• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.557-586
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• 2022

In spite of extensive testing of the individual shear wall and the coupling beam (CB), numerical and experimental researches on the seismic behavior of CSW are insufficient. As far as we know, no previous research has investigated the affectations of position of CB regarding to the slab level (SL). So, the investigation aims to enhance an overarching framework to examine the consequence of connection positions between CB and SL. And, three cases have been created. One is composed of the floor slab (FS) at the top of the CB (FSTCB); the second is created with the FS within the panel depth (FSWCB), and the third is employed with the FS at the bottom of the CB (FSLCB). And, FEA is used to demonstrate the consequences of various CB positions with regard to the SL. Furthermore, the main measurements of structure response that have been investigated are deformation, shear, and moment in a coupled beam. Additionally, wall elements are used to simulate CB. In addition, ABAQUS software was used to figure out the strain distribution, shear stress for four stories to further understand the implications of slab position cases on the coupled beam rigidity. Overall, the findings show that the position of the rigid linkage among the CB and the FS can affect the behavior of the structures under seismic loads. For all structural heights (4, 8, 12 stories), the straining actions in FSWCB and FSLCB were less than those in FSTCB. And, the increases in displacement time history response for FSWCB are around 16.1-81.8%, 31.4-34.7%, and 17.5% of FSTCB.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.367-383
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• 2023

In this investigation, an improved integral trigonometric shear deformation theory is employed to examine the vibrational behavior of the functionally graded (FG) sandwich plates resting on visco-Pasternak foundations. The studied structure is modelled with only four unknowns' variables displacements functions. The simplicity of the developed model being in the reduced number of variables which was made with the help of the use of the indeterminate integral in the formulation. The current kinematic takes into consideration the shear deformation effect and does not require any shear correction factors as used in the first shear deformation theory. The equations of motion are determined from Hamilton's principle with including the effect of the reaction of the visco-Pasternak's foundation. A Galerkin technique is proposed to solve the differentials governing equations, which enables one to obtain the semi-analytical solutions of natural frequencies for various clamped and simply supported FG sandwich plates resting on visco-Pasternak foundations. The validity of proposed model is checked with others solutions found in the literature. Parametric studies are performed to illustrate the impact of various parameters as plate dimension, layer thickness ratio, inhomogeneity index, damping coefficient, vibrational mode and elastic foundation on the vibrational behavior of the FG sandwich plates.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.2C
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• pp.125-131
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• 2008

Ground stiffness(shear wave velocity) is one of the key parameters in geotechnical earthquake engineering. An In-situ seismic technique has its own advantages and disadvantages over the others in stiffness measurements. By combining the crosshole and seismic cone techniques and utilizing favourable features of bender elements, a new hybrid probe has been developed in order to enhance data quality and easiness of testing. The basic structure of the probe, called "MudFork" is a fork composed of two blades, on each of which source and receiver bender elements were mounted respectively. To evaluate the disturbance caused by the penetration of the probe, shear wave velocity measurements were carried out in the Kaolinite slurry in the laboratory. Finally, the probe was penetrated in coastal mud near Incheon, Korea, using SPT(standard penetration test)rods pushed with a routine boring machine and shear wave velocity measurements were carried out. The results were verified with data from laboratory and cone testing. The performance of the probe turns out to be excellent in terms of data quality and testing convenience.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.195-204
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• 2022

As a brittle failure mode, punching-shear failure can be widely found in traditional RC slab-column connections, which may lead to the entire collapse of a flat plate structure. In this paper, a novel RC slab-column connection with inner steel truss was proposed to enhance the punching strength. In the proposed connection, steel trusses, each of which was composed of four steel angles and a series of steel strips, were pre-assembled at the periphery of the column capital and behaved as transverse reinforcements. With the aim of exploring the punching behavior of this novel RC slab-column connection, a static punching test was conducted on two full-scaled RC slab specimens, and the crack patterns, failure modes, load-deflection and load-strain responses were thoroughly analyzed to explore the contribution of the applied inner steel trusses to the overall punching behavior. The test results indicated that all the test specimens suffered the typical punching-shear failure, and the higher punching strength and initial stiffness could be found in the specimen with inner steel trusses. The numerical models of tested specimens were analyzed in ABAQUS. These models were verified by comparing the results of the tests with the results of the analyzes, and subsequently the sensitivity of the punching capacity to different parameters was studied. Based on the test results, a modified critical shear crack theory, which could take the contribution of the steel trusses into account, was put forward to predict the punching strength of this novel RC slab-column connection, and the calculated results agreed well with the test results.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.511-523
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• 2023

Canal-side roads frequently collapse due to an unexpectedly greater soft-clay thickness with a rapid drawdown situation. This causes annually increased repair and reconstruction costs. This paper aims to explore the effect of soft-clay thickness on the failure in the canal-side road in the case study of Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya rural road no. 1043 (AY. 1043). Before the actual construction, a field vane shear test was performed to determine the undrained shear strength and identify the thickness of the soft clay at the AY. 1043 area. After establishing the usability of AY. 1043, the resistivity survey method was used to evaluate the thickness of the soft clay layer at the failure zone. The screw driving sounding test was used to evaluate the undrained shear strength for the road structure with a medium-stiff clay layer at the failure zone for applying to the numerical model. This model was simulated to confirm the effect of soft-clay thickness on the failure of the canal-side road. The monitoring and testing results showed the tendency of rapid drawdown failure when the canal-side road was located on > 9 m thick of soft clay with a sensitivity > 4.5. The result indicates that the combination of resistivity survey and field vane shear test can be successfully used to inspect the soft-clay thickness and sensitivity before construction. The preliminary design for preventing failure or improving the stability of the canal-side road should be considered before construction under the critical thickness and sensitivity values of the soft clay.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.317-328
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• 2024

Adopting a rational engineering methodology for building structures on sandy-clay soil layers has become increasingly important since it is crucial when structures erected on them often face seismic and cyclic wave loads. Such loads can cause a reduction in the stiffness, strength, and stability of the structure, particularly under un-drained conditions. Hence, this study aims to investigate how the dynamic properties of sand-clay mixtures are affected by loading frequency and clay content. Cyclic triaxial tests were performed on a total of 36 samples, comprising pure sand with a relative density of 60% and sand with varying percentages of clay. The tests were conducted under confining pressures of 50 and 100 kPa, and the samples' dynamic behavior was analyzed at loading frequencies of 0.1, 1, and 4 Hz. The findings indicate that an increase in confining pressure leads to greater inter-particle interaction and a reduced void ratio, which results in an increase in the soil's shear modulus. An increase in the shear strength and confinement of the samples led to a decrease in energy dissipation and damping ratio. Changes in loading frequency showed that as the frequency increased, the damping ratio decreased, and the strength of the samples increased. Increasing the loading frequency not only reflects changes in frequency but also reduces the relative permeability and enhances the resistance of samples. An analysis of the dynamic properties of sand and sand-clay mixtures indicates that the introduction of clay to a sand sample reduces the shear modulus and permeability properties.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.145-156
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• 2024

The mechanical properties of the concrete-frozen soil interface play a significant role in the stability and service performance of construction projects in cold regions. Current research mainly focuses on the precast concrete-frozen soil interface, with limited consideration for the more realistic cast-in-place concrete-frozen soil interface. The two construction methods result in completely different contact surface morphologies and exhibit significant differences in mechanical properties. Therefore, this study selects silty clay as the research object and conducts direct shear tests on the concrete-frozen soil interface under conditions of initial water content ranging from 12% to 24%, normal stress from 50 kPa to 300 kPa, and freezing temperature of -3℃. The results indicate that (1) both interface shear stress-displacement curves can be divided into three stages: rapid growth of shear stress, softening of shear stress after peak, and residual stability; (2) the peak strength of both interfaces increases initially and then decreases with an increase in water content, while residual strength is relatively less affected by water content; (3) peak strength and residual strength are linearly positively correlated with normal stress, and the strength of ice bonding is less affected by normal stress; (4) the mechanical properties of the cast-in-place concrete-frozen soil interface are significantly better than those of the precast concrete-frozen soil interface. However, when the water content is high, the former's mechanical performance deteriorates much more than the latter, leading to severe strength loss. Therefore, in practical engineering, cast-in-place concrete construction is preferred in cases of higher negative temperatures and lower water content, while precast concrete construction is considered in cases of lower negative temperatures and higher water content. This study provides reference for the construction of frozen soil-structure interface in cold regions and basic data support for improving the stability and service performance of cold region engineering.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.119-131
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• 2024

Drift angle is a significant index for diagnosing post-event structures. A common way to estimate this drift response is by using modal parameters identified under natural excitations. Although the modal parameters of shear structures cannot be identified accurately in the real environment, the identification error has little impact on the estimation when measurements from several floors are used. However, the estimation accuracy falls dramatically when there is only one accelerometer. This paper describes the susceptibility of single sensor identification to modelling error and simulations that preliminarily verified this characteristic. To make a robust evaluation from measurements of one floor of shear structures based on imprecisely identified parameters, a novel scheme is devised to approximately correct the mode shapes with respect to fictitious frequencies generated with a genetic algorithm; in particular, the scheme uses constrained minimization to take both the mathematical aspect and the realistic aspect of the mode shapes into account. The algorithm was validated by using a full-scale shear building. The differences between single-sensor and multiple-sensor estimations were analyzed. It was found that, as the number of accelerometers decreases, the error rises due to insufficient data and becomes very high when there is only one sensor. Moreover, when measurements for only one floor are available, the proposed method yields more precise and appropriate mode shapes, leading to a better estimation on the drift angle of the lower floors compared with a method designed for multiple sensors. As well, it is shown that the reduction in space complexity is offset by increasing the computation complexity.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.13 no.6 s.58
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• pp.148-155
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• 2009

A remarkable discrepancy of lateral deformation of shear wall structures for seismic loads due to a rigid diaphragm assumption without floor slab modelling asks a study how much effective the slab stiffness ratio is to the lateral behaviour. Typical shear wall type 15 stories structure is selected to analysis using MIDAS-ADS2008 commercial softwares modelling three types; 1) rigid diaphragm (RD model) 2) considered out-of plane slab flexural stiffness (DB model), and 3) considered in and out of plane slab flexural stiffness (SRC model). Based on National Code of KBC2005, the Equivalent Static and Response Spectrum seismic analysis are undertaken to compare each responses of the three models. The differences of lateral responses due to the three slab stiffness ratios applied on the models are compared and discussed.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2015

We investigated the Reynolds number effects on the flow over a twisted offshore structure in the range of 3×10³≤ Re ≤ 1 × 10⁴. To analyze the effect of the twisted surface treatment, a large eddy simulation (LES) with a dynamic subgrid model was employed. A simulation of the cylindrical structure was also carried out to compare the results with those of the twisted offshore structure. As Re increased, the mean drag and lift coefficient of the twisted offshore structure increased with the same tendency as those of the cylindrical structure. However, the increases in the mean drag and lift coefficient of the twisted offshore structure were much smaller than those of the cylindrical structure. Furthermore, elongated shear layer and suppressed vortex shedding from the twisted offshore structure occurred compared to those of the cylindrical cylinder, resulting in a drag reduction and suppression of the vortex-induced vibration (VIV). In particular, the twisted offshore structure achieved a significant reduction of over 96% in VIV compared with that of the cylindrical structure, regardless of increasing Re. As a result, we concluded that the twisted offshore structure effectively controlled the flow structures with reductions in the drag and VIV compared with the cylindrical structure, irrespective of increasing Re.