• Wind and Structures
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.217-230
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• 2006

This paper describes a procedure to develop fragility curves for woodframe structures subjected to lateral wind loads. The fragilities are cast in terms of horizontal displacement criteria (maximum drift at the top of the shearwalls). The procedure is illustrated through the development of fragility curves for one and two-story residential woodframe buildings in high wind regions. The structures were analyzed using a monotonic pushover analysis to develop the relationship between displacement and base shear. The base shear values were then transformed to equivalent nominal wind speeds using information on the geometry of the baseline buildings and the wind load equations (and associated parameters) in ASCE 7-02. Displacement vs. equivalent nominal wind speed curves were used to determine the critical wind direction, and Monte Carlo simulation was used along with wind load parameter statistics provided by Ellingwood and Tekie (1999) to construct displacement vs. wind speed curves. Wind speeds corresponding to a presumed limit displacement were used to construct fragility curves. Since the fragilities were fit well using a lognormal CDF and had similar logarithmic standard deviations (${\xi}$), a quick analysis to develop approximate fragilities is possible, and this also is illustrated. Finally, a compound fragility curve, defined as a weighted combination of individual fragilities, is developed.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.389-404
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• 2015

In this study, residential building damage states observed from a post-tornado damage survey in Joplin after a 2011 EF 5 tornado were used to reconstruct the near-surface wind field. It was based on well-studied relationships between Degrees of Damage (DOD) of building and wind speeds in the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale. A total of 4,166 one- or two-family residences (FR12) located in the study area were selected and their DODs were recorded. Then, the wind speeds were estimated with the EF scale. The peak wind speed profile estimated from damage of buildings was used to fit a translating analytical vortex model. Agreement between simulated peak wind speeds and observed damages confirms the feasibility of using post-tornado damage surveys for reconstructing the near-surface wind field. In addition to peak wind speeds, the model can create the time history of wind speed and direction at any given point, offering opportunity to better understand tornado parameters and wind field structures. Future work could extend the method to tornadoes of different characteristics and therefore improve model's generalizability.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.957-976
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• 2015

Recently, two energy-based response parameters, i.e., the absolute and the relative elastic input energy equivalent velocity, have been receiving a lot of research attention. Several studies, in fact, have demonstrated the potential of these intensity measures in the prediction of the seismic structural response. Although some ground motion prediction equations have been developed for these parameters, they only provide marginal distributions without information about the joint occurrence of the spectral values at different periods. In order to build new prediction models for the two equivalent velocities, a large set of ground motion records is used to calculate the correlation coefficients between the response spectral values corresponding to different periods and components of the ground motion. Then, functional forms adopted in models from the literature are calibrated to fit the obtained data. A new functional form is proposed to improve the predictions of the considered models from the literature. The components of the ground motion considered in this study are the two horizontal ones only. Potential uses of the proposed equations in addition to the prediction of the correlation coefficients of the equivalent velocity spectral values are shown, such as the prediction of derived intensity measures and the development of conditional mean spectra.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.69-81
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• 2015

A new magnetite-silica core/shell nanocomposite ($Fe_3O4@nSiO_2@mSiO_2$) was synthesized and functionalized with trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS). The prepared nanocomposite was used for the removal of diesel oil from aqueous media. The characterization of magnetite-silica nanocomposite was studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), surface area measurement, and vibrating sample magnetization (VSM). Results have shown that the desired structure was obtained and surface modification was successfully carried out. FTIR analysis has confirmed the presence of TMCS on the surface of magnetite silica nanocomposites. The low- angle XRD pattern of nanocomposites indicated the mesoscopic structure of silica shell. Furthermore, TEM results have shown the core/shell structure with porous silica shell. Adsorption kinetic studies indicated that the nanocomposite was able to remove 80% of the oil contaminant during 2 h and fit well with the pseudo-second order model. Equilibrium studies at room temperature showed that the experimental data fitted well with Freundlich isotherm. The magnetic property of nanocomposite facilitated the separation of solid phase from aqueous solution.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2012

An empirical predictive relationship correlating bracketed duration to earthquake magnitude, site-to-source distance, and local site conditions (i.e. rock vs. stiff soil) for stable continental regions of North America is presented herein. The correlation was developed from data from 620 horizontal motions for central and eastern North America (CENA), consisting of 28 recorded motions and 592 scaled motions. The bracketed duration data was comprised of nonzero and zero durations. The non-linear mixed-effects regression technique was used to fit a predictive model to the nonzero duration data. To account for the zero duration data, logistic regression was conducted to model the probability of zero duration occurrences. Then, the probability models were applied as weighting functions to the NLME regression results. Comparing the bracketed durations for CENA motions with those from active shallow crustal regions (e.g. western North America: WNA), the motions in CENA have longer bracketed durations than those in the WNA. Especially for larger magnitudes at far distances, the bracketed durations in CENA tend to be significantly longer than those in WNA.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.989-1003
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• 2014

In the preliminary design stage of an RC 3D-frame, repeated sequential analyses to determine optimal members' sizes and the investigation of the parameters required to minimize the differential column shortening are computational effort consuming, especially when considering various types of loads such as dead load, temperature action, time dependent effects, construction and live loads. Because the desired accuracy at this stage does not justify such luxury, two backpropagation feedforward artificial neural networks have been proposed in order to approximate this information. Instead of using a commercial software package, many references providing advanced principles have been considered to code a program and generate these neural networks. The first one predicts the typical amount of time between two phases, needed to achieve the minimum maximorum differential column shortening. The other network aims to prognosticate sequential analysis results from those of the simultaneous analysis. After the training stages, testing procedures have been carried out in order to ensure the generalization ability of these respective systems. Numerical cases are studied in order to find out how good these ANN match with the sequential finite element analysis. Comparison reveals an acceptable fit, enabling these systems to be safely used in the preliminary design stage.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.623-647
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• 2014

In this paper, a probability distribution which is consistent with the observed phenomenon at the roof corner and, also on other portions of the roof, of a low-rise building is proposed. The model is consistent with the choice of probability density function suggested by the statistical thermodynamics of open systems and turbulence modelling in fluid mechanics. After presenting the justification based on physical phenomenon and based on statistical arguments, the fit of alpha-stable distribution for prediction of extreme negative wind pressure coefficients is explored. The predictions are compared with those actually observed during wind tunnel experiments (using wind tunnel experimental data obtained from the aerodynamic database of Tokyo Polytechnic University), and those predicted by using Gumbel minimum and Hermite polynomial model. The predictions are also compared with those estimated using a recently proposed non-parametric model in regions where stability criterion (in skewness-kurtosis space) is satisfied. From the comparisons, it is noted that the proposed model can be used to estimate the extreme peak negative wind pressure coefficients. The model has an advantage that it is consistent with the physical processes proposed in the literature for explaining large fluctuations at the roof corners.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.85-97
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• 2020

The accurate estimation of the buffeting response of a bridge pylon is related to the quality of the bridge construction. To evaluate the influence of wind field characteristics on the buffeting response of a pylon in a trumpet-shaped mountain pass, this paper deduced a multimodal coupled buffeting frequency domain calculation method for a variable-section bridge tower under the twisted wind profile condition based on quasi-steady theory. Through the long-term measurement of the wind field of the trumpet-shaped mountain pass, the wind characteristics were studied systematically. The effects of the wind characteristics, wind yaw angles, mean wind speeds, and wind profiles on the buffeting response were discussed. The results show that the mean wind characteristics are affected by the terrain and that the wind profile is severely twisted. The optimal fit distribution of the monthly and annual maximum wind speeds is the log-logistic distribution, and the generalized extreme value I distribution may underestimate the return wind speed. The design wind characteristics will overestimate the buffeting response of the pylon. The buffeting response of the pylon is obviously affected by the wind yaw angle and mean wind speed. To accurately estimate the buffeting response of the pylon in an actual construction, it is necessary to consider the twisted effect of the wind profile.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.343-355
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• 2011

This paper presented the model to predict the chloride diffusion coefficient in tension zone of plain concrete under flexural cyclic load. The fictitious crack based analytical model was used together with the stress degradation law in cracked zone to predict crack growth of plain concrete beams under flexural cyclic load. Then, under cyclic load, the chloride diffusion, in the steady state and one dimensional regime, through the tension zone of the plain concrete beam, in which microcracks were formed by a large number of cycles, was simulated with assumptions of continuously straight crack and uniform-size crack. The numerical analysis in terms of the chloride diffusion coefficient, $D_{tot}$, normalized $D_{tot}$, crack width and crack length was issued as a function of the load cycle, N, and load level, SR. The nonlinear model as regarding with the chloride diffusion coefficient in tension zone and the load level was proposed. According to this model, the chloride diffusion increases with increasing load level. The predictions using model fit well with experimental data when we adopted suitable crack density and tortuosity parameter.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.55-58
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• 2008

Hydroforming is a forming technology in which a steel tube is set in a die and formed to fit a specified shape by applying hydraulic pressure from inside the tube while also applying force in the tube axial direction (axial feed). In present study, the entire design process chain for an automotive cross-member was simulated and developed using hydroforming technology on high-strength steel. The part design stage required a feasibility study. The process was designed using computer-aided design techniques to confirm the actual hydroformability of the part in detail. The possibility of using hydroformable cross-member parts was examined using cross-sectional analyses, which were essential to ensure the formability of the tube material for each forming step, including pre-bending and hydroforming. The die design stage included all the components of a prototyping tool. Press interference was investigated in terms of geometry and thinning.