The main objective of this paper is to study the effect of porosity on the buckling behavior of thick functionally graded sandwich plate resting on various boundary conditions under different in-plane loads. The formulation is made for a newly developed sandwich plate using a functional gradient material based on a modified power law function of symmetric and asymmetric configuration. Four different porosity distribution are considered and varied in accordance with material propriety variation in the thickness direction of the face sheets of sandwich plate, metal foam also is considered in this study on the second model of sandwich which containing metal foam core and FGM face sheets. New quasi-3D high shear deformation theory is used here for this investigate; the present kinematic model introduces only six variables with stretching effect by adopting a new indeterminate integral variable in the displacement field. The stability equations are obtained by Hamilton's principle then solved by generalized solution. The effect of Pasternak and Winkler elastic foundations also including here. the present model validated with those found in the open literature, then the impact of different parameters: porosities index, foam cells distribution, boundary conditions, elastic foundation, power law index, ratio aspect, side-to-thickness ratio and different in-plane axial loads on the variation of the buckling behavior are demonstrated.

The article is about the theoretical analysis of the transmission and reflection of elastic waves through the interface of perfectly connected materials. The solid continuum mediums considered are piezoelectric semiconductors and transversely isotropic in nature. The connection among the mediums is considered in such a way that it holds the continuity property of field variables at the interface. The concept of strain and stress introduced by non-local theory is also being involved to make the study more applicable It is found that, the incident wave results in the generation of four reflected and three transmitted waves including the thermal and elastic waves. The thermal waves generated in the medium are encountered by using the concept of three phase lag heat model along with fractional ordered time thermoelasticity. The results obtained are calculated graphically for a ZnO material with piezoelectric semiconductor properties for medium M₁ and CdSc material with transversely isotropic elastic properties for medium M₂. The influence of fractional order parameter, non-local parameter, and steady carrier density parameter on the amplitude ratios of reflected and refraction waves are studied graphically by MATLAB.

Limited studies are available on the mathematical estimates of the compressive strength (CS) of glass fiber-embedded polymer (glass-FRP) compressive elements. The present study has endeavored to estimate the CS of glass-FRP normal strength concrete (NSTC) compression elements (glass-FRP-NSTC) employing two various methodologies; mathematical modeling and artificial neural networks (ANNs). The dataset of 288 glass-FRP-NSTC compression elements was constructed from the various testing investigations available in the literature. Diverse equations for CS of glass-FRP-NSTC compression elements suggested in the previous research studies were evaluated employing the constructed dataset to examine their correctness. A new mathematical equation for the CS of glass-FRP-NSTC compression elements was put forwarded employing the procedures of curve-fitting and general regression in MATLAB. The newly suggested ANN equation was calibrated for various hidden layers and neurons to secure the optimized estimates. The suggested equations reported a good correlation among themselves and presented precise estimates compared with the estimates of the equations available in the literature with R²= 0.769, and R² =0.9702 for the mathematical and ANN equations, respectively. The statistical comparison of diverse factors for the estimates of the projected equations also authenticated their high correctness for apprehending the CS of glass-FRP-NSTC compression elements. A broad parametric examination employing the projected ANN equation was also performed to examine the effect of diverse factors of the glass-FRP-NSTC compression elements.

In this paper, the shear behavior of soft filling in rectangular-hollow concrete specimens was simulated using the 2D particle flow code (PFC2D). The laboratory-measured properties were used to calibrate some PFC2D micro-properties for modeling the behavior of geo-materials. The dimensions of prepared and modeled samples were 100 mm×100 mm. Some disc type narrow bands were removed from the central part of the model and different lengths of bridge areas (i.e., the distance between internal tips of two joints) with lengths of 30 mm, 50 mm, and 70 mm were produced. Then, the middle of the rectangular hollow was filled with cement material. Three filling sizes with dimensions of 5 mm×5 mm, 10 mm×5 mm, and 15 mm×5 mm were provided for different modeled samples. The parallel bond model was used to calibrate and re-produce these modeled specimens. Therefore, totally, 9 different types of samples were designed for the shear tests in PFC2D. The shear load was gradually applied to the model under a constant loading condition of 3 MPa (σc/3). The loading was continued till shear failure occur in the modeled concrete specimens. It has been shown that both tensile and shear cracks may occur in the fillings. The shear cracks mainly initiated from the crack (joint) tips and coalesced with another one. The shear displacements and shear strengths were both increased as the filling dimensions increased (for the case of a bridge area with a particular fixed length).

An extended parametric study based on nonlinear finite element analyses is performed to assess the key factors affecting the shear behaviour of exterior beam-column joints of unbraced reinforced concrete frames. Extensive results are presented, the major conclusion being that the few shear behaviour models for exterior reinforced concrete beam-column joints available in the literature do not properly account for some of the most influential factors. The present results are also compared with recently published results for interior joints, showing that while some factors have a similar influence on interior and exterior joints others are relevant for only one of these types of joints. This also confirms, numerically, that some resisting mechanisms of exterior joints differ from those of interior joints.

Reliability-Based Design Optimization (RBDO) is an appropriate framework for obtaining optimal designs by taking uncertainties into account. Large-scale problems with implicit limit state functions and problems with discrete design variables are two significant challenges to traditional RBDO methods. To overcome these challenges, this paper proposes a hybrid method to perform RBDO of structures that links Firefly Algorithm (FA) as an optimization tool to advanced (finite element) reliability methods. Furthermore, the Genetic Algorithm (GA) and the FA are compared based on the design cost (objective function) they achieve. In the proposed method, Weighted Simulation Method (WSM) is utilized to assess reliability constraints in the RBDO problems with explicit limit state functions. WSM is selected to reduce computational costs. To performing RBDO of structures with finite element modeling and implicit limit state functions, a First-Order Reliability Method (FORM) based on the Direct Differentiation Method (DDM) is utilized. Four numerical examples are considered to assess the effectiveness of the proposed method. The findings illustrate that the proposed RBDO method is applicable and efficient for RBDO problems with discrete and continuous design variables and finite element modeling.

The seismic performance of the tall building equipped with a tuned mass damper (TMD) considering soil-structure interaction (SSI) effects is well studied in the literature. However, these studies are performed on the nominal model of the seismic-excited structural system with SSI. Hence, the outcomes of the studies may not valid for the actual structural system. To address the study gap, the reliability theory as a useful and powerful method is utilized in the paper. The present study aims to carry out reliability analyses on tall buildings equipped with TMD under near-field pulse-like (NFPL) ground motions considering SSI effects using a subset simulation (SS) method. In the presence of uncertainties of the structural model, TMD device, foundation, soil, and near-field pulse-like ground motions, the numerical studies are performed on a benchmark 40-story building and the failure probabilities of the structures with and without TMD are evaluated. Three types of soils (dense, medium, and soft soils), different earthquake magnitudes (M_w = 7,0. 7,25. 7,5 ), different nearest fault distances (r = 5. 10 and 15 km), and three seismic performance levels of immediate occupancy (IO), life safety (LS), and collapse prevention (CP) are considered in this study. The results show that tall buildings built near faults and on soft soils are more affected by uncertainties of the structural and ground motion models. Hence, ignoring these uncertainties may result in an inaccurate estimation of the maximum seismic responses. Also, it is found the TMD is not able to reduce the failure probabilities of the structure in the IO seismic performance level, especially for high earthquake magnitudes and structures built near the fault. However, TMD is significantly effective in the reduction of failure probability for the LS and CP performance levels. For weak earthquakes and long fault distances, the failure probabilities of both structures with and without TMD are near zero, and the efficiency of the TMD in the reduction of failure probabilities is reduced by increasing earthquake magnitudes and the reduction of fault distance. As soil softness increases, the failure probability of structures both with and without TMD often increases, especially for severe near-fault earthquake motion.

Smart structures are those structure that could adopt some behavior to prevent instability in their responses. The recognition of stability deterioration has been performed through rigid mathematical formulations in control theory and unpredicted results could not be addressed in control systems since they are able to only work under their predefined condition. On the other hand, incorporating all affecting parameters could result in high computational cost and delay time in the response of the systems. Artificial intelligence (AI) method has shown to be a promising methodology not only in the computer science by at everyday life and in engineering problems. In the present study, we exploit the capabilities of artificial intelligence method to obtain frequency response of a smart structure. In this regard, a comprehensive development of equations is presented using Hamilton' principle and first order shear deformation theory. The equations were solved by numerical methods and the results are used to train an artificial neural network (ANN). It is demonstrated that ANN modeling could provide accurate results in comparison to the numerical solutions and it take less time than numerical solution.

Precast assembled bridge piers with hybrid connection (PASP) use both tendons and socket connections. To study the seismic performance of PASP, a full-scale in-situ test was performed based on an actual bridge project. The elastic-plastic fiber model of PASP was established using finite element software, and numerical analyses were performed to study the influence of prestress degree and socket depth on the PASP seismic performance. The results show that the typical failure mode of PASP under horizontal load is bending failure dominated by concrete cracking at the joint between the column and cushion cap. The cracking of the pier concrete and opening of joints depend on the prestress degree and socket depth. The prestressing tendons and socket connection can provide enough ductility, strength, restoration capability, and bending strength under small horizontal displacements. Although the bearing capacity and post yield stiffness of the pier can be improved to some extent by increasing the prestressing force, ductility is reduced, and residual deformation is increased. Overall, there are reasonable minimum socket depths to ensure the reliability of the socket connection.

This paper studies the effects of porosity distributions on buckling and post-buckling behaviors of a functionally graded saturated porous (FGSP) circular plate. The plate is under the uniformly distributed radial loading and simply supported and clamped boundary conditions. Pores are saturated with compressible fluid (e.g., gases) that cannot escape from the porous solid. Elastic modulus is assumed to vary continuously through the thickness according to three different functions corresponding to three different cases of porosity distributions, including monotonous, symmetric, and asymmetric cases. Governing equations are derived utilizing the classical plate theory and Sanders nonlinear strain-displacement relations, and they are solved numerically via shooting method. Results are verified with the known results in the literature. The obtained results for the monotonous and symmetric cases with the asymmetric case presented in the literature are shown in comparative figures. Effects of the poroelastic material parameters, boundary conditions, and thickness change on the post-buckling behavior of the plate are discussed in details. The results reveal that buckling and post-buckling behaviors of the plate in the monotonous and symmetric cases differ from the asymmetric case, especially in small deflections, that asymmetric distribution of elastic moduli can be the cause.