• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.323-336
• /
• 2018

Machine foundations with impact loads are common powerful sources of industrial vibrations. These foundations are generally transferring vertical dynamic loads to the soil and generate ground vibrations which may harmfully affect the surrounding structures or buildings. Dynamic effects range from severe trouble of working conditions for some sensitive instruments or devices to visible structural damage. This work includes an experimental study on the behavior of dry dense sand under the action of a single impulsive load. The objective of this research is to predict the dry sand response under impact loads. Emphasis will be made on attenuation of waves induced by impact loads through the soil. The research also includes studying the effect of footing embedment, and footing area on the soil behavior and its dynamic response. Different falling masses from different heights were conducted using the falling weight deflectometer (FWD) to provide the single pulse energy. The responses of different soils were evaluated at different locations (vertically below the impact plate and horizontally away from it). These responses include; displacements, velocities, and accelerations that are developed due to the impact acting at top and different depths within the soil using the falling weight deflectometer (FWD) and accelerometers (ARH-500A Waterproof, and Low capacity Acceleration Transducer) that are embedded in the soil in addition to soil pressure gauges. It was concluded that increasing the footing embedment depth results in increase in the amplitude of the force-time history by about 10-30% due to increase in the degree of confinement. This is accompanied by a decrease in the displacement response of the soil by about 40-50% due to increase in the overburden pressure when the embedment depth increased which leads to increasing the stiffness of sandy soil. There is also increase in the natural frequency of the soil-foundation system by about 20-45%. For surface foundation, the foundation is free to oscillate in vertical, horizontal and rocking modes. But, when embedding a footing, the surrounding soil restricts oscillation due to confinement which leads to increasing the natural frequency. Moreover, the soil density increases with depth because of compaction, which makes the soil behave as a solid medium. Increasing the footing embedment depth results in an increase in the damping ratio by about 50-150% due to the increase of soil density as D/B increases, hence the soil tends to behave as a solid medium which activates both viscous and strain damping.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.157-165
• /
• 2011

Base isolation system is widely used for reduction of dynamic responses of structures subjected to seismic load. Recently, research on a smart base isolation system that can effectively reduce dynamic responses of the isolated structure without accompanying increases in base drifts has been actively conducted. In this study, a smart base isolation system was applied to an arch structure subjected to seismic excitation and its control performance for reduction of seismic responses was evaluated. In order to make a smart base isolation system, 4kN MR dampers and low damping elastomeric bearings were used. Seismic response control performance of the proposed smart base isolation system was compared to that of the optimally designed lead-rubber bearing(LRB) isolation system. To this end, an artificial ground motion developed based on KBC2009 design response spectrum was used as a seismic excitation. Fuzzy control algorithm was used to control MR damper in the smart base isolation system and multi-objective genetic algorithm was employed to optimize the fuzzy controller. Based on numerical simulation results, it has been shown that the smart base isolation system can drastically reduce base drifts and seismic responses of the example arch structure in comparison with LRB isolation system.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.10 no.6
• /
• pp.555-576
• /
• 2007

Statistical analysis on the measured responses of a suspension bridge deck (Law, et al. 2007) show that vibration response at the first torsional mode of the structure has a significant increase at and beyond the critical wind speed for vortex shedding as noted in the wind tunnel tests on a sectional model. This paper further analyzes the measured responses of the structure when under typhoon conditions for any possible vortex shedding events. Parameters related to the lifting force in such a possible event and the vibration amplitudes are estimated with a single-degree-of-freedom model of the system. The spatial correlation of vortex shedding along the bridge span is also investigated. Possible vortex shedding events are found at both the first torsional and second vertical modes with the root-mean-square amplitudes comparable to those predicted from wind tunnel tests. Small negative stiffness due to wind effects is observed in isolated events that last for a short duration, but the aerodynamic damping exhibits either positive or negative values when the vertical angle of wind incidence is beyond ${\pm}10^{\circ}$. Vibration of the bridge deck is highly correlated in the events at least in the middle one-third of the main span.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.61-82
• /
• 2007

This paper presents a novel finite element (FE) model for analyzing coupled flutter of long-span bridges using the commercial FE package ANSYS. This model utilizes a specific user-defined element Matrix27 in ANSYS to model the aeroelastic forces acting on the bridge, wherein the stiffness and damping matrices are expressed in terms of the reduced wind velocity and flutter derivatives. Making use of this FE model, damped complex eigenvalue analysis is carried out to determine the complex eigenvalues, of which the real part is the logarithm decay rate and the imaginary part is the damped vibration frequency. The condition for onset of flutter instability becomes that, at a certain wind velocity, the structural system incorporating fictitious Matrix27 elements has a complex eigenvalue with zero or near-zero real part, with the imaginary part of this eigenvalue being the flutter frequency. Case studies are provided to validate the developed procedure as well as to demonstrate the flutter analysis of cable-supported bridges using ANSYS. The proposed method enables the bridge designers and engineering practitioners to analyze flutter instability by using the commercial FE package ANSYS.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.134-141
• /
• 1993

Electro-Rheological(ER) fluids undergo a phase-change when subjected to an external electic field, and this phase-change typically manifests itself as a many-order-of-magnitude change in the rheological behavior. This phenomenon permits the global stiffness and energy- dissipation properties of the beam structures to be tuned in order to synthesize the desired vibration characteristics. This paper reports on a proof-of-concept experimental investigation focussed on evaluation the vibration properties of hollow cantilevered beams filled with an ER fluid. and consequently deriving an empirical model for predicting field-dependent vibration characteristics. A hydrous-based ER fluid consisting of corn starch and silicone oil is employed. The beams are considered to be uniform viscoelastic materials and modelled as a viscously-damped harmonic oscillator. Natural frequency, damping ratio and elastic modulus are evaluated with respect to the electric field and compared among three different beams: two types of different volume fraction of ER fluid and one type of different particle concentration of ER fluid by weight. Transient and forced vibration responses are examined in time domain to demonstrate the validity of the proposed empirical model and to evaluate the feasibility of using the ERfluid as an actuator in a closed-loop control system.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.211-217
• /
• 2020

Vibrations of a wind turbine blade have a negative impact on its performance and result in failure of the blade, therefore an approach to effectively control vibration in turbine blades are sought by wind industry. The small domestic horizontal axis wind turbine blades induce flap wise (out-of-plane) vibration, due to varying wind speeds. These flap wise vibrations are transferred to the structure, which even causes catastrophic failure of the system. Shape memory alloys which possess physical property of variable stiffness across different phases are embedded into the composite blades for active vibration control. Previously Shape memory alloys have been used as actuators to change their angles and orientations in fighter jet blades but not used for active vibration control for wind turbine blades. In this work a GFRP blade embedded with Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) and tested for its vibrational and material damping characteristics, under martensitic and austenite conditions. The embedment portrays 47% reduction in displacement of blade, with respect to the conventional blade. An analytical model for the actuated smart blade is also proposed, which validates the harmonic response of the smart blade.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.13 no.5
• /
• pp.849-868
• /
• 2014

An indirect approach is explored for structural health bridge monitoring allowing for wide, yet cost-effective, bridge stock coverage. The detection capability of the approach is tested in a laboratory setting for three different reversible proxy types of damage scenarios: changes in the support conditions (rotational restraint), additional damping, and an added mass at the midspan. A set of frequency features is used in conjunction with a support vector machine classifier on data measured from a passing vehicle at the wheel and suspension levels, and directly from the bridge structure for comparison. For each type of damage, four levels of severity were explored. The results show that for each damage type, the classification accuracy based on data measured from the passing vehicle is, on average, as good as or better than the classification accuracy based on data measured from the bridge. Classification accuracy showed a steady trend for low (1-1.75 m/s) and high vehicle speeds (2-2.75 m/s), with a decrease of about 7% for the latter. These results show promise towards a highly mobile structural health bridge monitoring system for wide and cost-effective bridge stock coverage.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.209-219
• /
• 2019

Unbonded Post-Tensioned (UPT) precast concrete systems have been shown to provide excellent seismic resistance. In order to improve understanding of the dynamic response of UPT systems, a series of snap back tests on four UPT systems was undertaken consisting of one Single Rocking Wall (SRW) and three Precast Wall with End Columns (PreWEC) systems. The snap back tests provided both a static pushover and a nonlinear free vibration response of a system. As expected the SRW exhibited an approximate bi-linear inertia force-drift response during the free vibration decay and the PreWEC walls showed an inertia force-drift response with increased strength and energy dissipation due to the addition of steel O-connectors. All walls exhibited negligible residual drifts regardless of the number of O-connectors or the post-tensioning force. When PreWEC systems of the same strength were compared the inclusion of further energy dissipating O-connectors was found to decrease the measured peak wall acceleration. Both the local and global wall parameters measured at pseudo-static and dynamic loading rates showed similar behaviour, which demonstrates that the dynamic behaviour of UPT walls is well represented by pseudo-static tests. The SRW was found to have Equivalent Viscous Damping (EVD) between 0.9-3.8% and the three PreWEC walls were found to have maximum EVD of between 14.7-25.8%.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.155-171
• /
• 2019

In this study, Semi-active Tuned Mass Dampers (STMDs) are employed in order to cover the prevailing uncertainties and promote the efficiency of the Tuned Mass Dampers (TMDs) to mitigate undesirable structural vibrations. The damping ratio is determined using type-1 and type-2 Fuzzy Logic Controllers (T1 and T2 FLC) based on the response of the structure. In order to increase the efficiency of the FLC, the output membership functions are optimized using genetic algorithm. The results show that the proposed FLC can reduce the sensitivity of STMD to excitation records. The obtained results indicate the best operation for T1 FLC among the other control systems when the uncertainties are neglected. According to the irrefutable uncertainties, three supplies for these uncertainties such as time delay, sensors measurement noises and the differences between real and software model, are investigated. Considering these uncertainties, the efficiencies of T1 FLC, ground-hook velocity-based, displacement-based and TMD reduce significantly. The reduction rates for these algorithms are 12.66%, 26.43%, 20.98% and 21.77%, respectively. However, due to nonlinear behavior and considering a range of uncertainties in membership functions, T2 FLC with 7.2% reduction has robust performance against uncertainties compared to other controlling systems. Therefore, it can be used in actual applications more confidently.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.1-13
• /
• 2023

Due to the irregular shape and the deviation of stiffness center and gravity center, buildings always suffer from complex surface load and vibration response under wind action. This study is dedicated to analyze the surface wind load and wind-induced response of an irregular building, and to discuss the possibility of top swimming pool as a TLD to diminish wind-induced vibration of the structure. Wind tunnel test was carried out on a hotel with irregular shape to analyze the wind load and structural response under 8 wind incident angles. Then a precise numerical model was established and calibrated through experimental results. The top swimming pool was designed according to the principle of frequency modulation, and equations of motion of the control system were derived theoretically. Finally, the wind induced response of the structure controlled by the pool was calculated numerically. The results show that both of wind loads and wind-induced responses of the structure are significantly different with wind incident angle varies, and the across-wind response is nonnegligible. The top swimming pool has acceptable damping effect, and can be designed as TLD to mitigate wind response.