• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.68 no.1
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• pp.67-80
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• 2018

Recently, U-section decks have been more and more used in metro and light rail bridges as an innovative concept in bridge deck design and a successful alternative to conventional box girders because of their potential advantages. U-section may be viewed as a single vent box girder eliminating the top slab connecting the webs, with the moving vehicles travelling on the lower deck. U-section bridges thus solve many problems like limited vertical clearance underneath the bridge lowest point, besides providing built-in noise barriers. Beam theory in mechanics assumes that plane section remains plane after bending, but it was found that shearing forces produce shear deformations and the plane section does not remain plane. This phenomenon leads to distortion of the cross section. For a box or a U section, this distortion makes the central part of the slab lagging behind those parts closer to the webs and this is known as shear lag effect. A sample real-world double-track U-section metro bridge is modelled in this paper using a commercial finite element analysis program and is analysed under various loading conditions and for different geometric variations. The three-dimensional finite element analysis is used to demonstrate variations in the transverse bending moments in the deck as well as variations in the longitudinal normal stresses induced in the cross section along the U-girder's span thus capturing warping and shear lag effects which are then compared to the stresses calculated using conventional beam theory. This comparison is performed not only to locate the distortion, warping and shear lag effects typically induced in U-section bridges but also to assess the main parameters influencing them the most.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.185-197
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• 2019

Considering the increasing use of tubular profiles in civil construction, this paper highlights the study on the behavior of welded connections between square hollow section column and I-beam, with emphasis on the assessment of the joint stiffness. Firstly, a theoretical analysis of the welded joints has been done focusing on prescriptions of the technical literature for the types of geometries mentioned. Then, a numerical analysis of the proposed joints were performed by the finite element method (FEM) with the software ANSYS 16.0. In this study, two models were evaluated for different parameters, such as the thickness of the cross section of the column and the sizes of cross section of the beams. The first model describes a connection in which one beam is connected to the column in a unique bending plane, while the second model describes a connection of two beams to the column in two bending planes. From the numerical results, the bending moment-rotation ($M-{\varphi}$) curve was plotted in order to determine the resistant bending moment and classify each connection according to its rotational capacity. Furthermore, an equation was established with the aim of estimating the rotational stiffness of welded I beam-to-RHS column connections, which can be used during the structure design. The results show that most of the connections are semi-rigid, highlighting the importance of considering the stiffness of the connections in the structure design.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.63-82
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• 2016

In this study, the bending and dynamic behaviors of laminated composite plates is examined by using a refined shear deformation theory and developed for a bending analysis of orthotropic laminated composite plates under various boundary conditions. The displacement field of the present theory is chosen based on nonlinear variations in the in-plane displacements through the thickness of the plate. By dividing the transverse displacement into the bending and shear parts and making further assumptions, the number of unknowns and equations of motion of the present theory is reduced and hence makes them simple to use. In the analysis, the equation of motion for simply supported thick laminated rectangular plates is obtained through the use of Hamilton's principle. Numerical results for the bending and dynamic behaviors of antisymmetric cross-ply laminated plate under various boundary conditions are presented. The validity of the present solution is demonstrated by comparison with solutions available in the literature. Numerical results show that the present theory can archive accuracy comparable to the existing higher order shear deformation theories that contain more number of unknowns.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.739-759
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• 2012

The tailoring optimization technique recently developed by the author for improving structural response and energy absorption of composites is extended to sandwich shells using a previously developed zig-zag shell model with hierarchic representation of displacements. The in-plane variation of the stiffness properties of plies and the through-the thickness variation of the core properties are determined solving the Euler-Lagrange equations of an extremal problem in which the strain energy due to out-of-plane strains and stresses is minimised, while that due to their in-plane counterparts is maximised. In this way, the energy stored by unwanted out-of-plane modes involving weak properties is transferred to acceptable in-plane modes. As shown by the numerical applications, the critical interlaminar stress concentrations at the interfaces with the core are consistently reduced without any bending stiffness loss and the strength to debonding of faces from the core is improved. The structural model was recently developed by the author to accurately describe strain energy and interlaminar stresses from the constitutive equations. It a priori fulfills the displacement and stress contact conditions at the interfaces, considers a second order expansion of Lame's coefficients and a hierarchic representation that adapts to the variation of solutions. Its functional d.o.f. are the traditional mid-plane displacements and the shear rotations, so refinement implies no increase of the number of functional d.o.f. Sandwich shells are represented as multilayered shells made of layers with different thickness and material properties, the core being treated as a thick intermediate layer.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.335-347
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• 2013

In this paper, the nonlinear cylindrical bending behavior of functionally graded nanocomposite plates reinforced by single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is studied using an efficient and simple refined theory. This theory is based on assumption that the in-plane and transverse displacements consist of bending and shear components in which the bending components do not contribute toward shear forces and, likewise, the shear components do not contribute toward bending moments. The material properties of SWCNTs are assumed to be temperature-dependent and are obtained from molecular dynamics simulations. The material properties of functionally graded carbon nanotube-reinforced composites (FG-CNTCRs) are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction, and are estimated through a micromechanical model. The fundamental equations for functionally graded nanocomposite plates are obtained using the Von-Karman theory for large deflections and the solution is obtained by minimization of the total potential energy. The numerical illustrations concern the nonlinear bending response of FG-CNTRC plates under different sets of thermal environmental conditions, from which results for uniformly distributed CNTRC plates are obtained as comparators.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.467-479
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• 2013

In this paper, a new first-order shear deformation beam theory based on neutral surface position is developed for bending and free vibration analysis of functionally graded beams. The proposed theory is based on assumption that the in-plane and transverse displacements consist of bending and shear components, in which the bending components do not contribute toward shear forces and, likewise, the shear components do not contribute toward bending moments. The neutral surface position for a functionally graded beam which its material properties vary in the thickness direction is determined. Based on the present new first-order shear deformation beam theory and the neutral surface concept together with Hamilton's principle, the motion equations are derived. To examine accuracy of the present formulation, several comparison studies are investigated. Furthermore, the effects of different parameters of the beam on the bending and free vibration responses of functionally graded beam are discussed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1333-1354
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• 2015

A higher order analytical solution for static analysis of a truncated conical composite sandwich panel subjected to different loading conditions was presented in this paper which was based on a new improved higher order sandwich panel theory. Bending analysis of sandwich structures with flexible cores subjected to concentrated load, uniform distributed load on a patch, harmonic and uniform distributed loads on the top and/or bottom face sheet of the sandwich structure was also investigated. For the first time, bending analysis of truncated conical composite sandwich panels with flexible cores was performed. The governing equations were derived by principle of minimum potential energy. The first order shear deformation theory was used for the composite face sheets and for the core while assuming a polynomial description of the displacement fields. Also, the in-plane hoop stresses of the core were considered. In order to assure accuracy of the present formulations, convergence of the results was examined. Effects of types of boundary conditions, types of applied loads, conical angles and fiber angles on bending analysis of truncated conical composite sandwich panels were studied. As, there is no research on higher order bending analysis of conical sandwich panels with flexible cores, the results were validated by ABAQUS FE code. The present approach can be linked with the standard optimization programs and it can be used in the iteration process of the structural optimization. The proposed approach facilitates investigation of the effect of physical and geometrical parameters on the bending response of sandwich composite structures.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.273-278
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• 2011

Employing the TRIZ problem solving technique, a hybrid-type center plate for the molten carbonate fuel cell(MCFC) was developed for the purpose of improving gas sealing and maintenance. The manufacturing method of the hybrid-type center plate was divided into a trimming operation and a two-step bending process. In the latter, a modified punch shape was used to reduce springback. Using finite element(FE) simulations, bending stresses in the thickness and the in-plane directions were computed and the bending conditions were optimized. The optimized results of the two-step bending process were used as a basis for the design of the trimming process of the hybrid-type center plate. Finally, the external manifold-type center plate and the hybrid-type center plate were fabricated using a die set that accounts for the optimized conditions. It was found that the numerical simulation results were in good agreement with the experiments.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.62-69
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• 2000

Uneven clearances in the left and right sides of a press die cause deformation of the punch in precision shearing process. This deformation results from the compression stress and bending moment from shearing force in vertical direction and from the side force in horizontal direction acting to the punch, In this study the behavior of punch deformation is investigated in order to clarify the deformation state of the punch by using strain gauge deformation to shearing force side force bending moment radius of curvature and shear plane of the punch. Also we presented the calculation method of deformation size for the punch.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2002.11b
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• pp.630-635
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• 2002

This work is concerned with the damage size estimation by using propagating bending wave signals in a beam. For the accurate estimation, we apply the continuous wavelet transforms to the incident waves and the reflected waves from a small damage in a long cylindrical beam. In particular, we propose to use the ratio of the magnitude of the incident and reflected waves along the ridges in the wavelet-transformed time-frequency plane. This technique is applied to the signals measured by non-contact magnetostrictive sensors. Experimental results indicate that the present method using the magnetostrictive sensor can be quite effective for accurate damage size estimation with simple measurements.