• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.649-664
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• 2023

Structural inertial interaction is a representative the effect of dynamic soil-foundation-structure interaction (SFSI), which leads to a relative displacement between soil and foundation, period lengthening, and damping increasing phenomena. However, for a system with a significantly heavy foundation, the dynamic inertia of the foundation influences and interacts with the structural seismic response. The structure-to-foundation mass ratio (MR) quantifies the distribution of mass between the structure and foundation for a structure on a shallow foundation. Although both systems exhibit the same vertical factor of safety (FS_v), the MR and corresponding seismic responses attributed to the structure and foundation masses may differ. This study explored the influence of MR on the permanent deformation and seismic response of soil-foundation-structure system considering SFSI via numerical simulations. Given that numerous dimensionless parameters of SFSI described its influence on the structural seismic response, the parameters, except for MR and FS_v, were fixed for the sensitivity analysis. The results demonstrated that the foundation inertia of heavier foundations induced more settlement due to sliding behavior of heavily-loaded systems. Moreover, the structural inertia of heavier structures evidently exhibited foundation rocking behavior, which results in a more elongated natural period of the structure for lightly-loaded systems.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.167-174
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• 2023

This study evaluated slope stability through a case study to determine the disaster risks associated with increased deforestation in structures, including schools and apartments, located in urban areas adjacent to slopes. The slope behind the ○○ High School in Gwangju, Korea, collapsed owing to heavy rain in August 2018. Historically, rainwater drained well around the slope during the rainy season. However, during the collapse, a large amount of seepage water flowed out of the slope surface and a shallow failure occurred along the saturated soil layer. To analyze the cause of the collapse, the images of the upper area of the slope, which could not be directly identified, were captured using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). A digital elevation model of the slope was constructed through image analysis, making it possible to calculate the rainfall flow direction and the area, width, and length of logging areas. The change in the instability of the slope over time owing to rainfall lasting ten days before the collapse was analyzed through numerical analysis. Imaging techniques based on the UAV images were found to be effective in analyzing ground disaster risk maps in urban areas. Furthermore, the analysis was found to predict the failure before its actual occurrence.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.149-159
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• 2023

Water glass (WG) and sodium sulfate (SS) were used to prepare polymeric aluminum chloride residue cement mortar (PACRM) by single and compound blending with polymeric aluminum chloride waste residue, respectively. The structural strength and textural characteristics examinations showed that PACRM consistency increased by incorporating WG, but decreased by incorporating SS. When WG and SS were compounded, the mortar consistency initially rose before falling. The compressive strength of PACRM increased and then decreased as WG was increased. The mechanical properties of PACRM were better enhanced by SS than WG, showing no strength deterioration. The main reason for the improved mechanical properties of polymeric aluminum chloride waste residue in the presence of activators is the increased precipitation of reactive substances, such as C-S-H gels, calcium silica, and Ca(OH)₂. The density of the specimens with PACRM and the degree of aggregation of hydration products were significantly enhanced by generating more hydration products in the mortar. Further, the cracks and pores were significantly reduced, and the matrix structure was continuous and dense at 5% SS doping and 3% compound doping.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.423-434
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• 2023

Aerodynamic force coefficients are generally obtained from traditional wind tunnel tests or computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Unfortunately, the techniques mentioned above can sometimes be cumbersome because of the cost involved, such as the computational cost and the use of heavy equipment, to name only two examples. This study proposed to build a deep neural network model to predict the aerodynamic force coefficients based on data collected from CFD simulations to overcome these drawbacks. Therefore, a series of CFD simulations were conducted using different geometric parameters to obtain the aerodynamic force coefficients, validated with wind tunnel tests. The results obtained from CFD simulations were used to create a dataset to train a multilayer perceptron artificial neural network (ANN) model. The models were obtained using three optimization algorithms: scaled conjugate gradient (SCG), Bayesian regularization (BR), and Levenberg-Marquardt algorithms (LM). Furthermore, the performance of each neural network was verified using two performance metrics, including the mean square error and the R-squared coefficient of determination. Finally, the ANN model proved to be highly accurate in predicting the force coefficients of similar bridge sections, thus circumventing the computational burden associated with CFD simulation and the cost of traditional wind tunnel tests.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.529-542
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• 2023

Wave propagation with high transverse deflection could affect the stability of the ball in its trajectory. For low stiffness balls similar to soccer and volleyball balls, the waves are more noticeable in comparison to other balls like ping-pong ball. On the other hand, the soccer balls are under heavy impact loads from shoots and contacting different objects in the field. The maximum recorded speed of a soccer ball after kicking is the 211 km/hr and the average maximum speed is around 112 km/hr. Therefore, in such speeds the aerodynamic forces become important which are directly related to geometrical shape of the ball. In this regard, the wave propagation in soccer ball is examined in the current study using large deformation shear deformable formulations. Classical relations of stress-strain components are taken into consideration along with minimum total energy principle. The final derived relations were solved by using harmonic differential quadrature method. The results are generally presented ion term of phase velocity as function of different influencing parameters of the materials, geometry and mass of the ball.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.117-132
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• 2023

The most prevalent and oldest type of structure is unreinforced masonry (URM) structures; URM walls are still a widely used construction material in India and many other developing countries due to their simplicity, ease of construction, economic sustainability, and ability to be built with locally available materials. URM walls are significantly weak while carrying lateral loads. The poor performance of URM walls during earthquakes has necessitated investigating an effective method for strengthening a newly built masonry building or retrofitting an old structure. Wire mesh, being cost-effective and easily available, satisfies the requirements to strengthen new and old URM buildings. The use of wire mesh to strengthen and retrofit the URM structure is simple to use, quick to construct, and inexpensive, especially in developing nations where heavy machinery and highly qualified labour are lacking. The current paper reviews the effectiveness of steel wire mesh as a reinforcing material for enhancing masonry strength. The finding gave encouraging results for the field application of wire mesh.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.439-455
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• 2023

Free surface fluid oscillation in prolate spheroidal tanks has been investigated analytically in this study. This paper aims is to investigate the sloshing frequencies in spheroidal prolate tanks and compare them with conventional cylindrical and spherical containers to select the best tank geometry for use in space launch vehicles in which the volume of fuel is very high. Based on this, the analytical method (Fourier series expansion) and potential fluid theory in the spheroidal coordinate system are used to extract and analyze the governing differential equations of motion. Then, according to different aspect ratios and other parameters such as filling levels, the fluid sloshing frequencies in the spheroidal prolate tank are determined and evaluated based on various parameters. The natural frequencies obtained for a particular tank are compared with other literature and show a good agreement with these results. In addition, spheroidal prolate tank frequencies have been compared with sloshing frequencies in cylindrical and spherical containers in different modes. Results show that when the prolate spheroidal tank is nearly full and in the worst case when the tank is half full and the free fluid surface is the highest, the prolate spheroidal natural frequencies are higher than of spherical and cylindrical tanks. Therefore, the use of spheroidal tanks in heavy space launch vehicles, in addition to the optimal use of placement space, significantly reduces the destructive effects of sloshing.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.381-390
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• 2024

The introduction of bio-based materials has been recommended in the geotechnical engineering field to reduce environmental pollutants such as heavy metals and greenhouse gases. However, bio-treated soil methods face limitations in field application due to short research periods and insufficient verification of engineering performance, especially when compared to conventional materials like cement. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a machine learning model for predicting the unconfined compressive strength, a representative soil property, of biopolymer-based soil treatment (BPST). Four machine learning algorithms were compared to determine a suitable model, including linear regression (LR), support vector regression (SVR), random forest (RF), and neural network (NN). Except for LR, the SVR, RF, and NN algorithms exhibited high predictive performance with an R² value of 0.98 or higher. The permutation feature importance technique was used to identify the main factors affecting the strength enhancement of BPST. The results indicated that the unconfined compressive strength of BPST is affected by mean particle size, followed by biopolymer content and water content. With a reliable prediction model, the proposed model can present guidelines prior to laboratory testing and field application, thereby saving a significant amount of time and money.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.859-872
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• 2015

Pebble matrix filtration (PMF) is a water treatment technology that can remove suspended solids in highly turbid surface water during heavy storms. PMF typically uses sand and natural pebbles as filter media. Hand-made clay pebbles (balls) can be used as alternatives to natural pebbles in PMF treatment plants, where natural pebbles are not readily available. Since the high turbidity is a seasonal problem that occurs during heavy rains, the use of newly developed composite clay balls instead of pure clay balls have the advantage of removing other pollutants such as natural organic matter (NOM) during other times. Only the strength properties of composite clay balls are described here as the pollutant removal is beyond the scope of this paper. These new composite clay balls must be able to withstand dead and live loads under dry and saturated conditions in a filter assembly. Absence of a standard ball preparation process and expected strength properties of composite clay balls were the main reasons behind the present study. Five different raw materials from industry wastes: Red Mud (RM), Water Treatment Alum Sludge (S), Shredded Paper (SP), Saw Dust (SD), and Sugar Mulch (SM) were added to common clay brick mix (BM) in different proportions. In an effort to minimize costs, in this study clay balls were fired to $1100^{\circ}C$ at a local brick factory together with their bricks. A comprehensive experimental program was performed to evaluate crushing strength of composite hand-made clay balls, using uniaxial compression test to establish the best material combination on the basis of strength properties for designing sustainable filter media for water treatment plants. Performance at both construction and operating stages were considered by analyzing both strength properties under fully dry conditions and strength degradation after saturation in a water bath. The BM-75% as the main component produced optimum combination in terms of workability and strength. With the material combination of BM-75% and additives-25%, the use of Red Mud and water treatment sludge as additives produced the highest and lowest strength of composite clay balls, with a failure load of 5.4 kN and 1.4 kN respectively. However, this lower value of 1.4 kN is much higher than the effective load on each clay ball of 0.04 kN in a typical filter assembly (safety factor of 35), therefore, can still be used as a suitable filter material for enhanced pollutant removal.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.11-27
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• 2018

The straight-cone steel cooling tower is a novel type of structure, which has a distinct aerodynamic distribution on the internal surface of the tower cylinder compared with conventional hyperbolic concrete cooling towers. Especially in the extreme weather conditions of strong wind and heavy rain, heavy rain also has a direct impact on aerodynamic force on the internal surface and changes the turbulence effect of pulsating wind, but existing studies mainly focus on the impact effect brought by wind-driven rain to structure surface. In addition, for the indirect air cooled cooling tower, different additional ventilation rate of shutters produces a considerable interference to air movement inside the tower and also to the action mechanism of loads. To solve the problem, a straight-cone steel cooling towerstanding 189 m high and currently being constructed is taken as the research object in this study. The algorithm for two-way coupling between wind and rain is adopted. Simulation of wind field and raindrops is performed with continuous phase and discrete phase models, respectively, under the general principles of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Firstly, the rule of influence of 9 combinations of wind sped and rainfall intensity on flow field mechanism, the volume of wind-driven rain, additional action force of raindrops and equivalent internal pressure coefficient of the tower cylinder is analyzed. On this basis, the internal pressures of the cooling tower under the most unfavorable working condition are compared between four ventilation rates of shutters (0%, 15%, 30% and 100%). The results show that the 3D effect of equivalent internal pressure coefficient is the most significant when considering two-way coupling between wind and rain. Additional load imposed by raindrops on the internal surface of the tower accounts for an extremely small proportion of total wind load, the maximum being only 0.245%. This occurs under the combination of 20 m/s wind velocity and 200 mm/h rainfall intensity. Ventilation rate of shutters not only changes the air movement inside the tower, but also affects the accumulated amount and distribution of raindrops on the internal surface.