• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.661-674
• /
• 2018

Seismic excitations may impart a significant amount of energy into structures. Modern structural design attitudes tend to absorb some part of this energy through special dissipaters instead of heavy plastic deformations on the structural members. Different types of dissipater have been generated and utilized in various types of structures in last few decades. The expected earthquake damage is mainly concentrated on these devices and they may be replaced after earthquakes. In this study, a low-cost device called energy dissipative steel cushion (EDSC) made of flat mild steel was developed and tested in the Structural and Earthquake Engineering Laboratory (STEELab) of Istanbul Technical University (ITU). The monotonic and cyclic tests of EDSC were performed in transversal and longitudinal directions discretely. Very large deformation capability and stable hysteretic behavior are some response properties observed from the tests. Load vs. displacement relations, hysteretic energy dissipation properties as well as the closed form equations to predict the behavior parameters are presented in this paper.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.239-255
• /
• 2017

Various centrifuge model tests on the pile foundations were performed to investigate fundamental characteristics of a pile-soil-foundation system recently, but it is hard to find numerical analysis results of a pile foundation system considering the nonlinear behavior of soil layers due to the dynamic excitations. Numerical analyses for a pile-soil system were carried out to verify the experimental results of centrifuge model tests. Centrifuge model tests were performed at the laboratory applying 1.5 Hz sinusoidal base input motions, and nonlinear numerical analyses were performed utilizing a finite element program of P3DASS in the frequency domain and applying the same input motions with the intensities of 0.05 g~0.38 g. Nonlinear soil properties of soil elements were defined by Ramberg-Osgood soil model for the nonlinear dynamic analyses. Nonlinear numerical analyses with the P3DASS program were helpful to predict the trend of experimental responses of a centrifuge model efficiently, even though there were some difficulties in processing analytical results and to find out unintended deficits in measured experimental data. Also nonlinear soil properties of elements in the system can be estimated adequately using an analytical program to compare them with experimental results.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.2 no.4
• /
• pp.239-250
• /
• 2011

A photovoltaic powered ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis system was tested with a number of natural groundwaters in Australia. The objective of this study was to compare system performance at six remote field locations by assessing the impact of water composition and fluctuating energy on inorganic contaminant removal using a BW30-4040 membrane. Solar irradiance directly affected pressure and flow. Groundwater characteristics (including TDS, salts, heavy metals, and pH), impacted other performance parameters such as retention, specific energy consumption and flux. During continual system operation, retention of ions such as $Ca^{2+}$ and $Mg^{2+}$ was high (> 95%) with each groundwater which can be attributed to steric exclusion. The retention of smaller ions such as $NO_3{^-}$ was affected by weather conditions and groundwater composition, as convection/diffusion dominate retention. When solar irradiance was insufficient or fluctuations too great for system operation, performance deteriorated and retention dropped significantly (< 30% at Ti Tree). Groundwater pH affected flux and retention of smaller ions ($NO_3{^-}$ and $F^-$) because charge repulsion increases with pH. The results highlight variations in system performance (ion retention, flux, specific energy consumption) with real solar irradiance, groundwater composition, and pH conditions.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.123-131
• /
• 2012

This study investigated the extraction and stripping performance of PIMs consisting of PVC and Aliquat 336. Extraction and stripping of three representative heavy metals - namely $Cd^{2+}$, $Cu^{2+}$, and $Zn^{2+}$ - by the synthesized membranes were evaluated as a function of sodium chloride concentration and under different stripping solutions (0.01 M $HNO_3$, Milli-Q water, 0.01 M HCl and 0.01 M NaOH), respectively. Results reported here indicate that the formation of negatively charged metal chloride complex species was responsible for the extraction of the target metal to PIMs. Experimental results and thermodynamic modeling of the speciation of chloro metal complexes further confirm that the extraction selectivity between $Cd^{2+}$, $Cu^{2+}$ and $Zn^{2+}$ can be controlled by regulating the chloride concentration of the feed solution. An acidic solution without any chloride was the most effective stripping solution, followed by Milli-Q water, and a diluted hydrochloric acid solution. On the other hand, the stripping of metals from PIMs did not occur when a basic stripping solution was used.

• Coupled systems mechanics
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.147-170
• /
• 2014

In the recent times, dimensions of heavy load carrying vehicle have changed significantly incorporating structural flexibility in vehicle body. The present paper outlines a procedure for the estimation of bridge response statistics considering structural bending modes of the vehicle. Bridge deck roughness has been considered to be non homogeneous random process in space. Influence of pre cambering of bridge surface and settlement of approach slab on the dynamic behavior of the bridge has been studied. A parametric study considering vehicle axle spacing, mass, speed, vehicle flexibility, deck unevenness and eccentricity of vehicle path have been conducted. Dynamic amplification factor (DAF) of the bridge response has been obtained for several of combination of bridge-vehicle parameters. The present study reveals that flexible modes of vehicle can reduce dynamic response of the bridge to the extent of 30-37% of that caused by rigid vehicle model. However, sudden change in the bridge surface profile leads to significant amount of increment in the bridge dynamic response even if flexible bending modes remain active. The eccentricity of vehicle path and flexural/torsional rigidity ratios plays a significant role in dynamic amplification of bridge response.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.137-155
• /
• 2013

Brittle fracture of structures excited by earthquakes can be prevented by adding a tuned mass damper (TMD). This TMD must be optimum and suitable to the physical conditions of the structure. Compressive strength of concrete is an important factor for brittle fracture. The application of a TMD to structures with low compressive strength of concrete may not be possible if the weight of the TMD is too much. A heavy TMD is dangerous for these structures because of insufficient axial force capacity of structure. For the preventing brittle fracture, the damping ratio of the TMD must be sufficient to reduce maximum shear forces below the values proposed in design regulations. Using the formulas for frequency and damping ratio related to a preselected mass, this objective can be only achieved by increasing the mass of the TMD. By using a metaheuristic method, the optimum parameters can be searched in a specific limit. In this study, Harmony Search (HS) is employed to find optimum TMD parameters for preventing brittle fracture by reducing shear force in additional to other time and frequency responses. The proposed method is feasible for the retrofit of weak structures with insufficient compressive strength of concrete.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.5 no.3
• /
• pp.297-319
• /
• 2013

Two destructive earthquakes occurred on October 23 and November 9, 2011 in Van province of Turkey. The damage in residential units shows significant deviation from the expectation of decreasing damage with increasing distance to epicenter. The most damaged settlement Ercis has the same distance to the epicenter with Muradiye, where no damage occurred while relatively less damage observed in Van having half distance. These three cities seem to have resembling soil conditions. If the damages are evaluated: joint failures and insufficient lap splice lengths are observed to be the main causes of the total collapses in RC buildings. Additionally, low concrete strength, reinforcement detailing mistakes, soft story, heavy overhang, pounding and short columns are among other damage reasons. Examples of damages due to non-structural elements are also given. Remarkable points about seismic damages are: collapsed buildings with shear-walls, heavily damaged buildings despite adequate concrete strength due to detailing mistakes, undamaged two-story adobe buildings close to totally collapsed RC ones and undamaged structural system in buildings with heavily damaged non-structural elements. On the contrary of the common belief that buildings with shear-walls are immune to total collapse among civil engineers, collapse of Gedikbulak primary school is a noteworthy example.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.115-129
• /
• 2018

This paper presents a set of results of plate load tests that imposed incremental cyclic loading to a sandy soil bed containing multiple layers of granulated rubber-soil mixture (RSM) at large model scale. Loading and unloading cycles were applied with amplitudes incrementally increasing from 140 to 700 kPa in five steps. A thickness of the RSM layer of approximately 0.4 times the footing diameter was found to deliver the minimum total and residual settlements, irrespective of the level of applied cyclic load. Both the total and residual settlements decrease with increase in the number of RSM layers, regardless of the level of applied cyclic load, but the rate of reduction in both settlements reduces with increase in the number of RSM layers. When the thickness of the RSM layer is smaller, or larger, settlements increase and, at large thicknesses may even exceed those of untreated soil. Layers of the RSM reduced the vertical stress transferred through the foundation depth by distributing the load over a wider area. With the inclusion of RSM layers, the coefficient of elastic uniform compression decreases by a factor of around 3-4. A softer response was obtained when more RSM layers were included beneath the footing damping capacity improves appreciably when the sand bed incorporates RSM layers. Numerical modeling using "FLAC-3D" confirms that multiple RSM layers will improve the performance of a foundation under heavy loading.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.745-757
• /
• 2019

Road surface deteriorations such as potholes have caused motorists heavy monetary damages every year. However, effective road condition monitoring has been a continuing challenge to road owners. Depth cameras have a small field of view and can be easily affected by vehicle bouncing. Traditional image processing methods based on algorithms such as segmentation cannot adapt to varying environmental and camera scenarios. In recent years, novel object detection methods based on deep learning algorithms have produced good results in detecting typical objects, such as faces, vehicles, structures and more, even in scenarios with changing object distances, camera angles, lighting conditions, etc. Therefore, in this study, a Deep Learning Pothole Detector (DLPD) based on the deep region-based convolutional neural network is proposed for autonomous detection of potholes from images. About 900 images with potholes and road surface conditions are collected and divided into training and testing data. Parameters of the network in the DLPD are calibrated based on sensitivity tests. Then, the calibrated DLPD is trained by the training data and applied to the 215 testing images to evaluate its performance. It is demonstrated that potholes can be automatically detected with high average precision over 93%. Potholes can be differentiated from manholes by training and applying a manhole-pothole classifier which is constructed using the convolutional neural network layers in DLPD. Repeated detection of the same potholes can be prevented through feature matching of the newly detected pothole with previously detected potholes within a small region.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.1-23
• /
• 1998

This paper describes wind investigations for the Leaning Tower of Pisa which were conducted as part of an overall evaluation of its behaviour. Normally a short, stiff and heavy building would not be a candidate for detailed wind analyses. However, because of extremely high soil pressures developed from its inclination, there has been increasing concern that environmental loading such as wind actions could combine with existing conditions to cause the collapse of the tower. The studies involved wind assessment at the site as a function of wind direction, analysis of historical wind data to determine extreme wind probabilities of occurrence, estimation of structural properties, analytical and boundary layer wind tunnel investigations of wind loads and evaluation of the response with special concern for loads in the direction of inclination of the tower and significant wake effects from the neighboring cathedral for critical wind directions. The conclusions discuss the role of wind on structural safety, the precision of results attained and possible future studies involving field measurements aimed at validating or improving the analytical and boundary layer wind tunnel based assessments.