• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.775-796
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• 2022

In this study, a new type of energy absorbers with a functionally graded thickness is investigated, these type of absorbers absorb energy through expanding-folding processes. The expanding-folding absorbers are composed of two sections: a thin-walled aluminum matrix and a thin-walled steel mandrel. Previous studies have shown higher efficiency of the mentioned absorbers compared to the conventional ones. In this study, the effect of thickness which has been functionally-graded on the aluminum matrix (in which expansion occurs) was investigated. To this end, initial functions were considered for the matrix thickness, which was ascending/descending along the axis. The study was done experimentally and numerically. Comparing the experimental data with the numerical results showed high consistency between the numerical and experimental results. In the final section of this study, the best energy absorber functionally graded thickness was introduced by optimization using a third-order genetic algorithm. The optimization results showed that by choosing a minimum thickness of 1.6 mm and the exponential coefficient of 3.25, the most optimal condition can be obtained for descending thickness absorbers.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.22-36
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• 2004

Several in-situ testing methods of adhesively bonded joints under static short-time tensile loading are critically analyzed in terms of experimental procedure and data evaluation. Due to its rather homogeneous stress state across the glue line, the tensile-shear test with thick single-lap specimens, according to ISO 11003-2, has become the most important test process for the determination of realistic materials parameters. This basic method, which was improved in both, the experimental part by stepped adherends and easily attachable extensometers and the evaluation procedure by numeric substrate deformation correction and test simulation based on the finite element method (FEM), is therefore demonstrated by application to several kinds of adhesives and metallic adherends. Multi-axial load decreases the strength of a joint. This effect, which is illustrated by an experimental comparison, impedes the derivation of realistic mechanical characteristics from measured force-displacement curves. It is shown by numeric modeling that tensile-shear tests with thin plate substrates according to ISO 4587, which are widely used for quick industrial quality assurance, reveal an inhomogeneous stress state, especially because of relatively large adherend deformation. Complete experimental determination of the elastic properties of bonded joints requires independent measurement of at least two characteristics. As the thick-adherend tensile-shear test directly yields the shear modulus, the tensile butt-joint test according to ISO 6922 represents the most obvious complement of the test programme. Thus, validity of analytical correction formulae proposed in literature for the derivation of realistic materials characteristics is verified by numeric simulation. Moreover, the influence of the substrate deformation is examined and a FEM correction method introduced.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.719-738
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• 2010

The aim of this paper concerns with the nonlinear analysis of cable-stayed bridges including the vibration effect of cable stays. Two models for the cable stay system are built up in the study. One is the OECS (one element cable system) model in which one single element per cable stay is used and the other is MECS (multi-elements cable system) model, where multi-elements per cable stay are used. A finite element computation procedure has been set up for the nonlinear analysis of such kind of structures. For shape finding of the cable-stayed bridge with MECS model, an efficient computation procedure is presented by using the two-loop iteration method (equilibrium iteration and shape iteration) with help of the catenary function method to discretize each single cable stay. After the convergent initial shape of the bridge is found, further analysis can then be performed. The structural behaviors of cable-stayed bridges influenced by the cable lateral motion will be examined here detailedly, such as the static deflection, the natural frequencies and modes, and the dynamic responses induced by seismic loading. The results show that the MECS model offers the real shape of cable stays in the initial shape, and all the natural frequencies and modes of the bridge including global modes and local modes. The global mode of the bridge consists of coupled girder, tower and cable stays motion and is a coupled mode, while the local mode exhibits only the motion of cable stays and is uncoupled with girder and tower. The OECS model can only offers global mode of tower and girder without any motion of cable stays, because each cable stay is represented by a single straight cable (or truss) element. In the nonlinear seismic analysis, only the MECS model can offer the lateral displacement response of cable stays and the axial force variation in cable stays. The responses of towers and girders of the bridge determined by both OECS- and MECS-models have no great difference.

• Composites Research
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.10-16
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• 2011

Many tests are required to predict the fatigue life of composite laminates made of various materials and having different layup sequences. Aiming at reducing the number of tests, a methodology was presented in this paper to predict fatigue life of composite laminates based on fatigue life prediction of constituents, i.e. the fiber, matrix and interface, using micromechanics of failure. For matrix, the equivalent stress model which is generally used for isotropic materials was employed to take care of multi-axial fatigue loading. For fiber, a maximum stress model considering only stress along fiber direction was used. The critical plane model was introduced for the interface of the fiber and matrix, but fatigue life prediction was ignored for the interface since the interface fatigue strength was presumed high enough. The modified Goodman equation was utilized to take into account the mean stress effect. To check the validity of the theory, the fatigue life of three different GFRP laminates, UDT[$90^{\circ}2$], BX[${\pm}45^{\circ}$]S and TX[$0^{\circ}/{\pm}45^{\circ}$]S was examined experimentally. The comparison between predictions and test measurements showed good agreement.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.517-532
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• 2023

Tower structures have been widely used in communication and transmission engineering. The failure of joints is the leading cause of structure failure, which make it play a crucial role in tower structure engineering. In this study, the aluminum alloy three tube tower structure is taken as the prototype, and the middle joint of the tower was selected as the research object. Three different stainless steel-aluminum alloy composite joints (SACJs), denoted by TA, TB and TC, were designed. Finite element (FE) modeling analysis was used to compare and determine the TC joint as the best solution. Detail requirements of fasteners in the TC stainless steel-aluminum alloy composite joint (TC-SACJ) were designed and verified. In order to systematically and comprehensively study the mechanical properties of TC-SACJ under multi-directional loading conditions, the full-scale experiments and FE simulation models were all performed for mechanical response analysis. The failure modes, load-carrying capacities, and axial load versus displacement/stain testing curves of all full-scale specimens under tension/compression loading conditions were obtained. The results show that the maximum vertical displacement of aluminum alloy tube is 26.9mm, and the maximum lateral displacement of TC-SACJs is 1.0 mm. In general, the TC-SACJs are in an elastic state under the design load, which meet the design requirements and has a good safety reserve. This work can provide references for the design and engineering application of aluminum alloy tower structures.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.1-2
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• 2011

Hybrid rockets have lately attracted attention as a strong candidate of small, low cost, safe and reliable launch vehicles. A significant topic is that the first commercially sponsored space ship, SpaceShipOne vehicle chose a hybrid rocket. The main factors for the choice were safety of operation, system cost, quick turnaround, and thrust termination. In Japan, five universities including Hokkaido University and three private companies organized "Hybrid Rocket Research Group" from 1998 to 2002. Their main purpose was to downsize the cost and scale of rocket experiments. In 2002, UNISEC (University Space Engineering Consortium) and HASTIC (Hokkaido Aerospace Science and Technology Incubation Center) took over the educational and R&D rocket activities respectively and the research group dissolved. In 2008, JAXA/ISAS and eleven universities formed "Hybrid Rocket Research Working Group" as a subcommittee of the Steering Committee for Space Engineering in ISAS. Their goal is to demonstrate technical feasibility of lowcost and high frequency launches of nano/micro satellites into sun-synchronous orbits. Hybrid rockets use a combination of solid and liquid propellants. Usually the fuel is in a solid phase. A serious problem of hybrid rockets is the low regression rate of the solid fuel. In single port hybrids the low regression rate below 1 mm/s causes large L/D exceeding a hundred and small fuel loading ratio falling below 0.3. Multi-port hybrids are a typical solution to solve this problem. However, this solution is not the mainstream in Japan. Another approach is to use high regression rate fuels. For example, a fuel regression rate of 4 mm/s decreases L/D to around 10 and increases the loading ratio to around 0.75. Liquefying fuels such as paraffins are strong candidates for high regression fuels and subject of active research in Japan too. Nakagawa et al. in Tokai University employed EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) to modify viscosity of paraffin based fuels and investigated the effect of viscosity on regression rates. Wada et al. in Akita University employed LTP (Low melting ThermoPlastic) as another candidate of liquefying fuels and demonstrated high regression rates comparable to paraffin fuels. Hori et al. in JAXA/ISAS employed glycidylazide-poly(ethylene glycol) (GAP-PEG) copolymers as high regression rate fuels and modified the combustion characteristics by changing the PEG mixing ratio. Regression rate improvement by changing internal ballistics is another stream of research. The author proposed a new fuel configuration named "CAMUI" in 1998. CAMUI comes from an abbreviation of "cascaded multistage impinging-jet" meaning the distinctive flow field. A CAMUI type fuel grain consists of several cylindrical fuel blocks with two ports in axial direction. The port alignment shifts 90 degrees with each other to make jets out of ports impinge on the upstream end face of the downstream fuel block, resulting in intense heat transfer to the fuel. Yuasa et al. in Tokyo Metropolitan University employed swirling injection method and improved regression rates more than three times higher. However, regression rate distribution along the axis is not uniform due to the decay of the swirl strength. Aso et al. in Kyushu University employed multi-swirl injection to solve this problem. Combinations of swirling injection and paraffin based fuel have been tried and some results show very high regression rates exceeding ten times of conventional one. High fuel regression rates by new fuel, new internal ballistics, or combination of them require faster fuel-oxidizer mixing to maintain combustion efficiency. Nakagawa et al. succeeded to improve combustion efficiency of a paraffin-based fuel from 77% to 96% by a baffle plate. Another effective approach some researchers are trying is to use an aft-chamber to increase residence time. Better understanding of the new flow fields is necessary to reveal basic mechanisms of regression enhancement. Yuasa et al. visualized the combustion field in a swirling injection type motor. Nakagawa et al. observed boundary layer combustion of wax-based fuels. To understand detailed flow structures in swirling flow type hybrids, Sawada et al. (Tohoku Univ.), Teramoto et al. (Univ. of Tokyo), Shimada et al. (ISAS), and Tsuboi et al. (Kyushu Inst. Tech.) are trying to simulate the flow field numerically. Main challenges are turbulent reaction, stiffness due to low Mach number flow, fuel regression model, and other non-steady phenomena. Oshima et al. in Hokkaido University simulated CAMUI type flow fields and discussed correspondence relation between regression distribution of a burning surface and the vortex structure over the surface.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Advanced Composite Structures
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.1-11
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• 2011

The typical truss-lattice material successively packed by repeated cubic symmetric unit cells consists of sub-elements (SE) proposed in this study. The representative continuum model for this truss-lattice material such as the effective strain and stress relationship can be formulated by the homogenization procedure based on the notation of averaged mechanical properties. The volume fractions of micro-scale struts have a significant influence on the effective strength as well as the relative density in the lattice plate with replicable unit cell structures. Most of the strength contribution in the lattice material is induced by axial stiffness under uniform stretching or compression responses. Therefore, continuum based constitutive models composed of homogenized member stiffness include these mechanical characteristics with respect to strength, internal stress state, material density based on the volume fraction and even failure modes. It can be also recognized that the stress state of micro-scale struts is directly associated with the continuum constitutive model. The plastic flow at the micro-scale stress can extend the envelope of the analytical stress function on the surface of macro-scale stress derived from homogenized constitutive equations. The main focus of this study is to investigate the basic topology of unit cell structures with the cubic symmetric system and to formulate the plastic models to predict pressure dependent macro-scale stress surface functions.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.35-43
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• 2009

Two types of piloti-type high-rise RC building structures having irregularity in the lower two stories were selected as prototypes, and nonlinear time history analysis was performed using OpenSees to verify the analysis technique and to investigate the seismic capacity of those buildings. One of the buildings studied had a symmetrical moment-resisting frame (BF), while the other had an infilled shear wall in only one of the exterior frames (ESW). A fiber model, consisting of concrete and reinforcing bar represented from the stress-strain relationship, was adapted and used to simulate the nonlinearity of members, and MVLEM (Multi Vertical Linear Element Model) was used to simulate the behavior of the wall. The analytical results simulate the behavior of piloti-type high-rise RC building structures well, including the stiffness and yield force of piloti stories, the rocking behavior of the upper structure and the variation of the axial stiffness of the column due to variation in loading condition. However, MVLEM has a limitation in simulating the abrupt increasing lateral stiffness of a wall, due to the torsional mode behavior of the building. The design force obtained from a nonlinear time history analysis was shown to be about $20{\sim}30%$ smaller than that obtained in the experiment. For this reason, further research is required to match the analytical results with real structures, in order to use nonlinear time history analysis in designing a piloti-type high-rise RC building.