• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.541-555
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• 2000

Pultruded cross-sections are always thin-walled due to constraints in the manufacturing process. Thus, the buckling strength determines the overall strength of the member. The elastic buckling of pultruded angle sections subjected to direct compression is studied. The lateral-torsional buckling, very likely to appear in thin-walled cross-sections, is investigated. Plate theory is used to allow for cross-sectional distortion. Shear effects and bending-twisting coupling are accounted for in the analysis because of their significant role. A simplified approach for determining the maximum load of equal leg angle sections under compression is presented. The analytical results obtained in this study are compared to the manufacturer's design guidelines for compression members as well as with the design specifications for steel structural members. Experimental results are obtained for various length specimens of pultruded angle sections. The results presented in this paper correspond to actual pultruded equal leg angle sections being used in civil engineering structures.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.151-158
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• 1998

This paper presents an optimal decision model for minimizing the life-cycle cost of steel box girder bridges. The point is that it takes into account service life process as a whole, and the life-cycle costs include initial (design, testing, and construction) costs, maintenance costs and expected failure costs. The problem is formulated as that of minimization of expected total life-cycle cost with respect to the design variables. The optimal solution identifies those values of the decision variables that result in minimum expected total cost. The performance constraints in the form of flexural failure and shear failure are those specified in the design code. Based on extensive numerical investigations, it may be positively stated that the optimum design of steel box girder bridges based on life-cycle cost approach proposed in this study provides a lot more rational and economical design, and thus the proposed approach will propose the development of new concepts and design methodologies that may have important implications in the next generation performance-based design codes and standards.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.95-105
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• 1988

This paper describes the development of a reliability-based optimum design technique for such three dimensional tubular frames as off shore structures. The objective function is formulated for the structural weight. Constraints that probability of failure for the critical sections does not exceed the allowable probability of failure are set up. In the evaluation of the probability of failure, fatigue as well as buckling and plasticity failure are taken into account and the mean-value first-order second-moment method(MVFOSM) is applied for its calculation. In order to reduce the computing time required for the repeated structural analysis in the optimization process, reanalysis method is also applied. Application to two and three dimensional simple frame structures is performed. The influence of material properties, external forces, allowable failure probabilities and interaction between external forces on the optimum design is investigated.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.383-394
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• 2013

Cold-formed profiles have been largely used in the building industry because they can be easily produced and because they allow for a wide range of sections and thus can be utilized to meet different project requirements. Attainment of maximum performance by structural elements with low use of material is a challenge for engineering projects. This paper presents a numerical study aimed at minimizing the weight of lipped and unlipped cold-formed channel columns, following the AISI 2007 specification. Flexural, torsional and torsional-flexural buckling of columns was considered as constraints. The simulated annealing method was used for optimization. Several numerical simulations are presented and discussed to validate the proposal, in addition to an experimental example that qualifies its implementation. The ratios between lips, web width, and flange width are analyzed. Finally, it may be concluded that the optimization process yields excellent results in terms of cross-sectional area reduction.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.65-72
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• 2009

This study presents a structural design optimizing sizes of high-rise steel plane truss members by maximizing stiffness subjected to given volume constraints. The sizing optimum design is evaluated by using a well-known optimality criteria (OC) of gradient-based optimization methods. In typical size optimization methods, truss structures are optimized with respect to minimum weight with constraints on the value of some displacement and on the member stresses. The proposed method is an inversed size optimization process in comparisons with the typical size optimization methods since it maximizes stiffness associated with stresses or displacements subjected to volume constraints related to weight. The inversed approach is another alternative to classical size optimization methods in order to optimize members' sizes in truss structures. Numerical applications of a round shape steel pipe truss structure are studied to verify that the proposed maximum stiffness-based size optimization design is suitable for optimally developing truss members's sizes.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.383-397
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• 2023

In the Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system of civil engineering, data missing inevitably occurs during the data acquisition and transmission process, which brings great difficulties to data analysis and poses challenges to structural health monitoring. In this paper, Convolution Neural Network (CNN) is used to recover the nonstationary wind speed data missing randomly at sampling points. Given the technical constraints and financial implications, field monitoring data samples are often insufficient to train a deep learning model for the task at hand. Thus, simulation combined transfer learning strategy is proposed to address issues of overfitting and instability of the deep learning model caused by the paucity of training samples. According to a portion of target data samples, a substantial quantity of simulated data consistent with the characteristics of target data can be obtained by nonstationary wind-field simulation and are subsequently deployed for training an auxiliary CNN model. Afterwards, parameters of the pretrained auxiliary model are transferred to the target model as initial parameters, greatly enhancing training efficiency for the target task. Simulation synergy strategy effectively promotes the accuracy and stability of the target model to a great extent. Finally, the structural dynamic response analysis verifies the efficiency of the simulation synergy strategy.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.89-97
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• 1997

A genetic algorithm (GA) is a stochastic direct search strategy that mimics the process of genetic evolution. The GA applied herein works on a population of structural designs at any one time, and uses a structured information exchange based on the principles of natural selection and wurvival of the fittest to recombine the most desirable features of the designs over a sequence of generations until the process converges to a "maximum fitness" design. Principles of genetics are adapted into a search procedure for structural optimization. The methods consist of three genetics operations mainly named selection, cross- over and mutation. In this study, a method of finding the optimum topology of truss/beam structure is pro- posed by using the GA. In order to use GA in the optimum topology problem, chromosomes to FEM elements are assigned, and a penalty function is used to include constraints into fitness function. The results show that the GA has the potential to be an effective tool for the optimal design of structures accounting for sizing, geometrical and topological variables.variables.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.378-386
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• 2017

In this paper, a method is presented for the optimal design of submarine pressure hull structures by taking advantage of genetic algorithm techniques. The objective functions and design constraints in the process of structural optimization are based on the ultimate limit states of hull structures. One of the benefits associated with the utilization of genetic algorithm is that the optimization process can be completed within short generations of design variables for the pressure hull structure model. Applied examples confirm that the proposed method is useful for the optimal design of submarine pressure hull structures. Details of the design procedure with applied examples are documented. The conclusions and insights obtained from the study are summarized.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.1297-1308
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• 2011

The light-weight design of UTM (Urban Transit Maglev)-02 car-body frames are performed, based on initial configuration. The thicknesses of fourteen sub-structures are defined as design variables and the loading condition is considered according to weight of sub-structures, electronic and pneumatic modules and passengers. For efficient and robust process of design optimization, objective function and constraints are approximated by response surface approximation. Structural analysis is performed at some sampling points to construct the approximated objective function and constraints composed of design variables. Design space is changed to find many optimal candidates and best optimal design can be found eventually. The Matlab Optimization Toolbox is used to find optimal value and sensitivity analysis about each design variable is also performed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.6
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• pp.707-719
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• 2018

In this article, a new method is introduced to improve the local search capability of meta-heuristic algorithms using the projection of the path on the border of constraints. In a mathematical point of view, the Gradient Projection Method is applied through a new approach, while the imposed limitations are removed. Accordingly, the gradient vector is replaced with a new meta-heuristic based vector. Besides, the active constraint identification algorithm, and the projection method are changed into less complex approaches. As a result, if a constraint is violated by an agent, a new path will be suggested to correct the direction of the agent's movement. The presented procedure includes three main steps: (1) the identification of the active constraint, (2) the neighboring point determination, and (3) the new direction and step length. Moreover, this method can be applied to some meta-heuristic algorithms. It increases the chance of convergence in the final phase of the search process, especially when the number of the violations of the constraints increases. The method is applied jointly with the authors' newly developed meta-heuristic algorithm, entitled Star Graph. The capability of the resulted hybrid method is examined using the optimal design of truss and frame structures. Eventually, the comparison of the results with other meta-heuristics of the literature shows that the hybrid method is successful in the global as well as local search.