• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.587-614
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• 2014

In recent years the interest in online monitoring of lightweight structures with ultrasonic guided waves is steadily growing. Especially the aircraft industry is a driving force in the development of structural health monitoring (SHM) systems. In order to optimally design SHM systems powerful and efficient numerical simulation tools to predict the behaviour of ultrasonic elastic waves in thin-walled structures are required. It has been shown that in real industrial applications, such as airplane wings or fuselages, conventional linear and quadratic pure displacement finite elements commonly used to model ultrasonic elastic waves quickly reach their limits. The required mesh density, to obtain good quality solutions, results in enormous computational costs when solving the wave propagation problem in the time domain. To resolve this problem different possibilities are available. Analytical methods and higher order finite element method approaches (HO-FEM), like p-FEM, spectral elements, spectral analysis and isogeometric analysis, are among them. Although analytical approaches offer fast and accurate results, they are limited to rather simple geometries. On the other hand, the application of higher order finite element schemes is a computationally demanding task. The drawbacks of both methods can be circumvented if regions of complex geometry are modelled using a HO-FEM approach while the response of the remaining structure is computed utilizing an analytical approach. The objective of the paper is to present an efficient method to couple different HO-FEM schemes with an analytical description of an undisturbed region. Using this hybrid formulation the numerical effort can be drastically reduced. The functionality of the proposed scheme is demonstrated by studying the propagation of ultrasonic guided waves in plates, excited by a piezoelectric patch actuator. The actuator is modelled utilizing higher order coupled field finite elements, whereas the homogenous, isotropic plate is described analytically. The results of this "semi-analytical" approach highlight the opportunities to reduce the numerical effort if closed-form solutions are partially available.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.17-32
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• 2001

The Rosette-joining system is a completely new press-joining method for cold-formed steel structures. One Rosette-joint has a shear capacity equal to that of approximately four screws or rivets. The Rosette thin-walled steel truss system presents a new fully integrated prefabricated alternative to light-weight roof truss structures. The trusses are built up on special industrial production lines from modified top hat sections used as top and bottom chords and channel sections used as webs which are joined together with the Rosette press-joining technique to form a completed structure easy to transport and install. A single web section is used when sufficient but can be strengthened by double-nesting two separate sections or by using two lateral profiles where greater compressive axial forces are met. An individual joint in the truss can be strengthened by introducing a hollow bolt into the joint hole. The bolt gives the connection capacity a boost of approximately 20%. A series of laboratory tests have been carried out in order to verify the Rosette truss system in practice. In addition to compression tests on individual sections of different lengths, tests have also been done on small structural assemblies and on actual full-scale trusses of a span of 10 metres. Design calculations have been performed on selected roof truss geometries based on the test results, FE-analysis and on the Eurocode 3 and U.S.(AISI) design codes.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.233-241
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• 2005

The paper is presented experimental study results on bond stress between profiled steel and concrete in Profiled SPC(Profiled Steel Plate Concrete) rectangular steel tubes through an experimental program in which 13 pull-out specimens were tested. Advantages and class of composite members and current problems of construction work are noted, past research of PSSC is described. An experimental study is described and evaluated. The bond capacity is interrelated with slip at the steel concrete interface. The factors influencing the mechanism of bond stress transfer were the cross section shape, length/diameter, diameter/thickness and environmental parameters (temperature, moisture). The results of experimental program indicated that the force transfer could be characterized into two regions The first region was governed by bond with no relative slip between the profiled steel and concrete. The second region occurs after the chemical debonding. Bond stress transfer in this region was governed by frictional resistance between profiled steel and concrete and cross section shapes. The important factors influencing the magnitude of frictional resistance are the profiled steel shapes, length/diameter and environmental parameters. (temperature, moisture)

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.339-354
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• 2007

Arched Corrugated Steel Roof (ACSR) is a kind of thin-walled steel shell, composing of arched panels with transverse small corrugations. Four full-scale W666 ACSR samples with 18m and 30m span were tested under full and half span static vertical uniform loads. Displacement, bearing capacities and failure modes of the four samples were measured. The web and bottom flange in ACSR with transverse small corrugations are simplified to anisotropic curved plates, and the equivalent tensile modulus, shear modulus and Poisson's ratio of 18m span ACSR were measured. Two 18 m-span W666 ACSR samples were analyzed with the Finite Element Analysis program ABAQUS. Base on the tests, the limit bearing capacity of ACSR is low, and for half span loading, it is 74-75% compared with the full span loading. When the testing load approached to the limit value, the bottom flange at the sample's bulge place locally buckled first, and then the whole arched roof collapsed suddenly. If the vertical loads apply along the full span, the deformation shape is symmetric, but the overall failure mode is asymmetric. For half span vertical loading, the deformation shape and the overall failure mode of the structure are asymmetric. The ACSR displacement under the vertical loads is large and the structural stiffness is low. There is a little difference between the FEM analysis results and testing data, showing the simplify method of small corrugations in ACSR and the building techniques of FEM models are rational and useful.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.453-464
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• 2017

The square tubed-reinforced concrete (TRC) column is a kind of special concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) columns, in which the outer thin-walled steel tube does not pass through the beam-column joint, so that the longitudinal steel reinforcing bars in the RC beam are continuous through the connection zone. However, there is a possible decrease of the axial bearing capacity at the TRC column to RC beam connection due to the discontinuity of the column tube, which is a concern to engineers. 24 connections and 7 square TRC columns were tested under axial compression. The primary parameters considered in the tests are: (1) connection location (corner, exterior and interior); (2) dimensions of RC beam cross section; (3) RC beam type (with or without horizontal haunches); (4) tube type (with or without stiffening ribs). The test results show that all specimens have relatively high load-carrying capacity and satisfactory ductility. With a proper design, the connections exhibit higher axial resistance and better ductility performance than the TRC column. The feasibility of this type of connections is verified.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.251-267
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• 2023

In this paper, an experimental investigation is carried out to assess the inherent self-compacting properties of geopolymer mortar and its impact on flexural strength of thin-walled ferro-geopolymer box beam. The inherent self-compacting properties of the optimal mix of normal geopolymer mortar was studied and compared with self-compacting cement mortar. To assess the flexural strength of box beams, a total of 3 box beams of size 1500 mm × 200 mm × 150 mm consisting of one ferro-cement box beam having a wall thickness of 40 mm utilizing self-compacting cement mortar and two ferro-geopolymer box beams with geopolymer mortar by varying the wall thickness between 40 mm and 50 mm were moulded. The ferro-cement box beam was cured in water and ferro-geopolymer box beams were cured in heat chamber at 75℃ - 80℃ for 24 hours. After curing, the specimens are subjected to flexural testing by applying load at one-third points. The result shows that the ultimate load carrying capacity of ferro-geopolymer and ferro-cement box beams are almost equal. In addition, the stiffness of the ferro-geoploymer box beam is reduced by 18.50% when compared to ferro-cement box beam. Simultaneously, the ductility index and energy absorption capacity are increased by 88.24% and 30.15%, respectively. It is also observed that the load carrying capacity and stiffness of ferro-geopolymer box beams decreases when the wall thickness is increased. At the same time, the ductility and energy absorption capacity increased by 17.50% and 8.25%, respectively. Moreover, all of the examined beams displayed a shear failure pattern.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.477-485
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• 2012

Geometric configurations such as hull shape, wall thickness, stiffener layout, and type of construction materials are the key factors influencing the structural performance of pressure hulls. Traditional theoretical approach provides quick and acceptable solutions for the design of pressure hulls within specific geometric configuration and material. In this paper, alternative approaches that can be used to obtain optimal geometric shape, wall thickness, construction material configuration and stiffener layout of a pressure hull are presented. CAE(Computer Aided Engineering) based design optimization tools are utilized in order to obtain the required structural responses and optimal design parameters. Optimal elliptical meridional profile is determined for a cylindrical pressure hull design using metamodel-based optimization technique implemented in a fully-integrated parametric modeler-CAE platform in ANSYS. While the optimal composite laminate layup and the design of ring stiffener for a thin-walled pressure hull are obtained using gradient-based optimization method in OptiStruct. It is noted that the proposed alternative approaches are potentially effective for pressure hull design.