• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.319-334
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• 2018

In this study, the failure mode and energy absorption capabilities of a composite shock absorber device, during an emergency landing are evaluated. The prototype has been installed and tested in laboratory simulating an emergency landing test condition. The crash absorber presents an innovative configuration able to reduce the loads transmitted to a helicopter fuselage during an emergency landing. It consists of a composite tailored tube installed on the landing gear strut. During an emergency landing this crash absorber system should be able to absorb energy through a pre-designed deformation. This solution, compared to an oleo-pneumatic shock absorber, avoids sealing checks, very high values of the shock absorber pressure, and results to be lighter, easy in maintenance, inspect and use. The activities reported in this paper have become an attractive research field both from the scientific viewpoint and the prospect of industrial applications, because they offer benefits in terms of energy absorbing, weight savings, increasing the safety levels, and finally reducing the costs in a global sense.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2015

China accounts for nearly half of the global steel production. As a waste material or a by-product in the manufacture process, a large amount of blast furnace slag is generated every year. The majority of recycled blast furnace slag is used as an additive in low-grade blended cement in China (equivalent to the UK CEM II or CEM III depending on the slag content). The cost of using ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) in such low-grade applications may not be entirely reimbursed based on market research. This paper reports an on-going project at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) which investigates the feasibility of using GGBS in long-span concrete structures by avoiding/reducing the use of crack control reinforcement. Based on a case study investigation, with up to 50% of CEM I cement replaced with GGBS, a beneficiary effect of reduced thermal contraction is achieved in long-span concrete slabs with no significant detrimental effect on early-age strengths. It is believed that this finding may be transferable from China to other Asian countries with similar climates and economic/environmental concerns.

• Advances in biomechanics and applications
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.67-76
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• 2014

Bone properties are one of the key components when constructing models that can simulate the mechanical behavior of a mandible. Due to the complexity of the structure, the tooth, ligaments, different bones etc., some simplifications are often considered and bone properties are one of them. The objective of this study is to understand if a simplification of the problem is possible and assess its influence on mandible behavior. A cadaveric toothless mandible was used to build three computational models from CT scan information: a full cortical bone model; a cortical and cancellous bone model, and a model where the Young's modulus was obtained as function of the pixel value in a CT scan. Twelve muscle forces were applied on the mandible. Results showed that although all the models presented the same type of global behavior and proximity in some locations, the influence of cancellous bone can be seen in strain distribution. The different Young's modulus defined by the CT scan gray scale influenced the maximum and minimum strains. For modeling general behavior, a full cortical bone model can be effective. However, when cancellous bone is included, maximum values in thin regions increase the strain distribution. Results revealed that when properties are assigned to the gray scale some peaks could occur which did not represent the real situation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.617-633
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• 2014

Because the elevated temperature degrades the mechanical properties of materials used in containments, the global behavior of containments subjected to the internal pressure under high temperature is remarkably different from that subjected to the internal pressure only. This paper concentrates on the nonlinear finite element analyses of the nuclear power plant containment structures, and the importance for the consideration of the elevated temperature effect has been emphasized because severe accident usually accompanies internal high pressure together with a high temperature increase. In addition to the consideration of nonlinear effects in the containment structure such as the tension stiffening and bond-slip effects, the change in material properties under elevated temperature is also taken into account. This paper, accordingly, focuses on the three-dimensional nonlinear analyses with thermal effects. Upon the comparison of experiment data with numerical results for the SNL 1/4 PCCV tested by internal pressure only, three-dimensional analyses for the same structure have been performed by considering internal pressure and temperature loadings designed for two kinds of severe accidents of Saturated Station Condition (SSC) and Station Black-out Scenario (SBO). Through the difference in the structural behavior of containment structures according to the addition of temperature loading, the importance of elevated temperature effect on the ultimate resisting capacity of PCCV has been emphasized.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.42 no.2 s.140
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• pp.129-135
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• 2005

At present, fatigue design of welded structures is primarily based on a nominal stress or hot spot stress approach with a series of classified weld S-N curves. Although well accepted by major industries, the nominal stress based fatigue design approach is cumbersome in terms of securing a series of S-N curves corresponding to each class of joint types and loading modes. The hot spot stress based fatigue design has a difficulty of finding a proper stress through the global model, the midium size model, and the detail model of ship structure. Also, it is difficult to link proper displacements within three different mesh size models. Recently, the structural stress is proposed as a mesh-size insensitive structural stress definition that gives a stress state at weld toe with relatively large mesh size. However, this method requires an experimental validation in obtaining the fatigue strength of weldments. Therefore, in this study, a series of experiment is performed for various sizes of weldments.

• Journal of Ship and Ocean Technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.24-33
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• 2006

So far, the generation of a hull structural analysis model, that is, a finite element model of a hull structure, has been manually performed by a designer using design experience, and thus has required lots of time because of many constraints, the complexity, and the huge size of the hull structure. To make this task automatic, an algorithm for generating the hull structural analysis model is developed using the seam information of the hull structure. A generating system of the hull structural analysis model is implemented based on the developed algorithm. The applicability of the developed algorithm is demonstrated by applying it to the generation of the global and hold structural analysis models of a deadweight 300,000 ton VLCC (Very Large Crude oil Carrier). The results show that the developed algorithm can quickly generate these models at the initial design stage.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.337-346
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• 2019

The present paper tries to contribute fill the gap of application of the component method to tubular connections. For this purpose, one typical joint configuration in which just one component can be considered as active has been studied. These joints were selected as symmetrically loaded welded connections in which the beam width was the same as the column width. This focused the study on the component 'side walls of rectangular hollow sections (RHS) in tension/compression'. It should be one of the main components to be considered in welded unstiffened joints between I beams and RHS columns. Many experimental tests on double-sided I-beam-to-RHS-column joint with a width ratio 1 have been carried out by the authors and a finite element (FE) model was validated with their results. Then, some different analytical approaches for the component stiffness and strength have been assessed. Finally, the stiffness proposals have been compared with some FE simulations on I-beam-to-RHS-column joints. This work finally proposes the most adequate equations that were found for the stiffness and strength characterization of the component 'side walls of RHS in tension/compression' to be applied in a further unified global proposal for the application of the component method to RHS.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.279-288
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• 2019

Safety-related cabinets and their electrical parts, such as relays and switches in nuclear power plants, should maintain continuous functioning, as well as structural safety according to the nuclear regulatory guidelines. Generally, an electrical part is qualified if its functioning is maintained without abnormality during excitement by motion compatible with the test response spectrum, which is larger than its in-cabinet response spectrum (ICRS). ICRS can be determined by shake-table test or dynamic analysis. Since existing cabinets in use can hardly be stopped and moved, dynamic analysis is preferred over shake-table test in determining ICRS. The simple method, suggested by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to determine ICRS, yields conservative or non-conservative results from time to time. In order to determine that the ICRS is better than EPRI method in a simple way, Ritz method considering global and local plate behaviors was suggested by Gupta et al. In this paper, the Ritz method is modified in order to consider the rocking and frame behaviors simultaneously, and it is applied to a simple numerical example for verification. ICRS is determined by Ritz method and compared with the results by finite element method (FEM). Based on this numerical example, recommendations for using Ritz method are suggested.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.79-91
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• 2019

Renewed interest in the long-term pile foundations has been driven by the increase in offshore wind turbine installation to generate renewable energy. A monopile subjected to repetitive loads experiences an evolution of displacements, pile rotation, and stress redistribution along the embedded portion of the pile. However, it is not fully understood how the embedded pile interacts with the surrounding soil elements based on different pile geometries. This study investigates the long-term soil response around offshore monopiles using finite element method. The semi-empirical numerical approach is adopted to account for the fundamental features of volumetric strain (terminal void ratio) and shear strain (shakedown and ratcheting), the strain accumulation rate, and stress obliquity. The model is tested with different strain boundary conditions and stress obliquity by relaxing four model parameters. The parametric study includes pile diameter, embedded length, and moment arm distance from the surface. Numerical results indicate that different pile geometries produce a distinct evolution of lateral displacement and stress. In particular, the repetitive lateral load increases the global lateral load resistance. Further analysis provides insight into the propagation of the shear localization from the pile tip to the ground surface.

• Composites Research
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.311-316
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• 2018

In the present study, the effect of GO in damping capacity of CF/epoxy laminates was studied via free vibration analysis. The composite laminates were manufactured by using vacuum assisted resin transfer molding technique. The damping properties of the prepared hybrid composites were determined in terms of natural frequency and damping ratio in free vibration test. The foremost aspire of this investigation was to compare the vibration properties i.e. natural frequency and modal damping of the prepared composites with the numerical results. The numerical study was carried out via FEA using $ANSYS^{TM}$ workbench software. The parametric study of the numerical models was also studied considering the beam free length and the beam thickness. It was found that the incorporation of GO enhanced the damping capacity of the composite and the variation of natural frequencies in mode1varied by 2-5% compared to the experimental study.