• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.814-823
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• 2012

Electric power transmission utilities make an effort to maximize profit by reducing their electricity supply and operation costs while maintaining their reliability. The development of maintenance strategies for aged components is one of the more effective ways to achieve this goal. The reliability centered approach is a key method in providing optimal maintenance strategies. It considers the tradeoffs between the upfront maintenance costs and the potential costs incurred by reliability losses. This paper discusses the application of the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique used to find the optimal maintenance strategy for a transmission component in order to achieve the minimum total expected cost composed of Generation Cost (GC), Maintenance Cost (MC), Repair Cost (RC) and Outage Cost (OC). Three components of a transmission system are considered: overhead lines, underground cables and insulators are considered. In regards to aged and aging component, a component state model that uses a modified Markov chain is proposed. A simulation has been performed on an IEEE 9-bus system. The results from this simulation are quite encouraging, and then the proposed approach will be useful in practical maintenance scheduling.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.37A no.12
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• pp.1065-1075
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• 2012

For the purpose of providing high data rate real-time services, radio transmission technologies (RTT) for ship ad-hoc network (SANET) based on the Recommendation ITU-R 1842-1 are designed. Physical layer parameters of SANET are contrived to meet the requirements of the specification. In order to improve the link reliability for SANET, in this paper, we investigate the performance of the SANET with the multiple antennas, where receive combining (RC), transmit diversity (TD), and beamforming (BF) are employed, respectively. Based on the analysis of the packet error rate (PER) under the highly correlated maritime wireless channel model, we select the efficient multiple antenna schemes for SANET to improve the link reliability. In addition, the optimal MCS levels for the single-carrier (SC) SANET with the bandwidth of 25 kHz, and the multi-carrier (MC) SANET with the bandwidth of 50 kHz and 100 kHz are finalized.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.195-209
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• 2020

This study investigates the behavior of ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) with hybrid macro-micro steel and macro steel-polypropylene (PP) fibers. Compression, direct and indirect tension tests were carried out on cubic and cylindrical, dogbone and prismatic specimens, respectively. Three types of macro steel fibers, i.e., round crimped (RC), crimped (C), and hooked (H) were combined with micro steel (MS) and PP fibers in overall ratios of 2% by volume. Additionally, numerical analyses were performed to validate the test results. Parameters studied included, fracture energy, tensile strength, compressive strength, flexural strength, and residual strength. Tests showed that replacing PP fibers with MS significantly improves all parameters particularly flexural strength (17.38 MPa compared to 37.71 MPa). Additionally, the adopted numerical approach successfully captured the flexural load-deflection response of experimental beams. Lastly, the proposed regression model for the flexural load-deflection curve compared very well with experimental results, as evidenced by its coefficient of correlation (R²) of over 0.90.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.2 no.5
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• pp.389-409
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• 2005

The Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is evidently a powerful tool for the analysis of structural concrete having nonlinearity and brittle failure properties. However, the result of FEA of structural concrete is sensitive to two modeling factors: the shear transfer coefficient (STC) for an open concrete crack and force convergence tolerance value (CONVTOL). Very limited work has been done to find the optimal FE Modeling (FEM) methodologies for structural concrete members strengthened with externally bonded FRP sheets. A total of 22 experimental deep beams with or without FRP flexure or/and shear strengthening systems are analyzed by nonlinear FEA using ANAYS program. For each experimental beams, an FE model with a total of 16 cases of modeling factor combinations are developed and analyzed to find the optimal FEM methodology. Two elements the SHELL63 and SOLID46 representing the material properties of FRP laminate are investigated and compared. The results of this research suggest that the optimal combination of modeling factor is STC of 0.25 and CONVTOL of 0.2. A SOLID 46 element representing the FRP strengthening system leads to better results than a SHELL 63 element does.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.72 no.4
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• pp.479-489
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• 2019

The corrosion of reinforcement leads to a gradual decay of structural strength and durability. Several models for crack occurrence prediction and crack width propagation are investigated in this paper. Analytical and experimental models were used to predict the bond strength in the period of corrosion propagation. The manner of flexural strength loss is calculated by application of these models for different scenarios. As a new approach, the variation of the concrete beam neutral axis height has been evaluated, which shows a reduction in the neutral axis height for the scenarios without loss of bond. Alternatively, an increase of the neutral axis height was observed for the scenarios including bond and concrete section loss. The statistical properties of the parameters influencing the strength have been deliberated associated with obtaining the time-dependent bending strength during corrosion propagation, using Monte Carlo (MC) random sampling method. Results showed that the ultimate strain in concrete decreases significantly as a consequence of the bond strength reduction during the corrosion process, when the section reaches to its final limit. Therefore, such sections are likely to show brittle behavior.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.765-779
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• 2020

Collapse of bridges in recent earthquakes demonstrates the need to deepen the understanding of the behaviour of these structures against seismic actions. This paper presents a highly detailed numerical model of an actual bridge subjected to extreme seismic action which results in its collapse. Normally, nonlinear numerical models have high difficulties to achieve convergence when reinforced concrete is intended to be represented. The main objective of this work is to determine the efficiency of different passive control strategies to prevent the structural collapse of an existing bridge. Metallic dampers and seismic isolation by decoupling the mass were evaluated. The response is evaluated not only in terms of reduction of displacements, but also in increasing of shear force and axial force in key elements, which can be a negative characteristic of the systems studied. It can be concluded that the use of a metallic damper significantly reduces the horizontal displacements and ensures the integrity of the structure from extreme seismic actions. Moreover, the isolation of the deck, which in principle seems to be the most effective solution to protect existing bridges, proves inadequate for the case analysed due to its dynamic characteristics and its particular geometry and an unpredictable type of axial pounding in the columns. This unexpected effect on the isolation system would have been impossible to identify with simplified models.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.78 no.3
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• pp.319-332
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• 2021

The wood-concrete composite is an interesting solution in the field of Civil Engineering to create high performance bending elements for bridges, as well as in the building construction for the design of wood concrete floor systems. The authors of this paper has been working for the past few years on the development of the bonding process as applied to wood-concrete composite structures. Contrary to conventional joining connectors, this assembling technique does ensure an almost perfect connection between wood and concrete. This paper presents a careful theoretical investigation into interfacial stresses at the level of the two interfaces in composite wooden beam- reinforced concrete slab strengthened by external bonding of prestressed composite plate under a uniformly distributed load. The model is based on equilibrium and deformations compatibility requirements in all parts of the strengthened composite beam, i.e., the wooden beam, RC slab, the CFRP plate and the adhesive layer. The theoretical predictions are compared with other existing solutions. This research is helpful for the understanding on mechanical behaviour of the interface and design of the CFRP- wooden-concrete hybrid structures.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.395-406
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• 2021

This study experimentally and analytically investigates the shear behavior of corroded reinforced concrete (RC) beams repaired using steel fiber-reinforced concrete (SFRC) in the flexural zone. The experimental parameters are the corrosion degree (0%, 12%, and 17%) and the steel fiber volume in the SFRC (1.0%, 1.5%, and 2.0%). The test results reveal that corrosion degree significantly affects the shear resistance of the beams. The shear capacity of the beam with the corrosion degree of 17% was higher than that of the uncorroded beam, whereas the shear capacity of the beam with the corrosion degree of 12% was lower than that of the uncorroded beam. The shear efficiency of damaged beams can be recovered by repairing them using SFRC that contains a reasonable amount of steel fibers. In addition, two methods to estimate the shear capacity of the repaired beams are developed using the modified truss analogy and strut-and-tie models. The estimated shear capacity of the beam using the modified truss analogy model agrees well with the experimental data.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2022

The static design approach in the current code implies that the inherent torsional moment represents the state of zero inertial torsional moments at the center of mass (CM). However, both experimental and analytical results prove the existence of a large amount of the inertial torsional moment at the CM. Also, the definition of eccentricity by engineers, which is referred to as the resistance eccentricity, is defined as the distance between the center of mass and the center of resistance, which is conceptually different from the static eccentricity in the current codes, defined as the arm length about the center of rotation. The difference in the definitions of eccentricity should be made clear to avoid confusion about the torsion design. This study proposed prediction equations as a function of resistance eccentricity based on a resistance eccentricity model with advantages of (1) the recognition of the existence of torsional moment at the CM, (2) the avoidance of the confusion by using resistance eccentricity instead of the design eccentricity, and (3) a clear relationship of applied inertial forces at the CM and resisting forces. These predictions are compared with the seismic responses obtained from time-history analyses of a five-story building structure under moderate and severe earthquakes. Then, the trend of the resistance eccentricity corresponding to the maximum edge drift is investigated for elastic and inelastic responses. The comparison given in this study shows that these prediction equations can serve as a useful reference for the prediction in both the elastic and the inelastic ranges.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.417-430
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• 2021

Due to functional requirements, SRC column-RC beam abnormal joints with characteristics of strong beam weak column, variable column section, unequal beam height and staggered height exist in the Steel reinforced concrete (SRC) frame-bent main building structure of thermal power plant (TPP). This paper presents the experimental results of these abnormal joints through cyclic loading tests on five specimens with scaling factor of 1/5. The staggered height and whether adding H-shaped steel in beam or not were changing parameters of specimens. The failure patterns, bearing capacity, energy dissipation and ductile performance were analyzed. In addition, the stress mechanism of the abnormal joint was discussed based on the diagonal strut model. The research results showed that the abnormal exterior joints occurred shear failure and column end hinge flexural failure; reducing beam height through adding H-shaped steel in the beam of abnormal exterior joint could improve the crack resistance and ductility; the abnormal interior joints with different staggered heights occurred column ends flexural failure; the joint with larger staggered height had the higher bearing capacity and stiffness, but lower ductility. The concrete compression strut mechanism is still applicable to the abnormal joints in TPP, but it is affected by the abnormal characteristics.