• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.383-407
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• 2012

A numerical approach to simulate the behaviour of timber shear walls under both static and dynamic loading is proposed. Because the behaviour of timber shear walls hinges on the behaviour of the nail connections, the force-displacement behaviour of sheathing-to-framing nail connections are first determined and then used to define the hysteretic properties of finite elements representing these connections. The model nails are subsequently implemented into model walls. The model walls are verified using experimental results for both monotonic and cyclic loading. It is demonstrated that the complex hysteretic behaviour of timber shear walls can be reasonably represented using model shear walls in which nonlinear material failure is concentrated only at the sheathing-to-framing nail connections.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.69-75
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• 1989

The primary purpose of using bracings is to improve the lateral rigidity of main structural system, i.e., columns and beams, by reinforciing them with much smaller members. In conventional design methods brackings are considered as tension-only members, since difficulties arise in the analysis when the P-.DELTA. effects and post-buckling behaviour of the bracing members are taken into account. This is particulary true fox X-bracings. Recently, however, both analytical and experimental studies have been conducted to investigate the more precise and real behaviour of bracing members, especially for the nonlinear and plastic behaviour under cyclic loads. In this study, an analytical model is proposed to investigate the nonlinear behavior of steel bracing members subjected to cyclic loads. Results of the analysis were compared with previous experimental results, and good agreements were obtained between these results.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.71-79
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• 2018

The nonlinear vibration analysis of a magneto-rheological elastomer (MRE) sandwich plate is conducted experimentally. Experiments have been performed in order to construct the frequency-response curves in the vicinity of the fundamental natural frequency of an MRE sandwich plate (plate A) in either the absence or presence of a localised external magnetic field at 3 different geometrical locations, for both small and medium magnetic fields. Furthermore, experiments have also been conducted on a pure aluminium plate (plate B) with an equal thickness to the MRE sandwich plate (plate A) in order to examine the influence of the MRE layer on the nonlinear dynamics of the system. An electrodynamic shaker was used to directly force each system and the displacement at the centre of the plate was measured. Meanwhile, permanent magnets were used to apply a localised magnetic field for the experiments where the MRE sandwich plate was subject to an external magnetic field. It was observed all the MRE systems displayed strong hardening-type nonlinear behaviour, however, with increasing magnetic field this behaviour transitioned to a weak hardening-type nonlinearity.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.501-516
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• 2017

Numerical simulations are prevalently used to evaluate the seismic behaviour of structures. The accuracy of the simulation results depends directly on the accuracy of the modelling techniques employed to simulate the behaviour of individual structural members. An empirical modelling technique is employed in this paper to simulate the behaviour of column members under cyclic and seismic loading. Despite the common modelling techniques, this technique is capable of simulating two important aspects of the cyclic and seismic behaviour of columns simultaneously. The proposed fiber-based modelling technique captures explicitly the interaction between the bending moment and the axial force in columns, and the cyclic deterioration of the hysteretic behaviour of these members is implicitly taken into account. The fiber-based model is calibrated based on the cyclic behaviour of square hollow steel sections. The behaviour of several column archetypes is investigated under a dual cyclic loading protocol to develop a benchmark database before the calibration procedure. The dual loading protocol used in this study consists of both axial and lateral loading cycles with varying amplitudes. After the calibration procedure, a regression analysis is conducted to derive an equation for predicting a varying calibrated modelling parameter. Finally, several nonlinear time-history analyses are conducted on a 6-story steel special moment frame in order to investigate how the results of numerical simulations can be affected by employing the intended modelling technique for columns instead of other common modelling techniques.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.423-438
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• 2008

This paper reports an experimental investigation of the behaviour of concrete-encased composite columns subjected to short-term axial load and biaxial bending. In the study, six square and four L-shaped cross section of both short and slender composite column specimens were constructed and tested to examine the load-deflection behaviour and to obtain load carrying capacities. The main variables in the tests were considered as eccentricity of applied axial load, concrete compressive strength, cross section, and slenderness effect. A theoretical procedure considering the nonlinear behaviour of the materials is proposed for determination of the behaviour of eccentrically loaded short and slender composite columns. Two approaches are taken into account to describe the flexural rigidity (EI) used in the analysis of slender composite columns. Observed failure mode and experimental and theoretical load-deflection behaviour of the specimens are presented in the paper. The composite column specimens and also some composite columns available in the literature have been analysed and found to be in good agreement with the test results.

• East Asian mathematical journal
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• v.2
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• pp.9-17
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• 1986

• Magazine of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.77-87
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• 1999

The conventional design of prestressed concrete box girder bridges has been based on the linear elastic analyses using simplified geometric models. To overcome the restriction involved in the simplifications, a macro element for the rational analysis of prestressed concrete box girder bridges with variable cross sections is incorporated in the present analysis. Through the adoption of nonlinear material models, the behaviour of prestressed box bridges up to ultimate loading stage can be examined. The time dependent material models included in the present macro element code enable to predict the long term behaviour of prestressed concrete box girder bridges. The proposed macro element code with the nonlinear material models and time dependent routines can be efficiently used for the realistic analysis of prestressed concrete box girder bridges with arbitrary shapes.

• Bulletin of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.11-16
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• 1990

The effects on the dynamic behaviour of the geometric nonlinearity and large dynamic tensile forces occurring in hostile sea environments must be investigated for assessing extreme tensions and fatigue life expectancy of cable. In this paper, the combined effects on the cable dynamic responses are shown through comparisons between numerical solutions to the cable dynamic equations with geometric nonlinearity and large tensile force terms as well as nonlinear drag term and those to the cable equations with only nonlinear drag term. It is found that, in steady state, the cambined effects increase the maximum dynamic tension and reduce the magnitude of the minimum of the dynamic tension at the middle of the cable. This decrease together with the increase of the maximum dynamic tension, cause the average tension to become higher and, therefore, it may deteriorate the cable fatigue life.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.451-470
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• 2003

The classical two-degree-of-freedom (2-d-o-f) "sectional model" is of common use to study the dynamics of suspension bridges. It takes into account the first pair of vertical and torsional modes of the bridge and describes well global oscillations caused by wind actions on the deck, yielding very useful information on the overall behaviour and the aerodynamic and aeroelastic response; however, it does not consider relative oscillations between main cables and deck. On the contrary, the 4-d-o-f model described in the two Parts of this paper includes longitudinal deformability of the hangers (assumed linear elastic in tension and unable to react in compression) and thus allows to take into account not only global oscillations, but also relative oscillations between main cables and deck. In particular, when the hangers go slack, large nonlinear oscillations are possible; if the hangers remain taut, the oscillations remain small and essentially linear: the latter behaviour has been the specific object of Part I (Sepe and Augusti 2001), while the present Part II investigates the nonlinear behaviour (coexisting large and/or small amplitude oscillations) under harmonic actions on the cables and/or on the deck, such as might be generated by vortex shedding. Because of the discontinuities and strong nonlinearity of the governing equations, the response has been investigated numerically. The results obtained for sample values of mechanical and forcing parameters seems to confirm that relative oscillations cannot a priori be excluded for very long span bridges under wind-induced loads, and they can stimulate a discussion on the actual possibility of such phenomena.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.207-222
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• 2010

Fire incident in buildings is common, so the fire safety design of the framed structure is imperative, especially for the unprotected or partly protected bare steel frames. However, software for structural fire analysis is not widely available. As a result, the performance-based structural fire design is urged on the basis of using user-friendly and conventional nonlinear computer analysis programs so that engineers do not need to acquire new structural analysis software for structural fire analysis and design. The tool is desired to have the capacity of simulating the different fire scenarios and associated detrimental effects efficiently, which includes second-order P-D and P-d effects and material yielding. Also the nonlinear behaviour of large-scale structure becomes complicated when under fire, and thus its simulation relies on an efficient and effective numerical analysis to cope with intricate nonlinear effects due to fire. To this end, the present fire study utilizes a second-order elastic/plastic analysis software NIDA to predict structural behaviour of bare steel framed structures at elevated temperatures. This fire study considers thermal expansion and material degradation due to heating. Degradation of material strength with increasing temperature is included by a set of temperature-stress-strain curves according to BS5950 Part 8 mainly, which implicitly allows for creep deformation. This finite element stiffness formulation of beam-column elements is derived from the fifth-order PEP element which facilitates the computer modeling by one member per element. The Newton-Raphson method is used in the nonlinear solution procedure in order to trace the nonlinear equilibrium path at specified elevated temperatures. Several numerical and experimental verifications of framed structures are presented and compared against solutions in literature. The proposed method permits engineers to adopt the performance-based structural fire analysis and design using typical second-order nonlinear structural analysis software.