• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.517-532
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• 2023

Tower structures have been widely used in communication and transmission engineering. The failure of joints is the leading cause of structure failure, which make it play a crucial role in tower structure engineering. In this study, the aluminum alloy three tube tower structure is taken as the prototype, and the middle joint of the tower was selected as the research object. Three different stainless steel-aluminum alloy composite joints (SACJs), denoted by TA, TB and TC, were designed. Finite element (FE) modeling analysis was used to compare and determine the TC joint as the best solution. Detail requirements of fasteners in the TC stainless steel-aluminum alloy composite joint (TC-SACJ) were designed and verified. In order to systematically and comprehensively study the mechanical properties of TC-SACJ under multi-directional loading conditions, the full-scale experiments and FE simulation models were all performed for mechanical response analysis. The failure modes, load-carrying capacities, and axial load versus displacement/stain testing curves of all full-scale specimens under tension/compression loading conditions were obtained. The results show that the maximum vertical displacement of aluminum alloy tube is 26.9mm, and the maximum lateral displacement of TC-SACJs is 1.0 mm. In general, the TC-SACJs are in an elastic state under the design load, which meet the design requirements and has a good safety reserve. This work can provide references for the design and engineering application of aluminum alloy tower structures.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.43-57
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• 2023

The impacts of waste tire rubber (WTR) on the bending conduct of reinforced concrete beams (RCBs) are investigated in visualization of experimental tests and 3D finite element model (FEM) using both ANSYS and SAP2000. Several WTR rates are used in total 4 various full scale RCBs to observe the impact of WTR rate on the rupture and bending conduct of RCBs. For this purpose, the volumetric ratios (Vf) of WTR were chosen to change to 0%, 2.5%, 5% and 7.5% in the whole concrete. In relation to experimental test consequences, bending and rupture behaviors of the RCBs are observed. The best performance among the beams was observed in the beams with 2.5% WTR. Furthermore, as stated by test consequences, it is noticed that while WTR rate in the RCBs is improved, max. bending in the RCBs rises. For test consequences, it is clearly recognized as WTR rate in the RCB mixture is improved from 0% to 2.5%, deformation value in the RCB remarkably rises from 3.89 cm to 7.69 cm. This consequence is markedly recognized that WTR rates have a favorable result on deformation values in the RCBs. Furthermore, experimental tests are compared to 3D FEM consequences via using ANSYS software. In the ANSYS, special element types are formed and nonlinear multilinear misses plasticity material model and bilinear misses plasticity material model are chosen for concrete and compression and tension elements. As a consequence, it is noticed that each WTR rates in the RCBs mixture have dissimilar bending and rupture impacts on the RCBs. Then, to observe the impacts of WTR rate on the constructions under near-fault ground motions, a reinforced-concrete building was modelled via using SAP2000 software using 3-D model of the construction to complete nonlinear static analysis. Beam, column, steel haunch elements are modeled as nonlinear frame elements. Consequently, the seismic impacts of WTR rate on the lateral motions of each floor are obviously investigated particularly. Considering reduction in weight of structure and capacity of the members with using waste tire rubber, 2.5% of WTR resulted in the best performance while the construction is subjected to near fault earthquakes. Moreover, it is noticeably recognized that WTR rate has opposing influences on the seismic displacement behavior of the RC constructions.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.267-279
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• 2023

Data modelling and interpretation for structural health monitoring (SHM) field data are critical for evaluating structural performance and quantifying the vulnerability of infrastructure systems. In order to improve the data modelling accuracy, and extend the application range from data regression analysis to out-of-sample forecasting analysis, an improved most likely heteroscedastic Gaussian process (iMLHGP) methodology is proposed in this study by the incorporation of the outof-sample forecasting algorithm. The proposed iMLHGP method overcomes this limitation of constant variance of Gaussian process (GP), and can be used for estimating non-stationary typhoon-induced response statistics with high volatility. The first attempt at performing data regression and forecasting analysis on structural responses using the proposed iMLHGP method has been presented by applying it to real-world filed SHM data from an instrumented cable-stay bridge during typhoon events. Uncertainty quantification and correlation analysis were also carried out to investigate the influence of typhoons on bridge strain data. Results show that the iMLHGP method has high accuracy in both regression and out-of-sample forecasting. The iMLHGP framework takes both data heteroscedasticity and accurate analytical processing of noise variance (replace with a point estimation on the most likely value) into account to avoid the intensive computational effort. According to uncertainty quantification and correlation analysis results, the uncertainties of strain measurements are affected by both traffic and wind speed. The overall change of bridge strain is affected by temperature, and the local fluctuation is greatly affected by wind speed in typhoon conditions.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.245-255
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• 2023

The present paper summarizes the results of an experimental program on the influence of using waste lathe scraps in the concrete mixture on the shear behavior of RC beams with different amounts of shear reinforcement. Three different volumetric ratios (1, 2 and %3) for the scraps and three different stirrup spacings (160, 200 and 270 mm) were adopted in the tests. The shear span-to-depth ratios of the beams were 2.67 and the stirrup spacing exceeded the maximum spacing limit in the building codes to unfold the contribution of lathe scraps to the shear resistances of shear-deficient beams, subject to shear-dominated failure (shear-tension). The experiments depicted that the lathe scraps have a pronounced contribution to the shear strength and load-deflection behavior of RC beams with widely-spaced stirrups. Namely, with the addition of 1%, 2% and 3% waste lathe scraps, the load-bearing capacity escalated by 9.1%, 21.8% and 32.8%, respectively, compared to the reference beam. On the other hand, the contribution of the lathe scraps to the load capacity decreases with decreasing stirrup spacing, since the closely-spaced stirrups bear the shear stresses and render the contribution of the scraps to shear resistance insignificant. The load capacity, deformation ductility index (DDI) and modulus of toughness (MOT) values of the beams were shown to increase with the volumetric fraction of scraps if the stirrups are spaced at about two times the beam depth. For the specimens with a stirrup spacing of about the beam depth, the scraps were found to have no considerable contribution to the load capacity and the deformation capacity beyond the ultimate load. In other words, for lathe scrap contents of 1-3%, the DDI values increased by 5-23% and the MOT values by 63.5-165% with respect to the reference beam with a stirrup spacing of 270 mm. The influence of the lathe scraps to the DDI and MOT values were rather limited and even sometimes negative for the stirrup spacing values of 160 and 200 mm.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.121-133
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• 2023

The demand for cement and limestone crushed materials has increased many folds due to the tremendous increase in construction activities in Pakistan during the past few decades. The number of cement production industries has increased correspondingly, and so the rock-blasting operations at the limestone quarry sites. However, the safety procedures warranted at these sites for the blast-induced ground vibrations (BIGV) have not been adequately developed and/or implemented. Proper prediction and monitoring of BIGV are necessary to ensure the safety of structures in the vicinity of these quarry sites. In this paper, an attempt has been made to predict BIGV using artificial neural network (ANN) at three selected limestone quarries of Pakistan. The ANN has been developed in Python using Keras with sequential model and dense layers. The hyper parameters and neurons in each of the activation layers has been optimized using randomized and grid search method. The input parameters for the model include distance, a maximum charge per delay (MCPD), depth of hole, burden, spacing, and number of blast holes, whereas, peak particle velocity (PPV) is taken as the only output parameter. A total of 110 blast vibrations datasets were recorded from three different limestone quarries. The dataset has been divided into 85% for neural network training, and 15% for testing of the network. A five-layer ANN is trained with Rectified Linear Unit (ReLU) activation function, Adam optimization algorithm with a learning rate of 0.001, and batch size of 32 with the topology of 6-32-32-256-1. The blast datasets were utilized to compare the performance of ANN, multivariate regression analysis (MVRA), and empirical predictors. The performance was evaluated using the coefficient of determination (R²), mean absolute error (MAE), mean squared error (MSE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and root mean squared error (RMSE)for predicted and measured PPV. To determine the relative influence of each parameter on the PPV, sensitivity analyses were performed for all input parameters. The analyses reveal that ANN performs superior than MVRA and other empirical predictors, andthat83% PPV is affected by distance and MCPD while hole depth, number of blast holes, burden and spacing contribute for the remaining 17%. This research provides valuable insights into improving safety measures and ensuring the structural integrity of buildings near limestone quarry sites.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.195-208
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• 2023

The nodular diaphragm wall (NDW) is a novel type of foundation with favorable engineering characteristics, which has already been utilized in high-rise buildings and high-speed railways. Compared to traditional diaphragm walls, the NDW offers significantly improved vertical bearing capacity due to the presence of nodular parts while reducing construction time and excavation work. Despite its potential, research on the vertical bearing characteristics of NDW requires further study, and the investigation and visualization of its displacement pattern and failure mode are scant. Meanwhile, the measurement of the force component acting on the nodular parts remains challenging. In this paper, the vertical bearing characteristics of NDW are studied in detail through the indoor model test, and the displacement and failure mode of the foundation is analyzed using particle image velocimetry (PIV) technology. The principles and methods for monitoring the force acting on the nodular parts are described in detail. The research results show that the nodular part plays an essential role in the bearing capacity of the NDW, and its maximum load-bearing ratio can reach 30.92%. The existence of the bottom nodular part contributes more to the bearing capacity of the foundation compared to the middle nodular part, and the use of both middle and bottom nodular parts increases the bearing capacity of the foundation by about 9~12% compared to a single nodular part of the NDW. The increase in the number of nodular parts cannot produce a simple superposition effect on the resistance born by the nodular parts since the nodular parts have an insignificant influence on the exertion and distribution of the skin friction of NDW. The existence of the nodular part changes the displacement field of the soil around NDW and increases the displacement influence range of the foundation to a certain extent. For NDWs with three different nodal arrangements, the failure modes of the foundations appear to be local shear failures. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the performance and behavior of NDWs, which will aid in their effective utilization and further research in the field.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.163-172
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• 2024

In this study, two different scenarios for ammonia liquefaction in the green ammonia manufacturing process were proposed, and the economic-feasibility and environmental impact of each scenario were analyzed. The two liquefaction processes involved gas-liquid separation before cooling at high pressure (high pressure cooling process) or after decompression without the gas-liquid separation (low pressure cooling process). The high-pressure cooling process requires higher capital costs due to the required installation of separation units and heat exchangers, but it offers relatively lower total utility costs of 91.03 $/hr and a reduced duty of 2.81 Gcal/hr. In contrast, although the low-pressure cooling process is simpler and cost-effective, it may encounter operational instability due to rapid pressure drops in the system. Environmental impact assessment revealed that the high-pressure cooling process is more environmentally friendly than the low-pressure cooling process, with an emission factor of 0.83 tCO₂eq less than the low-pressure cooling process, calculated based on power usage. Consequently, the outcomes of this study provide relevant scenario and a database for green ammonia synthesis process adaptable to various process conditions.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.375-394
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• 2024

The extensive utilization of concrete has given rise to environmental concerns, specifically concerning the depletion of river sand. To address this issue, waste deposits can provide manufactured-sand (MS) as a substitute for river sand. The objective of this study is to explore the application of machine learning techniques to facilitate the production of manufactured-sand concrete (MSC) containing stone nano-powder through estimating the splitting tensile strength (STS) containing compressive strength of cement (CSC), tensile strength of cement (TSC), curing age (CA), maximum size of the crushed stone (Dmax), stone nano-powder content (SNC), fineness modulus of sand (FMS), water to cement ratio (W/C), sand ratio (SR), and slump (S). To achieve this goal, a total of 310 data points, encompassing nine influential factors affecting the mechanical properties of MSC, are collected through laboratory tests. Subsequently, the gathered dataset is divided into two subsets, one for training and the other for testing; comprising 90% (280 samples) and 10% (30 samples) of the total data, respectively. By employing the generated dataset, novel models were developed for evaluating the STS of MSC in relation to the nine input features. The analysis results revealed significant correlations between the CSC and the curing age CA with STS. Moreover, when delving into sensitivity analysis using an empirical model, it becomes apparent that parameters such as the FMS and the W/C exert minimal influence on the STS. We employed various loss functions to gauge the effectiveness and precision of our methodologies. Impressively, the outcomes of our devised models exhibited commendable accuracy and reliability, with all models displaying an R-squared value surpassing 0.75 and loss function values approaching insignificance. To further refine the estimation of STS for engineering endeavors, we also developed a user-friendly graphical interface for our machine learning models. These proposed models present a practical alternative to laborious, expensive, and complex laboratory techniques, thereby simplifying the production of mortar specimens.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.325-340
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• 2024

There are several novel uses for dispersing many nanoparticles into a conventional fluid, including dynamic sealing, damping, heat dissipation, microfluidics, and more. Therefore, melting heat and mass transfer characteristics of a 3-D MHD Hybrid Nanofluid flow over a rotating disc with presenting dufour and soret effects are assessed numerically in this study. In this instance, we investigated both ferric sulfate and molybdenum disulfide as nanoparticles suspended within base fluid water. The governing partial differential equations are transformed into linked higher-order non-linear ordinary differential equations by the local similarity transformation. The collection of these deduced equations is then resolved using a Chebyshev spectral collocation-based algorithm built into the Mathematica software. To demonstrate how different instances of hybrid/ nanofluid are impacted by changes in temperature, velocity, and the distribution of nanoparticle concentration, examples of graphical and numerical data are given. For many values of the material parameters, the computational findings are shown. Simulations conducted for different physical parameters in the model show that adding hybrid nanoparticle to the fluid mixture increases heat transfer in comparison to simple nanofluids. It has been identified that hybrid nanoparticles, as opposed to single-type nanoparticles, need to be taken into consideration to create an effective thermal system. Furthermore, porosity lowers the velocities of simple and hybrid nanofluids in both cases. Additionally, results show that the drag force from skin friction causes the nanoparticle fluid to travel more slowly than the hybrid nanoparticle fluid. The findings also demonstrate that suction factors like magnetic and porosity parameters, as well as nanoparticles, raise the skin friction coefficient. Furthermore, It indicates that the outcomes from different flow scenarios correlate and are in strong agreement with the findings from the published literature. Bar chart depictions are altered by changes in flow rates. Moreover, the results confirm doctors' views to prescribe hybrid nanoparticle and particle nanoparticle contents for achalasia patients and also those who suffer from esophageal stricture and tumors. The results of this study can also be applied to the energy generated by the melting disc surface, which has a variety of industrial uses. These include, but are not limited to, the preparation of semiconductor materials, the solidification of magma, the melting of permafrost, and the refreezing of frozen land.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.605-619
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• 2024

The increase of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) content in recycled asphalt concrete (RAC) is accompanied by the degradation of low-temperature cracking resistance, which has become an obstacle to the development of RAC. This paper aims to reveal the meso-scale mechanisms of the low-temperature fracture behavior of RAC and provide a theoretical basis for the economical recycling of RAP. For this purpose, micromechanical heterogeneous peridynamic model of RAC was established and validated by comparing three-point bending (TPB) test results against corresponding numerical simulation results of RAC with 50% RAP content. Furthermore, the models with different aggregate shapes (i.e., average aggregates circularity (${\bar{C_r}}=1.00$, 0.75, and 0.50) and RAP content (i.e., 0%, 15%, 30%, 50%, 75%, and 100%) were constructed to investigate the effect of aggregate shape and RAP content on the low-temperature cracking resistance. The results show that peridynamic models can accurately simulate the low-temperature fracture behavior of RAC, with only 2.9% and 13.9% differences from the TPB test in flexural strength and failure strain, respectively. On the meso-scale, the damage in the RAC is mainly controlled by horizontal tensile stress and the stress concentration appears in the interface transition zone (ITZ). Aggregate shape has a significant effect on the low-temperature fracture resistance, i.e., higher aggregate circularity leads to better low-temperature performance. The large number of microcracks generated during the damage evolution process for the peridynamic model with circular aggregates contributes to slowing down the fracture, whereas the severe stress concentration at the corners leads to the fracture of the aggregates with low circularity under lower stress levels. The effect of RAP content below 30% or above 50% is not significant, but a substantial reduction (16.9% in flexural strength and 16.4% in failure strain) is observed between the RAP content of 30% and 50%. This reduction is mainly attributed to the fact that the damage in the ITZ region transfers significantly to the aggregates, especially the RAP aggregates, when the RAP content ranges from 30% to 50%.