• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.297-306
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• 2016

This paper developed an analytical software, called Simulation of Concrete Structures (SCS), which is used for numerical analysis of shear-critical prestressed steel fiber concrete structures. Based on the previous research at the University of Houston (UH), SCS has been derived from an object-oriented software framework called Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (OpenSees). OpenSees was originally developed at the University of California, Berkeley. New module has been created for steel fiber concrete under prestress based on the constitutive relationships of this material developed at UH. This new material module has been integrated with the existing material modules in OpenSees. SCS thus developed has been used for predicting the behavior of the prestressed steel fiber concrete I-beams and Box-beams tested earlier in this research. The analysis could well predict the entire behavior of the beams including the elastic stiffness, yield point, post-yield stiffness, and maximum load for both web shear and flexure shear failure modes.

• Composites Research
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.347-352
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• 2016

This work presents the free vibration characteristics of laminated composite corrugated rectangular plates using the analytical method. Because it is very difficult to determine its mechanical behavior of 3-dimensional corrugated structures analytically, the equivalent homogenization model is adapted to investigate the overall mechanical behavior of corrugated structures. The corrugated element can be homogenized as an orthotropic material. Both the effective extensional and flexural stiffness of this homogenized equivalent orthotropic material are considered in the analysis. The present analytical results are validated by those obtained from 3D finite element analysis based on shell elements. The natural frequencies and global vibration mode shapes obtained from present analytical and finite element analysis are presented. Some numerical results are presented to check the effect of the geometric properties.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.403-423
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• 2016

The challenges involved with fatigue damage assessment of steel catenary riser (SCR) in the touchdown zone (TDZ) are primarily due to the non-linear behaviour of the SCR-seabed interaction, considerable uncertainty in SCR-seabed interaction modelling and geotechnical parameters. The issue of fatigue damage induced by the cyclic movements of the SCR with the seabed has acquired prominence with the touch down point (TDP) interaction in the TDZ. Therefore, the SCR-seabed response is critical for reliable estimation of fatigue life in the TDZ. Various design approaches pertaining to the lateral pipe-soil resistance model are discussed. These techniques have been applied in the finite element model that can be used to analyse the lateral SCR-seabed interaction under hydrodynamic loading. This study investigates the sensitivity of fatigue performance to geotechnical parameters through a parametric study. In this study, global analyses are performed to assess the influence of vertical linear seabed springs, the lateral seabed model and the non-linear seabed model, including trench evolution into seabed, seabed normalised stiffness, re-penetration offset parameter and soil suction resistance ratio, on the fatigue life of SCRs in the TDZ.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.161-184
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• 2007

The use of composite semi-rigid connections is not fully exploited, in spite of its great number of advantages. Composite semi-rigid connections may lead to an optimal moment distribution that will render lighter structures. Furthermore, using the appropriate semi-rigid connection design, the stability of the frames against lateral loads may entirely rely on the joint stiffness, thus avoiding bracing systems and permitting more diaphanous designs. Although modern codes, such as the Eurocode 4 (EC4), propose thorough methods of analysis they do not provide enough insight and simplicity from the design point of view. The purpose of this paper is to introduce practical and efficient methods of analysis that will facilitate the work of a structural analyst starting from the global analysis of the composite frame and ending on the final connection design. A key aspect is the definition of the stiffness and strength of the connections that will lead to an optimal moment distribution in the composite beams. Two examples are presented in order to clarify the application of the proposed methods and to demonstrate the advantages of the semi-rigid composite design with respect to the alternative pinned and rigid ones. The final aim of the paper is to stimulate and encourage the designer on the use of composite semi-rigid structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.74 no.2
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• pp.243-254
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• 2020

Devastating RC structural failures in the past have identified that the behavior of beam-column joints is more critical and significantly governs the global structural response under seismic loading. The congestion of reinforcement at the beam-column joints with other constructional difficulties has escalated the attention required for strengthening RC beam-column joints. In this context, numerous studies have been carried out in the past, which mainly focused on jacketing the joints with different materials. However, there is no comparative study of different approaches used to strengthen RC beam-column joints, from efficiency and cost perspective. This paper presents a detailed investigation carried out to study the various strengthening schemes of exterior RC beam-column joints, viz., steel fiber reinforcement, carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strengthening, steel haunch strengthening, and confining joint reinforcement. The effectiveness of each scheme was evaluated experimentally. These specimens were tested under horizontal loading that produced opening moments on the joints and their behavior was studied with emphasis on strength, displacement ductility, stiffness, and failure mechanism. Special attention was given to the study of crack-width.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.783-800
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• 2011

This paper addresses the finite strip formulations for the stability analysis of viscoelastic composite plates with variable thickness in the transverse direction, which are subjected to in-plane forces. While the finite strip method is fairly well-known in the buckling analysis, hitherto its direct application to the buckling of viscoelastic composite plates with variable thickness has not been investigated. The equations governing the stiffness and the geometry matrices of the composite plate are solved in the time domain using both the higher-order shear deformation theory and the method of effective moduli. These matrices are then assembled so that the global stiffness and geometry matrices of a moderately thick rectangular plate are formed which lead to an eigenvalue problem that is solved to determine the magnitude of critical buckling load for the viscoelastic plate. The accuracy of the proposed model is verified against the results which have been reported elsewhere whilst a comprehensive parametric study is presented to show the effects of viscoelasticity parameters, boundary conditions as well as combined bending and compression loads on the critical buckling load of thin and moderately thick viscoelastic composite plates.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.450-466
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• 2017

This paper defines the modified effective membrane stiffness, bending stiffness considering the directionally dependent mechanical properties and mode shape function of a composite lattice rectangular plate, which is assumed to be a Kirchhoff-Love plate. It subsequently presents an approximate method of conducting a buckling analysis of the composite lattice rectangular plate with various boundary conditions under uniform compression using the Ritz method. This method considers the coupled buckling mode as well as the global and local buckling modes. The validity of the present method is verified by comparing the results of the finite element analysis. In addition, this paper performs a parametric analysis to investigate the effects of the design parameters on the critical load and buckling mode shape of the composite lattice rectangular plate based on the present method. The results allow a database to be obtained on the buckling characteristics of composite lattice rectangular plates. Consequently, it is concluded that the present method which facilitates the calculation of the critical load and buckling mode shape according to the design parameters as well as the parametric analysis are very useful not only because of their structural design but also because of the buckling analysis of composite lattice structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.68 no.6
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• pp.735-745
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• 2018

The Big Bang-Big Crunch (BB-BC) algorithm is an effective global optimization technique of swarm intelligence with drawbacks of being easily trapped in local optimal results and of converging slowly. To overcome these shortages, an improved BB-BC algorithm (IBB-BC) is proposed in this paper with taking some measures, such as altering the reduced form of exploding radius and generating multiple mass centers. The accuracy and efficiency of IBB-BC is examined by different types of benchmark test functions. The IBB-BC is utilized for damage detection of a simply supported beam and the European Space Agency structure with an objective function established by structural frequency and modal data. Two damage scenarios are considered: damage only existed in stiffness and damage existed in both stiffness and mass. IBB-BC is also validated by an existing experimental study. Results demonstrated that IBB-BC is not trapped into local optimal results and is able to detect structural damages precisely even under measurement noise.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.765-777
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• 2022

Ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) can be used in the UHPC-steel composite structures especially for bridge structures to achieve high stiffness and high fatigue resistance with low self-weight. The structural performances of UHPC-steel composite slabs subjected to hogging moment have a significant influence on the global stiffness and durability of UHPC-steel composite structures. In order to study the structural behaviors of non-steam-cured UHPC-steel composite slabs subjected to negative moment, five composite slabs combined the thin UHPC layers to steel plates via shear stud connecters with the diameter of 16mm were fabricated and tested under negative moment. The test program aimed to investigate the effect of stud spacing and longitudinal reinforcement ratios on the failure mode, load-deflection behaviors, cracking patterns, bond-slips, and carrying capacities of composite slabs subjected to negative moment. In addition, direct tensile tests for the dog-bone UHPC specimens with longitudinal reinforcement bars were carried out to study the effect of reinforcement bars on the tensile strength of UHPC in the thin structure members. Based on the experimental results, analytical models were also developed to predict the cracking load and ultimate load of UHPC-steel composite slabs subjected to negative moment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.660-665
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• 2006

This paper presents a finite element method to analyze the free and forced vibration of a hard disk drive (HDD) considering the flexibility of a spinning disk-spindle with fluid dynamic bearings (FDBs), an actuator with pivot bearings, an air bearing between head-disk interface and the base with complicated geometry. Finite element equation of each component is consistently derived with the satisfaction of the geometric compatibility of the internal boundary between each component. The spinning disk, hub and FDBs are modeled by annular sector elements, beam elements and stiffness and damping elements, respectively. The actuator am, E-block, suspension and base plate are modeled by tetrahedral elements. The pivot bearing in the actuator and the air bearing between head-disk interfaces are modeled by the stiffness element with five degrees of freedom and the axial stiffness, respectively. A global matrix equation obtained by assembling the finite element equations of each substructure is transformed to a state-space matrix-vector equation, and both damped natural frequencies and modal damping ratios are calculated by solving the associated eigenvalue problem with the restarted Arnoldi iteration method. Modal and shock testing are performed to show that the proposed method well predicts the vibration characteristics of a HDD.