• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.41 no.5
• /
• pp.625-636
• /
• 2021

This paper examines the fire performance of uninsulated and uncoated restrained steel-concrete composite beams supplemented with externally prestressed strands through advanced numerical simulation. In this work, a sequentially coupled thermo-mechanical analysis is carried out using ABAQUS. This analysis utilizes a highly nonlinear three-dimensional finite element (FE) model that is specifically developed and validated using full-sized specimens tested in a companion fire testing program. The developed FE model accounts for nonlinearities arising from geometric features and material properties, as well as complexities resulting from prestressing systems, fire conditions, and mechanical loadings. Four factors are of interest to this work including effect of restraints (axial vs. rotational), degree of stiffness of restraints, the configuration of external prestressed tendons, and magnitude of applied loading. The outcome of this analysis demonstrates how the prestressing force in the external tendons is primarily governed by the magnitude of applied loading and experienced temperature level. Interestingly, these results also show that the stiffness of axial restraints has a minor influence on the failure of restrained and prestressed steel-concrete composite beams. When the axial restraint ratio does not exceed 0.5, the critical deflection of the composite beam is lower than that of the composite beam with a restraint ratio of 1.0.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.277-287
• /
• 2022

The ancient underground cities are a collection of self-supporting spaces that have been manually excavated in the soil or rock in the past. Because these structures have a very high cultural value due to their age, the study of their stability under the influence of natural hazards, such as earthquakes, is very important. In this research, while introducing the underground city of Ouyi Nushabad located in the center of Iran as one of the largest man-made underground cities of the old world, the analysis of dynamic stability is performed. For this purpose, the dynamic stress-displacement analysis has been performed through numerical modeling using the finite element software PLAXIS. At this stage, by simulating the Khorgo earthquake as one of the large-scale earthquakes that occurred in Iran, with a magnitude of 6.9 on the Richter scale, dynamic analysis by time history method has been performed on three selected sections of underground spaces. This study shows that the maximum amount of horizontal and vertical dynamic displacement is 12.9 cm and 17.7 cm, respectively, which was obtained in section 2. The comparison of the results shows that by increasing the cross-sectional area of the excavation, especially the distance between the roof and the floor, in addition to increasing the amount of horizontal and vertical dynamic displacement, the obtained maximum acceleration is intensified compared to the mapping acceleration applied to the model floor. Therefore, preventive actions should be taken to stabilize the excavations in order to prevent damage caused by a possible earthquake.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.7
• /
• pp.2642-2649
• /
• 2023

A real-time unmeasured dynamic response prediction process for the nuclear power plant pressure pipeline is proposed and its performance is tested in the test-loop system (KAERI). The aim of the process is to predict unmeasurable or unreachable dynamic responses such as acceleration, velocity, and displacement by using a limited amount of directly measured physical responses. It is achieved by combining a well-constructed finite element model and robust inverse force identification algorithm. The pressure pipeline system is described by using the displacement-pressure vibro-acoustic formulation to consider fully filled liquid effect inside the pipeline structure. A robust multiphysics modal projection technique is employed for the real-time sensor synchronized prediction. The inverse force identification method is also derived and employed by using Bathe's time integration method to identify the full-field responses of the target system from the modal domain computation. To validate the performance of the proposed process, an experimental test is extensively performed on the nuclear power plant pressure pipeline test-loop under operation conditions. The results show that the proposed identification process could well estimate the unmeasured acceleration in both frequency and time domain faster than 32,768 samples per sec.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.87 no.2
• /
• pp.173-189
• /
• 2023

For a given structural geometry, the stiffness and damping parameters of the soil and the dynamic response of the structure may change in the face of an equivalent linear soil behavior caused by a strong earthquake. Therefore, the influence of equivalent linear soil behavior on the impedance functions form and the seismic response of the soil-structure system has been investigated. Through the substructure method, the seismic response of the selected structure was obtained by an analytical formulation based on the dynamic equilibrium of the soil-structure system modeled by an analog model with three degrees of freedom. Also, the dynamic response of the soil-structure system for a nonlinear soil behavior and for the two types of impedance function forms was also analyzed by 2D finite element modeling using ABAQUS software. The numerical results were compared with those of the analytical solution. After the investigation, the effect of soil nonlinearity clearly showed the critical role of soil stiffness loss under strong shaking, which is more complex than the linear elastic soil behavior, where the energy dissipation depends on the seismic motion amplitude and its frequency, the impedance function types, the shear modulus reduction and the damping increase. Excellent agreement between finite element analysis and analytical results has been obtained due to the reasonable representation of the model.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.297-313
• /
• 2022

Composite steel plate shear wall (CSPSW) is a relatively novel structural system proposed to improve the performance of steel plate shear walls by adding one or two layers of concrete walls to the infill plate. In addition, the buckling of the infill steel plate has a significant negative effect on the shear strength and energy dissipation capacity of the overall systems. Accordingly, in this study, using the finite element (FE) method, the performance and behavior of composite steel shear walls using T-shaped stiffeners to prevent buckling of the infill steel plate and increase the capacity of CSPSW systems have been investigated. In this paper, after modeling composite steel plate shear walls with and without steel plates with finite element methods and calibration the models with experimental results, effects of parameters such as several stiffeners, vertical, horizontal, diagonal, and a combination of T-shaped stiffeners located in the composite wall have been investigated on the ultimate capacity, web-plate buckling, von-Mises stress, and failure modes. The results showed that the arrangement of stiffeners has no significant effect on the capacity and performance of the CSPSW so that the use of vertical or horizontal stiffeners did not have a significant effect on the capacity and performance of the CSPSW. On the other hand, the use of diagonal hardeners has potentially affected the performance of CSPSWs, increasing the capacity of steel shear walls by up to 25%.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.49 no.2
• /
• pp.231-244
• /
• 2023

Many of the recent investigations in the field of geotechnical engineering focused on the bearing capacity theories of multilayered soil. A number of factors affect the bearing capacity of the soil, such as soil properties, applied overburden stress, soil layer thickness beneath the footing, and type of design analysis. An extensive number of finite element model (FEM) simulation was performed on a prototype slope with various abovementioned terms. Furthermore, several non-linear artificial intelligence (AI) models are developed, and the best possible neural network system is presented. The data set is from 3443 measured full-scale finite element modeling (FEM) results of a circular shallow footing analysis placed on layered cohesionless soil. The result is used for both training (75% selected randomly) and testing (25% selected randomly) the models. The results from the predicted models are evaluated and compared using different statistical indices (R² and RMSE) and the most accurate model BBO (R²=0.9481, RMSE=4.71878 for training and R²=0.94355, RMSE=5.1338 for testing) and TLBO (R²=0.948, RMSE=4.70822 for training and R²=0.94341, RMSE=5.13991 for testing) are presented as a simple, applicable formula.

• Advances in nano research
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.445-458
• /
• 2024

The objective of this paper is to present free vibration and static stability analyses of rotating composite beams reinforced with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) under uniform thermal loads. Beam structural equations and CNT-reinforced composite (CNTRC) beam formulations are derived based on Timoshenko beam theory (TBT). The temperature-dependent properties of the beam material, such as the elastic modulus, shear modulus, and material density, are assumed to vary over the thickness according to the rule of mixture. The beam material is modeled as a mixture of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in an isotropic matrix. The SWCNTs are aligned and distributed in the isotropic matrix with different patterns of reinforcement, namely the UD (uniform), FG-O, FG-V, FG- Λ and FG-X distributions, where FG-V and FG- Λ are asymmetric patterns. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the effects of several essential parameters, including the rotational speed, hub radius, effective material properties, slenderness ratio, boundary conditions, thermal force, and moments due to temperature variation. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study represents the first attempt at the finite element modeling of rotating CNTRC Timoshenko beams under a thermal environment. The results are presented in tables and figures for both symmetric and asymmetric distribution patterns, and can be used as benchmarks for further validation.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.57-70
• /
• 2024

Masonry arch bridges as a vital infrastructure were not designed for seismic loads. Given that masonry arch bridges are made up of various components, their contribution under the seismic actions can be very undetermined and each of these structural components can play a different role in energy dissipation. Iran is known as a high-risk area in terms of seismic excitations and according to the seismic hazard zoning classification of Iran, most of these railway infrastructures are placed in the high and very high seismicity zones or constructed near the major faults. Besides, these ageing structures are deteriorated and thus in recent years, some of these bridges using various retrofitting approaches, including sprayed concrete technique are strengthened. Therefore, investigating the behavior of these restored structures with new characteristics is very significant. The aim of this study is to investigate the cyclic in-plane performance of masonry arch bridges retrofitted by sprayed concrete technique through the finite element simulation. So, by considering the fill-arch interaction, the nonlinear behavior of a bridge has been investigated. Finally, by extracting the hysteresis and enveloping curves of the retrofitted and non-retrofitted bridge, the effect of strengthening on energy absorption and degradation of material has been investigated.

• Journal of Wind Energy
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.79-87
• /
• 2022

A stabbing system is an underwater jointing structure for positioning the jacket substructure for offshore wind power on top of a pile foundation that is already installed in the seabed. In this paper, the structural safety of the stabbing system currently being developed in South Korea was evaluated through finite element analysis. For this study, conformity of the finite element modeling technique for a gripper (hydraulic cylinder) was reviewed, and the structural safety of the stabbing system was evaluated based on the stress safety factor under three design load combinations (combinations of vertical, shear, and moment loads). From the analysis, it was verified that the pile foundation and the stabbing system mounted on top of it are structurally safe according to the stress safety factor, and there will be no interference between major structural components (i.e., guide cone and pile foundation) due to rotation of the guide cone at the end of the jacket leg.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.56 no.9
• /
• pp.3491-3500
• /
• 2024

In this work, the hybrid vibro-acoustic model reduction technique that is a physical-modal combined formulation is proposed to accelerate the finite element model updating process of the vibro-acoustic pipeline system. Particularly, the new formulation could provide an effective way of the model updating by preserving the physical DOFs for the direct calibration of the undetermined boundary conditions. The sensitivity based vibro-acoustic model updating is first conducted, and then the undetermined spring constant at the displacement boundary condition is then directly and effectively calibrated by using the proposed hybrid model reduction formulation. The proposed method is implemented in the real nuclear facility to evaluate its performance. In addition, an experimental implementation test using the inverse force identification process is also conducted to demonstrate the reliability of the generated vibro-acoustic FE model through the proposed method.