• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.361-371
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• 2010

Enhancement in the seismic buckling capacity of steel tanks caused by the addition of fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) retrofit layers attached to the outer walls of the steel tank is investigated. Three-dimensional non-linear finite element modeling is utilized to perform such analysis considering non linear material properties and non-linear large deformation large strain analysis. FRP composites which possess high stiffness and high failure strength are used to reduce the steel hoop stress and consequently improve the tank capacity. A number of tanks with varying dimensions and shell thicknesses are examined using FRP composites added in symmetric layers attached to the outer surface of the steel shell. The FRP shows its effectiveness in carrying part of the hoop stresses along with the steel before steel yielding. Following steel yielding, the FRP restrains the outward bulging of the tank and continues to resist higher hoop stresses. The percentage improvement in the ultimate base moment capacity of the tank due to the addition of more FRP layers is shown to be as high as 60% for some tanks. The percentage of increase in the tank moment capacity is shown to be dependent on the ratio of the shell thickness to the tank radius (t/R). Finally a new methodology has been explained to calculate the location of Elephant foot buckling and consequently the best location of FRP application.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.55-75
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• 2021

The lightweight superstructure is beneficial for bridges in remote areas and emergency erection. In such weight-sensitive applications, the combination of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) as a material and box-beams as a structural system have enormous scope. This combination offers various advantages, but as a thin-walled structure, their designs are often governed by buckling criteria. FRP box-beams lose their stability either by flange or web buckling mode. In this paper, the web buckling behavior of simply supported FRP box-beam subjected to transverse load has been studied by modeling full box-beam to consider the effect of real state of stress (stress variation in length direction) and boundary conditions (rotational restraint at web-flange junction). A parametric study by varying the sectional geometry and fiber orientation is carried out by using ANSYS software. The accuracy of the FE models was ensured by verifying them against the available results provided in the literature. With the help of developed database the influential parameters (i.e., αs, βw, δw and γ) affecting the web bucklings are identified. Design trends have been developed which will be helpful to the designers in the preliminary stage. Finally, the importance of governing parameters and design trends are demonstrated through pedestrian bridge design.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.375-388
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• 2022

In this work, limit elastic speed analysis of functionally graded porous rotating disks has been reported. The work proposes an effective approach for modeling the mechanical properties of a porous functionally graded rotating disk. Four different types of porosity models namely: uniform, symmetric, inner maximum, and outer maximum distribution are considered. The approach used is the variational principle, and the solution has been achieved using Galerkin's error minimization theory. The study aims to investigate the effect of grading indices, aspect ratio, porosity volume fraction, and porosity types on limit angular speed for uniform and variable disk geometries of constant mass. To validate the current study, finite element analysis has been used, and there is good agreement between the two methods. The study yielded a decrease in limit speed as grading indices and aspect ratio increase. The porosity volume fraction is found to be more significant than the aspect ratio effect. The research demonstrates a range of operable speeds for porous and non-porous disk profiles that can be used in industries as design data. The results show a significant increase in limit speed for an exponential disk when compared to other disk profiles, and thus, the study demonstrates a range of FG-based structures for applications in industries that will not only save material (lightweight structures) but also improve overall performance.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.1
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• pp.81-92
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• 2022

Ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) is a composite building material with high ductility, fatigue resistance, fracture toughness, durability, and energy absorption capacity. The aim of this study is to develop a nonlinear finite element model that can simulate the response of the UHPFRC beam exposed to impact loads. A nonlinear finite element model was developed in ABAQUS to simulate the real response of UHPFRC beams. The numerical results showed that the model was highly successful to capture the experimental results of selected beams from the literature. A parametric study was carried out to investigate the effects of reinforcement ratio and impact velocity on the response of the UHPFRC beam in terms of midpoint displacement, impact load value, and residual load-carrying capacity. In the parametric study, the nonlinear analysis was performed in two steps for 12 different finite element models. In the first step, dynamic analysis was performed to monitor the response of the UHPFRC beam under impact loads. In the second step, static analysis was conducted to determine the residual load-carrying capacity of the beams. The parametric study has shown that the reinforcement ratio and the impact velocity affect maximum and residual displacement value substantially.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.443-459
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• 2023

This paper investigates the stability of a bi-directional functionally graded (BD-FG) cylindrical beam made of imperfect concrete, taking into account size-dependency and the effect of geometry on its stability behavior. Both buckling and dynamic behavior are analyzed using the modified coupled stress theory and the classical beam theory. The BD-FG structure is created by using porosity-dependent FG concrete, with changing porosity voids and material distributions along the pipe radius, as well as uniform and nonuniform radius functions that vary along the beam length. Energy principles are used to generate partial differential equations (PDE) for stability analysis, which are then solved numerically. This study sheds light on the complex behavior of BD-FG structures, and the results can be useful for the design of stable cylindrical microstructures.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.657-669
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• 2022

Structural materials can experience large plastic deformation under extreme cyclic loading that is caused by events like earthquakes. To evaluate the seismic safety of a structure, accurate numerical material models should be used. For a steel structure, the cyclic strain hardening behavior of structural steel should be correctly modeled. In this study, a combined hardening model, consisting of one isotropic hardening model and three nonlinear kinematic hardening models, was used. To determine the values of the combined hardening model parameters efficiently and accurately, the improved opposition-based particle swarm optimization (iOPSO) model was adopted. Low-cycle fatigue tests were conducted for three steel grades commonly used in Korea and their modeling parameters were determined using iOPSO, which was first developed in Korea. To avoid expensive and complex low cycle fatigue (LCF) tests for determining the combined hardening model parameter values for structural steel, empirical equations were proposed for each of the combined hardening model parameters based on the LCF test data of 21 steel grades collected from this study. In these equations, only the properties obtained from the monotonic tensile tests are required as input variables.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.731-744
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• 2023

Vehicle load information is an important role in operating and ensuring the structural health of cable-stayed bridges. In this regard, an efficient and economic method is proposed for vehicle load detection based on the observed cable tension and vehicle position using a graph neural network (GNN). Datasets are first generated using the practical advanced analysis program (PAAP), a robust program for modeling and considering both geometric and material nonlinearities of bridge structures subjected to vehicle load with low computational costs. With the superiority of GNN, the proposed model is demonstrated to precisely capture complex nonlinear correlations between the input features and vehicle load in the output. Four popular machine learning methods including artificial neural network (ANN), decision tree (DT), random forest (RF), and support vector machines (SVM) are refereed in a comparison. A case study of a cable-stayed bridge with the typical truck is considered to evaluate the model's performance. The results demonstrate that the GNN-based model provides high accuracy and efficiency in prediction with satisfactory correlation coefficients, efficient determination values, and very small errors; and is a novel approach for vehicle load detection with the input data of the existing monitoring system.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.39-52
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• 2024

If the governing differential equation arising from engineering problems is treated as an analytic, continuous and derivable function, it can be expanded by one point as a series of finite numbers. For the function to be zero for each value of its domain, the coefficients of each term of the same power must be zero. This results in a recursive relationship which, after applying the natural conditions or the boundary conditions, makes it possible to obtain the values of the derivatives of the function with acceptable accuracy. The elastoplastic analysis of an inhomogeneous thick sphere of metallic materials with linear variation of the modulus of elasticity, yield stress and Poisson's ratio as a function of radius subjected to internal pressure is presented. The Beltrami-Michell equation is established by combining equilibrium, compatibility and constitutive equations. Assuming axisymmetric conditions, the spherical coordinate parameters can be used as principal stress axes. Since there is no analytical solution, the natural boundary conditions are applied and the governing equations are solved using a proposed new method. The maximum effective stress of the von Mises yield criterion occurs at the inner surface; therefore, the negative sign of the linear yield stress gradation parameter should be considered to calculate the optimal yield pressure. The numerical examples are performed and the plots of the numerical results are presented. The validation of the numerical results is observed by modeling the elastoplastic heterogeneous thick sphere as a pressurized multilayer composite reservoir in Abaqus software. The subroutine USDFLD was additionally written to model the continuous gradation of the material.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.215-236
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• 2014

The flexural behaviour of steel beams significantly affects the structural performance of the steel frame structures. In particular, the flexural overstrength (namely the ratio between the maximum bending moment and the plastic bending strength) that steel beams may experience is the key parameter affecting the seismic design of non-dissipative members in moment resisting frames. The aim of this study is to present a new formulation of flexural overstrength factor for steel beams by means of artificial neural network (NN). To achieve this purpose, a total of 141 experimental data samples from available literature have been collected in order to cover different cross-sectional typologies, namely I-H sections, rectangular and square hollow sections (RHS-SHS). Thus, two different data sets for I-H and RHS-SHS steel beams were formed. Nine critical prediction parameters were selected for the former while eight parameters were considered for the latter. These input variables used for the development of the prediction models are representative of the geometric properties of the sections, the mechanical properties of the material and the shear length of the steel beams. The prediction performance of the proposed NN model was also compared with the results obtained using an existing formulation derived from the gene expression modeling. The analysis of the results indicated that the proposed formulation provided a more reliable and accurate prediction capability of beam overstrength.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.327-335
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• 2018

This paper presents structural assessment of a steel railway bridge for current condition using modal parameter to upgrade finite element modeling in order to gather accurate result. An adequate monitoring, such as acceleration, displacement, strain monitoring, is important tool to understand behavior and to assess structural performance of the structure under surround vibration by means of the dynamic analysis. Evaluation of conditions of an existing steel railway bridge consist of 4 decks, three of them are 14 m, one of them is 9.7 m, was performed with a numerical analysis and a series of dynamic tests. Numerical analysis was performed implementing finite element model of the bridge using SAP2000 software. Dynamic tests were performed by collecting acceleration data caused by surrounding vibrations and dynamic analysis is performed by Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) using collected acceleration data. The acceleration response of the steel bridge is assumed to be governing response quantity for structural assessment and provide valuable information about the current statute of the structure. Modal identification determined based on response of the structure play significant role for upgrading finite element model of the structure and helping structural evaluation. Numerical and experimental dynamic properties are compared and finite element model of the bridge is updated by changing of material properties to reduce the differences between the results. In this paper, an existing steel railway bridge with four spans is evaluated by finite element model improved using operational modal analysis. Structural analysis performed for the bridge both for original and calibrated models, and results are compared. It is demonstrated that differences in natural frequencies are reduced between 0.2% to 5% by calibrating finite element modeling and stiffness properties.