• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.327-340
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• 2003

Variations in system parameters due to uncertainties of parameters may result in system performance deterioration and create system internal stability problems. Uncertainties in structural modeling of structures are often considered to ensure that the control system is robust with respect to response errors. So the uncertain concept plays an important role in the analysis and design of the engineering structures. In this paper, the active control of the intelligent structures with the uncertainties is studied and a new method for analyzing the robustness of systems with the uncertainties is presented. Firstly, the system with uncertain parameters is considered as the perturbation of the system with deterministic parameters. Secondly, the feedback control law is designed on the basis of deterministic system. Thirdly, perturbation analysis and robustness analysis of intelligent structures with uncertainties are discussed when the feedback control law is applied to the original system and perturbed system. Combining the convex model of uncertainties with the finite element method, the analysis theory of the robustness of intelligent structures with the uncertainties can be developed. The description and computation of the robustness of intelligent structures with uncertain parameters is obtained. Finally, a numerical example of the application of the present method is given to show the validity of the method.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.241-262
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• 2006

NiTi-wire shape memory alloy (SMA) dampers, that utilize NiTi SMA wires to simultaneously damp tension, compression and torsion, was developed for structural control implementation in this study. First, eight reduced-scale NiTi-wire SMA dampers were constructed. Then tension, compression and torsion experiments using the eight reduced-scale NiTi-wire SMA dampers of different specification were done. The experimental results revealed all of the eight reduced-scale NiTi-wire SMA dampers had the ability to simultaneously supply tension-compression damping and torsion damping. Finally, mechanics analysis of the NiTi-wire SMA dampers was done based on a model of the SMA-wire restoring force and on tension-compression and torsion damping analysis. The damping analytical results were found to be similar to the damping experimental results.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.85-107
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• 2012

The building frame and its foundation along with the soil on which it rests, together constitute a complete structural system. In the conventional analysis, a structure is analysed as an independent frame assuming unyielding supports and the interactive response of soil-foundation is disregarded. This kind of analysis does not provide realistic behaviour and sometimes may cause failure of the structure. Also, the conventional analysis considers infill wall as non-structural elements and ignores its interaction with the bounding frame. In fact, the infill wall provides lateral stiffness and thus plays vital role in resisting the seismic forces. Thus, it is essential to consider its effect especially in case of high rise buildings. In the present research work the building frame, infill wall, isolated column footings (open foundation) and soil mass are considered to act as a single integral compatible structural unit to predict the nonlinear interaction behaviour of the composite system under seismic forces. The coupled isoparametric finite-infinite elements have been used for modelling of the interaction system. The material of the frame, infill and column footings has been assumed to follow perfectly linear elastic relationship whereas the well known hyperbolic soil model is used to account for the nonlinearity of the soil mass.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.305-313
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• 2017

A robust finite element based reinforced concrete bridge deck corrosion initiation model is applied for time-dependent probabilistic sensitivity analysis. The model is focused on uncertainties in the governing parameters that include variation of high performance concrete (HPC) diffusion coefficients, concrete cover depth, surface chloride concentration, holidays in reinforcements, coatings and critical chloride threshold level in several steel reinforcements. The corrosion initiation risk is expressed in the form of probability over intended life span of the bridge deck. Conducted study shows the time-dependent sensitivity analysis to evaluate the significance of governing parameters on chloride ingress rate, various steel reinforcement protection and the corrosion initiation likelihood. Results from this probabilistic analysis provide better insight into the effect of input parameters variation on the estimate of the corrosion initiation risk for the design of concrete structures in harsh chloride environments.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.93-109
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• 2015

Finite element analysis (FEA) combined with the concepts of linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) provides a practical and convenient means to study the fracture and crack growth of materials. In this paper, a numerical modeling of crack propagation in the cement mantle of the reconstructed acetabulum is presented. This work is based on the implementation of the displacement extrapolation method (DEM) and the strain energy density (SED) theory in a finite element code. At each crack increment length, the kinking angle is evaluated as a function of stress intensity factors (SIFs). In this paper, we analyzed the mechanical behavior of cracks initiated in the cement mantle by evaluating the SIFs. The effect of the defect on the crack propagation path was highlighted.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.727-743
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• 2014

Geometrically nonlinear analysis of planar beam and frame structures made of functionally graded material (FGM) by using the finite element method is presented. The material property of the structures is assumed to be graded in the thickness direction by a power law distribution. A nonlinear beam element based on Bernoulli beam theory, taking the shift of the neutral axis position into account, is formulated in the context of the co-rotational formulation. The nonlinear equilibrium equations are solved by using the incremental/iterative procedure in a combination with the arc-length control method. Numerical examples show that the formulated element is capable to give accurate results by using just several elements. The influence of the material inhomogeneity in the geometrically nonlinear behavior of the FGM beam and frame structures is examined and highlighted.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.17-34
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• 2003

This paper presents a damage assessment procedure applied to periodic spring mass systems using an eigenvalue sensitivity-based method. The damage is directly related to the stiffness reduction of the damage element. The natural frequencies of periodic structures with one single disorder are found by adopting the transfer matrix approach, consequently, the first order approximation of the natural frequencies with respect to the disordered stiffness in different elements is used to form the sensitivity matrix. The analysis shows that the sensitivity of natural frequencies to damage in different locations depends only on the mode number and the location of damage. The stiffness changes due to damage can be identified by solving a set of underdetermined equations based on the sensitivity matrix. The issues associated with many possible damage locations in large structural systems are addressed, and a means of improving the computational efficiency of damage detection while maintaining the accuracy for large periodic structures with limited available measured natural frequencies, is also introduced in this paper. The incomplete measurements and the effect of random error in terms of measurement noise in the natural frequencies are considered. Numerical results of a periodic spring-mass system of 20 degrees of freedom illustrate that the proposed method is simple and robust in locating single or multiple damages in a large periodic structure with a high computational efficiency.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.227-244
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• 2015

This study develops a two stage procedure to identify the structural damage based on the optimized artificial neural networks. Initially, the modal strain energy index (MSEI) is established to extract the damaged elements and to reduce the computational time. Then the genetic algorithm (GA) and artificial neural networks (ANNs) are combined to detect the damage severity. The input of the network is modal strain energy index and the output is the flexural stiffness of the beam elements. The principal component analysis (PCA) is utilized to reduce the input variants of the neural network. By using the genetic algorithm to optimize the parameters, the ANNs can significantly improve the accuracy and convergence of the damage identification. The influence of noise on damage identification results is also studied. The simulation and experiment on beam structures shows that the adaptive parameter selection neural network can identify the damage location and severity of beam structures with high accuracy.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.71 no.4
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• pp.391-405
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• 2019

Compared to the ambient vibration test mainly identifying the structural modal parameters, such as frequency, damping and mode shapes, the impact testing, which benefits from measuring both impacting forces and structural responses, has the merit to identify not only the structural modal parameters but also more detailed structural parameters, in particular flexibility. However, in traditional impact tests, an impacting hammer or artificial excitation device is employed, which restricts the efficiency of tests on various bridge structures. To resolve this problem, we propose a new method whereby a moving vehicle is taken as a continuous exciter and develop a corresponding flexibility identification theory, in which the continuous wheel forces induced by the moving vehicle is considered as structural input and the acceleration response of the bridge as the output, thus a structural flexibility matrix can be identified and then structural deflections of the bridge under arbitrary static loads can be predicted. The proposed method is more convenient, time-saving and cost-effective compared with traditional impact tests. However, because the proposed test produces a spatially continuous force while classical impact forces are spatially discrete, a new flexibility identification theory is required, and a novel structural identification method involving with equivalent load distribution, the enhanced Frequency Response Function (eFRFs) construction and modal scaling factor identification is proposed to make use of the continuous excitation force to identify the basic modal parameters as well as the structural flexibility. Laboratory and numerical examples are given, which validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Furthermore, parametric analysis including road roughness, vehicle speed, vehicle weight, vehicle's stiffness and damping are conducted and the results obtained demonstrate that the developed method has strong robustness except that the relative error increases with the increase of measurement noise.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.243-253
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• 1998

The paper deals with numerical analysis of interference galloping of two elastically supported circular cylinders of equal diameters. The basis of the analysis is quasi-steady model of this phenomenon. The model assumes that both cylinders participate in process of interference galloping and they have two degrees of freedom. The movement of the cylinders is written as a set of four nonlinear differential equations. On the basis of numerical solutions of this equations the authors evaluate the correctness of this quasi-steady model. Then they estimate the dependence of a critical reduced velocity on the Scruton number, turbulence intensity and arrangements of the cylinders.