• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.87 no.3
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• pp.221-229
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• 2023

Urbanization and industrialization have significantly increased the amount of solid waste produced in recent decades, posing considerable disposal problems and environmental burdens. The practice of waste utilization in concrete has gained popularity among construction practitioners and researchers for the efficient use of resources and the transition to the circular economy in construction. This study employed Lytag aggregate, an environmentally friendly pulverized fuel ash-based lightweight aggregate, as a substitute for natural coarse aggregate. At the same time, fly ash, an industrial by-product, was used as a partial substitute for cement. Concrete mix M20 was experimented with using fly ash and Lytag lightweight aggregate. The percentages of fly ash that make up the replacements were 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25%. The Compressive Strength (CS), Split Tensile Strength (STS), and deflection were discovered at these percentages after 56 days of testing. The concrete cube, cylinder, and beam specimens were examined in the explorations, as mentioned earlier. The results indicate that a 10% substitution of cement with fly ash and a replacement of coarse aggregate with Lytag lightweight aggregate produced concrete that performed well in terms of mechanical properties and deflection. The cementitious composites have varying characteristics as the environment changes. Therefore, understanding their mechanical properties are crucial for safety reasons. CS, STS, and deflection are the essential property of concrete. Machine learning (ML) approaches have been necessary to predict the CS of concrete. The Artificial Fish Swarm Optimization (AFSO), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), and Harmony Search (HS) algorithms were investigated for the prediction of outcomes. This work deftly explains the tremendous AFSO technique, which achieves the precise ideal values of the weights in the model to crown the mathematical modeling technique. This has been proved by the minimum, maximum, and sample median, and the first and third quartiles were used as the basis for a boxplot through the standardized method of showing the dataset. It graphically displays the quantitative value distribution of a field. The correlation matrix and confidence interval were represented graphically using the corrupt method.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.4
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• pp.489-502
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• 2022

This paper is aimed at developing an optimization-based Finite Element model updating approach for structural damage identification and quantification. A modal flexibility-based error function is introduced, which uses modal assurance criterion to formulate the updating problem as an optimization problem. Because of the inexplicit input/output relationship between the candidate solutions and the error function's output, a robust and efficient optimization algorithm should be employed to evaluate the solution domain and find the global extremum with high speed and accuracy. This paper proposes a new multi-stage Selective Particle Swarm Optimization (SPSO) algorithm to solve the optimization problem. The proposed multi-stage strategy not only fixes the premature convergence of the original Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm, but also increases the speed of the search stage and reduces the corresponding computational costs, without changing or adding extra terms to the algorithm's formulation. Solving the introduced objective function with the proposed multi-stage SPSO leads to a smart feedback-wise and self-adjusting damage detection method, which can effectively assess the health of the structural systems. The performance and precision of the proposed method are verified and benchmarked against the original PSO and some of its most popular variants, including SPSO, DPSO, APSO, and MSPSO. For this purpose, two numerical examples of complex civil engineering structures under different damage patterns are studied. Comparative studies are also carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed method in the presence of measurement errors. Moreover, the robustness and accuracy of the method are validated by assessing the health of a six-story shear-type building structure tested on a shake table. The obtained results introduced the proposed method as an effective and robust damage detection method even if the first few vibration modes are utilized to form the objective function.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.143-159
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• 2023

Recently, the design of scaffolding systems has garnered considerable attention due to the increasing number of scaffold collapses. These incidents arise from the underestimation of imposed loads and the site-specific conditions that restrict the application of lateral restraints in scaffold assemblies. The present study is committed to augmenting the buckling resistance of vertical support members, obviating the need for supplementary lateral restraints. To achieve this objective, experimental and computational analyses were performed to assess the axial load buckling capacity of steel props, composed of two hollow steel pipes that slide into each other for a certain length. Three full-scale steel props with various geometric properties were tested to construct and validate the analytical models. The total unsupported length of the steel props is 6 m, while three pins were installed to tighten the outer and inner pipes in the distance they overlapped. Finite Element (FE) modeling is carried out for the three steel props, and the developed models were verified using the experimental results. Also, theoretical analysis is utilized to verify the FE analysis. Using the FE-verified models, a parametric study is conducted to evaluate the effect of different inserted pipe lengths on the steel props' axial load capacity and lateral displacement. Based on the results, the typical failure mode for the studied steel props is global elastic buckling. Also, the prop's elastic buckling strength is sensitive to the inserted length of the smaller pipe. A threshold of minimum inserted length is one-third of the total length, after which the buckling strength increases. The present study offers a prop with enhanced buckling resistance and introduces an equation for calculating an equivalent effective length factor (k), which can be seamlessly incorporated into Euler's buckling equation, thereby facilitating the determination of the buckling capacity of the enhanced props and providing a pragmatic engineering solution.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.27-37
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• 2024

The roof-filling body system stability plays a key role in gob-side entry retained (GER). Taking the GER of the 1103 belt transportation roadway in Heilong Coal Mine as engineering background, stability analysis of roof-filling body system was conducted based on the cusp catastrophe theory. Theoretical results showed that the current design parameters of 1103 belt transportation roadway could ensure the roof-filling body system stable during the resistance-increasing support stage of the filling body and the stable support stage of the filling body. Moreover, a verified global numerical model in FLAC3D was established to analyze the failure characteristics including surrounding rock deformation, stress distribution, and plastic zone. Numerical simulation indicated that the width-height ratio of the filling body had a great influence on the stability of the roof-filling body system. When the width-height ratio was greater than 0.62, with the decrease of the width-height ratio, the peak stress of the filling body gradually decreased; when the width-height ratio was greater than 0.92, as the distance to the roadway increased, the roof stress increased and then decreased. The theoretical analysis and numerical simulation findings in this study provide a new research method to analyze the stability of the roof-filling body system in GER.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.155-162
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• 2023

Global climate change and urbanization have various demerits, such as water pollution, flood damage, and deterioration of water circulation. Thus, attention is drawn to Nature-based Solution (NbS) that solve environmental problems in ways that imitate nature. Among the NbS, urban wetlands are facilities that perform functions, such as removing pollutants from a city, improving water circulation, and providing ecological habitats, by strengthening original natural wetland pillars. Frequent monitoring and maintenance are essential for urban wetlands to maintain their performance; therefore, there is a need to apply the Internet of Things (IoT) technology to wetland monitoring. Therefore, in this study, we attempted to develop a real-time wetland monitoring device and interface. Temperature, water temperature, humidity, soil humidity, PM1, PM2.5, and PM10 were measured, and the measurements were taken at 10-minute intervals for three days in both indoor and wetland. Sensors suitable for conditions that needed to be measured and an Arduino MEGA 2560 were connected to enable sensing, and communication modules were connected to transmit data to real-time databases. The transmitted data were displayed on a developed web page. The data measured to verify the monitoring device were compared with data from the Korea meteorological administration and the Korea environment corporation, and the output and upward or downward trend were similar. Moreover, findings from a related patent search indicated that there are a minimal number of instances where information and communication technology (ICT) has been applied in wetland contexts. Hence, it is essential to consider further research, development, and implementation of ICT to address this gap. The results of this study could be the basis for time-series data analysis research using automation, machine learning, or deep learning in urban wetland maintenance.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.175-189
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• 2024

Aiming at studying the plastic hinge (PH) evolution regularities and failure mode of rocking wall moment frame (RWMF) structure in earthquakes, the whole-working history analysis of seismic performance state of RWMF structure based on co-operation performance and PH evolution was carried out. Building upon the theoretical analysis of the elastic internal forces and deformations of RWMF structures, nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA) methods were employed to perform both Pushover analysis and seismic response time history analysis under different seismic coefficients (δ). The relationships among PH occurrence ratios (R_ph), inter-story drifts and δ were established. Based on the plotted curve of the seismic performance states, evaluation limits for the R_ph and inter-story drifts were provided for different performance states of RWMF structures. The results indicate that the R_ph of RWMF structures exhibits a nonlinear evolution trend of "fast at first, then slow" with the increasing of δ. The general pattern is characterized by the initial development of beam hinges in the middle stories, followed by the development towards the top and bottom stories until the beam hinges are fully formed. Subsequently, the development of column hinges shifts from the bottom and top stories towards the middle stories of the structure, ultimately leading to the loss of seismic lateral capacity with a failure mode of partial beam yield, demonstrating a global yielding pattern. Moreover, the limits for the R_ph and inter-story drifts effectively evaluate the five different performance states of RWMF structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.89 no.6
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• pp.589-599
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• 2024

This study presents the usability of the high-rate single-frequency Precise Point Positioning (SF-PPP) technique based on 20 Hz Global Positioning Systems (GPS)-only observations in detecting dynamic motions. SF-PPP solutions were obtained from post-mission and real-time GNSS corrections. These include the International GNSS Service (IGS)-Final, IGS real-time (RT), real-time MADOCA (Multi-GNSS Advanced Demonstration tool for Orbit and Clock Analysis), and real-time products from the Australian/New Zealand satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS, known as SouthPAN). SF-PPP results were compared with LVDT (Linear Variable Differential Transformer) sensor and single-frequency relative positioning (SF-RP) solutions. The findings show that the SF-PPP technique successfully detects the harmonic motions, and the real-time products-based PPP solutions were as accurate as the final post-mission products. In the frequency domain, all GNSS-based methods evaluated in this contribution correctly detect the dominant frequency of short-term harmonic oscillations, while the differences in the amplitude values corresponding to the peak frequency do not exceed 1.1 mm. However, evaluations in the time domain show that SF-PPP needs high-pass filtering to detect accurate displacement since SF-PPP solutions include trends and low-frequency fluctuations, mainly due to atmospheric effects. Findings obtained in the time domain indicate that final, real-time, and MADOCA-based PPP results capture short-term dynamic behaviors with an accuracy ranging from 3.4 mm to 8.5 mm, and SBAS-based PPP solutions have several times higher RMSE values compared to other methods. However, after high-pass filtering, the accuracies obtained from PPP methods decreased to a few mm. The outcomes demonstrate the potential of the high-rate SF-PPP method to reliably monitor structural and earthquake-induced ground motions and vibration frequencies of structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.90 no.3
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• pp.313-323
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• 2024

Most of existing buildings in Mexico City are made of reinforced concrete (RC), however, it has been shown that they are very susceptible to narrow-band long duration ground motions. In recent years, the use of dual systems composed by Buckling Restrained Braces (BRB) has increased due to its high energy dissipation capacity under reversible cyclical loads. Therefore, in this work the behavior of RC buildings with BRB is studied in order to know their performance, specifically, the energy distribution through height and response transformation factors between the RC and simplified systems are estimated. For this propose, seven RC buildings with different heights were designed according to the Mexico City Seismic Design Provisions (MCSDP), in addition, equivalent single degree of freedom (SDOF) systems were obtained. Incremental dynamic analyses on the buildings under 30 narrow-band ground motions in order to compute the relationship between normalized hysteretic energy, maximum inter-story drift and roof displacement demands were performed. The results shown that the entire structural frames participate in energy dissipation and their distribution is independent of the global ductility. The results let propose energy distribution equations through height. Finally, response transformation factors between the SDOF and multi degree of freedom (MDOF) systems were developed aimed to propose a new energy-based approach of BRB reinforced concrete buildings.

• Advances in materials Research
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.221-232
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• 2024

Waste tire management and recycling have grown to be significant issues because they bring up a global environmental concern. Thus, turning recycled waste tires into useful products may help tackle the environmental issue. This research aims to study and compare the effect of recycled carbon black (rCB) and commercial carbon black (CB) at certain 15 vol. % of filler loading on the mechanical, thermal, morphology and electrical properties of epoxy/CB composites. For this project, epoxy resin, diethyltoluenediamine (DETDA), recovered carbon black (rCB) and commercial carbon black (CB) graded N330, N550, N660 and N774 were mixed and compared accordingly to the formulation determined. The CB content was dispersed in the epoxy matrix using the mechanical mixing technique. The distribution and dispersion of CB in the epoxy matrix affect the characteristics of the conductive composites. rCB content at 15 vol% was selected at fixed content for comparison purposes due to the optimum value in electrical conductivity results. The flexural strength results followed the sequence of rCB>N774>N660>N550>N330. As for electrical conductivity results, epoxy/N330 exhibited the highest conductivity value, while the others achieved a magnitude of X10^-3 due to the highest external surface area of N330. In terms of thermal stability, epoxy/N330 and epoxy/N774 were slightly more stable than epoxy/rCB.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.349-365
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• 2023

Targeting a floating wave and offshore wind hybrid power generation system (FWWHybrid) designed in the Republic of Korea, this study examines the impact of the interaction, with multiple wave energy converters (WECs) placed on the platform, on platform motion. To investigate how the motion of WECs affects the behavior of the FWWHybrid platform, it was numerically compared with a scenario involving a 'single-body' system, where multiple WECs are constrained to the platform. In the case of FWWHybrid, because the platform and multiple WECs move in response to waves simultaneously as a 'multi-body' system, hydrodynamic interactions between these entities come into play. Additionally, the power take-off (PTO) mechanism between the platform and individual WECs is introduced for power production. First, the hydrostatic/dynamic coefficients required for numerical analysis were calculated in the frequency domain and then used in the time domain analysis. These simulations are performed using the extended HARP/CHARM3D code developed from previous studies. By conducting regular wave simulations, the response amplitude operator (RAO) for the platform of both single-body and multi-body scenarios was derived and subsequently compared. Next, to ascertain the difference in response in the real sea environment, this study also includes an analysis of irregular waves. As the floating body maintains its position through connection to a catenary mooring line, the impact of the slowly varying wave drift load cannot be disregarded. To assess the influence of the 2^nd-order wave exciting load, irregular wave simulations were conducted, dividing them into cases where it was not considered and cases where it was included. The analysis of multi-degree-of-freedom behavior confirmed that the action of multiple WECs had a substantial impact on the platform's response.