• Computational Structural Engineering : An International Journal
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.11-17
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• 2002

Cost-effectiveness in design is considered for determining the target reliability of concrete bridges under seismic actions. This objective can be achieved based on the economic optimization of the expected life-cycle cost of a bridge, which includes initial cost, direct losses, and indirect losses of a bridge due to strong earthquakes over its lifetime. A separating factor is defined to consider the redundancy of a transportation network. The Park-Ang damage model is employed to define the damage of a bridge under seismic action, and a Monte Carlo method based on the DRAIN-2DX program is developed to assess the failure probability of a bridge. The results for an example bridge analyzed in this paper show that the optimal target failure probability depends on the traffic volume carried by the bridge and is between 1.0×10/sup -3/ to 3.0×10/sup -3/ over a life of 50 years.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.591-598
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• 2002

In the ship structural design, the material cost of hull weight and the overall cost of construction processes should be minimized considering safety and reliability. In the past, minimum weight design has been mainly focused on reducing material cost and increasing dead weight reflect the interests of a ship's owner. But, in the past experience, the minimum weight design has been inevitably lead to increasing the construction cost. Therefore, it is necessary that the designer of ship structure should consider both structural weight and construction cost. In this point of view, multi-objective optimization technique is proposed to design the ship structure in this study. According to the proposed algorithm, the results of optimization were compared to the structural design of actual VLCC(Very Large Crude Oil Carrier). Objective functions were weight cost and construction cost of VLCC, and ES(Evolution Strategies), one of the stochastic search methods, was used as an optimization solver. For the scantlings of members and the estimations of objectives, classification rule was adopted for the longitudinal members, and the direct calculation method, GSDM(Generalized Slope Deflection Method), lot the transverse members. To choose the most economical design point among the results of Pareto optimal set, RFR(Required Freight Rate) was evaluated for each Pareto point, and compared to actual ship.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.2 s.42
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• pp.17-27
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• 2005

This paper presents an integrated optimum design and a cost effectiveness evaluation method of a viscoelastically damped structural system. The criterion selected for the optimization is the minimization of the life?cycle cost which is a function of structural sizing variables and the amount of the viscoelastic damper. A genetic algorithm is used as a numerical searching technique in order to simultaneously find the optimum parameters of the integrated system. Optimal distributions of design variables according to various seismic characteristics are investigated by applying the proposed design method to a numerical example of a 10?story building structure. The cost effectiveness of viscoelastically damped structural system is also evaluated by comparing the life-cycle cost of the structure without viscoelastic dampers. The results show that the viscoelastic damper is effective in a region of low to moderate seismicity.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.401-414
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• 2014

The economic consequences of large earthquakes require a revolutionary change in the seismic performance objective of residential and commercial buildings. The majority of total construction costs consist of non-structural and architectural costs. Therefore, the aim of this research is to upgrade current Life Safety performance objectives and to offset adverse effects on country's economy after an occurrence of large earthquakes. However, such a proposal cannot easily prove the feasibility of cost-benefit analysis in structural design. In this paper, six generic reinforced concrete frames and dual system structures designed based on Turkish Seismic Code were used in cost analysis. The study reveals that load bearing structural systems with Immediate Occupancy performance level in seismic zones can be achieved with negligible costs.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.405-426
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• 2014

In this paper, a new meta-heuristic algorithm named Ranked Particles Optimization (RPO), is presented. This algorithm is not inspired from natural or physical phenomena. However, it is based on numerous researches in the field of meta-heuristic optimization algorithms. In this algorithm, like other meta-heuristic algorithms, optimization process starts with by producing a population of random solutions, Particles, located in the feasible search space. In the next step, cost functions corresponding to all random particles are evaluated and some of those having minimum cost functions are stored. These particles are ranked and their weighted average is calculated and named Ranked Center. New solutions are produced by moving each particle along its previous motion, the ranked center, and the best particle found thus far. The robustness of this algorithm is verified by solving some mathematical and structural optimization problems. Simplicity of implementation and reaching to desired solution are two main characteristics of this algorithm.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.62 no.3
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• pp.297-302
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• 2017

Structural reanalysis is frequently utilized to reduce the computational cost so that the process of design or optimization can be accelerated. The supports can be regarded as the design variables and may be modified in various types of structural optimization problems. The location, number, and type of supports can make a great impact on the performance of the structure. This paper presents a unified method for structural static reanalysis with imposition or relaxation of some support constraints. The information from the initial analysis has been fully utilized and the computational time can be significantly reduced. Numerical examples are used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.469-482
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• 2009

The emerging sensor-based structural health monitoring (SHM) technology has a potential for cost-effective maintenance of aging civil infrastructure systems. The author proposes to integrate continuous and global monitoring using on-structure sensors with targeted local non-destructive evaluation (NDE). Significant technical challenges arise, however, from the lack of cost-effective sensors for monitoring spatially large structures, as well as reliable methods for interpreting sensor data into structural health conditions. This paper reviews recent efforts and advances made in addressing these challenges, with example sensor hardware and health monitoring software developed in the author's research center. The hardware includes a novel fiber optic accelerometer, a vision-based displacement sensor, a distributed strain sensor, and a microwave imaging NDE device. The health monitoring software includes a number of system identification methods such as the neural networks, extended Kalman filter, and nonlinear damping identificaiton based on structural dynamic response measurement. These methods have been experimentally validated through seismic shaking table tests of a realistic bridge model and tested in a number of instrumented bridges and buildings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.309-331
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• 2013

An integrated superelement concept is proposed to improve the computational efficiency when analyzing structural responses during progressive collapses of large-scale structures, such as multi-storey reinforced concrete buildings. While the proposed methodology is straightforward and can be implemented into an existing finite element program with little effort, it is able to significantly reduce the computational cost without the loss of any critical information of the structural responses. Compared with the models without superelement, significant saving in computational cost and satisfactory prediction accuracy can be obtained with the proposed approach.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.177-184
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• 2001

In this study, three most distinct types of general rigid connections are included in the modelling, with is implemented into a computer code. The cost, functions of connections are constructed by using the estimated unit cost of bolting, welding and connection-steel elements incorporating all the effect of materials, labor, and fabrication work. Bused on the recent developments of the reliability-based structural analysis and design as well as the extending knowledge on the probabilistic characteristics of load and resistances, the probability based design criteria have been successfully developed for many standards. Since the probabilistic characteristics depend highly on the local load and resistances, it is recognized to develop the design criterion compatible with domestic requirements. The existing optimum design methods, which are generally based on the structural theory and certain engineering experience, do not realistically consider the uncertainties of load and resistances and the basic reliability concepts.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.131-142
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• 2007

The road user cost in indirect costs as well as direct costs such as the inspection/ diagnosis cost and the repair/reinforcement cost should be considered as one of the important items in the life-cycle cost-effective design and maintenance of the bridges. To estimate the road user cost, this paper formulates the road user cost as a sum of the user delay cost and the vehicle operating cost considering the detour effect. A numerical traffic simulation and a regression analysis are performed to develop a regression model due to a time delay. The proposed regression model is applied to the generation of the maintenance strategy based on the life-cycle cost and performance, and its effectiveness and applicability is investigated. The road user cost has a great influence on establishing the maintenance strategy, and the proposed regression model could be successfully utilized to estimate the road user cost of a bridge.