• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.291-310
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• 2014

An advanced model for the linear flutter analysis is introduced in this paper. Higher-order beam structural models are developed by using the Carrera Unified Formulation, which allows for the straightforward implementation of arbitrarily rich displacement fields without the need of a-priori kinematic assumptions. The strong form of the principle of virtual displacements is used to obtain the equations of motion and the natural boundary conditions for beams in free vibration. An exact dynamic stiffness matrix is then developed by relating the amplitudes of harmonically varying loads to those of the responses. The resulting dynamic stiffness matrix is used with particular reference to the Wittrick-Williams algorithm to carry out free vibration analyses. According to the doublet lattice method, the natural mode shapes are subsequently used as generalized motions for the generation of the unsteady aerodynamic generalized forces. Finally, the g-method is used to conduct flutter analyses of both isotropic and laminated composite lifting surfaces. The obtained results perfectly match those from 1D and 2D finite elements and those from experimental analyses. It can be stated that refined beam models are compulsory to deal with the flutter analysis of wing models whereas classical and lower-order models (up to the second-order) are not able to detect those flutter conditions that are characterized by bending-torsion couplings.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.225-237
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• 2013

Excessive vibrations induced by earthquake excitation and wind load are an obstacle in design and construction of tall and super tall buildings. An innovative vibration control structure system (Mega-Sub Controlled Structure System-MSCSS) was recently proposed to further improve humans comfort and their safeties during natural disasters. Preliminary investigations were performed using a two dimensional equivalent simplified model, composed by 3 mega-stories. In this paper, a more reasonable and realistic scaled model is design to investigate the dynamical characteristics and controlling performances of this structure when subjected to strong earthquake motion. The control parameters of the structure system, such as the modulated sub-structures disposition; the damping coefficient ratio (RC); the stiffness ratio (RD); the mass ratio of the mega-structure and sub-structure (RM) are investigated and their optimal values (matched values) are obtained. The MSCSS is also compared with the so-called Mega-Sub Structure (MSS) regarding their displacement and acceleration responses when subjected to the same load conditions. Through the nonlinear time history analysis, the effectiveness and the feasibility of the proposed mega-sub controlled structure system (MSCSS) is demonstrated in reducing the displacement and acceleration responses and also improving human comfort under earthquake loads.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.237-262
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• 2015

In this study, we try to compare different intensity measures for evaluating nonlinear response of bridge structure. This paper presents seismic analytic fragility of a three-span concrete girder highway bridge. A complete detail of bridge modeling parameters and also its verification has been presented. Fragility function considers the relationship of intensities of the ground motion and probability of exceeding certain state of damage. Incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) has been subjected to the bridge from medium to strong ground motions. A suite of 20 earthquake ground motions with different range of PGAs are used in nonlinear dynamic analysis of the bridge. Complete sensitive analyses have been done on the response of bridge and also efficiency and practically of them are studied to obtain a proficient intensity measure for these types of structure by considering its sensitivity to the period of the bridge. Three dimensional finite element (FE) model of the bridge is developed and analyzed. The numerical results show that the bridge response is very sensitive to the earthquake ground motions when PGA and Sa (Ti, 5%) are used as intensity measure (IM) and also indicated that the failure probability of the bridge system is dominated by the bridge piers.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.61-67
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• 2014

Since the most of the existing non-Newtonian models are not adequate to apply to the lattmce Boltzmann method, it is a challenging task from both the theoretical and the numerical points of view. In this research the hydro-kinetic model was modified and applied to the 3-D moving sphere in the circular channel flow and the characteristics of the shear thinning effect by the HK-model was evaluated and the condition of ${\Gamma}$ in the model was suggested for the stable simulation to generate non-trivial prediction in three dimension strong shear flows. On the wall boundaries of circular channel the curved wall surface treatment with constant velocity condition was applied and the bounceback condition was applied on the sphere wall to simulate the relative motion of the sphere. The condition is adequate at the less blockage than 0.7 but It may need to apply a multi-scale concept of grid refinement at the narrow flow region. to obtain the stable numerical results.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.1112-1120
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• 2002

Numerical investigations on air staging and fuel staging were carried out with a newly designed coaxial cyclone combustor, which uses the method of two stage coal combustion composed of pre-combustor and main combustor. The pre-combustor with a high air/fuel ratio is designed to supply gas at high temperature to the main combustor. To avoid local high temperature region in this process, secondary air is injected in the downstream. Together with the burned gas supplied from the pre-combustor and the preheated air directly injected into main combustor, coals supplied through the main burner react rapidly at a low air/fuel ratio. Strong swirling motion of cyclone combustor keeps the wall temperature high, which makes slagging combustion possible. Alaska, US coal is used for calculations. Predictions were made for various coal flow rates in the main combustor for fuel staging and for the various flow rate of secondary air in the pre-combustor for air staging. In-scattering angles are also chosen as a variable to increase residence times of coal particles. Temperature fields and particle trajectories for various conditions are described. Predicted temperature variations at the wall of the combustor are compared with corresponding experimental data and show a similar trend. The in-scattering angle of 20° is recommended to increase the combustion efficiency in the main chamber.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.661-679
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• 2013

In this work, the safety performance of a commercial motorcycle helmet already placed on the market is assessed. The assessed motorcycle helmet is currently homologated by several relevant motorcycle standards. Impacts including translational and rotational motions are accurately simulated through a finite element numerical framework. The developed model was validated against experimental results: firstly, a validation concerning the constitutive model for the expanded polystyrene, the material responsible for energy absorption during impact; secondly, a validation regarding the acceleration measured at the headform's centre of gravity during the linear impacts defined in the ECE R22.05 standard. Both were successfully validated. After model validation, an oblique impact was simulated and the results were compared against head injury thresholds in order to predict the resultant head injuries. From this comparison, it was concluded that brain injuries such as concussion and diffuse axonal injury may occur even with a helmet certified by the majority of the motorcycle helmet standards. Unfortunately, these standards currently do not contemplate rotational components of acceleration. Conclusion points out to a strong recommendation on the necessity of including rotational motion in forthcoming motorcycle helmet standards and improving the current test procedures and head injury criteria used by the standards, to improve the safety between the motorcyclists.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.565-585
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• 2009

Superelastic Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) are gaining acceptance for use as reinforcing bars in concrete structures. The seismic behaviour of concrete frames reinforced with SMAs is being assessed in this study. Two eight-storey concrete frames, one of which is reinforced with regular steel and the other with SMAs at the plastic hinge regions of beams and regular steel elsewhere, are designed and analyzed using 10 different ground motion records. Both frames are located in the highly seismic region of Western Canada and are designed and detailed according to current seismic design standards. The validation of a finite element (FE) program that was conducted previously at the element level is extended to the structure level in this paper using the results of a shake table test of a three-storey moment resisting steel RC frame. The ten accelerograms that are chosen for analyzing the designed RC frames are scaled based on the spectral ordinate at the fundamental periods of the frames. The behaviour of both frames under scaled seismic excitations is compared in terms of maximum inter-storey drift, top-storey drift, inter-storey residual drift, and residual top-storey drift. The results show that SMA-RC frames are able to recover most of its post-yield deformation, even after a strong earthquake.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.1127-1143
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• 2016

The pounding phenomenon in adjacent structures happens in severing earthquakes that can cause great damages. Connecting neighboring structures with active and semi-active control devices is an effective method to avoid mutual colliding between neighboring buildings. One of the most important issues in control systems is applying online control force. There will be a time delay if the prose of producing control force does not perform on time. This paper proposed a time-delay compensation method in coupled structures control, with semi-active Magnetorheological (MR) damper. This method based on Newmark's integration is adopted to mitigate the time-delay effect. In this study, Lyapunov's direct approach is employed to compute demanded voltage for MR dampers. Using Lyapunov's direct algorithm guarantees the system stability to design a controller based on feedback. Because of the strong nonlinearity of MR dampers, the equation of motion of coupled structures becomes an involved equation, and it is impossible to solve it with the common time step methods. In present paper modified Newmark-Beta integration based on the instantaneous optimal control algorithm, used to solve the involved equation. In this method, the response of a coupled system estimated base on optimal control force. Two MDOF structures with different degrees of freedom are finally considered as a numeric example. The numerical results show, the Newmark compensation is an efficient method to decrease the negative effect of time delay in coupled systems; furthermore, instantaneous optimal control algorithm can estimate the response of structures suitable.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2006.04a
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• pp.451-458
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• 2006

The goal of many researchers in the field of structural engineering is to reduce both damage to building structures and discomfort of their inhabitants during strong motion seismic events. The present paper reports on analytical work conducted with this aim in mind as a prior research of experimental study. A four-story, 6.4 m tall, laboratory model of a building is employed as a example structure. The laboratory structure has graphite epoxy columns and each floor is equipped with a chevron brace that serves to resist inter-story drift with the installation of a magnetorheological (MR) damper. An artificial excitation has been generated with a robust range of seismic characteristics. A series of numerical simulations demonstrates that an optimized fuzzy controller is capable of robust performance for a variety of seismic base motions. Optimization of the fuzzy controller is achieved using multi-objective genetic algorithm(MOGA), i.e. NSGA-II. Multiple objective functions are used in order to reduce both peak and root-means-squared displacement and accelerations at the floor levels of the building.

• Transactions on Control, Automation and Systems Engineering
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.341-346
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• 2002

When a construction company builds a high structure. many piles should be driven into the ground by a hammer whose weight is 7,000 kg in order to make the ground under the structure safe and strong. So. it is essential to determine whether a pile is penetrated into the ground enough to support the weight of the structure since ground characteristics at different locations are different each other. This paper proposes a visual measurement system for pile rebound and penetration movement including vibration using a high-speed line-scan camera and a specially designed mark to recognize two-dimensional motion parameters of the mark using only a line-scan camera. A mark stacking white and black right-angled triangles is used for the measurement, and movement information for vertical distance, horizontal distance and rotational angle is determined simultaneously. Especially- by adopting a line-scan CCD camera whose line rate is 20 ㎑. the measurement performance of dynamic characteristics of the pile at impact instant is improved dramatically.