• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제11권5호
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• pp.887-904
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• 2016

An efficient, economical and practical strengthening method for hollow brick infill walls was proposed and investigated in the present study, experimentally and numerically. This method aims at increasing the overall lateral strength and stiffness of the structure by increasing the contribution of the infill walls and providing the non-bearing components of the structure with the capability of absorbing earthquake-induced energy to minimize structural damage during seismic excitations. A total of eleven full-scale infill walls strengthened with expanded mild steel plates were tested under diagonal monotonic loading to simulate the loading condition of the non-bearing walls during an earthquake. The contact surface between the plates and the wall was increased with the help of plaster. Thickness of the plates bonded to both faces of the wall and the spacing of the bolts were adopted as test parameters. The experiments indicated that the plates were able to carry a major portion of the tensile stresses induced by the diagonal loads and provided the walls walls with a considerable confining effect. The composite action attained by the plates and the wall until yielding of the bolts increased the load capacities, rigidities, ductilities and energy-absorption capacities of the walls, considerably.

• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.68-74
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• 2015

Time domain response analysis for vibro-impact nonlinear behavior of multi-span tube with loose supports was performed using commercial FEA code and user subroutine. Support geometry of multi-span tube with a finite gap is realistically modeled by analytical rigid surface. Model of hydrodynamic force is based on the Qusai-steady model which accounts for the inclined angle of relative flow velocity and time delay between flow force and resulting tube motion. During tube vibration from flow loading, impact and friction at the support location is simulated using commercial FEA code with master slave contact algorithm. Analysis results has reasonable agreement with those of references and test experience. Plan of further refinement of analysis model and future test verification is briefly introduced.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.165-174
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• 2020

The enzyme-induced carbonate precipitation (EICP) method has been investigated to improve the hydro-mechanical properties of natural soil deposits. This study was conducted to explore the stiffness evolution during various stress scenarios. First, the optimal concentration of urea, CaCl₂, and urease for the maximum efficiency of calcite precipitation was identified. The results show that the optimal recipe is 0.5 g/L and 0.9 g/L of urease for 0.5 M CaCl₂ and 1 M CaCl₂ solutions with a urea-CaCl₂ molar ratio of 1.5. The shear stiffness of EICP-treated sands remains constant up to debonding stresses, and further loading induces the reduction of S-wave velocity. It was also found that the debonding stress at which stiffness loss occurs depends on the void ratio, not on cementation solution. Repeated loading-unloading deteriorates the bonding quality, thereby reducing the debonding stress. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray images reveal that higher concentrations of CaCl₂ solution facilitate heterogeneous nucleation to form larger CaCO₃ nodules and 11-12 % of CaCO₃ forms at the interparticle contact as the main contributor to the evolution of shear stiffness.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제45권1호
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• pp.89-98
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• 2013

In recent years steel-concrete composite shear walls have been widely used in enormous high-rise buildings. Due to high strength and ductility, enhanced stiffness, stable cycle characteristics and large energy absorption, such walls can be adopted in the auxiliary building; surrounding the reactor containment structure of nuclear power plants to resist lateral forces induced by heavy winds and severe earthquakes. This paper demonstrates a set of nonlinear numerical studies on I-shaped composite steel-concrete shear walls of the nuclear power plants subjected to reverse cyclic loading. A three-dimensional finite element model is developed using ABAQUS by emphasizing on constitutive material modeling and element type to represent the real physical behavior of complex shear wall structures. The analysis escalates with parametric variation in steel thickness sandwiching the stipulated amount of concrete panels. Modeling details of structural components, contact conditions between steel and concrete, associated boundary conditions and constitutive relationships for the cyclic loading are explained. Later, the load versus displacement curves, peak load and ultimate strength values, hysteretic characteristics and deflection profiles are verified with experimental data. The convergence of the numerical outcomes has been discussed to conclude the remarks.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제31권3호
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• pp.217-232
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• 2019

Modular steel buildings consist of prefabricated room-sized structural units that are manufactured offsite and installed onsite. The inter-module connections must fulfill the assembly construction requirements and soundly transfer the external loads. This work proposes an innovative assembled connection suitable for modular buildings with concrete-filled steel tube columns. The connection uses pretensioned strands and plugin bars to vertically connect the adjacent modular columns. The moment-transferring performance of this inter-module connection was studied through monotonic and cyclic loading tests. The results showed that because of the assembly construction, the connected sections were separated under lateral bending, and the prestressed inter-module connection performed as a weak semirigid connection. The moment strength at the early loading stage originated primarily from the contact bonding mechanism with the infilled concrete, and the postyield strength depended mainly on the tensioned strands. The connection displayed a self-centering-like behavior that the induced deformation was reversed during unloading. The energy dissipation originated primarily from frictional slipping of the plugin bars and steel strands. The moment transferring ability was closely related to the section dimension and the arrangements of the plugin bars and steel strands. A simplified strength calculation and evaluation method was also proposed, and the effectiveness was validated with the test data.

• 국제강구조저널
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• 제18권5호
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• pp.1541-1559
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• 2018

This paper addresses the dynamic loading characteristics of the shock tube onto sandwich steel beams as an efficient and accurate alternative to time consuming and complicated fluid structure interaction using finite element modeling. The corrugated sandwich steel beam consists of top and bottom flat substrates of steel 1018 and corrugated cores of steel 1008. The corrugated core layers are arranged with non-uniform thicknesses thus making sandwich beam graded. This sandwich beam is analogous to a steel beam with web and flanges. Substrates correspond to flanges and cores to web. The stress-strain relations of steel 1018 at high strain rates are measured using the split-Hopkinson pressure. Both carbon steels are assumed to follow bilinear strain hardening and strain rate-dependence. The present finite element modeling procedure with an improved dynamic impulse loading assumption is validated with a set of shock tube experiments, and it provides excellent correlation based on Russell error estimation with the test results. Four corrugated graded steel core arrangements are taken into account for core design parameters in order to maximize mitigation of blast load effects onto the structure. In addition, numerical study of four corrugated steel core placed in a reverse order is done using the validated finite element model. The dynamic behavior of the reversed steel core arrangement is compared with the normal core arrangement for deflections, contact force between support and specimen and plastic energy absorption.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제35권5호
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• pp.475-486
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• 2023

Ballast particles have an irregular shape and are discrete in nature. Due to the discrete nature of ballast, it exhibits complex mechanical behaviour under loading conditions. The discrete element method (DEM) can model the behaviour of discrete particles under a multitude of loading conditions. DEM is used in this paper to simulate a series of three-dimensional direct shear tests in order to investigate the shear behaviour of railway ballast and its interaction at the microscopic level. Particle flow code in three dimension (PFC3D) models the irregular shape of ballast particles as clump particles. To investigate the influence of particle size distribution (PSD), real PSD of Indian railway ballast specification IRS:GE:1:2004, China high-speed rail (HSR) and French rail specifications are generated. PFC3D built-in linear contact model is used to simulate the interaction of ballast particles under various normal stresses, shearing rate and shear box sizes. The results indicate how shear resistance and volumetric changes in ballast assembly are affected by normal stress, shearing rate, PSD and shear box size. In addition to macroscopic behaviour, DEM represents the microscopic behaviour of ballast particles in the form of particle displacement at different stages of the shearing process.

• 한국철도학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국철도학회 2011년도 정기총회 및 추계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.966-970
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• 2011

The thermo-mechanical interaction between brake block and wheel tread during braking has been found to cause thermal crack on the wheel tread. Due to thermal expansion of the rim material, the thermal cracks will protrude from the wheel tread and be more exposed to wear during the wheel/block contact than the rest of the tread surface. The wheel rim is in residual compression stress when is new. After service running, the region in the tread has reversed to tension. This condition can lead to the formation and growth of thermal cracks in the rim which can ultimately lead to premature failure of wheel. In the present paper, the thermal cracks of railway wheel, one of severe damages on the wheel tread, were evaluated to understand the safety of railway wheel in running condition. The residual stresses for damaged wheel which are applied to tread brake are investigated. Mainly X-ray diffusion method is used. Under the condition of concurrent loading of continuous rolling contact with rails and cyclic frictional heat from brake blocks, the reduction of residual stress is found to correlate well with the thermal crack initiation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제48권4호
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• pp.479-500
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• 2013

This paper presents the experimental as well as analytical study conducted on layer-bonded scrap tire rubber pad (STRP) isolators to develop low-cost seismic isolators applicable to structures in developing countries. The STRP specimen samples were produced by stacking the STRP layers one on top of another with the application of adhesive. In unbonded application, the STRP bearings were placed between the substructure and superstructure without fastening between the contact surfaces which allows roll-off of the contact supports. The vertical compression and horizontal shear tests were conducted with varying axial loads. These results were used to compute the different mechanical properties of the STRP isolators including vertical stiffness, horizontal effective stiffness, average horizontal stiffness and effective damping ratios. The load-displacement relationships of STRP isolators obtained by experimental and finite element analysis results were found to be in close agreement. The tested STRP samples show energy dissipation capacity considerably greater than the natural rubber bearings. The layer-bonded STRP isolators serve positive incremental force resisting capacity up to the shear strain level of 150%.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제65권5호
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• pp.523-533
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• 2018

In this study, the dynamic response of a functionally graded material (FGM) circular plate in contact with incompressible fluid under the harmonic load is investigated. Analysis of the plate is based on First-order Shear Deformation Plate Theory (FSDT). The governing equation of the oscillatory behavior of the fluid is obtained by solving Laplace equation and satisfying its boundary conditions. A new set of admissible functions, which satisfy both geometrical and natural boundary conditions, are developed for the free vibration analysis of moderately thick circular plate. The Chebyshev-Ritz Method is employed together with this set of admissible functions to determine the vibrational behaviors. The modal superposition approach is used to determine the dynamic response of the plate exposed to harmonic loading. Numerical results of the force vibrations and the effects of the different geometrical parameters on the dynamic response of the plate are investigated. Finally, the results of this research in the limit case are compared and validated with the results of other researches and finite element model (FEM).