• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.54 no.1
• /
• pp.135-148
• /
• 2015

The present investigation is concerned with a study effect of magnetic field and non-homogenous on the elastic stresses in rotating orthotropic infinite circular cylinder. A certain boundary conditions closed form stress fields solutions are obtained for rotating orthotropic cylinder under initial magnetic field with constant thickness for three cases: (1) Solid cylinder, (2) Cylinder with a circular hole at the center, (3) Cylinder mounted on a circular rigid shaft. Analytical expressions for the components of the displacement and stress fields in different cases are obtained. The effect of rotation and magnetic field and non-homogeneity on the displacement and stress fields are studied. Numerical results are illustrated graphically for each case. The effects of rotating and magnetic field and non-homogeneity are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.12-25
• /
• 1999

This study examines individual determinants of hospital days in community-dwelling elders by estimating a linear structural equation model based upon Andersen's behavioral model. Data were collected through a national survey of elders in Korea in 1994. The subjects for this secondary data analysis were 1687 non-institutionalized elders aged 60 years or older. Except for the effect of age and gender on family help. the predisposing components had direct effects on the enabling components. Of the effects of the enabling components. family help had a direct effect on self-evaluated health; economic status had a direct effect on chronic disease and self-evaluated health; and access had a direct effect on chronic disease. functional health status and self-evaluated health. Of the enabling components. residence and family help directly affected hospital days. Self-evaluated health revealed the greatest direct effect on hospital days followed by functional health. Overall. the effects of the predisposing components and the enabling components on hospital days were not prominent. Since the model explained only $4\%$ of the variance in hospital days. the magnitude of the effect of the need components cannot be judged in terms of equity of distribution of health services. In particular. the effect of family help in the model reveals the importance of family support in health management of elders. The implications of these analyses for improving the proposed model of hospital days were discussed.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.347-373
• /
• 2014

Since its development in the early 1980's the force balance technique has become a standard method in the efficient determination of structural loads and responses. Its usefulness lies in the simplicity of the physical model, the relatively short records required from the wind tunnel testing and its versatility in the use of the data for different sets of dynamic properties. Its major advantage has been the ability to provide results in a timely manner, assisting the structural engineer to fine-tune their building at an early stage of the structural development. The analysis of the wind tunnel data has evolved from the simple un-coupled system to sophisticated methods that include the correction for non-linear mode shapes, the handling of complex geometry and the handling of simultaneous measurements on multiple force balances for a building group. This paper will review some of the components in the force balance data analysis both in historical perspective and in its current advancement. The basic formulation of the force balance methodology in both frequency and time domains will be presented. This includes all coupling effects and allows the determination of the resultant quantities such as resultant accelerations, as well as various load effects that generally were not considered in earlier force balance analyses. Using a building model test carried out in the wind tunnel as an example case study, the effects of various simplifications and omissions are discussed.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.325-334
• /
• 2023

Computer vision-based damage detection enables non-contact, efficient and low-cost bridge health monitoring, which reduces the need for labor-intensive manual inspection or that for a large number of on-site sensing instruments. By leveraging recent semantic segmentation approaches, we can detect regions of critical structural components and identify damages at pixel level on images. However, existing methods perform poorly when detecting small and thin damages (e.g., cracks); the problem is exacerbated by imbalanced samples. To this end, we incorporate domain knowledge to introduce a hierarchical semantic segmentation framework that imposes a hierarchical semantic relationship between component categories and damage types. For instance, certain types of concrete cracks are only present on bridge columns, and therefore the noncolumn region may be masked out when detecting such damages. In this way, the damage detection model focuses on extracting features from relevant structural components and avoid those from irrelevant regions. We also utilize multi-scale augmentation to preserve contextual information of each image, without losing the ability to handle small and/or thin damages. In addition, our framework employs an importance sampling, where images with rare components are sampled more often, to address sample imbalance. We evaluated our framework on a public synthetic dataset that consists of 2,000 railway bridges. Our framework achieves a 0.836 mean intersection over union (IoU) for structural component segmentation and a 0.483 mean IoU for damage segmentation. Our results have in total 5% and 18% improvements for the structural component segmentation and damage segmentation tasks, respectively, compared to the best-performing baseline model.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.8 no.5
• /
• pp.1069-1089
• /
• 2015

This paper presents average numerical results of 2128 nonlinear dynamic finite element (FE) analyses of lightweight acceleration-sensitive non-structural components (NSCs) attached to the floors of one-bay three-storey reinforced concrete (RC) primary structures (P-structures) with different eccentricity ratios. The investigated parameters include the NSC to P-structure vibration period ratio, peak ground acceleration, P-structure eccentricity ratio, and NSC damping ratio. Appropriate constitutive relationships were used to model the behaviour of the RC P-structures. The NSCs were modelled as vertical cantilevers fixed at their bases with masses on the free ends and varying lengths so as to match the vibration periods of the P-structures. Full dynamic interaction was considered between the NSCs and P-structures. A set of seven natural bi-directional ground motions were used to evaluate the seismic response of the NSCs. The numerical results show that the acceleration response of the NSCs depends on the investigated parameters. The accelerations of the NSCs attached to the flexible sides of the P-structures increased with the increase in peak ground acceleration and P-structure eccentricity ratio but decreased with the increase in NSC damping ratio. Comparison between the FE results and Eurocode 8 (EC8) predictions suggests that, under tuned conditions, EC8 provisions underestimate the seismic response of the NSCs mounted on the flexible sides of the plan-irregular RC P-structures.

• IE interfaces
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.8-14
• /
• 2011

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) reduces the dimensionality of the process by creating a new set of variables, Principal components (PCs), which attempt to reflect the true underlying process dimension. However, for highly nonlinear processes, this form of monitoring may not be efficient since the process dimensionality can't be represented by a small number of PCs. Examples include the process of semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and chemicals. Nonlinear correlated process variables can be reduced to a set of nonlinear principal components, through the application of Kernel Principal Component Analysis (KPCA). Support Vector Data Description (SVDD) which has roots in a supervised learning theory is a training algorithm based on structural risk minimization. Its control limit does not depend on the distribution, but adapts to the real data. So, in this paper proposes a non-linear process monitoring technique based on supervised learning methods and KPCA. Through simulated examples, it has been shown that the proposed monitoring chart is more effective than $T^2$ chart for nonlinear processes.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.70 no.3
• /
• pp.311-324
• /
• 2019

Long-span steel suspension bridges develop significant vibrations under the effect of external time-variable loadings because their slenderness. This causes significant stresses variations that could induce fatigue problems in critical components of the bridge. The research outcome presented in this paper includes a fatigue analysis of a long suspension bridge with 3300 meters central suspended span under wind action and train transit. Special focus is made on the counterintuitive interaction effects between train and wind loads in terms of fatigue damage accumulation in the hanger ropes. In fact the coupling of the two actions is shown to have positive effects for some hangers in terms of damage accumulation. Fatigue damage is evaluated using a linear accumulation model (Palmgren-Miner rule), analyses are carried out in time domain by a three-dimensional non-linear finite element model of the bridge. Rational explanation regarding the above-mentioned counterintuitive behavior is given on the basis of the stress time histories obtained for pertinent hangers under the effects of wind and train as acting separately or simultaneously. The interaction between wind and train traffic loads can be critical for a some hanger ropes therefore interaction phenomena within loads should be considered in the design.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.429-450
• /
• 2016

An attempt has been made to incorporate the concept of collapse safety margin into the procedures proposed in the performance-based earthquake engineering (PBEE) framework for direct earthquake loss estimation, in which the collapse probability curve obtained from incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) is mathematically characterized with the S-type fitting model. The regressive collapse probability curve is then used to identify non-collapse cases and collapse cases. With the assumed lognormal probability distribution for non-collapse damage indexes, the expected direct earthquake loss ratio is calculated from the weighted average over several damage states for non-collapse cases. Collapse safety margin is shown to be strongly related with sustained damage endurance of structures. Such endurance exhibits a strong link with expected direct earthquake loss. The results from the case study on three concrete frames indicate that increase in cross section cannot always achieve a more desirable output of collapse safety margin and less direct earthquake loss. It is a more effective way to acquire wider collapse safety margin and less direct earthquake loss through proper enhancement of reinforcement in structural components. Interestingly, total expected direct earthquake loss ratio seems to be insensitive a change in cross section. It has demonstrated a consistent correlation with collapse safety margin. The results also indicates that, if direct economic loss is seriously concerned, it is of much significance to reduce the probability of occurrence of moderate and even severe damage, as well as the probability of structural collapse.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.449-467
• /
• 2006

Most existing concrete structures in Taiwan are considered nonductile due to insufficient transverse reinforcement and poor detailing of frame elements. Such features are fairly typical for buildings constructed prior to 1997, at which time the local building code was revised based on ACI 318-95. Among these structures, many contain perimeter or partition walls made of concrete or clay brick for architectural purposes. These walls, though treated as non-structural components in common design practice, could affect the structural behavior of the buildings during an earthquake. To study the behavior of such structures under seismic load, experiments were conducted on concrete frames of various configurations to show the force-deformation relationships, damage patterns, and other characteristics of the frames. For further interest, similar units with columns jacketed by carbon-fiber-reinforced-polymer (CFRP) were also tested to illustrate the effectiveness of this technique in the retrofit of concrete frames.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.283-295
• /
• 2019

During the seismic performance assessment of existing buildings, staircases are generally not taken into account as structural members but as dead load. Staircases, as secondary structural members, not only serve for connecting successive floors but also provide considerable amount of strength and stiffness to the building which can modify its seismic behaviour considerably. In this parametric study, the influence of staircases on the seismic response of substandard RC frame buildings which differ in number of storey and span, presence of staircase and its position has been examined. Modal Analyses and bi-directional Non-Linear Time History Analyses (NLTHA) were conducted to compare several engineering demand parameters (EDPs) such as inter-storey drift ratio (ISDR), floor accelerations, modal properties, member shear forces and plastic hinge distribution. Additionally, short column effect, variation in shear forces of columns that are attached to the staircase slab, failure and deformation in staircase models have also been investigated. As the staircase was considered in the analytical model, a different damage pattern can be developed especially in the structural components close to staircase.