• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.239-262
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• 2010

Tube Lines has carried out a "knowledge and investigation programme" on the deep tube tunnels comprising the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, as required by the PPP contract with London Underground. Many of the tunnels have been in use for over 100 years, so this assessment was considered essential to the future safe functioning of the system. This programme has involved a number of generic investigations which guide the assessment methodology and the analysis of some 5,000 individual structures. A significant amount of investigation has been carried out, including ultrasonic thickness measurement, detection of brickwork laminations using radar, stress measurement using magnetic techniques, determination of soil parameters using CPT, pressuremeter and laboratory testing, installation of piezometers, material and tunnel segment testing, and trialling of remote photographic techniques for inspection of large tunnels and shafts. Vibrating wire, potentiometer, electro level, optical and fibre-optic monitoring has been used, and laser measurement and laser scanning has been employed to measure tunnel circularity. It is considered that there is scope for considerable improvements in non-destructive testing technology for structural assessment in particular, and some ideas are offered as a "wish-list". Assessment reports have now been produced for all assets forming Tube Lines' deep tube tunnel network. For assets which are non-compliant with London Underground standards, the risk to the operating railway has to be maintained as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP) using enhanced inspection and monitoring, or repair where required. Monitoring techniques have developed greatly during recent years and further advances will continue to support the economic whole life asset management of infrastructure networks.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.201-212
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• 2018

Decrease in availability of suitable subbase and base course materials for highway construction leads to a search for economic method of converting locally available troublesome soil to suitable one for highway construction. Present study insights on evaluation of benefits of stabilization of subgrade soils in term of extension in service life (TBR) and layer thickness reduction (LTR). Laboratory investigation consisting of Atterberg limit, Compaction, California Bearing Ratio, unconfined compressive strength and triaxial shear strength tests were carried out on two types of soil for varying percentages of stabilizers. Vertical compressive strains at the top of unstabilized and stabilized subgrade soils were found out by elastoplastic finite element analysis using commercial software ANSYS. The values of vertical compressive strains at the top of unstabilized and stabilized subgrade, were further used to estimate layer thickness reduction or extension in service life of the pavement due to stabilization. Finite element modeling of the flexible pavement layered structure provides modern technology and sophisticated characterization of materials that can be accommodated in the analysis and enhances the reliability for the prediction of pavement response for improved design methodology. If the pavement section is kept same for unstabilized and stabilized subgrade soils, pavement resting on lime, fly ash and fiber stabilized subgrade soil B will have service life 2.84, 1.84 and 1.67 times than that of unstabilized pavement respectively. The flexible pavement resting on stabilized subgrade is beneficial in reducing the construction material. Actual savings would depend on the option exercised by the designer for reducing the thickness of an individual layer.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.88 no.1
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• pp.13-23
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• 2023

Seismic risk assessment studies are one of the most crucial instruments for mitigating casualties and economic losses. This work utilizes fragility curves to evaluate the seismic risk of single-story precast buildings, which are generally favored in Marmara's organized industrial zones. First, the precast building stock in the region has been categorized into nine sub-classes. Then, seven locations in the Marmara region with a high concentration of industrial activities are considered. Probabilistic seismic hazard assessments were conducted for both the soil-dependent and soil-independent scenarios. Subsequently, damage analysis was performed based on the structural capacity and mean fragility curves. Considering four different consequence models, 630 sub-class-specific loss curves for buildings were obtained. In the current study, it has been determined that the consequence model has a significant impact on the loss curves, hence, average loss curves were computed for each case investigated. In light of the acquired results, it was found that the loss ratio values obtained at different locations within the same region show significant variation. In addition, it was observed that the structural damage states change from serviceable to repairable or repairable to unrepairable. Within the scope of the study, 126 average loss functions were presented that could be easily used by non-experts in earthquake engineering, regardless of structural analysis. These functions, which offer loss ratios for varying hazard levels, are valuable outputs that allow preliminary risk assessment in the region and yield sensible outcomes for insurance activities.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.90 no.3
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• pp.273-285
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• 2024

Tapered girders emerged as an economical remedy for the challenges associated with constructing long-span buildings. From an economic standpoint, these systems offer significant advantages, such as wide spans, quick assembly, and convenient access to utilities between the beam's shallow sections and the ceiling below. Elastic-local buckling is among the various failure modes that structural designers must account for during the design process. Despite decades of study, there remains a demand for efficient and comprehensive procedures to streamline product design. One of the most pressing requirements is a better understanding of the tapered web plate girder's local buckling behavior. This paper conducts a comprehensive numerical analysis to estimate the critical buckling coefficient for simply supported tapered steel web plates, considering loading conditions involving compression and bending stresses. An eigenvalue analysis was carried out to determine the natural frequencies and corresponding mode shapes of tapered web plates with varying geometric parameters. Additionally, the study highlights the relative significance of various parameters affecting the local buckling phenomenon, including the tapering ratio of the panel, normalized plate length, and ratio of minimum to maximum compressive stresses. The regression analysis and optimization techniques were performed using MATLAB software for the results of the finite element models to propose a separate formula for each load case and a unified formula covering different compression and bending cases of the elastic local buckling coefficient. The results indicate that the proposed formulas are applicable for estimating the critical buckling coefficient for simply supported tapered steel web plates.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.91 no.6
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• pp.567-581
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• 2024

In this paper, an effort is made to present a detailed analysis of dynamic behavior of functionally graded carbon nanotube-reinforced pipes under the influence of an accelerating moving load. Again, the material properties of the nanocomposite pipe will be determined by following the rule of mixtures, considering a specific distribution and volume fraction of CNTs within the pipe. In the present study, temperature-dependent material properties have been considered. The Navier-Stokes equations are used to determine the radial force developed by the viscous fluid. The structural analysis has been carried out based on Reddy's higher-order shear deformation shell theory. The equations of motion are derived using Hamilton's principle. The resulting differential equations are solved using the Differential Quadrature and Integral Quadrature methods, while the dynamic responses are computed with the use of Newmark's time integration scheme. These are many parameters, ranging from those connected with boundary conditions to nanotube geometrical characteristics, velocity, and acceleration of the moving load, and, last but not least, volume fraction and distribution pattern of CNTs. The results indicate that any increase in the volume fraction of CNTs will lead to a decrease in the transient deflection of the structure. It is also observed that maximum displacement occurs with an increase in the load speed, slightly delayed compared to decelerating motion.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.617-628
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• 2018

Steel shear wall possesses priority over many of the current lateral load-bearing systems due to reasons like higher elastic stiffness, desirable ductility and energy absorption, convenience in construction and implementation technology, and economic criteria. Besides these advantages, this system causes increase in the dimensions of other structural elements due to its high stiffness as one of its intrinsic characteristics. One of the methods for stiffness reduction is perforating the wall panel and creating openings in the wall that can also be used as windows or ducts in buildings service period. The aim of the present study is probing the appropriate geometric shape and location of opening to fulfil economic criterion plus technical and seismic design criteria. In the present research, a number of possible while reasonable opening shapes and locations are defined in various sizes for some steel shear wall specimens. The specimens are modelled in ABAQUS finite elements software and analyzed using nonlinear pushover analysis. Finally, the analyses' results are reported as force-displacement diagrams and the strength, the initial stiffness and the energy absorption are calculated for all specimens and compared together. The obtained results show that both shape and location of the openings affect the seismic parameters of the shear wall. The specimens in which the openings are further from the center and closer to the columns possess higher stiffness and strength while the specimens in which the openings are closer to the center show more considerable changes in their seismic parameters in response to increase in opening area.

• The Transactions of the Korea Information Processing Society
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• v.4 no.6
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• pp.1589-1600
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• 1997

The construction of optical access network costs upper 40% in total installation cost of total optical network. Optimization of access network therefore is core in optical network. Advanced countries include EU, Japan and USA already have researched access network. This paper presents analysis of three broad-band fiber-optics subscriber loop architectures(HFC, ATM-PON, Super PON). The analyses focus on the specific demonstrated architectures and use component cost projections to estimate future network costs on a per-subscriber basis. We use TITAN(Tool for Introduction Scenarios and Techno-Economic Evaluation of The Access Network) model. We find that ATM-PON can deliver voice and ISDN data at installed first costs than the other architectures. This is due to the sharing bandwidth among a cluster of subscribers within Curb. This work intends to support establishing guidelines for strategic decisions regarding the development of the access network alternatives of different operators.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.125-140
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• 2016

The paper is focused on the economic analysis of two hydrometallurgical processes for recovery of yttrium and other rare earth elements (REEs) from fluorescent phosphors of spent lamps. The first process includes leaching with sulphuric acid and precipitation of a mixture of oxalates by oxalic acid, the second one includes leaching with sulphuric acid, solvent extraction with D2EHPA, stripping by acid and recovery of yttrium and traces of other rare earths (REs) by precipitation with oxalic acid. In both cases the REEs were recovered as oxides by calcination of the oxalate salts. The economic analysis was estimated considering the real capacity of the HydroWEEE mobile's plant ($420kg\;batch^{-1}$). For the first flow-sheet the cost of recycling comes to $4.0{\euro}kg^{-1}$, while the revenue from the end-product is around $5.40{\euro}kg^{-1}$. The second process is not profitable, as well as the first one, taking into account the composition of the final oxides: the cost of recycling comes to $5.2{\euro}kg^{-1}$, while the revenue from the end-product is around $3.56{\euro}kg^{-1}$. The process becomes profitable if the final RE oxide mixture is sold for nearly $50{\euro}kg^{-1}$, a value rather far from the current market prices but not so unlikely since could be achieved in the incoming years, considering the significant fluctuations of the Res' market.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.545-556
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• 2022

Through the examination of literatures, electronic commerce is a subject which is accepted in enterprises to define e-commerce adoption, trends, and issues that are assisting and obstructing its efficacy. E-commerce offers numerous advantages to consumer satisfaction in any place and helps the company to get a competitive benefit over its competitors. The Internet has expanded the scope of business. Many business information is available by the global network that supports information gathering between organizations, businesses and their clients, while various divisions of a business is increasing at an exponential rate. Meanwhile, there are a few barriers to proper e-commerce usage and adoption, such as reliable internet connections, poor e-commerce supporting infrastructures, logistics systems presenting socio-regulatory and poor transportation barriers and demonstrating the significant improvement of e-commerce reliable and affordable Internet provisions, i.e., Internet cost, intensity, and reasonable level of e-readiness. The operational and strategic significance of information-based virtual value chains for all organizations cannot be emphasized. As a consequence, this study confirms worldwide market elements of e-commerce, such as its issues, benefits, relevance, scope, facilitators and projects prospective obstacles in a developing economy.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.619-629
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• 2024

To improve the utilization rate of phosphate tailings (PTs) and widen the sources of subgrade filler, the PTs is employed to modify clay, forming a PTs modified clay, applied in the subgrade. Accordingly, the environmental friendliness of PTs was investigated. Subsequently, an optimal proportion was determined through compaction and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) experiments. Afterward, the stability of mixture with the optimal proportion was further evaluated through the water stability and dry-wet stability experiments. Finally, via the gradation and microstructure experiments, the strength mechanism of PTs modified clay was analyzed. The results show that the PTs were classified in the non-hazardous solid wastes, belonging to Class A building materials. With the increase of PTs content and the decrease of clay content, the optimum water content and the swelling degree gradually decrease, while the maximum dry density and CBR first increase and then decrease, reaching their peak value at 50% PTs content, which is the optimal proportion. The resilient modulus of PTs modified clay at the optimal proportion reaches 110.2 MPa. The water stability coefficient becomes stable after soaking for 4 days, while the dry-wet stability coefficient decreases with the increase of cycles and tends to be stable after 8 cycles. Under the long-term action, the dry-wet change has a greater adverse impact than continuous soaking. The analysis demonstrates that the better strength mainly comes from the skeleton role of PTs and the cementation of clay. The systematic laboratory test results and economic analysis collectively provide data evidence for the advantages of PTs modified clay as a subgrade filler.