• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• 제48권5호
• /
• pp.587-613
• /
• 2013

A 3-node 3D co-rotational beam element using vectorial rotational variables is employed to consider the geometric nonlinearity in 3D space. To account for shape versatility and reinforced concrete cross-sections, fibre model has been derived and conducted. Numerical integration over the cross-section is performed, considering both normal and shear stresses. In addition, the derivations associated with material nonlinearity are given in terms of elasto-plastic incremental stress-strain relationship for both steel and concrete. Steel reinforcement is treated as elasto-plastic material with Von Mises yield criterion. Compressive concrete behaviour is described by Modified Kent and Park model, while tensile stiffening effect is taken into account as well. Through several numerical examples, it is shown that the proposed 3D co-rotational beam element with fibre model can be used to simulate steel and reinforced concrete framed structures with satisfactory accuracy and efficiency.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• 제62권3호
• /
• pp.259-272
• /
• 2017

In this study, recently developed swarm intelligence algorithm called Social Spider Optimization (SSO) approach and its enhanced version of SSO algorithm with spider jump techniques is used to develop a structural optimization technique for steel space structures. The improved version of SSO uses adaptive randomness probability in generating new solutions. The objective function of the design optimization problem is taken as the weight of a steel space structure. Constraints' functions are implemented from American Institute of Steel Construction-Load Resistance factor design (AISC-LRFD) and Ad Hoc Committee report and practice which cover strength, serviceability and geometric requirements. Three steel space structures are optimized using both standard SSO and SSO with spider jump (SSO_SJ) algorithms and the results are compared with those available in the literature in order to investigate the performance of the proposed algorithms.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• 제29권1호
• /
• pp.139-149
• /
• 2018

In this paper a new multi-step damage detection approach is provided. In the first step, condensed modal residual vector based indicator (CMRVBI) has been proposed to locate the suspected damaged elements of structures that have rotational degrees of freedom (DOFs). The CMRVBI is a new indicator that uses only translational DOFs of the structures to localize damaged elements. In the next step, salp swarm algorithm is applied to quantify damage severity of the suspected damaged elements. In order to assess the performance of the proposed approach, a numerical example including a three-layer square laminated composite plate is studied. The numerical results demonstrated that the proposed CMRVBI is effective for locating damage, regardless of the effect of noise. The efficiency of proposed approach is also compared during both steps. The results demonstrate that in noisy condition, the damage identification approach is capable for the studied structure.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• 제20권3호
• /
• pp.405-422
• /
• 2015

In previous model- and full-scale studies, high-amplitude vertical vibrations of mast-arm traffic signal structures have been shown to be due to vortex shedding, a phenomenon in which alternatingly shed, low-pressure vortices induce oscillating forces onto the mast-arm causing a cross-wind response. When the frequency of vortices being shed from the mast-arm corresponds to the natural frequency of the structure, a resonant condition is created causing long-lasting, high-amplitude vibrations which may lead to the fatigue failure of these structures. Turbulence in the approach flow is known to affect the cohesiveness of vortex shedding. Results from this full-scale investigation indicate that the surrounding terrain conditions, which affect the turbulence intensity of the wind, greatly influence the likelihood of occurrence of long-lasting, high-amplitude vibrations and also impact whether reduced service life due to fatigue is likely to be of concern.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• 제19권6호
• /
• pp.603-621
• /
• 2014

Past high speed wind events have exposed the vulnerability of the roof systems of existing light-framed wood structures to uplift loading, contributing greatly to economic and human loss. This paper further investigates the behaviour of light-framed wood structures under the uplift loading of a realistic pressure distribution. A three-dimensional finite-element model is first developed to capture the behaviour of a recently completed full-scale experiment. After describing the components used to develop the numerical model, a comparison between the numerical prediction and experimental results in terms of the deflected shape at the roof-to-wall connections is presented to gain confidence in the numerical model. The model is then used to analyze the behaviour of the truss system under realistic and equivalent uniform pressure distributions and to perform an assessment of the use of the tributary area method to calculate the withdrawal force acting on the roof-to-wall connections.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• 제35권6호
• /
• pp.717-727
• /
• 2020

The homotopy perturbation method (HPM) to predict the pre- and post-buckling behaviour of simply supported steel beams with rectangular hollow section (RHS) is presented in this paper. The non-linear differential equations solved by HPM derive from a kinematics where large twist and cross-sections distortions are considered. The results (linear and non-linear paths) given by the present HPM are compared to those provided by the Newton-Raphson algorithm with arc length and by the commercial FEM code Abaqus. To investigate the effect of cross-sectional distortion of beams, some numerical examples are presented.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• 제31권3호
• /
• pp.349-365
• /
• 2009

Membrane structures are quite sensitive to wind and therefore the fluid-solid interaction can not be neglected in dynamic analysis. A boundary element method (BEM) for 3D simulation of wind-structure interaction in tensile membrane structures is presented in this paper. The flow is treated as incompressible and potential. The flow field is solved with boundary element method codes and structural simulation is performed by finite element method software ANSYS. The nonlinear equations system is solved iteratively, with segregated treatment of the fluid and structure equations. Furthermore this method has been demonstrated to be effective by typical examples. Besides, the influence of several parameters on the wind-structure interaction, such as rise-span ratio, prestress and the wind velocity are investigated according to this method. The results provide experience in wind resistant researches and engineering.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• 제7권6호
• /
• pp.937-953
• /
• 2014

A semi-active control platform comprising the mechanical model of magnetorheological (MR) dampers, the bang-bang control law and damage material models is developed, and the simulation method of steel plate shear wall (SPSW) and optimization method for capacity design of MR dampers are proposed. A 15-story steel frame-SPSW structure is analyzed to evaluate the seismic performance of nonlinear semi-active controlled structures with optimal designed MR dampers, results indicate that the control platform and simulation method are stable and fast, and the damage accumulation effects of uncontrolled structure are largely reduced, and the seismic performance of controlled structures has been improved.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• 제48권2호
• /
• pp.173-193
• /
• 2013

In this paper, influence of geometric configurations of multi-story bracing on shear lag behaviour of braced tube structures is investigated. The shear lag of 24-, 36- and 72-story braced tube structures are assessed considering all possible configurations of overall X and Chevron bracing types. Based on the analytical results, empirical equations, useful for the preliminary design phase, are proposed to provide the optimum number of stories that braced, in order to exert minimum shear lag on structures. Studying the interaction behaviour of a tube and different bracing types along with paying attention to the shear lag behaviour, a better explanation about the reasons behind the efficiency of a specific bracing module in decreasing the shear lag is developed. The analytical results show that there are distinct differences between the anatomy of braced tube structures with X and Chevron bracing regarding the shear lag behaviour.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• 제60권4호
• /
• pp.667-691
• /
• 2016

This study focuses on the damage detection of defect types in plate structures based on wavelet transform (WT) and curvelet transform (CT). In particular, for damage detection of structures these transforms have been developed since the last few years. In recent years, the CT approach has been also introduced in an attempt to overcome inherent limitations of traditional multi-scale representations such as wavelets. In this study, the performance of CT is compared with WT in order to demonstrate the capability of WT and CT in detection of defect types in plate structures. To achieve this purpose, the damage detection of defect types through defect shape in rectangular plate is investigated. By using the first mode shape of plate structure and the distribution of the coefficients of the transforms, the damage existence, the defect location and the approximate shape of defect are detected. Moreover, the accuracy and performance generality of the transforms are verified through using experimental modal data of a plate.