• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.1
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• pp.93-107
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• 2023

In this paper, a density based topology optimization is proposed for generating of supports required in additive manufacturing to maintain the overhanging regions of main structures during layer by layer fabrication process. For this purpose, isogeometric analysis method is employed to model geometry and structural analysis of main and support structures. In order to model the problem two cases are investigated. In the first case, design domain of supports can easily be separated from the main structure by using distinct isogeometric patches. The second case happens when the main structure itself is optimized by using topology optimization and the supports should be designed in the voids of optimum layout. In this case, in order to avoid boundary identification and re-meshing process for separating design domain of supports from main structure, a parameterization technique is proposed to identify the design domain of supports. To achieve this, two density functions are defined over the entire domain to describe the main structure and supporting areas. On the other hand, since supports are under gravity loads while main structure and its stiffness is not completed during manufacturing process, in the proposed method, stiffness of the main structure is considered to be trivial and the gravity loads are also naturally applied to design support structures. By doing so, the results show reasonable supports are created to protect, continuously, overhanging surfaces of the main structure. Several examples are presented to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method and compare the results with literature.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.167-174
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• 2023

This study evaluated slope stability through a case study to determine the disaster risks associated with increased deforestation in structures, including schools and apartments, located in urban areas adjacent to slopes. The slope behind the ○○ High School in Gwangju, Korea, collapsed owing to heavy rain in August 2018. Historically, rainwater drained well around the slope during the rainy season. However, during the collapse, a large amount of seepage water flowed out of the slope surface and a shallow failure occurred along the saturated soil layer. To analyze the cause of the collapse, the images of the upper area of the slope, which could not be directly identified, were captured using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). A digital elevation model of the slope was constructed through image analysis, making it possible to calculate the rainfall flow direction and the area, width, and length of logging areas. The change in the instability of the slope over time owing to rainfall lasting ten days before the collapse was analyzed through numerical analysis. Imaging techniques based on the UAV images were found to be effective in analyzing ground disaster risk maps in urban areas. Furthermore, the analysis was found to predict the failure before its actual occurrence.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.203-209
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• 2023

One major advantage of ground penetrating radar (GPR) over other field test methods is its ability to obtain subsurface images of roads in an efficient and non-intrusive manner. Not only can the strata of pavement structure be retrieved from the GPR scan images, but also various irregularities, such as cracks and internal cavities. This article introduces a deep learning-based approach, focusing on detecting subsurface cracks by recognizing their distinctive hyperbolic signatures in the GPR scan images. Given the limited road sections that contain target features, two data augmentation methods, i.e., feature insertion and generation, are implemented, resulting in 9,174 GPR scan images. One of the most popular real-time object detection models, You Only Learn One Representation (YOLOR), is trained for detecting the target features for two types of subsurface cracks: bottom cracks and full cracks from the GPR scan images. The former represents partial cracks initiated from the bottom of the asphalt layer or base layers, while the latter includes extended cracks that penetrate these layers. Our experiments show the test average precisions of 0.769, 0.803 and 0.735 for all cracks, bottom cracks, and full cracks, respectively. This demonstrates the practicality of deep learning-based methods in detecting subsurface cracks from GPR scan images.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.41-49
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• 2023

In developing countries, solid waste is typically disposed of inappropriately, which has a negative impact on the environment and healthcare. One of the most serious environmental issues is the management of municipal solid waste because of the huge increase in waste generation brought on by industrialization, economic development, urbanization, and the exponential growth of Gurugram City's population. Municipal Corporation Gurugram (MCG) handles solid waste collection, transportation, and disposal. The city generates over 1100 tons of solid waste per day. In consideration of this, the current study employed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats framework called SWOT analysis to critically examine the city's current methods for the management of municipal solid waste to provide more effective policy solutions. For conducting the analysis, the questionnaires and other interviews were conducted to gather information from households and officials in the city, and the observation made during field visits were recorded. The analysis shows that the waste management issue is getting worse for a variety of causes, including a lack of regulatory enforcement, insufficient technical and financial resources, insufficient people's participation, inadequate execution of policies, a lack of political priorities, and poor coordination between authorities.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.81 no.1
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• pp.103-115
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• 2022

The prediction error variances for frequencies are usually considered as unknown in the Bayesian system identification process. However, the error variances for mode shapes are taken as known to reduce the dimension of an identification problem. The present study attempts to explore the effectiveness of Bayesian approach of model parameters updating using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique considering the prediction error variances for both the frequencies and mode shapes. To remove the ergodicity of Markov Chain, the posterior distribution is obtained by Gaussian Random walk over the proposal distribution. The prior distributions of prediction error variances of modal evidences are implemented through inverse gamma distribution to assess the effectiveness of estimation of posterior values of model parameters. The issue of incomplete data that makes the problem ill-conditioned and the associated singularity problem is prudently dealt in by adopting a regularization technique. The proposed approach is demonstrated numerically by considering an eight-storey frame model with both complete and incomplete modal data sets. Further, to study the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a comparative study with regard to accuracy and computational efficacy of the proposed approach is made with the Sequential Monte Carlo approach of model parameter updating.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.497-508
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• 2022

Tailings fluidization (i.e., tailings behave as being fluidized) under cyclic loading is one concern during the construction of tailings dams, especially in the shallow tailings layers. The primary goal of this study is to evaluate the responses of tailings under cyclic loadings and the tailings potential for fluidization. A series of cyclic triaxial undrained and drained tests were performed on medium and dense tailings samples under various cyclic stress ratios (CSR). The results indicated that axial strain and excess pore water pressure accumulated over time due to cyclic loading. However, the accumulations were dependent on CSR values, densities, and drainage conditions. The fluidization potential analysis in this study was then evaluated based on the obtained cyclic axial strain and excess pore water pressure. As a result, tailings samples were stable (unfluidized) under small CSR values, and the critical CSR values, where the tailings fluidized, varied depending on the density of tailings samples. Tailings fluidization is triggered as cyclic stress ratios reach critical values. In this study, the critical CSR values were found to be 0.15 and 0.40 for medium and dense samples, respectively.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.355-363
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• 2023

The main purpose of this study is to characterize the size-dependent strain rate sensitivity in structural steel using the continue stiffness measurement (CSM) indentation. A series of experiments, such as CSM indentation and optical microscope examination, has been performed at the room temperature at different rate conditions. The results indicated that indentation hardness, strain rate, and flow stress showed size-dependent behavior. The dependency of indentation hardness, strain rate, and flow stress on the indentation size was attributed to the transition of the dislocation nucleation rate and the dislocation behaviors during the indentation process. Since both hardness and strain rate showed the size-dependent behavior, SRS tended to depend on the indentation depth. The results indicated that the SRS was quite high over 2.0 at the indentation depth of 240 nm and quickly dropping to 0.08, finally around 0.046 at large indents. The SRS values at large indentations strongly agree with the general range reported for several types of low-carbon steel in the literature (Chatfield and Rote 1974, Nguyen et al. 2018b, Luecke et al. 2005). The results from the present study can be used in both static and dynamic analyses of structures as well as to assess and understand the deformation mechanism and the stress-state of material underneath the indenter tip during the process of the indentation testing.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.315-337
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• 2023

The steel structure is an assembly of individual structural members joined together by connections. The connections are the focal point to transfer the forces which is susceptible to damage easily. It is challenging to replace the affected connection parts after an earthquake. Hence, steel plates are utilised as a structural fuse that absorbs connection forces and fails first. The objective of the present research is to develop a beam-column end plate connection with single and dual fuse and study the effect of single fuse, dual fuse and combined action of fuse and damper. In this research, seismic resilient beam-column end plate connection is developed in the form of structural fuse. The novel connection consists of one main fuse was placed horizontally and secondary fuse was placed vertically over main fuse. The specimens are fabricated with the variation in number of fuse (single and dual) and position of fuse (beam flange top and bottom). From the fabricated ten specimens five specimens were loaded monotonically and five cyclically. The experimental results are compared with Finite Element Analysis results of Arunkumar and Umamaheswari (2022). The results are critically assessed in the aspect of moment-rotation behaviour, strain in connection components, connection stiffness, energy dissipation characteristics and ductility. While comparing the performance of total five specimens, the connection with fuse exhibited superior performance than the conventional connection. An equation is proposed for the moment of resistance of end-plate connection without and with structural fuse.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.451-454
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• 2023

Landslides are one of the natural disasters that cause a lot of financial and human losses every year It will be all over the world. China, especially. The Mainland China can be divided into 12 zones, including 4 high susceptibility zones, 7 medium susceptibility zones and 1 low susceptibility zone, according to landslide proneness. Climate and physiography are always at risk of landslides. The purpose of this research is to prepare a landslide hazard map using the Hierarchical Analysis Process method. In the GIS environment, it is in a part of China watershed. In order to prepare a landslide hazard map, first with Field studies, a distribution map of landslides in the area and then a map of factors affecting landslides were prepared. In the next stage, the factors are prioritized using expert opinion and hierarchical analysis process and nine factors including height, slope, slope direction, geological units, land use, distance from Waterway, distance from the road, distance from the fault and rainfall map were selected as effective factors. Then Landslide risk zoning in the region was done using the hierarchical analysis process model. The results showed that the three factors of geological units, distance from the road and slope are the most important have had an effect on the occurrence of landslides in the region, while the two factors of fault and rainfall have the least effect The landslide occurred in the region.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.167-181
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• 2023

The determination of the blast protection level and the corresponding minimum load-bearing capacity for a laminated glass (LG) window is of crucial importance for safety and security design purposes. In this paper, the focus is given to the window response under near-field blast loading, i.e., where relatively small explosives would be activated close to the target, representative of attack scenarios using small commercial drones. In general, the assessment of the load-bearing capacity of a window is based on complex and expensive experiments, which can be conducted for a small number of configurations. On the other hand, nowadays, validated numerical simulations tools based on the Finite Element Method (FEM) are available to partially substitute the physical tests for the assessment of the performance of various LG systems, especially for the far-field blast loading. However, very little literature is available on the LG window performance under near-field blast loads, which differs from far-field situations in two points: i) the duration of the load is very short, since the blast wavelength tends to increase with the distance and ii) the load distribution is not uniform over the window surface, as opposed to the almost plane wave configuration for far-field configurations. Therefore, the current study focuses on the performance assessment and structural behaviour of LG windows under near-field blasts. Typical behavioural trends are investigated, by taking into account possible relevant damage mechanisms in the LG window components, while size effects for target LG windows are also addressed under a multitude of blast loading configurations.