structures are designed using a damage tolerance philosophy. This design philosophy envisions sufficient strength and structural integrity of the aircraft to sustain major damage and to avoid catastrophic failure. The only reasonable way to treat on the same basis all the conditions and uncertainties participating in the design of damage tolerant composite aircraft structures is to use the probability-based approach. Therefore, the model has been developed to assess the probability of structural failure (POSF) and associated risk taking into account the random mechanical loads, random temperature-humidity conditions, conditions causing damages, as well as structural strength variations due to intrinsic strength scatter, manufacturing defects, operational damages, temperature-humidity conditions. The model enables engineers to establish the relationship between static/residual strength safety margins, production quality control requirements, in-service inspection resolution and criteria, and POSF. This make possible to estimate the cost associated with the mentioned factors and to use this cost as overall criterion. The methodology has been programmed into software.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.641-654
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• 2004

This paper presents a theoretic model of a smart structure, a transversely isotropic piezoelectric thick square plate constructed with three laminas, piezoelectric-elastic-piezoelectric layer, by adopting the first order shear deformation plate theory and piezoelectric theory. This model assumes that the transverse displacements through thickness are linear, and the in-plane displacements in the mid-plane of the plate are not taken to be account. By using Fourier's series expansion, an exact Navier typed analytical solution for deflection and electric potential of the simply supported smart plate is obtained. The electric boundary conditions are being grounded along four vertical edges. The external voltage and non-external voltage applied on the surfaces of piezoelectric layers are all considered. The convergence of the present approach is carefully studied. Comparison studies are also made for verifying the accuracy and the applicability of the present method. Then some new results of the electric potentials and displacements are provided. Numerical results show that the electrostatic voltage is approximately linear in the thickness direction, while parabolic in the plate in-plane directions, for both the deflection and the electric voltage. These results are very useful for distributed sensing and finite element verification.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.561-577
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• 2015

The main objective of this paper is to study the dynamic load allowance (DLA) calculation methods for bridges according to the dynamic response curve. A simply-supported concrete bridge with a smooth road surface was taken as an example. A half-vehicle model was employed to calculate the dynamic response of deflection and bending moment in the mid-span section under different vehicle speeds using the vehicle-bridge coupling method. Firstly, DLAs from the conventional methods and code provisions were analyzed and critically evaluated. Then, two improved computing approaches for DLA were proposed. In the first approach, the maximum dynamic response and its corresponding static response or its corresponding minimum response were selected to calculate DLA. The second approach utilized weighted average method to take account of multi-local DLAs. Finally, the DLAs from two approaches were compared with those from other methods. The results show that DLAs obtained from the proposed approaches are greater than those from the conventional methods, which indicate that the current conventional methods underestimate the dynamic response of the structure. The authors recommend that the weighted average method based on experiments be used to compute DLAs because it can reflect the vehicle's whole impact on the bridge.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.37-53
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• 2014

A Web-based pile load test (WBPLT) system was developed and implemented in this study. Object-oriented and concept-based software design techniques were adopted to integrate the pile load test database into the system. A total of 673 case histories of pile load test were included in the database. The data consisted of drilled shaft and driven precast concrete pile axial load tests in drained, undrained, and gravel loading conditions as well as pre-analyzed data and back-calculated design parameters. Unified modeling language, a standard software design tool, was utilized to design the WBPLT system architecture with five major concept-based components. These components provide the static structure and dynamic behavior of system message flows in a visualized manner. The open-source Apache Web server is the building block of the WBPLT system, and PHP Web programming language implements the operation of the WBPLT components, particularly the automatic translation of user query into structured query language. A simple search and inexpensive query can be implemented through the Internet browser. The pile load test database is helpful, and data can be easily retrieved and utilized worldwide for research and advanced applications.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.907-927
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• 2014

Ultra-lightweight cement composite (ULCC) with a compressive strength of 60 MPa and density of $1450kg/m^3$ has been developed and used in the steel-concrete-steel (SCS) sandwich structures. ULCC was adopted as the core material in the SCS sandwich composite beams to reduce the overall structural weight. Headed shear studs working in pairs with overlapped lengths were used to achieve composite action between the core material and steel face plates. Nine quasi-static tests on this type of SCS sandwich composite beams were carried out to evaluate their ultimate strength performances. Different parameters influencing the ultimate strength of the SCS sandwich composite beams were studied and discussed. Design equations were developed to predict the ultimate resistance of the cross section due to pure bending, pure shear and combined action between shear and moment. Effective stiffness of the sandwich composite beam section is also derived to predict the elastic deflection under service load. Finally, the design equations were validated by the test results.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.377-402
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• 2007

The paper presents quasi-static plane strain FE-simulations of strain localization in reinforced concrete beams without stirrups. The material was modeled with two different isotropic continuum crack models: an elasto-plastic and a damage one. In case of elasto-plasticity, linear Drucker-Prager criterion with a non-associated flow rule was defined in the compressive regime and a Rankine criterion with an associated flow rule was adopted in the tensile regime. In the case of a damage model, the degradation of the material due to micro-cracking was described with a single scalar damage parameter. To ensure the mesh-independence and to capture size effects, both criteria were enhanced in a softening regime by nonlocal terms. Thus, a characteristic length of micro-structure was included. The effect of a characteristic length, reinforcement ratio, bond-slip stiffness, fracture energy and beam size on strain localization was investigated. The numerical results with reinforced concrete beams were quantitatively compared with corresponding laboratory tests by Walraven (1978).

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.343-361
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• 2007

This article presents a numerical tool for dimensioning two-threaded fasteners connecting prismatic parts subjected to fatigue tension loads that are coplanar with the screw axis. A simplified numerical model is developed from unidirectional finite elements, modeling the connected parts and screws with bent elements and the elastic contact layer between the parts with springs. An algorithm updating the contact stiffness matrix, calculating forces and displacements at each node of the structure and thus normal stresses in the screws in both static and fatigue is further developed using C language. An experimental study is also conducted in parallel with the numerical approach to validate the developed model assumptions, the numerical model and the 3D finite element results. Since stiffness values for the compressive zones in the parts are analytically difficult to determine, a statistical software method is used, from which a tuning factor is derived for identifying these stiffness values. The method is also applied to set out the influence of each parameter on the fatigue behaviour of each screw. Finally, the developed model will be used to establish a new, sophisticated, fast and accurate tool for dimensioning bolted mechanical structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.5
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• pp.669-681
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• 2017

The design of reinforced concrete buildings must satisfy the serviceability stiffness criteria in terms of maximum lateral deflections and inter story drift in order to prevent both structural and non-structural damages. Consideration of plastic hinge formation is also important to obtain accurate failure mechanism and ultimate strength of reinforced concrete frames. In the present study, an iterative procedure has been developed for the analysis of reinforced concrete frames with cracked elements and consideration of plastic hinge formation. The ACI and probability-based effective stiffness models are used for the effective moment of inertia of cracked members. Shear deformation effect is also considered, and the variation of shear stiffness due to cracking is evaluated by reduced shear stiffness models available in the literature. The analytical procedure has been demonstrated through the application to three reinforced concrete frame examples available in the literature. It has been shown that the iterative analytical procedure can provide accurate and efficient predictions of deflections and ultimate strength of the frames studied under lateral and vertical loads. The proposed procedure is also efficient from the viewpoint of computational time and convergence rate. The developed technique was able to accurately predict the locations and sequential development of plastic hinges in frames. The results also show that shear deformation can contribute significantly to frame deflections.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.215-232
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• 2017

Wind tunnel tests and numerical aerodynamic analyses were conducted for an integrated catwalk structure under strong winds. From the wind tunnel tests, it is found that the aerodynamic coefficients were different from those of the typical type. The drag coefficient was larger than typical and was sensitive to number of vertical meshes installed rather than the solidity ratio. Comparing with typical catwalk, the integrated one showed larger deformation under strong wind, and the large torsional deformation are mainly caused by drag force. It did not show aerodynamic divergence even the torsional deformation reaching $20^{\circ}$. The reason could be that the stiffness is smaller and thus the catwalk is able to deform to the shape compactable with higher loading. Considering safety for construction, storm rope system is introduced to the catwalk to reduce the deformation to acceptable level.