• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.209-221
• /
• 2018

An empirical and efficient method is presented for calculating the dynamic increase factor to amplify the applied loads on the affected bays of a steel frame structure with semi-rigid connections. The nonlinear static alternate path analysis is used to evaluate the dynamic responses. First, the polynomial models of the extended end plate and the top and seat connection are modified, and the proposed polynomial model of the flush end plate connection shows good agreement as compared with experimental results. Next, a beam model with nonlinear spring elements and plastic hinges is utilized to incorporate the combined effect of connection flexibility and material nonlinearity. A new step-by-step analysis procedure is established to obtain quickly the dynamic increase factor based on a combination of the pushdown analysis and nonlinear dynamic analysis. Finally, the modified dynamic increase factor equation, defined as a function of the maximum ratio value of energy demand to energy capacity of an affected beam, is derived by curve fitting data points generated by the different analysis cases with different column removal scenarios and five types of semi-rigid connections.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.51 no.6
• /
• pp.1575-1588
• /
• 2019

Fracture near the U-10Mo/cladding material interface impacts fuel service life. In this work, a mesoscale stress model is developed with the fuel foil considered as a porous medium having gas bubbles and bearing bubble pressure and surface tension. The models for the evolution of bubble volume fraction, size and internal pressure are also obtained. For a U-10Mo/Al monolithic fuel plate under location-dependent irradiation, the finite element simulation of the thermo-mechanical coupling behavior is implemented to obtain the bubble distribution and evolution behavior together with their effects on the mesoscale stresses. The numerical simulation results indicate that higher macroscale tensile stresses appear close to the locations with the maximum increments of fuel foil thickness, which is intensively related to irradiation creep deformations. The maximum mesoscale tensile stress is more than 2 times of the macroscale one on the irradiation time of 98 days, which results from the contributions of considerable volume fraction and internal pressure of bubbles. This study lays a foundation for the fracture mechanism analysis and development of a fracture criterion for U-10Mo monolithic fuels.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.43 no.2
• /
• pp.163-177
• /
• 2012

This paper presents a LMI(linear matrix inequality)-based fuzzy approach of modeling and active vibration control of geometrically nonlinear flexible plates with piezoelectric materials as actuators and sensors. The large-amplitude vibration characteristics and dynamic partial differential equation of a piezoelectric flexible rectangular thin plate structure are obtained by using generalized Fourier series and numerical integral. Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model is employed to approximate the nonlinear structural system, which combines the fuzzy inference rule with the local linear state space model. A robust fuzzy dynamic output feedback control law based on the T-S fuzzy model is designed by the parallel distributed compensation (PDC) technique, and stability analysis and disturbance rejection problems are guaranteed by LMI method. The simulation result shows that the fuzzy dynamic output feedback controller based on a two-rule T-S fuzzy model performs well, and the vibration of plate structure with geometrical nonlinearity is suppressed, which is less complex in computation and can be practically implemented.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.91 no.3
• /
• pp.239-250
• /
• 2024

With the aim to provide better predication about fracture behavior, a numerical simulating strategy based on the rigid spring model is proposed for reinforced concrete (RC) structures in this study. According to the proposed strategy, concrete is partitioned into a series of irregular rigid blocks based on the Voronoi diagram, which are connected by interface springs. Steel bars are simulated by bar elements, and the bond slip element is defined at bar element nodes to describe the interaction between reinforcement and concrete. A concrete damage evolution model based on the separation criterion is adopted to describe the weakening process of interface spring between adjacent blocks, while a nonlinear bond slip model is introduced to simulate the synergy behaviour of reinforced steel bars and concrete. In the damage evolution model of concrete, the influence of compressive stress perpendicular to the interface on the shear strength is considered. To check the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed modelling, experimental and numerical studies about a simply-supported RC beam and the two-notched concrete plates in Nooru-Mohamed's experiment are conducted, and the grid sensitivity are investigated.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.123-136
• /
• 2008

A new plastic-damage constitutive model applicable to lightweight concrete (LWC) and normal weight concrete (NWC) is proposed in this paper based on both continuum damage mechanics and plasticity theories. Two damage variables are used to represent tensile and compressive damage independently. The effective stress is computed in the Drucker-Prager multi-surface plasticity framework. The stress is then computed by multiplication of the damaged part and the effective part. The proposed model is coded as a user material subroutine and incorporated in a finite element analysis software. The constitutive integration algorithm is implemented by adopting the operator split involving elastic predictor, plastic corrector and damage corrector. The numerical study shows that the algorithm is efficient and robust in the finite element analysis. Experimental investigation is conducted to verify the proposed model involving both static and dynamic tests. The very good agreement between the numerical results and experimental results demonstrates the capability of the proposed model to capture the behaviors of LWC and NWC structures for static and impact loading.

• Coupled systems mechanics
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.141-162
• /
• 2018

This work presents a novel model for analysis of the loading rate influence onto structure response. The model is based on the principles of nonlinear system dynamics, i.e., consists of a system of nonlinear differential equations. In contrast to classical linearized models, this one comprises mass and loading as integral parts of the model. Application of the Kelvin and the Maxwell material models relates the novel formulation to the existing material formulations. All the analysis is performed on a proprietary computer program based on Wolfram Mathematica. This work can be considered as an extended proof of concept for the application of the nonlinear solid model in material response to dynamic loading.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.96-106
• /
• 1998

Rock contains discontinuities at all scales. These discontinuities make rock behave in a complex way. This paper discusses a new approach to underground design based on the theory of rock fracture mechanics. The mechanism of deformation and failure of coal was studied by observing the distributions of length, orientation and spacing of the pre-existing as well as stress-induced cracks. Different types of crack information. The crack information is dependent on the scale used. The cracks propagate along the intersections of the pre-existing cracks, and both extensile and shear crack growth occur depending on the direction of the load relative to the bedding planes. An analytical model that takes into account both shear and extensile crack growth was developed to predict the nonlinear stress-strain behavior of coal including strain-hardening and strain-softening.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.1 no.2
• /
• pp.131-150
• /
• 2004

We present in this work a coupled phenomenological chemo-mechanical model that represents the degradation of concrete-like materials. The chemical behaviour is described by the nowadays well known simplified calcium leaching approach. And the mechanical damage behaviour is described by a continuum damage model which involves the gradient of the damage quantity. The coupled nonlinear problem at hand is addressed within the context of the finite element method. For the equation governing the calcium dissolution-diffusion part of the problem, special care is taken to treat the highly nonlinear calcium conductivity and solid calcium functions. The algorithmic design is based on a Newton-type iterative scheme where use is made of a recently proposed relaxed linearization procedure. And for the equation governing the damage part of the problem, an augmented Lagrangian formulation is used to take into account the damage irreversibility constraint. Finally, numerical simulations are compared with experimental results on cement paste.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.355-371
• /
• 2012

A composite element method (CEM) is presented to analyze the free and forced vibrations of a cracked Euler-Bernoulli beam with axial force. The cracks are introduced by using Christides and Barr crack model with an adjustment on one crack parameter. The effects of the cracks and axial force on the reduction of natural frequencies and the dynamic responses of the beam are investigated. The time response sensitivities with respect to the crack parameters (i.e., crack location, crack depth) and the axial force are calculated. The natural frequencies obtained from the proposed method are compared with the analytical results in the literature, and good agreement is found. This study shows that the cracks in the beam may have significant effects on the dynamic responses of the beam. In the inverse problem, a response sensitivity-based model updating method is proposed to identify both a single crack and multiple cracks from measured dynamic responses. The cracks can be identified successfully even using simulated noisy acceleration responses.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.71 no.3
• /
• pp.257-269
• /
• 2019

This paper develops a nonlocal strain gradient plate model for damping vibration analysis of smart magneto-electro-viscoelastic nanoplates resting on visco-Pasternak medium. For more accurate analysis of nanoplate, the proposed theory contains two scale parameters related to the nonlocal and strain gradient effects. Viscoelastic effect which is neglected in all previous papers on magneto-electro-viscoelastic nanoplates is considered based on Kelvin-Voigt model. Governing equations of a nonlocal strain gradient smart nanoplate on viscoelastic substrate are derived via Hamilton's principle. Galerkin's method is implemented to solve the governing equations. Effects of different factors such as viscoelasticity, nonlocal parameter, length scale parameter, applied voltage and magnetic potential on damping vibration characteristics of a nanoplate are studied.