• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.353-366
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• 2023

This paper presents a finite-element analysis (FEA) of aluminum alloy rectangular hollow sections (RHSs) and square hollow sections (SHSs) with circular through-openings under three-point and four-point bending. First, a finite-element model (FEM) was developed and validated against the corresponding test results available in the literature. Next, using the validated FE models, a parametric study comprising 180 FE models was conducted. The cross-section width-to-thickness ratio (b/t) ranged from 2 to 5, the hole size ratio (d/h) ranged from 0.2 to 0.8 and the quantity of holes (n) ranged from 2 to 6, respectively. Third, results obtained from laboratory test and FEA were compared with current design strengths calculated in accordance with the North American Specifications (NAS), the modified direct strength method (DSM) and the modified Continuous strength method (CSM). The comparison shows that the modified CSM are conservative by 15% on average for aluminum alloy RHSs and SHSs with circular through-openings subject to bending. Finally, a new design equation is proposed based on the modified CSM after being validated with results obtained from laboratory test and FEA. The proposed design equation can provide accurate predictions of flexural capacities for aluminum alloy RHSs and SHSs with circular through-openings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.4
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• pp.531-546
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• 2022

Headed bars are often used when there is insufficient space for a straight or curved bar to be fully developed to ensure the transference of forces between steel and concrete in several types of connections between structural members. In such cases, the concrete breakout strength of the headed bars can be a critical point of the design and must be considered appropriately. This paper evaluates the tensile strength of headed bars embedded in reinforced concrete members, failing due to concrete breakout. Four experimental tests on headed bars embedded in slender concrete members are presented and discussed, showing that strength previsions from the design codes can be significantly conservative as they ignore the contribution from the flexural reinforcement. 3D finite element models were developed using Abaqus Unified FEA to simulate the tested specimens, and it was observed that they were able to reproduce the formation of the concrete cone accurately, besides the response and resistance observed in tests. Furthermore, the experimental, numerical, and design code resistances are compared and discussed. A new equation to evaluate the concrete cone strength of the tested headed bars is proposed, which takes into account parameters not explicitly considered in the current design equations.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.305-330
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• 2022

This article aims to investigate the static deflection and stress analysis of bi-directional functionally graded porous plate (BDFGPP) modeled by unified higher order kinematic theories to include the shear stress effects, which not be considered before. Different shear functions are described according to higher order models that satisfy the zero-shear influence at the top and bottom surfaces, and hence refrain from the need of shear correction factor. The material properties are graded through two spatial directions (i.e., thickness and length directions) according to the power law distribution. The porosities and voids inside the material constituent are described by different cosine functions. Hamilton's principle is implemented to derive the governing equilibrium equation of bi-directional FG porous plate structures. An efficient numerical differential integral quadrature method (DIQM) is exploited to solve the coupled variable coefficients partial differential equations of equilibrium. Problem validation and verification have been proven with previous prestigious work. Numerical results are illustrated to present the significant impacts of kinematic shear relations, gradation indices through thickness and length, porosity type, and boundary conditions on the static deflection and stress distribution of BDFGP plate. The proposed model is efficient in design and analysis of many applications used in nuclear, mechanical, aerospace, naval, dental, and medical fields.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.281-291
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• 2022

Surmounting complexities in analyzing the mechanical parameters of concrete entails selecting an appropriate methodology. This study integrates a novel metaheuristic technique, namely satin bowerbird optimizer (SBO) with artificial neural network (ANN) for predicting uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) of concrete. For this purpose, the created hybrid is trained and tested using a relatively large dataset collected from the published literature. Three other new algorithms, namely Henry gas solubility optimization (HGSO), sunflower optimization (SFO), and vortex search algorithm (VSA) are also used as benchmarks. After attaining a proper population size for all algorithms, the Utilizing various accuracy indicators, it was shown that the proposed ANN-SBO not only can excellently analyze the UCS behavior, but also outperforms all three benchmark hybrids (i.e., ANN-HGSO, ANN-SFO, and ANN-VSA). In the prediction phase, the correlation indices of 0.87394, 0.87936, 0.95329, and 0.95663, as well as mean absolute percentage errors of 15.9719, 15.3845, 9.4970, and 8.0629%, calculated for the ANN-HGSO, ANN-SFO, ANN-VSA, and ANN-SBO, respectively, manifested the best prediction performance for the proposed model. Also, the ANN-VSA achieved reliable results as well. In short, the ANN-SBO can be used by engineers as an efficient non-destructive method for predicting the UCS of concrete.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.301-333
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• 2022

Herein, we report meaningful and selective review of the progress made on 'Vortex Induced Vibration (VIV)' and 'Vortex Induced Motion (VIM)' of 'Structures of Specific Shapes (SoSS)' subjected to steady uniform flow and of relevance to/in marine structures. Important and critical elements of the numerical methods, experimental methods, and physical ideas are listed and analysed critically and the limitations of the current state of art of VIV/VIM are discussed in-detail. Our focus and aim are to analyse the existing researches with respect to the application in analyses, design and production of marine structures and the reported reviews centre on these only. We identify the critical and important issues that exist in the current literature and utilise these issues to highlight the challenges that need to be tackled to design and develop new age marine structures that can exist and operate safely in the areas of dominance by the VIV/VIM. Finally, we also identify some areas for future scope of research on VIV/VIM.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.519-529
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• 2022

Sandwich structures with the superior mechanical properties such as high stiffness and strength-to-weight ratio, good thermal insulation, and high energy absorption capacity are used today in aerospace, automotive, marine, and civil engineering industries. These structures are composed of moderately stiff, thin face sheets that withstand the majority of transverse and in-plane loads, separated by a thick, lightweight core that resists shear forces. In this research, the finite element technique is used to simulate a sandwich panel with a truss core under axial compressive stress using ABAQUS software. A review of past experimental studies shows that the bondline between the core and face sheets plays a vital role in the critical failure load. Therefore, this modeling analyzes the damage initiation modes and debonding between face sheet and core by cohesive surface contact with traction-separation model. According to the results obtained from the modeling, it can be observed that the adhesive stiffness has a significant influence on the critical failure load of the specimens. To achieve the full strength of the structure as a continuum, a lower limit is obtained for the adhesive stiffness. By providing this limit stiffness between the core and the panel face sheets, sudden failure of the structure can be prevented.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.633-649
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• 2022

This paper is first implemented with the bending behavior of three-dimensional functionally graded (3DFG) plates in the framework of level set-based topology optimization (LS-based TO). Besides, due to the suitable properties of the current design domain, the thin-plate spline (TPS) is recognized as a RBF to construct the LS function. The overall mechanical properties of the 3DFG plate are assessed using a power-law distribution scheme via Mori-Tanaka micromechanical material model. The bending response is obtained using the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT). The mixed interpolation of four elements of tensorial components (MITC4) is also implemented to overcome a well-known shear locking problem when the thickness becomes thinner. The Hamilton-Jacobi method is utilized in each iteration to enforce the necessary boundary conditions. The mathematical formulas are expressed in great detail for the LS-based TO using 3DFG materials. Several numerical examples are exhibited to verify the efficiency and reliability of the current methodology with the previously reported literature. Finally, the influences of FG materials in the optimized design are explained in detail to illustrate the behaviors of optimized structures.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2020.12a
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• pp.225-234
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• 2020

Reliability-based structural optimization usually requires designers or engineers model different designs manually, which is considered very time consuming and all possibilities cannot be fully explored. Otherwise, a lot of time are needed for designers or engineers to learn mathematical modeling and programming skills. Therefore, a framework that integrates generative design, structural simulation and reliability theory is proposed. With the proposed framework, various designs are generated based on a set of rules and parameters defined based on visual programming, and their structural performance are simulated by OpenSees. Then, reliability of each design is evaluated based on the simulation results, and an optimal design can be found. The proposed framework and prototype are tested in the optimization of a steel frame structure, and results illustrate that generative design based on visual programming is user friendly and different design possibilities can be explored in an efficient way. It is also reported that structural reliability can be assessed in an automatic way by integrating Dynamo and OpenSees. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a novel framework for automatic reliability evaluation and structural optimization.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.591-603
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• 2022

The flexural strengthening of reinforced concrete beams by external bonding of composite materials has proved to be an efficient and practical technique. This paper presents a study on the flexural performance of reinforced concrete continuous beams with three spans (one span and two cantilevered) strengthened by bonding carbon fiber fabric (CFRP). The model is based on equilibrium and deformations compatibility requirements in and all parts of the strengthened continuous beam, i.e., the continuous concrete beam, the FRP plate and the adhesive layer. The adherend shear deformations have been included in the present theoretical analyses by assuming a linear shear stress through the thickness of the adherends. Remarkable effect of shear deformations of adherends has been noted in the results. The theoretical predictions are compared with other existing solutions that shows good agreement, and It shows the effectiveness of CFRP strips in enhancing shear capacity of continuous beam. It is shown that both the normal and shear stresses at the interface are influenced by the material and geometry parameters of the composite beam.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.91-107
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• 2023

An effective approach to promoting sustainability within the construction industry is the use of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) as a substitute for natural aggregates. Ensuring the frost resilience of RAC technologies is crucial to facilitate their adoption in regions characterized by cold temperatures. The main aim of this study was to use the Random Forests (RF) approach to forecast the frost durability of RAC in cold locations, with a focus on the durability factor (DF) value. Herein, three optimization algorithms named Sine-cosine optimization algorithm (SCA), Black widow optimization algorithm (BWOA), and Equilibrium optimizer (EO) were considered for determing optimal values of RF hyperparameters. The findings show that all developed systems faithfully represented the DF, with an R² for the train and test data phases of better than 0.9539 and 0.9777, respectively. In two assessment and learning stages, EO - RF is found to be superior than BWOA - RF and SCA - RF. The outperformed model's performance (EO - RF) was superior to that of ANN (from literature) by raising the values of R² and reducing the RMSE values. Considering the justifications, as well as the comparisons from metrics and Taylor diagram's findings, it could be found out that, although other RF models were equally reliable in predicting the the frost durability of RAC based on the durability factor (DF) value in cold climates, the developed EO - RF strategy excelled them all.