• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.835-845
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• 2012

This paper focuses on the stochastic response analysis of industrial masonry chimneys to surface blast-induced random ground motions by using a three dimensional finite element model. Underground blasts induce ground shocks on nearby structures. Depending on the distance between the explosion centre and the structure, masonry structures will be subjected to ground motions due to the surface explosions. Blast-induced random ground motions can be defined in terms of the power spectral density function and applied to each support point of the 3D finite element model of the industrial masonry system. In this paper, mainly a parametric study is conducted to estimate the effect of the blast-induced ground motions on the stochastic response of a chimney type masonry structure. With this purpose, different values of charge weight and distance from the charge centre are considered for the analyses of the chimney. The results of the study underline the remarkable effect of the surface blast-induced ground motions on the stochastic behaviour of industrial masonry type chimneys.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.837-846
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• 2017

An accurate calculation of the stochastic wind field is the foundation for analyzing wind-induced structure response and reliability. In this research, the spatial correlation of structural wind field was considered based on the time domain method. A method for calculating the stochastic wind field based on cross stochastic Fourier spectrum was proposed. A flowchart of the proposed methodology is also presented in this study to represent the algorithm and workflow. Along with the analysis of regional wind speed distribution, the wind speed time history sample was calculated, and the efficiency can therefore be verified. Results show that the proposed method and programs could provide an efficient simulation for the wind-induced structure response analysis, and help determine the related parameters easily.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.195-213
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• 2012

This paper presents the investigation of the stochastic responses of seismically isolated bridges subjected to spatially varying earthquake ground motions including incoherence, wave-passage and site-response effects. The incoherence effect is examined by considering Harichandran and Vanmarcke coherency model. The effect of the wave-passage is dealt with various wave velocities in the response analysis. Homogeneous firm, medium and soft soil conditions are selected for considering the site-response effect where the bridge supports are constructed. The ground motion is described by filtered white noise and applied to each support points. For seismic isolation of the bridge, single and double concave friction pendulum bearings are used. Due to presence of friction on the concave surfaces of the isolation systems, the equation of motion of is non-linear. The non-linear equation of motion is solved by using equivalent linearization technique of non-linear stochastic analyses. Solutions obtained from the stochastic analyses of non-isolated and isolated bridges to spatially varying earthquake ground motions compared with each other for the special cases of the ground motion model. It is concluded that friction pendulum systems having single and double concave surfaces have important effects on the stochastic responses of bridges to spatially varying earthquake ground motions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2022

In structural engineering, the material properties of the structures such as elastic modulus, shear modulus, density, and size may not be deterministic and may vary at different locations. The dynamic response analysis of such structures may need to consider these properties as stochastic. This paper introduces a stochastic finite element method (SFEM) approach to analyze moving loads problems. Firstly, Karhunen-Loéve expansion (KLE) is applied for expressing the stochastic field of material properties. Then the mathematical expression of the random field is substituted into the finite element model to formulate the corresponding random matrix. Finally, the statistical moment of the dynamic response is calculated by the point estimation method (PEM). The accuracy and efficiency of the dynamic response obtained from the KLE-PEM are demonstrated by the example of a moving load passing through a simply supported Euler-Bernoulli beam, in which the material properties (including elastic modulus and density) are considered as random fields. The results from the KLE-PEM are compared with those from the Monte Carlo simulation. The results demonstrate that the proposed method of KLE-PEM has high accuracy and efficiency. By using the proposed SFEM, the random vertical deflection of a high-speed railway (HSR) bridge is analyzed by considering the random fields of material properties under the moving load of a train.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.423-440
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• 2002

The effects of the nonlinear (quadratic) term in wind pressure have been analyzed in many papers with reference to linear structural models. The present paper addresses the problem of the response of nonlinear structures to stochastic nonlinear wind pressure. Adopting a single-degree-of-freedom structural model with polynomial nonlinearity, the solution is obtained by means of the moment equation approach in the context of It$\hat{o}$'s stochastic differential calculus. To do so, wind turbulence is idealized as the output of a linear filter excited by a Gaussian white noise. Response statistical moments are computed for both the equivalent linear system and the actual nonlinear one. In the second case, since the moment equations form an infinite hierarchy, a suitable iterative procedure is used to close it. The numerical analyses regard a Duffing oscillator, and the results compare well with Monte Carlo simulation.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.389-398
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• 2018

The seismic isolation system makes a structure isolated from ground motions to protect the structure from seismic events. Seismic isolation techniques have been implemented in full-scale buildings and bridges because of their simplicity, economic effectiveness, inherent stability and reliability. As for the responses of an isolated structure due to seismic events, it is well known that the most uncertain aspects are the seismic loading itself and structural properties. Due to the randomness of earthquakes and uncertainty of structures, seismic response distributions of an isolated structure are needed when evaluating the seismic fragility assessment (or probabilistic seismic safety assessment) of an isolated structure. Seismic response time histories are useful and often essential elements in its design or evaluation stage. Thus, a large number of non-linear dynamic analyses should be performed to evaluate the seismic performance of an isolated structure. However, it is a monumental task to gather the design or evaluation information of the isolated structure from too many seismic analyses, which is impractical. In this paper, a new methodology that can evaluate the seismic fragility assessment of an isolated structure is proposed by using stochastic response database, which is a device that can estimate the seismic response distributions of an isolated structure without any seismic response analyses. The seismic fragility assessment of the isolated nuclear power plant is performed using the proposed methodology. The proposed methodology is able to evaluate the seismic performance of isolated structures effectively and reduce the computational efforts tremendously.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.937-956
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• 2015

Seismic isolation systems decouple structures from ground motions to protect them from seismic events. Seismic isolation devices have been implemented in many full-scale buildings and bridges because of their simplicity, economic effectiveness, inherent stability, and reliability. It is well known that the most uncertain aspect for obtaining the accurate responses of an isolated structure from seismic events is the seismic loading itself. It is needed to know the seismic response distributions of the isolated structure resulting from the randomness of earthquakes when probabilistic designing or probabilistic evaluating an isolated structure. Earthquake time histories are useful and often an essential element for designing or evaluating isolated structures. However, it is very challenging to gather the design and evaluation information for an isolated structure from many seismic analyses. In order to evaluate the seismic performance of an isolated structure, numerous nonlinear dynamic analyses need to be performed, but this is impractical. In this paper, the concept of the stochastic response database (SRD) is defined to obtain the seismic response distributions of an isolated structure instantaneously, thereby significantly reducing the computational efforts. An equivalent model of the isolated structure is also developed to improve the applicability and practicality of the SRD. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology is numerically verified.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Simulation Conference
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• 1994.10a
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• pp.1-2
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• 1994

With the prevalence of computers in modern organizations, simulation is receiving more atention as an effectvie decision -making tool. Simualtion is a computer-based numerical technique which uses mathmatical and logical models to approximate the behaviror of a real-world system. However, iptimization of synamic stochastic systems often defy analytical and algorithmic soluions. Although a simulation approach is often free fo the liminting assumption s of mathematical modeling, cost and time consiceration s make simulation the henayst's last resort. Therefore, whenever possible, analytical and algorithmica solutions are favored over simulation. This paper discussed the issues and procedrues for using simulation as a tool for optimization of stochastic complex systems that are dmodeled by computer simulation . Its emphasis is mostly on issues that are speicific to simulation optimization instead of consentrating on the general optimizationand mathematical programming techniques . A simulation optimization problem is an optimization problem where the objective function. constraints, or both are response that can only be evauated by computer simulation. As such, these functions are only implicit functions of decision parameters of the system, and often stochastic in nature as well. Most of optimization techniqes can be classified as single or multiple-resoneses techniques . The optimization of single response functins has been researched extensively and consists of many techniques. In the single response category, these strategies are gradient based search techniques, stochastic approximate techniques, response surface techniques, and heuristic search techniques. In the multiple response categroy, there are basically five distinct strategies for treating the responses and finding the optimum solution. These strategies are graphica techniqes, direct search techniques, constrained optimization techniques, unconstrained optimization techniques, and goal programming techniques. The choice of theprocedreu to employ in simulation optimization depends on the analyst and the problem to be solved. For many practival and industrial optimization problems where some or all of the system components are stochastic, the objective functions cannot be represented analytically. Therefore, modeling by computersimulation is one of the most effective means of studying such complex systems. In this paper, after discussion of simulation optmization techniques, the applications of above techniques will be presented in the modeling process of many flexible manufacturing systems.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1993.10a
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• pp.207-215
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• 1993

With the aid of finite element method, this paper deals with the problem of structural response variability of transmission tower subjected to the spatial variability of material properties, Young's modulus herein. The spatial variability of material property are modeled as two-dimensional stochastic field which has an isotropic auto-correlation function. Response variability has been computed based on two numerical techniques, such as the Neumann expansion method in conjunction with the Monte Carlo simulation method. The results by these numerical methods are compared with those by the deterministic approach.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.405-423
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• 2020

Non-linear energy sink (NES) is an emerging passive absorber able to mitigate the dynamic response of structures without any external energy supply, resonating with all the modes of the primary structure to control. However, its inherent non-linearities hinder its large-scale use and leads to complicated design procedures. For this purpose, an approximate design approach is herein proposed in a stochastic framework. Since loads are random in nature, the stochastic analysis of non-linear systems may be performed by means of computational intensive techniques such as Monte Carlo simulations (MCS). Alternatively, the Stochastic Linearisation (SL) technique has proven to be an effective tool to investigate the performance of different passive control systems under random loads. Since controlled systems are generally non-classically damped and most of SL algorithms operate recursively, the computational burden required is still large for those problems that make intensive use of SL technique, as optimal design procedures. Herein, a procedure to speed up the Stochastic Linearisation technique is proposed by avoiding or strongly reducing numerical evaluations of response statistics. The ability of the proposed procedure to effectively reduce the computational effort and to reliably design the NES is showed through an application on a well-known case study related to the vibrations mitigation of an aircraft wing.