• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.727-735
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• 2021

Recently, non-destructive health monitoring methods such as magnetic flux leakage (MFL) method, have become popular due to their advantages over destructive methods. Currently, numerical study on this field has been limited to simplified studies by only obtaining MFL instead of induced voltage inside coil sensor. In this study, it was proposed to perform a novel numerical simulation of MFL's coil sensor by considering vital parameters including specimen's motion with constant velocity and saturation status of specimen in time domain. A steel-rod specimen with two stepwise cross-sectional changes (i.e., 21% and 16%) was fabricated using low carbon steel. In order to evaluate the results of numerical simulation, an experimental test was also conducted using a magnetic probe, with same size specimen and test parameters, exclusively. According to comparative results of numerical simulation and experimental test, similar signal amplitude and signal pattern were observed. Thus, proposed numerical simulation method can be used as a reliable source to check efficiency of sensor probe when different size specimens with different defects should be inspected.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.799-810
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• 2021

When monitoring the structural integrity of a bridge using data collected through accelerometers, identifying the profile of the load exerted on the bridge from the vehicles passing over it becomes a crucial task. In this study, the speed and location of vehicles on the deck of a bridge is reconfigured using real-time video to implicitly associate the load applied to the bridge with the response from the bridge sensors to develop an image-based deep learning network model. Instead of directly measuring the load that a moving vehicle exerts on the bridge, the intention in the proposed method is to replace the correlation between the movement of vehicles from CCTV images and the corresponding response by the bridge with a neural network model. Given the framework of an input-output-based system identification, CCTV images secured from the bridge and the acceleration measurements from a cantilevered beam are combined during the process of training the neural network model. Since in reality, structural damage cannot be induced in a bridge, the focus of the study is on identifying local changes in parameters by adding mass to a cantilevered beam in the laboratory. The study successfully identified the change in the material parameters in the beam by using the deep-learning neural network model. Also, the method correctly predicted the acceleration response of the beam. The proposed approach can be extended to the structural health monitoring of actual bridges, and its sensitivity to damage can also be improved through optimization of the network training.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.331-343
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• 2022

Masonry structures are the most common structural systems that have been used almost all over the world from the earliest ages of history to the present day. These structural systems are often unfavorably affected by natural disasters such as earthquakes. The main reason for this is that they are built without sufficient engineering knowledge. On January 24, 2020, a severe earthquake occurred near the Sivrice District of Elazığ in eastern Turkey. According to the Turkish Directorate of Disaster and Emergency Management (AFAD), the magnitude of the earthquake was 6.8 and the focal depth 8 km. This earthquake caused damage and destruction to the masonry structures used extensively in the region. The Hacı Yusuf Taş (new) mosque in the Malatya city center, located about 64 km from the epicenter of the earthquake, was among the buildings affected by the earthquake. The mosque has smooth-cut stone walls and domes made of brick units. The main dome of the structure was severely damaged during the earthquake. In this study, information about the earthquake is first provided, and the damage to the mosque is then interpreted via photographs. In addition, two separate finite element models were produced, where the current state of mosque and solution suggestions are presented, and response spectrum analyses were carried out. According to these analyses and field observations, a buttress system to the main walls of the structure should be constructed in the direction which has little lateral rigidity.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.511-522
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• 2022

An experimental investigation to study the behaviour of connections between cold-formed steel (CFS) joist and plywood structural panel is presented in this paper. Material testing on CFS and plywood was carried out to assess their mechanical properties and behaviour. Push-out tests were conducted to determine the slip modulus and failure modes of three different shear connection types. The employed shear connectors in the study were; size 14 (6mm diameter) self-drilling screw, M12 coach screw, and M12 nut and bolt. The effective bending stiffness of composite cold-formed steel and plywood T-beam assembly is calculated based on the slip modulus values computed from push-out tests. The effective bending stiffness was increased by 25.5%, 18% and 30.2% for self-drilling screw, coach screw, nut and bolt, respectively, over the stiffness of cold-formed steel joist alone. This finding suggests the potential to enhance the structural performance of composite cold-formed steel and timber flooring system by mobilisation of composite action present between timber sheathing and CFS joist.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.35-38
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• 2021

Conventional direct current (DC) rotating machines are usually used for crane and press machine using high torque in metal and steel industries, because of a constant output power along variable rotating speed. A general DC motor with permanent field magnets could not increase a magnetic flux density at a gap between armature coils and field magnets. However, a superconducting DC motor has field magnets composed with high temperature superconducting (HTS) coils and it could increase the magnetic flux density at the gap to over 10 times than those of a general DC motor by control the excitation current into HTS coils. The superconducting DC motor could be operated with extremely high torque and constant output power at a low rotational speed. In this paper, a 500 W superconducting DC rotating machine was conceptually designed with a LN₂ (Liquid Nitrogen) cooling method and the operation characteristics results of HTS field magnets were presented. The two no-insulation HTS magnets for a 500 W superconducting DC rotating machine were fabricated. The excitation current for the HTS magnets could be controlled from 0 to 40 A. This test results will be available to design large-sized HTS magnets for a number of hundred kW class superconducting DC rotating machine under LN₂ cooling system.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.131-148
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• 2022

The paper presents the surface-modified NACA 2412 airfoil performance with variable cavity characteristics such as size, shape and orientation, by numerically investigated with the pre-validation study. The study attempts to improve the airfoil aerodynamic performance at 30 m/s with a variable angle of attack (AOA) ranging from 0° to 20° under Reynolds number (R_e) 4.4×10⁵. Through passive surface control techniques, a boundary layer control strategy has been enhanced to improve flow performance. An intense background survey has been carried out over the modifier orientation, shape, and numbers to differentiate the sub-critical and post-critical flow regimes. The wall-bounded flows along with its governing equations are investigated using Reynolds Average Navier Strokes (RANS) solver coupled with one-equational transport Spalart Allmaras model. It was observed that the aerodynamic efficiency of cavity airfoil had been improved by enhancing maximum lift to drag ratio ((l/d) max) with delayed flow separation by keeping the flow attached beyond 0.25C even at a higher angle of attack. Detailed investigation on the cavity distribution pattern reveals that cavity depth and width are essential in degrading the early flow separation characteristics. In this study, overall general performance comparison, all the cavity airfoil models have delayed stalling compared to the original airfoil.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.297-307
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• 2022

Over the past few decades, the use of wind tunnels has been increasing as a result of the rapid growth of cities and the urge to build taller and non-typical structures. While the accuracy of a wind tunnel study on a tall building requires several aspects, the precise extraction of wind pressure plays a significant role in a successful pressure test. In this research study, a low-cost expandable synchronous multi-pressure sensing system (SMPSS) was developed and validated at Ryerson University's wind tunnel (RU-WT) using electronically scanning pressure sensors for wind tunnel tests. The pressure system consists of an expandable 128 pressure sensors connected to a compact data acquisition and a host workstation. The developed system was examined and validated to be used for tall buildings by comparing mean, root mean square (RMS), and power spectral density (PSD) for the base moments coefficients with the available data from the literature. In addition, the system was examined for evaluating the mean and RMS pressure distribution on a standard low-rise building and were found to be in good agreement with the validation data.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.1
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• pp.101-111
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• 2022

It is widely known that axially loaded fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) confined concrete presents significant and enhanced mechanical properties with reference to the unconfined concrete. Therefore, to predict the mechanical behavior of FRP-confined concrete two quantities-peak strength and ultimate strain are required. Despite the significant advances, the determination of the ultimate strain of FRP-confined concrete is one of the most challenging problems to be resolved. This is often attributed to our persistence in desiring the conventional methods as the sole technique to examine this phenomenon and the complex nature of the ultimate strain of FRP-confined concrete. To bridge the research gap, this study adopted two machine learning (ML) techniques-artificial neural network (ANN) and Gaussian process regression (GPR)-to analyze observations obtained from 627 datasets of FRP-confined concrete circular and non-circular sections under axial loading test. Besides, the techniques are also used to predict the ultimate strain of FRP-confined concrete. Seven parameters namely width/diameter of the specimens, corner radius ratio, the strength of concrete, FRP elastic modulus, FRP thickness, FRP tensile rupture strain, and the axial strain of unconfined concrete-are the input parameters used to predict the ultimate strain of FRP-confined concrete. The results of the current study highlight the merit of using AI techniques in structural engineering applications given their extraordinary ability to comprehend multidimensional phenomena of FRP-confined concrete structures with ease, low computational cost, and high performance over the existing empirical models.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.345-353
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• 2022

The configuration of an open ground floor (pilotis) is a common and very critical irregularity observed in multistory reinforced concrete frame structures. The characteristics and the geometrical formation of the beams of the first story proved to be a critical parameter for the overall seismic behavior of this type of Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures. In this work the combination of open ground floor (pilotis) morphology with very strong perimetrical beams at the level of the first story is studied. The observation of the seismic damages and the in situ measurements of the fundamental period of four buildings with this morphology and Π-shaped plan view are presented herein. Further analytical results of a pilotis type Π-shaped RC structure are also included in the study. From the measurements and the analytical results yield that the open ground floor configuration greatly influences the fundamental period whereas this morphology in combination with strong beams can lead to severe local shear damages in the columns of the ground floor. The structural damage was limited in the columns of the ground floor and yet based on the changes of the in situ measured fundamental period the damaged level is assessed as DI=88%. Furthermore, due to the Π-shape of the plan view the tendency of the parts of the building to move independently strongly influences the distribution of the damages over the ground floor vertical elements.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.139-145
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• 2022

Development in advanced separation processes leads to the significant advancement in polymeric membrane preparation methodology. Therefore, present research investigated the preparation and characterization of cellulose acetate membrane by phase inversion separation method to determine optimized operating parameters. Prepared CA membrane's performance was been analyzed in terms of % rejection and flux. Investigation was conducted to study effect of different parameters such as polymer concentration, evaporation rate, thickness of film, coagulation bath properties, temperature of polymer solution and of the coagulation bath etc. CA membrane was fabricated by taking polymer concentration 10wt% and 11wt% with zero second evaporation time and varying film thickness over non-woven polyester fabric. Effect of coagulation bath temperature (CBT) and casting solution temperature were also been studied. The experimental results from SEM showed that the surface morphology had been changed with polymer r concentration, coagulation bath and casting solution temperature, etc. Lower polymer concentration leads to lower precipitation time giving porous membrane. The prepared membrane was tested for advanced waste water treatment of relevant effluent stream in pilot plant to study flux and rejection behavior of the membrane.