• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.805-822
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• 2012

Offshore pipelines have to withstand combined actions of tension and bending during deepwater installation, which can possibly lead to elliptical buckle and even catastrophic failure of whole pipeline. A 2D theoretical model initially proposed by Kyriakides and his co-workers which carried out buckling response analysis of elastic-plastic tubes under various load combinations, is further applied to investigate buckling behavior of offshore pipelines under combined tension and bending. In association with practical pipe-laying circumstances, two different types of loadings, i.e., bent over a rigid surface in the presence of tension, and bent freely in the presence of tension, are taken into account in present study. In order to verify the accuracy of the theoretical model, numerical simulations are implemented using a 3D finite element model within the framework of ABAQUS. Excellent agreement between the results validates the effectiveness of this theoretical method. Then, this theoretical model is used to study the effects of some important factors such as load type, loading path, geometric parameters and material properties etc. on buckling behavior of the pipes. Based upon parametric studies, a few significant conclusions are drawn, which offer a theoretical reference for design and installation monitoring of deepwater pipelines.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.211-220
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• 2017

Observations from past strong earthquakes revealed that near-fault ground motions could lead to the failure, or even collapse of electricity transmission towers which are vital components of an overhead electric power delivery system. For assessing the performance and robustness, a high-fidelity three-dimension finite element model of a long span transmission tower-line system is established with the consideration of geometric nonlinearity and material nonlinearity. In the numerical model, the Tian-Ma-Qu material model is utilized to capture the nonlinear behaviours of structural members, and the cumulative damage D is defined as an index to identify the failure of members. Consequently, incremental dynamic analyses (IDAs) are conducted to study the collapse fragility, damage positions, collapse margin ratio (CMR) and dynamic robustness of the transmission towers by using twenty near-fault ground motions selected from PEER. Based on the bending and shear deformation of structures, the collapse mechanism of electricity transmission towers subjected to Chi-Chi earthquake is investigated. This research can serve as a reference for the performance of large span transmission tower line system subjected to near-fault ground motions.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.203-211
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• 2019

In this study, the weight of type IV pressure vessel is optimized through the burst pressure condition using the finite element analysis (FEA) based on the genetic algorithm (GA). The optimization design variables include the thickness of composite layers and the winding angles. The optimized design variables are validated using the numerical simulations for the pressure vessel. Consequently, the weight is decreased by about 6.5% as compared to the previously reported results for Type III pressure vessel. Additionally, a method which reduces the entire optimization time is proposed. In the original method, the population size is constant across all generations. However, the proposed method could reduce the workload through the reduction of the population size by half for every 25 generations. Thus, the proposed method is observed to increase the weight by about 0.1%, however, the working time for the optimization could be decreased by about 46.5%.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.471-481
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• 2019

Beam-columns are structural members subjected to a combination of axial and bending forces. Lateral-torsional buckling is one of the main failure modes. Beam-columns that are bent about its strong axis may buckle out of the plane by deflecting laterally and twisting as the values of the applied loads reach a limiting state. Lateral-torsional buckling failure occurs suddenly in beam-column elements with a much greater in-plane bending stiffness than torsional or lateral bending stiffness. This study intends to establish a unique convenient closed-form equation that it can be used for calculating critical elastic lateral-torsional buckling load of beam-column in the presence of a known axial load. The presented equation includes first order bending distribution, the position of the loads acting transversely on the beam-column and mono-symmetry property of the section. Effects of axial loads, slenderness and load positions on lateral torsional buckling behavior of beam-columns are investigated. The proposed solutions are compared to finite element simulations where thin-walled shell elements including warping are used. Good agreement between the analytical and the numerical solutions is demonstrated. It is found out that the lateral-torsional buckling load of beam-columns with mono-symmetric sections can be determined by the presented equation and can be safely used in design procedures.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.341-359
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• 2019

Non-monolithic concrete structural connections are commonly used both in new constructions and retrofitted structures where anchors are used for connections. Often, flaws are present in anchor system due to poor workmanship and deterioration; and methods available to check the quality of the composite system afterward are very limited. In case of presence of flaw, load transfer mechanism inside the anchor system is severely disturbed, and the load carrying capacity drops drastically. This raises the question of safety of the entire structural system. The present study proposes a wave propagation technique to assess the integrity of the anchor system. A chemical anchor (embedded in concrete) composite system comprising of three materials viz., steel (anchor), polymer (adhesive) and concrete (base) is considered for carrying out the wave propagation studies. Piezoelectric transducers (PZTs) affixed to the anchor head is used for actuation and the PZTs affixed to the surrounding concrete surface of the concrete-anchor system are used for sensing the propagated wave through the anchor interface to concrete. Experimentally validated finite element model is used to investigate three types of composite chemical anchor systems. Studies on the influence of geometry, material properties of the medium and their distribution, and the flaw types on the wave signals are carried out. Temporal energy of through time domain differentiation is found as a promising technique for identifying the flaws in the multi-layered composite system. The present study shows a unique procedure for monitoring of inaccessible but crucial locations of structures by using wave signals without baseline information.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.207-214
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• 2022

A prediction model is proposed for a blast load acting on a column component because of an external explosion. The model can predict the pressure-time histories acting on a column using the fitting curves established from a database composed of finite-element (FE) analysis results. To this end, 70 numerical simulations using the commercial software AUTODYN were performed by changing the column width. To confirm the performance of the proposed model, pressure-time histories estimated from an existing empirical formula and the proposed model were compared based on the FE analysis results. It was verified that the proposed model can more precisely predict the pressure-time histories compared with the existing model.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.5
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• pp.675-684
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• 2022

The conventional single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system is appropriate for dynamic response analysis of paneltype structures without an opening. However, the typical building structures usually have four-sided fixed walls having an opening. Therefore, it may induce a considerable error when dynamic responses are estimated based on the conventional SDOF system, since the SDOF system cannot consider the effect of an opening during the SDOF analysis. For this reason, this study proposes a new SDOF system to consider the effect of an opening by adjusting its load-mass factor. The load-mass factor can be modified based on the assumption that the behaviors of the four-sided fixed wall with an opening is very similar to the behaviors of the same size wall without an opening, when the uniformly distributed blast loaded area is identical. In order to confirm a feasibility of the proposed SDOF system, a series of numerical simulations were carried out for the four-sided fixed reinforced concrete (RC) wall under a blast load. The dynamic responses estimated from the proposed SDOF system and the conventional SDOF system were compared with the dynamic responses evaluated from the finite element (FE) analysis. Especially, for the maximum dynamic responses except for 50% opening case, the proposed SDOF system had about 1.1% to 25.7% normalized errors while the conventional SDOF system had about 4.1% to 49.1% normalized errors.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.397-410
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• 2022

It is essential to monitor the working conditions of bolt-connected joints, which are widely used in various kinds of steel structures. The looseness of bolts may directly affect the stability and safety of the entire structure. In this study, a guided wave-based method for bolt looseness detection and localization is presented for a joint structure with multiple bolts. SH waves generated and received by a small number (two pairs) of magnetostrictive transducers were used. The bolt looseness index was proposed based on the changes in the reconstructed responses excited by the time reversal signals of the measured unit impulse responses. The damage locations and local damage severities were estimated using the damage indices from several wave propagation paths. The back propagation neural network (BPNN) technique was employed to identify the local damages. Numerical and experimental studies were conducted on a lap joint with eight bolts. The results show that the total damage severity can be successfully detected under the effect of external force and measurement noise. The local damage severity can be estimated reasonably for the experimental data using the BPNN constructed by the training patterns generated from the finite element simulations.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.355-364
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• 2023

The arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method has been extensively researched owing to its capability to accurately predict the propagation of blast shock waves. Although the use of the ALE method for dynamic analysis can produce unreliable results depending on the mesh size of the finite element, few studies have explored the relationship between the mesh size for the air domain and the accuracy of numerical analysis. In this study, we propose a procedure to calculate the optimal mesh size based on the mean squared error between the maximum blast pressure values obtained from numerical simulations and experiments. Furthermore, we analyze the relationship between the weight of explosive material (TNT) and the optimal mesh size of the air domain. The findings from this study can contribute to estimating the optimal mesh size in blast simulations with various explosion weights and promote the development of advanced blast numerical analysis models.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.43-51
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• 2013

Recently, engineering problems such as long-term settlement, differential settlement, and the resultant structural damage, have been frequently reported at construction sites. Use of Sand Compaction Piles(SCP) and Granular Compaction Piles(GCP) are good at remedying existing problems, improving bearing capacity and promoting consolidation. However, such compaction piles have the potential for clogging, which would limit their usability. Investigations into the potential for clogging in SCP, GCP, and GCP mixed with sand has not been thoroughly conducted and is the objective of this current study. Large scale direct shear tests were performed on sections of SCP, GCP, and sand mixed GCP to evaluate bearing capacity. Discrete Element Method analyses were conducted with PFC3D and Finite Element Analyses were conducted with MIDAS GTS to propose an algorithm to help reduce clogging in the granular compaction piles. Results from the large scale direct shear test and multiple simulations suggest a 70% gravel and 30% sand mixing ratio to be optimal for bearing capacity and reducing clogging.