• Computers and Concrete
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.11-22
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• 2017

There are two methods to model the plastification of members comprising lumped and distributed plasticity. When a reinforced concrete member experiences inelastic deformations, cracks tend to spread from the joint interface resulting in a curvature distribution; therefore, the lumped plasticity methods assuming plasticity is concentrated at a zero-length plastic hinge section at the ends of the elements, cannot model the actual behavior of reinforced concrete members. Some spread plasticity models including uniform, linear and recently power have been developed to take extended inelastic zone into account. In the aforementioned models, the extended inelastic zones in proximity of critical sections assumed close to connections are considered. Although the mentioned assumption is proper for the buildings simply imposed lateral loads, it is not appropriate for the gravity load effects. The gravity load effects can influence the inelastic zones in structural elements; therefore, the plasticity models presenting the flexibility distribution along the member merely based on lateral loads apart from the gravity load effects can bring about incorrect stiffness matrix for structure. In this study, the linear flexibility distribution model is improved to account for the distributed plasticity of members subjected to both gravity and lateral load effects. To do so, a new model in which, each member is taken as one structural element into account is proposed. Some numerical examples from previous studies are assessed and outcomes confirm the accuracy of proposed model. Also comparing the results of the proposed model with other spread plasticity models illustrates glaring error produced due to neglecting the gravity load effects.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권9호
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• pp.3100-3111
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• 2021

Numerical modeling for the safety-related equipment used in a nuclear power plant (i.e., cabinet facilities) plays an essential role in seismic risk assessment. A full finite element model is often time-consuming for nonlinear time history analysis due to its computational modeling complexity. Thus, this study aims to generate a simplified model that can capture the nonlinear behavior of the electrical cabinet. Accordingly, the distributed plasticity approach was utilized to examine the stiffness-degradation effect caused by the local buckling of the structure. The inherent dynamic characteristics of the numerical model were validated against the experimental test. The outcomes indicate that the proposed model can adequately represent the significant behavior of the structure, and it is preferred in practice to perform the nonlinear analysis of the cabinet. Further investigations were carried out to evaluate the seismic behavior of the cabinet under the influence of the constitutive law of material models. Three available models in OpenSees (i.e., linear, bilinear, and Giuffre-Menegotto-Pinto (GMP) model) were considered to provide an enhanced understating of the seismic responses of the cabinet. It was found that the material nonlinearity, which is the function of its smoothness, is the most effective parameter for the structural analysis of the cabinet. Also, it showed that implementing nonlinear models reduces the seismic response of the cabinet considerably in comparison with the linear model.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제56권2호
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• pp.169-188
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• 2015

There are two types of nonlinear analysis methods for building frameworks depending on the method of modeling the plastification of members including lumped plasticity and distributed plasticity. The lumped plasticity method assumes that plasticity is concentrated at a zero-length plastic hinge section at the ends of the elements. The distributed plasticity method discretizes the structural members into many line segments, and further subdivides the cross-section of each segment into a number of finite elements. When a reinforced concrete member experiences inelastic deformations, cracks tend to spread form the joint interface resulting in a curvature distribution. The program IDARC includes a spread plasticity formulation to capture the variation of the section flexibility, and combine them to determine the element stiffness matrix. In this formulation, the flexibility distribution in the structural elements is assumed to be the linear. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of linear flexibility distribution assumed in the spread inelasticity model. For this purpose, nonlinear analysis of two reinforced concrete frames is carried out and the linear flexibility models used in the elements are compared with the real ones. It is shown that the linear flexibility distribution is incorrect assumption in cases of significant gravity load effects and can be lead to incorrect nonlinear responses in some situations.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제69권3호
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• pp.243-255
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• 2019

Utilization of fiber beam-column element has gained considerable attention in recent years due mainly to its ability to model distributed plasticity over the length of the element through a number of integration points. However, the relatively high sensitivity of the method to modeling parameters as well as material behavior models can pose a significant challenge. Residual drift is one of the seismic demands which is highly sensitive to modeling parameters and material behavior models. Permanent deformations play a prominent role in the post-earthquake evaluation of serviceability of bridges affected by a near-fault ground shaking. In this research, the influence of distributed plasticity modeling parameters using both force-based and displacement-based fiber elements in the prediction of internal forces obtained from the nonlinear static analysis is studied. Having chosen suitable type and size of elements and number of integration points, the authors take the next step by investigating the influence of material behavioral model employed for the prediction of permanent deformations in the nonlinear dynamic analysis. The result shows that the choice of element type and size, number of integration points, modification of cyclic concrete behavior model and reloading strain of concrete significantly influence the fidelity of fiber element method for the prediction of permanent deformations.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제4권5호
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• pp.451-470
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• 2013

It generally accepted that most building structures shall exhibit a nonlinear response when subjected to medium-high intensity earthquakes. It is currently known, however, that this phenomenon is not properly modelled in the majority of cases, especially at the design stage, where only simple linear methods have effectively been used. Recently, as a result of the exponential progress of computational tools, nonlinear modelling and analysis have gradually been brought to a more promising level. A wide range of modelling alternatives developed over the years is hence at the designer's disposal for the seismic design and assessment of engineering structures. The objective of the study presented herein is to test some of these models in an existing structure, and observe their performance in nonlinear static and dynamic analyses. This evaluation is done by the use of two of a known range of advanced computer programs: SAP2000 and SeismoStruct. The different models will focus on the element flexural mechanism with both lumped and distributed plasticity element models. In order to appraise the reliability and feasibility of each alternative, the programs capabilities and the amount of labour and time required for modelling and performing the analyses are also discussed. The results obtained show the difficulties that may be met, not only in performing nonlinear analyses, but also on their dependency on both the chosen nonlinear structural models and the adopted computer programs. It is then suggested that these procedures should only be used by experienced designers, provided that they are aware of these difficulties and with a critical stance towards the result of the analyses.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제14권6호
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• pp.525-535
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• 2018

This study presents a new beam-column model comprising material nonlinearity and joint flexibility to predict the nonlinear response of reinforced concrete structures. The nonlinear behavior of connections has an outstanding role on the nonlinear response of reinforced concrete structures. In presented research, the joint flexibility is considered applying a rotational spring at each end of the member. To derive the moment-rotation behavior of beam-column connections, the relative rotations produced by the relative slip of flexural reinforcement in the joint and the flexural cracking of the beam end are taken into consideration. Furthermore, the considered spread plasticity model, unlike the previous models that have been developed based on the linear moment distribution subjected to lateral loads includes both lateral and gravity load effects, simultaneously. To confirm the accuracy of the proposed methodology, a simply-supported test beam and three reinforced concrete frames are considered. Pushover and nonlinear dynamic analysis of three numerical examples are performed. In these examples the nonlinear behavior of connections and the material nonlinearity using the proposed methodology and also linear flexibility model with different number of elements for each member and fiber based distributed plasticity model with different number of integration points are simulated. Comparing the results of the proposed methodology with those of the aforementioned models describes that suggested model that only uses one element for each member can appropriately estimate the nonlinear behavior of reinforced concrete structures.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제29권4호
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• pp.511-517
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• 2005

Fretting fatigue is often the root cause of the nucleation of cracks at attachments of structural components. Since fretting fatigue damage accumulation occurs over relatively small volumes, the subsurface cyclic plastic strain is expected to be rather non-uniformly distributed in polycrystalline materials. The scale of the cyclic plasticity and the damage process zones is often on the order of microstructure dimensions. Fretting damage analyses using cyclic crystal plasticity constitutive models have the potential to account for the influence of size, morphology, and crystallographic orientation of grains on fretting damage evolution. Two-dimensional plane strain simulations of fretting fatigue are performed using the cyclic properties of Ti-6Al-4V. The crystal plasticity simulations are compared to an initially isotropic $J_{2}$ theory with nonlinear kinematic hardening as well as to experiments. The influence of initially isotropic versus textured microstructure in the presence of crystallographic slip is studied.

• 소성∙가공
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• 제10권5호
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• pp.396-401
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• 2001

The concept of the mixtures can be used not only in the composites but also in the materials with precipitates and matrix. In this investigation, the finite element method of axisymmetric unit cell models and the rule of mixtures of the Voigt and the Reuss models are used to analyze the overall mechanical response of composites with homogeneously distributed particles. The calculations have been cameo out by taking the materials as i) hardening and ii) perfect plastic materials. The Plastic properties are predicted for various volume fractions of the soft and hard particles. The computational results are compared with the results of the rule of mixtures. It is found that the plastic flow curves agree well with the Voigt model when the volume fraction of the particles is high. On the other hand, the calculated flow curves exist between the Voigt model and the Reuss model when the volume fraction of the particles is low.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• 제2권4호
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• pp.383-397
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• 2015

This article identifies and addresses current limitations on the use of numerical models for validation and/or calibration of damage detection methodologies that are based on the analysis of the high frequency response of the structure to identify the occurrence of abrupt anomalies. Distributed-plasticity non-linear fiber-based models in combination with experimental data from a full-scale reinforced concrete column test are used to point out current modeling techniques limitations. It was found that the numerical model was capable of reproducing the global and local response of the structure at a wide range of inelastic demands, including the occurrences of rebar ruptures. However, when abrupt sudden damage occurs, like rebar fracture, a high frequency pulse is detected in the accelerations recorded in the structure that the numerical model is incapable of reproducing. Since the occurrence of such pulse is fundamental on the detection of damage, it is proposed to add this effect to the simulated response before it is used for validation purposes.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제15권2호
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• pp.113-122
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• 2018

This study presents a new beam-column model comprising material nonlinearity and joint flexibility to predict the nonlinear response of reinforced concrete structures. The nonlinear behavior of connections has an outstanding role on the nonlinear response of reinforced concrete structures. In presented research, the joint flexibility is considered applying a rotational spring at each end of the member. To derive the moment-rotation behavior of beam-column connections, the relative rotations produced by the relative slip of flexural reinforcement in the joint and the flexural cracking of the beam end are taken into consideration. Furthermore, the considered spread plasticity model, unlike the previous models that have been developed based on the linear moment distribution subjected to lateral loads includes both lateral and gravity load effects, simultaneously. To confirm the accuracy of the proposed methodology, a simply-supported test beam and three reinforced concrete frames are considered. Pushover and nonlinear dynamic analysis of three numerical examples are performed. In these examples the nonlinear behavior of connections and the material nonlinearity using the proposed methodology and also linear flexibility model with different number of elements for each member and fiber based distributed plasticity model with different number of integration points are simulated. Comparing the results of the proposed methodology with those of the aforementioned models describes that suggested model that only uses one element for each member can appropriately estimate the nonlinear behavior of reinforced concrete structures.