• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.285-300
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• 2010

The two-dimensional deformation of a homogeneous, isotropic thermoelastic half-space with voids with variable modulus of elasticity and thermal conductivity subjected to thermomechanical boundary conditions has been investigated. The formulation is applied to the coupled theory(CT) as well as generalized theories: Lord and Shulman theory with one relaxation time(LS), Green and Lindsay theory with two relaxation times(GL) Chandrasekharaiah and Tzou theory with dual phase lag(C-T) of thermoelasticity. The Laplace and Fourier transforms techniques are used to solve the problem. As an application, concentrated/uniformly distributed mechanical or thermal sources have been considered to illustrate the utility of the approach. The integral transforms have been inverted by using a numerical inversion technique to obtain the components of displacement, stress, changes in volume fraction field and temperature distribution in the physical domain. The effect of dependence of modulus of elasticity on the components of stress, changes in volume fraction field and temperature distribution are illustrated graphically for a specific model. Different special cases are also deduced.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.409-430
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• 2010

The present paper will be concerned to the investigation of the stress-strain field around the cavity that is loaded or partially loaded at the inner surface by the rotationally symmetric loading. The cavity of the spherical, cylindrical or elliptical shape is situated in a stressed elastic continuum, subjected to the gravitation field. As the contribution to the similar investigations, the paper introduces the new function of loading in the form of the infinite sine series. Besides, in this paper the solution of stresses around an oblong ellipsoid cavity, has been obtained using appropriate curvilinear elliptical coordinates. This analytical approach avoids the solutions of the same problem that lead to expressions that contain rather complex integrations. Thus the presented solutions provide the applicable and explicit expressions for stresses and strains developed in infinite series with easily determinable coefficients by the use of contemporary mathematical packages. The numerical examples are also included to confirm the convergence of the obtained solutions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.85 no.4
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• pp.501-510
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• 2023

Horizontally polarized shear waves (SH) have numerous applications in various scientific, engineering, and medical fields. The study deals with an investigation of SH-waves in a thin microstructural plate. The plate has been mathematically modelled by employing size dependent consistent couple stress theory, which involves a length parameter, known as characteristic length. Characteristic length is assumed to be of the order of internal microstructures of the material. Dispersion relations have been calculated for the propagation of SH-waves using different set of boundary conditions. Group velocity of the SH-waves has been calculated by using an analytical approach. The mathematical results obtained in the problem are discussed in detail and the impacts of characteristic length parameter and thickness of plate are presented on phase velocity of SH-waves through graphical illustrations.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.2
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• pp.271-282
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• 2020

The preservation of historic masonry-arch railway bridges is of paramount importance due to their economic benefits. These bridges which belong to past centuries may nowadays be expected to carry loads higher than those for which they were designed. Such an increase in loads may be because of increase in transportation speed or in the capacity of freight-wagons. Anyway, adequate increase in their load-carrying-capacity through structural-strengthening is required. Moreover, the increasing costs of material/construction urge engineers to optimize their designs to obtain the minimum-cost one. This paper proposes a novel numerical optimization method to minimize the costs associated with strengthening of masonry-arch railway bridges. To do so, the stress/displacement responses of Sahand-Goltappeh bridge are assessed under ordinary train pass as a case study. For this aim, 3D-Finite-Element-Model is created and calibrated using experimental test results. Then, it is strengthened such that following goals are achieved simultaneously: (1) the load-carrying-capacity of the bridge is increased; (2) the structural response of the bridge is reduced to a certain limit; and, (3) the costs needed for such strengthening are minimized as far as possible. The results of the case study demonstrate the applicability/superiority of the proposed approach. Some economic measures are also recommended to further reduce the total strengthening cost.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.475-483
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• 2023

In this paper, a new energy-efficient semi-active hybrid bulk damper is developed that is cost-effective for use in structural applications. In this work, the possibility of active and semi-active component configurations combined with suitable control algorithms, especially vibration control methods, is explored. The equations of motion for a container bridge equipped with an MDOF Mass Tuned Damper (M-TMD) system are established, and the combination of excitation, adhesion, and control effects are performed by a proprietary package and commercial custom submodel software. Systematic methods for the synthesis of structural components and active systems have been used in many applications because of the main interest in designing efficient devices and high-performance structural systems. A rational strategy can be established by properly controlling the master injection frequency parameter. Simulation results show that the multiscale model approach is achieved and meets accuracy with high computational efficiency. The M-TMD system can significantly improve the overall response of constrained structures by modestly reducing the critical stress amplitude of the frame. This design can be believed to build affordable, safe, environmentally friendly, resilient, sustainable infrastructure and transportation.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.177-188
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• 2024

The fatigue-induced sequential failure of a structure having structural redundancy requires system-level analysis to account for stress redistribution. System reliability-based design optimization (SRBDO) for preventing fatigue-initiated structural failure is numerically costly owing to the inclusion of probabilistic constraints. This study incorporates the Branch-and-Bound method employing system reliability Bounds (termed the B³ method), a failure-path structural system reliability analysis approach, with a metaheuristic optimization algorithm, namely grey wolf optimization (GWO), to obtain the optimal design of structures under fatigue-induced system failure. To further improve the efficiency of this new optimization framework, an additional bounding rule is proposed in the context of SRBDO against fatigue using the B³ method. To demonstrate the proposed method, it is applied to complex problems, a multilayer Daniels system and a three-dimensional tripod jacket structure. The system failure probability of the optimal design is confirmed to be below the target threshold and verified using Monte Carlo simulation. At earlier stages of the optimization, a smaller number of limit-state function evaluation is required, which increases the efficiency. In addition, the proposed method can allocate limited materials throughout the structure optimally so that the optimally-designed structure has a relatively large number of failure paths with similar failure probability.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.117-143
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• 2017

The attack of environmental aggressive agents progressively reduces the structural reliability of buildings and infrastructures and, in the worst exposition conditions, may even lead to their collapse in the long period. A change in the material and sectional characteristics of a structural element, due to the environmental damaging effects, changes its mechanical behaviour and varies both the internal stress redistribution and the kinematics through which it reaches its ultimate state. To identify such a behaviour, the evolution of both the damaging process and its mechanical consequences have to be taken into account. This paper presents a computational approach for the analysis of reinforced and prestressed concrete elements under sustained loading conditions and subjected to given damaging scenarios. The effects of the diffusion of aggressive agents, of the onset and development of the corrosion state in the reinforcement and the corresponding mechanical response are studied. As known, the corrosion on the reinforcing bars influences the damaging rate in the cracking pattern evolution; hence, the damage development and the mechanical behaviours are considered as coupled phenomena. The reliability of such an approach is validated in modelling the diffusion of the aggressive agents and the changes in the mechanical response of simple structural elements whose experimental behaviour is reported in Literature. A second set of analyses studies the effects of the corrosion of the tendons of a P.C. beam and explores potentially unexpected structural responses caused by corrosion under different aggressive exposition. The role of the different types and of the different positions of the damaging agents is discussed. In particular, it is shown how the collapse mode of the beam may switch from flexural to shear type, in case corrosion is caused by a localized chloride attack in the shear span.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.31-46
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• 2009

An anisotropic damage mechanics approach is introduced which models the static and dynamic behavior of mass concrete in 3D space. The introduced numerical approach is able to model non-uniform cracking within the cracked element due to cracking in Gaussian points of elements. The validity of the proposed model is considered using available experimental and theoretical results under the static and dynamic loads. No instability and stress locking is observed in the conducted analyses. The Morrow Point dam is analyzed including dam-reservoir interaction effects to consider the nonlinear seismic behavior of the dam. It is found that the resulting crack profiles are in good agreement with those obtained from the smeared crack approach. It is concluded that the proposed model can be used in nonlinear static and dynamic analysis of concrete dams in 3D space and enables engineers to define the damage level of these infrastructures. The performance level of the considered system is used to assess the static and seismic safety using the defined performance based criteria.

• Composites Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.18-28
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• 2004

In order to evaluate the strength of carbody structures of railway rolling stock made of laminated fiber-reinforced composite materials, total laminate approach was introduced. Structural analyses were conducted to check the basic design of hybrid composite carbody structures of the Korean Tilting Train eXpress(TTX) with the service speed of 180km/h. The mechanical tests were also conducted to obtain strengths of composite laminates. The results show that all stress components of composite carbody structures are inside of failure envelopes and total laminate approach is recommended to predict the failure of hybrid composite carbody structures at the stage of the basic design.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.435-454
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• 2002

The paper proposes analytical forms able to represent with very good approximation the constitutive law experimentally deducible by means of uniaxial cyclic compressive tests on material having softening post-peak behaviour in compression and negligible tensile strength. The envelope, unloading and reloading curves characterizing the proposed model adequately approach structural responses corresponding to different levels of nonlinearity and ductility, requiring a not very high number of parameters to be calibrated experimentally. The reliability of the model is shown by comparing the results that it is able to provide with the ones analytically deduced from two reference models (one for concrete, another for masonry) available in the literature, and with experimental results obtained by the authors in the framework of a research in progress.