• Wind and Structures
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2009

In this paper, the airflow around an ideal thin plate (hereafter referred to as ITP) with various ratios of central slot is simulated by using the finite-difference-method (FDM)-based Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian descriptions for the rigid oscillating body. The numerical procedure employs the second-order projection scheme to decouple the governing equations, and the multigrid algorithm with three levels to improve the computational efficiency in evaluating of the pressure equation. The present CFD method is validated through comparing the computed flutter derivatives of the ITP without slot to Theodorsen analytical solutions. Then, the unsteady aerodynamics of the ITP with and without central slot is investigated. It is found that even a smaller ratio of central slot of the ITP has notable effects on pressure distributions of the downstream section, and the pressure distributions on the downstream section will further be significantly affected by the slot ratio and the reduced wind speeds. Continuous increase of $A_2^*$ with the increase of central slot may be the key feature of the slotted ITP. Finally, flutter analyses based on the flutter derivatives of the slotted ITP are performed, and moreover, flutter instabilities of a scaled sectional model of a twin-deck bridge with various ratios of deck slot are investigated. The results confirm that the central slot is effective to improve bridge flutter stabilities, and that the flutter critical wind speeds increase with the increase of slot ratio.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.359-370
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• 2014

In this experimental and numerical study, the effect of plate thickness, the diameter of circular cutout, the distance between circular cutouts and rowing orientation angle effect (${\theta}$) on the buckling load of E-glass/vinylester pultruded composite beams with single and double circular cutouts, were investigated. The composite beam having 2, 4, and 6 mm thicknesses was produced as [Mat/${\theta}$ /Mat/${\theta}$ /Mat] by using pultrusion technique. Seven different fiber angles as $0^{\circ}$, $15^{\circ}$, $30^{\circ}$, $45^{\circ}$, $60^{\circ}$, $75^{\circ}$, and $90^{\circ}$ were chosen for investigation of rowing orientation angle. The distances between each circular cutout were selected as 15, 30, 45, 60, and 75 mm in the case of double circular cutouts. The diameters of circular cutouts were chosen as 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 mm to investigate the effect of cutout size. The experimental buckling loads were compared with the results calculated from the numerical analysis. ANSYS 11 commercial software was used for numerical study. A good agreement was obtained between numerical and experimental results.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.377-389
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• 2008

An experimental investigation has been conducted to determine the effectiveness of base shield plates in reducing the drag of a rough circular cylinder in a cross flow at Reynolds numbers in the range $3{\times}10^4{\leq}Re{\leq}10.5{\times}10^4$. Three model configurations were investigated and compared: a plane cylinder (PC), a cylinder with a splitter plate (MC1) and a cylinder fitted with base shield plates (MC2). Each configuration was studied in the sub and supercritical flow regimes. The chord of the plates, L, ranged from 0.22 to 1.50D and the cavity width, G, between the plates was in the range from 0 to 0.93D. It is recognized that base shield plates can be employed more effectively than splitter plates to reduce the aerodynamic drag of circular cylinders in both the sub- and supercritical flow regimes. For subcritical flow regime, one can get 53% and 24% drag reductions for the MC2 and MC1 models with L/D=1.0, respectively, compared with the PC model. For supercritical flow regime however, the corresponding drag reductions are 38% and 7%.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.303-315
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• 2017

This paper describes the finite element model for predicting the fundamental performance of embedded steel column base connections under monotonic and cyclic loading. Geometric and material nonlinearities were included in the proposed finite element model. Bauschinger and pinching effects were considered in the simulation of embedded column base connections under cyclic loading. The degradation of steel yield strength and accumulation of plastic damage can be well simulated. The accuracy of the finite element model is examined by comparing the predicted results with independent experimental dataset. It is demonstrated that the finite element model accurately predicts the behaviour and failure models of the embedded steel column base connections. The finite element model is extended to carry out evaluations and parametric studies. The investigated parameters include column embedded length, concrete strength, axial load and base plate thickness. Moreover, analytical models for predicting the initial stiffness and bending moment strength of the embedded column base connection were developed. The comparison between results from analytical models and those from experiments and finite element analysis proved the developed analytical model was accurate and conservative for design purposes.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.251-261
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• 2017

In this paper, thermal effect on the vibration and stability of initially stressed sandwich plates with functionally graded material (FGM) face sheets is analyzed. Material properties of FGM face sheet are graded continuously in the thickness direction. The variation of FGM properties assumes a simple power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The governing equations of arbitrarily initially-stressed sandwich plates including the effects of transverse shear deformation and rotary inertia are derived. The initial stress is taken to be a combination of a uniaxial extensional stress and a pure bending stress in the examples. The eigenvalue problems are formed to study the vibration and buckling characteristics of simple supported initially stressed FGM/metal/FGM plates. The effects of volume fraction index, temperature rise, initial stress and layer thickness of metal on the natural frequencies and buckling loads are investigated. The results reveal that the volume fraction index, initial stresses and layer thickness of metal have significant influence on the vibration and stability of sandwich plates with FGM face sheets.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.231-244
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• 2017

The aim of this study is to develop a semi-analytical method to investigate fluid-structure coupling of concentric double shells with different lengths and elastic behaviours. Co-axial shells constitute a cylindrical circular container and a baffle submerged inside the stored fluid. The container shell is made of functionally graded materials with mechanical properties changing through its thickness continuously. The baffle made of steel is fixed along its top edge and submerged inside fluid such that its lower edge freely moves. The developed approach is verified using a commercial finite element computer code. Although the model is presented for a specific case in the present work, it can be generalized to investigate coupling of shell-plate structures via fluid. It is shown that the coupling between concentric shells occurs only when they vibrate in a same circumferential mode number, n. It is also revealed that the normalized vibration amplitude of the inner shell is about the same as that of the outer shell, for narrower radial gaps. Moreover, the natural frequencies of the fluid-coupled system gradually decrease and converge to the certain values as the gradient index increases.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.243-260
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• 2018

Detection of damages in fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) composite structures is important from the safety and serviceability point of view. Usually, damage is realized as a local reduction of stiffness and if dynamic responses of the structure are sensitive enough to such changes in stiffness, then a well posed inverse problem can provide an efficient solution to the damage detection problem. Usually, such inverse problems are solved within the framework of pattern recognition. Support Vector Machine (SVM) Algorithm is one such methodology, which minimizes the weighted differences between the experimentally observed dynamic responses and those computed using the finite element model- by optimizing appropriately chosen parameters, such as stiffness. A damage detection strategy is hereby proposed using SVM which perform stepwise by first locating and then determining the severity of the damage. The SVM algorithm uses simulations of only a limited number of damage scenarios and trains the algorithm in such a way so as to detect damages at unknown locations by recognizing the pattern of changes in dynamic responses. A rectangular fiber reinforced plastic composite plate has been investigated both numerically and experimentally to observe the efficiency of the SVM algorithm for damage detection. Experimentally determined modal responses, such as natural frequencies and mode shapes are used as observable parameters. The results are encouraging since a high percentage of damage cases have been successfully determined using the proposed algorithm.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.44-55
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• 1996

Since the use of computer for the ship structural design around mid 1960``s, specially many researches on the midship section optimum design were carried out from 1980. For a rule-based optimum design case, there has been a problem of handling a discrete design variable such as plate thickness for a practical use. To deal with the discrete design variable problems and to develop an effective new method using artificial neural network for the ship structural design applications, Neuro-Optimizer combing Hopfield Neural Network and other Simulated Annealing is proposed as a new optimization method and then applied to the fundamental skeletal structures and Midship section of Tanker. From the numerical results, it is confirmed that Neuro-Optimizer could be used effectively as a new optimization method for the structural design.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.57-63
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• 2003

Since new types of vehicles or structures made from thin aluminum alloy are under rapid development and some products are already on the market, welding of aluminium sheet is increasing. MIG(Metal Inert Gas), MIG-Pulse, TIG(Tungsten Inert Gas) welding are the typical Ai welding. MIG welding has the advantage of high speed, but it is difficult to apply to the thin plate, because of bum-through by the high heat input and spatter. MIG-Pulse welding can weld without spatter and burn-through, but when the gap exists at the welding joint, there is quite a possibility of bum-through. TIG welding is difficult to weld at a high speed. AC Pulse welding alternates between DCEP(Direct Current Electrode Positive) and DCEN(Direct Current Electrode Negative). DCEN is higher wire melting rate than DCEP, while lower temperature of droplet than DCEP. In AC Pulse welding, far fixed welding current, wire melting rate increases as the EN ratio increases. For fixed wire feed rate, welding current decreases as the EN ratio increases. Because of these features, the temperature of droplet, the depth of penetration, the width of bead decrease and the reinforcement height increases as EN ratio increases, and these are able to weld at a high speed, lower heat input. It is the purpose of this study that design of AC pulse current waveform for MIG welding of Al sheet and estimation of output characteristic.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.36-45
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• 1996

Fatigue strength of the spot welded lap joint is considerably influenced by corrosive environments. Particularly, the chloride and the sulfide are most injurious to strength of the spot welded lap joint. Therefore, there is a need to evaluate its effect to corrosion fatigue strength for safe life design of spot welded structures. In order to evaluate their corrosion fatigue strength, corrosion fatigue tests on the spot welded lap joints of the uncoated and the coated high strength steel sheets were conducted in air and in 10% NaCl solution. Corrosion fatigue strength of the uncoated specimens were entirely lower than the coated one in NaCl solution, but those of the coated specimens in NaCl solution were lower than in air. And stress distribution in single spon welded lap joint subjected to tension-shear load was investigated by the finite element method. Using these results, we tried to evaluate corrosion fatgue strength of the various spot welded lap joints with maximum stress $\sigma_{max}$ at edge on loading side of the spot welded lap joint. We could find that corrosion fatigue strength could be quantitatively and systematically rearranged by $\sigma_{max}$.