• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.507-521
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• 1997

The ultimate behavior of a reinforced concrete hyperbolic paraboloid saddle shell under uniformly distributed vertical load is investigated using an inelastic, large displacement finite-element program originally developed at North Carolina State University. Unlike with the author's previous study which shows that the saddle shell possesses a tremendous capacity to redistribute the stresses, introducing tension stiffening in the model the cracks developed are no longer through cracks and formed as primarily bending cracks. Even though with small tension stiffening effect, the behavior of the shell is changed markedly from the one without tension stiffening effect. The load-deflection curves are straight and the slope of the curves is quite steep and remains unchanged with varying the tension stiffening parameters. The failure of the shell took place quite suddenly in a cantilever mode initiated by a formation of yield lines in a direction parallel to the support-to-support diagonal. The higher the tension stiffening parameters the higher is the ultimate load. The present study shows that the ultimate behavior of the shell primarily depends on the concrete tensile characteristics, such as tensile strength (before cracking) and the effective tension stiffening (after cracking). As the concrete characteristics would vary over the life of the shell, a degree of uncertainty is involved in deciding a specified ultimate strength of the saddle shell studied. By the present study, however, the overload factors based on ACI 318-95 are larger than unity for all the cases studied except that the tension stiffening parameter is weak by 3 with and without the large displacement effect, which shows that the Lin-Scordelis saddle shell studied here is at least safe.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.19-28
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• 2020

The spatial variability of geotechnical properties can lead to the uncertainty of settlement for frozen soil foundation around the oil pipeline, and it can affect the stability of permafrost foundation. In this paper, the elastic modulus, cohesion, angle of internal friction and poisson ratio are taken as four independent random fields. A stochastic analysis model for the uncertain settlement characteristic of frozen soil foundation around an oil pipeline is presented. The accuracy of the stochastic analysis model is verified by measured data. Considering the different combinations for the coefficient of variation and scale of fluctuation, the influences of spatial variability of geotechnical properties on uncertain settlement are estimated. The results show that the stochastic effects between elastic modulus, cohesion, angle of internal friction and poisson ratio are obviously different. The deformation parameters have a greater influence on stochastic settlement than the strength parameters. The overall variability of settlement reduces with the increase of horizontal scale of fluctuation and vertical scale of fluctuation. These results can improve our understanding of the influences of spatial variability of geotechnical properties on uncertain settlement and provide a theoretical basis for the reliability analysis of pipeline engineering in permafrost regions.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.227-239
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• 2020

Despite proven effectiveness and accuracy in laboratories, the existing damage assessment based on guided ultrasonic waves (GUWs) or acoustic emission (AE) confronts challenges when extended to real-world structural health monitoring (SHM) for railway tracks. Central to the concerns are the extremely complex signal appearance due to highly dispersive and multimodal wave features, restriction on transducer installations, and severe contaminations of ambient noise. It remains a critical yet unsolved problem along with recent attempts to implement SHM in bourgeoning high-speed railway (HSR). By leveraging authors' continued endeavours, an SHM framework, based on actively generated diffuse ultrasonic waves (DUWs) and a benchmark-free condition contrast algorithm, has been developed and deployed via an all-in-one SHM system. Miniaturized lead zirconate titanate (PZT) wafers are utilized to generate and acquire DUWs in long-range railway tracks. Fatigue cracks in the tracks show unique contact behaviours under different conditions of external loads and further disturb DUW propagation. By contrast DUW propagation traits, fatigue cracks in railway tracks can be characterised quantitatively and the holistic health status of the tracks can be evaluated in a real-time manner. Compared with GUW- or AE-based methods, the DUW-driven inspection philosophy exhibits immunity to ambient noise and measurement uncertainty, less dependence on baseline signals, use of significantly reduced number of transducers, and high robustness in atrocious engineering conditions. Conformance tests are performed on HSR tracks, in which the evolution of fatigue damage is monitored continuously and quantitatively, demonstrating effectiveness, adaptability, reliability and robustness of DUW-driven SHM towards HSR applications.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.140-144
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• 2013

In this research, the glass dosimeter was calibrated to measure the standard absorbed dose of the Cs-137 irradiator and absorbed dose in a biological sample. Absorbed dose in water for Cs-137 gamma ray was determined by the IAEA TRS-277 protocol. The PTW-TM30013 ion chamber and the PTW-TM41023 water phantom were utilized for measuring absorbed dose and the value was compared with the reading from DoseAce GD-302M glass dosimeter from Asahi Techno Glass Corporation for its calibration. The uncertainty of measurement ($1{\sigma}$) of the calibrated glass dosimeter was 2.7% and this result would be applied to improve the accuracy in measurement of absorbed dose in a biological sample.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.259-277
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• 2015

The lack of experimental studies on the mechanical behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) haunched beams leads to difficulties in statistical and reliability analyses. This study performs stochastic and reliability analyses of the ultimate shear capacity of RC haunched beams based on nonlinear finite element analysis. The main aim of this study is to investigate the influence of uncertainty in material properties and geometry parameters on the mechanical performance and shear capacity of RC haunched beams. Firstly, 65 experimentally tested RC haunched beams and prismatic beams are analyzed via deterministic nonlinear finite element method by a special program (ATENA) to verify the efficiency of utilized numerical models, the shear capacity and the crack pattern. The accuracy of nonlinear finite element analyses is verified by comparing the results of nonlinear finite element and experiments and both results are found to be in a good agreement. Afterwards, stochastic analyses are performed for each beam where the RC material properties and geometry parameters are assigned to take probabilistic values using an advanced simulating procedure. As a result of stochastic analysis, statistical parameters are determined. The statistical parameters are obtained for resistance bias factor and the coefficient of variation which were found to be equal to 1.053 and 0.137 respectively. Finally, reliability analyses are accomplished using the limit state functions of ACI-318 and ASCE-7 depending on the calculated statistical parameters. The results show that the RC haunched beams have higher sensitivity and riskiness than the RC prismatic beams.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.171-190
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• 2002

Two cases of design are performed for the hyperbolic paraboloid saddle shell (Lin-Scordelis saddle shell) and the hyperbolic cooling tower (Grand Gulf cooling tower) to check the design strength against a consistent design load, therefore to verify the adequacy of the design algorithm. An iterative numerical computational algorithm is developed for combined membrane and flexural forces, which is based on equilibrium consideration for the limit state of reinforcement and cracked concrete. The design algorithm is implemented in a finite element analysis computer program developed by Mahmoud and Gupta. The amount of reinforcement is then determined at the center of each element by an elastic finite element analysis with the design ultimate load. Based on ultimate nonlinear analyses performed with designed saddle shell, the analytically calculated ultimate load exceeded the design ultimate load from 7% to 34% for analyses with various magnitude of tension stiffening. For the cooling tower problem the calculated ultimate load exceeded the design ultimate load from 26% to 63% with similar types of analyses. Since the effective tension stiffening would vary over the life of the shells due to environmental factors, a degree of uncertainty seems inevitable in calculating the actual failure load by means of numerical analysis. Even though the ultimate loads are strongly dependent on the tensile properties of concrete, the calculated ultimate loads are higher than the design ultimate loads for both design cases. For the cases designed, the design algorithm gives a lower bound on the design ultimate load with respect to the lower bound theorem. This shows the adequacy of the design algorithm developed, at least for the shells studied. The presented design algorithm for the combined membrane and flexural forces can be evolved as a general design method for reinforced concrete plates and shells through further studies involving the performance of multiple designs and the analyses of differing shell configurations.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.373-392
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• 2012

Tracking control of systems with variable stiffness hysteresis using a gain-scheduled (GS) controller is developed in this paper. Variable stiffness hysteretic system is represented as quasi linear parameter dependent system with known bounds on parameters. Assuming that the parameters can be measured or estimated in real-time, a GS controller that ensures the performance and the stability of the closed-loop system over the entire range of parameter variation is designed. The proposed method is implemented on a spring-mass system which consists of a semi-active independently variable stiffness (SAIVS) device that exhibits hysteresis and precisely controllable stiffness change in real-time. The SAIVS system with variable stiffness hysteresis is represented as quasi linear parameter varying (LPV) system with two parameters: linear time-varying stiffness (parameter with slow variation rate) and stiffness of the friction-hysteresis (parameter with high variation rate). The proposed LPV-GS controller can accommodate both slow and fast varying parameter, which was not possible with the controllers proposed in the prior studies. Effectiveness of the proposed controller is demonstrated by comparing the results with a fixed robust $\mathcal{H}_{\infty}$ controller that assumes the parameter variation as an uncertainty. Superior performance of the LPV-GS over the robust $\mathcal{H}_{\infty}$ controller is demonstrated for varying stiffness hysteresis of SAIVS device and for different ranges of tracking displacements. The LPV-GS controller is capable of adapting to any parameter changes whereas the $\mathcal{H}_{\infty}$ controller is effective only when the system parameters are in the vicinity of the nominal plant parameters for which the controller is designed. The robust $\mathcal{H}_{\infty}$ controller becomes unstable under large parameter variations but the LPV-GS will ensure stability and guarantee the desired closed-loop performance.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.153-171
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• 2015

The observational method in tunnel engineering allows the evaluation in real time of the actual conditions of the ground and to take measures if its behavior deviates considerably from predictions. However, it lacks a consistent and structured methodology to use the monitoring data to adapt the support system in real time. The definition of limit criteria above which adaptation is required are not defined and complex inverse analysis procedures (Rechea et al. 2008, Levasseur et al. 2010, Zentar et al. 2001, Lecampion et al. 2002, Finno and Calvello 2005, Goh 1999, Cui and Pan 2012, Deng et al. 2010, Mathew and Lehane 2013, Sharifzadeh et al. 2012, 2013) may be needed to consistently analyze the problem. In this paper a methodology for the real time adaptation of the support systems during tunneling is presented. In a first step limit criteria for displacements and stresses are proposed. The methodology uses graphics that are constructed during the project stage based on parametric calculations to assist in the process and when these graphics are not available, since it is not possible to predict every possible scenario, inverse analysis calculations are carried out. The methodology is applied to the "Bois de Peu" tunnel which is composed by two tubes with over 500 m long. High uncertainty levels existed concerning the heterogeneity of the soil and consequently in the geomechanical design parameters. The methodology was applied in four sections and the results focus on two of them. It is shown that the methodology has potential to be applied in real cases contributing for a consistent approach of a real time adaptation of the support system and highlight the importance of the existence of good quality and specific monitoring data to improve the inverse analysis procedure.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.513-525
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• 2020

Slopes stabilised with piles are seldom analysed considering uncertainties in the parameters of the pile-slope system. Reliability analysis of the pile-slope system quantifies the degree of uncertainties and evaluates the safety of the system. In the present study, the reliability analysis of a slope stabilised with piles is performed using the first-order reliability method (FORM) based on Hasofer-Lind approach. The implicit performance function associated with the factor of safety (FS) of the slope is approximated using the response surface method. The analyses are carried out considering the design matrices formulated based on both the 2^k factorial design augmented with a centre run (2^k fact-centred design) and face-centered cube design (FCD). The finite element method is used as the deterministic model to compute the FS of the pile-slope system. Results are compared with the results of the Monte Carlo simulation. It is observed that the optimum location of the row of piles is at the middle of the slope to achieve the maximum FS. The results show that the reliability of the system is not uniform for different pile configurations, even if the system deterministically satisfies the target factor of safety (FS_t) criterion. The FS_t should be selected judiciously as it is observed that the reliability of the system changes drastically with the FS_t level. The results of the 2^k fact-centred design and FCD are in good agreement with each other. The procedure of the FCD is computationally costly and hence the use of 2^k fact-centred design is recommended, provided the response of the system is sufficiently linear over the factorial space.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.23-35
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• 2020

It is important to take into account the thermal behavior in assessing the structural condition of bridges. An effective method of studying the temperature effect of long-span bridges is numerical simulation based on the solar radiation models. This study aims to develop a time-varying solar radiation model which can consider the real-time weather changes, such as a cloud cover. A statistical analysis of the long-term monitoring data is first performed, especially on the temperature data between the south and north anchors of the bridge, to confirm that temperature difference can be used to describe real-time weather changes. Second, a defect in the traditional solar radiation model is detected in the temperature field simulation, whereby the value of the turbidity coefficient t_u is subjective and cannot be used to describe the weather changes in real-time. Therefore, a new solar radiation model with modified turbidity coefficient γ is first established on the temperature difference between the south and north anchors. Third, the temperature data of several days are selected for model validation, with the results showing that the simulated temperature distribution is in good agreement with the measured temperature, while the calculated results by the traditional model had minor errors because the turbidity coefficient t_u is uncertainty. In addition, the vertical and transverse temperature gradient of a typical cross-section and the temperature distribution of the tower are also studied.