• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.849-866
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• 2012

Single span historic bridges often contain non-prismatic members identified with a varying depth along their span lengths. Commonly, the symmetric parabolic height variations having the constant haunch length ratio of 0.5 have been selected to lower the stresses at the high bending moment points and to maintain the deflections within the acceptable limits. Due to their non-prismatic geometrical configuration, their assessment, particularly the computation of fixed-end horizontal forces (FEFs) and fixed-end moments (FEMs) becomes a complex problem. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the behavior of non-prismatic beams with symmetrical parabolic haunches (NBSPH) having the constant haunch length ratio of 0.5 using finite element analyses (FEA). FEFs and FEMs due to vertical loadings as well as the stiffness coefficients and the carry-over factors were computed through a comprehensive parametric study using FEA. It was demonstrated that the conventional methods using frame elements can lead to significant errors, and the deviations can reach to unacceptable levels for these types of structures. Despite the robustness of FEA, the generation of FEFs and FEMs using the nodal outputs of the detailed finite element mesh still remains an intricate task. Therefore, this study advances to propose effective formulas and dimensionless estimation coefficients to predict the FEFs, FEMs, stiffness coefficients and carry-over factors with reasonable accuracy for the analysis and re-evaluation of the NBSPH. Using the proposed approach, the fixed-end reactions due to vertical loads, and also the stiffness coefficients and the carry-over factors of the NBSPH can be determined without necessitating the detailed FEA.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.68-78
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• 2003

Recently, low speed vehicle (LSV) is beginning to appear for various usages. The body of the LSV is usually made of the aluminum space frame (ASF) type rather than the monocoque or unitary construction type. A pa.1 of the reason is that it is easier to reduce mass efficiently while the required stiffness and strength are maintained. A design flow for LSV is proposed. Design specifications for structural performances of LSV do not exist yet. Therefore, they are defined through a comparative study with general passenger automobiles. An optimization problem is formulated by the defined specifications. At first, one pillar which has an important role in structural performances is selected and the reinforcements of the pillar are determined from topology optimization to maximize the stiffness. At second, the thicknesses of cross sections are determined to minimize the mass of the body while design specifications are satisfied. The optimum solution is compared with an existing design. The optimization process has been performed using a commercial optimization software system, GENESIS 7.0.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.869-877
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• 2013

Tension force of hanger ropes has been recognized and utilized as an important parameter for health monitoring of suspension bridges. Conventional vibration method based on string theory has been utilized to estimate tension forces of relatively long hanger ropes without any problem, however it is convinced that the vibration method is not applicable for shorter hanger ropes in which the influence of flexural stiffness is not ignorable. Therefore, as an alternative of vibration method, a number of feasibility studies of system identification(SI) technique considering flexural stiffness of the hanger ropes are recently performed. In this study, the influence of support condition of the finite element model utilized for the SI method is investigated with numerical examples. The numerical examples are prepared with the specification of the Kwang-Ahn bridge hanger ropes, and it is revealed that the estimation result of the tension force can be varied from -21.6 % to +35.3 % of the exact value according to the consideration of the support condition of FE model. Therefore, it is concluded that the rotational stiffness of the support spring should be included to the list of the identification parameters of the FE model to improve the result of tension estimation.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.19 no.1 s.71
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• pp.63-71
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• 2006

This study presents the effective stiffness-based optimal technique to control Quantitatively lateral drift for shear wall-frame structure system using sensitivity analysis. To this end, the element stiffness matrices are constituted to solve the compatibility problem of displacement degree of freedom between the frame and shear wall. Also, lateral drift constraint to introduce the approximation concept that can preserve the generality of the mathematical programming and can effectively solve the large scaled problems is established. And, the section property relationships for shear wall and frame members are considered in order to reduce the number of design variables and differentiate easily the stiffness matrices. Specifically, constant-shape assumption which is uniformly varying in size during optimal process is applied in frame structure. The thickness or length of shear wall can be changed depending on user's intent. Two types of 20 story shear wall-frame structure system are presented to illustrate the features of the stiffness-based optimal design technique.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.425-436
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• 2017

Vibration control using a tuned mass damper (TMD) is an effective technique that has been verified using analytical methods and experiments. It has been applied in mechanical, automotive, and structural applications. However, the damping of a TMD cannot be adjusted in real time. An excessive mass damper stroke may be introduced when the mass damper is subjected to a seismic excitation whose frequency content is within its operation range. The semi-active tuned mass damper (SATMD) has been proposed to solve this problem. The parameters of an SATMD can be adjusted in real time based on the measured structural responses and an appropriate control law. In this study, a stiffness-controllable TMD, called a leverage-type stiffness-controllable mass damper (LSCMD), is proposed and fabricated to verify its feasibility. The LSCMD contains a simple leverage mechanism and its stiffness can be altered by adjusting the pivot position. To determine the pivot position of the LSCMD in real time, a discrete-time direct output-feedback active control law that considers delay time is implemented. Moreover, an identification test for the transfer function of the pivot driving and control systems is proposed. The identification results demonstrate the target displacement can be achieved by the pivot displacement in 0-2 Hz range and the control delay time is about 0.1 s. A shaking-table test has been conducted to verify the theory and feasibility of the LSCMD. The comparisons of experimental and theoretical results of the LSCMD system show good consistency. It is shown that dynamic behavior of the LSCMD can be simulated correctly by the theoretical model and that the stiffness can be properly adjusted by the pivot position. Comparisons of experimental results of the LSCMD and passive TMD show the LSCMD with less demand on the mass damper stroke than that for the passive TMD.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.158-164
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• 2019

The interbody fusion cage used to replace the degenerative intervertebral disc is largely composed of titanium-based biomaterials and biopolymer materials such as PEEK. Titanium is characterized by osseointergration and biocompatibility, but it is posed that the phenomenon such as subsidence can occur due to high elastic modulus versus bone. On the other hand, PEEK can control the elastic modulus in a similar to bone, but there is a problem that the osseointegration is limited. The purpose of this study was to implement titanium material's stiffness similar to that of bone by applying cellular structure, which is able to change the stiffness. For this purpose, the cellular structure A (BD, Body Diagonal Shape) and structure B (QP, Quadral Pod Shape) with porosity of 50%, 60%, 70% were proposed and the reinforcement structure was suggested for efficient strength reinforcement and the stiffness of each model was evaluated. As a result, the stiffness was reduced by 69~93% compared with Ti6Al4V ELI material, and the stiffness most similar to cortical bone is calculated with the deviation of about 12% in the BD model with 60% porosity. In this study, the interbody fusion cage made of Ti6Al4V ELI material with stiffness similar to cortical bone was implementing by applying cellular structure. Through this, it is considered that the limitation of the metal biomaterial by the high elastic modulus may be alleviated.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.315-327
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• 2019

Deep excavations for development of subway systems in metropolitan regions surrounded by adjacent buildings is an important geotechnical problem, especialy in Tabriz city, where is mostly composed of young alluvial soils and weak marly layers. This study analyzes the wall displacement and ground surface settlement due to deep excavation in the Tabriz marls using two dimensional finite element method. The excavation of the station L2-S17 was selected as a case study for the modelling. The excavation is supported by the concrete diaphragm wall and one row of steel struts. The analyses investigate the effects of wall stiffness and excavation width on the excavation-induced deformations. The geotechnical parameters were selected based on the results of field and laboratory tests. The results indicate that the wall deflection and ground surface settlement increase with increasing excavation depth and width. The change in maximum wall deflection and ground settlement with considerable increase in wall stiffness is marginal, however the lower wall stiffness produces the larger wall and ground displacements. The maximum wall deflections induced by the excavation with a width of 8.2 m are 102.3, 69.4 and 44.3 mm, respectively for flexible, medium and stiff walls. The ratio of maximum ground settlement to maximum lateral wall deflection approaches to 1 with increasing wall stiffness. It was found that the wall stiffness affects the settlement influence zone. An increase in the wall stiffness results in a decrease in the settlements, an extension in the settlement influence zones and occurrence of the maximum settlements at a larger distance from the wall. The maximum of settlement for the excavation with a width of 14.7 m occurred at 6.1, 9.1 and 24.2 m away from the wall, respectively, for flexible, medium and stiff walls.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1989.04a
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• pp.17-21
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• 1989

SSI2D/3D is a computer program to calculate dynamic stiffness matrix of the foundation for soil-structure-interaction problem in frequency demain. It is written in FORTRAN 77 and applicable to two or three dimensional situations. In this paper the program structure is summarized. Two examples aye shown to demonstrate the possibilities of the Boundary Element Method applied to dynamic problems in infinite domains.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.47-53
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• 2018

Various types of robotic arms are being used for industrial purposes, particularly with the small production of multi-products, and the importance of the gripper, which can be used in industrial fields, is increasing. This study evaluated a variable stiffness mechanism gripper that can change the stiffness using the nonlinearity of a flexible material. A prototype of the gripper was fabricated and examined to confirm the change in stiffness. The previous gripper was unable to grip objects in some situations with three variable stiffness mechanism. In addition, these mechanisms were not balanced and rarely rotated when the object was gripped. Therefore, a new type of gripper was needed to solve this problem. Inspired by the movements of the human palm and Venus Flytrap, a new type of a variable stiffness soft robot hand was designed. The possibility of grasping could be increased by interlocking the palm folding mechanism by pulling the tendon attached to the variable stiffness mechanism. The soft robotic hand was used to grasp objects of various shapes and weights more stably than the previous variable stiffness mechanism gripper. This new variable stiffness soft robot hand can be used selectively depending on the application and environment to be used.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.29 no.3 s.234
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• pp.395-402
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• 2005

Recently Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Based on Independent Subspaces (MDOIS), an MDO (multidisciplinary design optimization) algorithm, has been proposed. In this research, an MDO problem is defined for design of a belt integrated seat considering crashworthiness, and MDOIS is applied to solve the problem. The crash model consists of an airbag, a belt integrated seat (BIS), an energy absorbing steering system, and a safety belt. It is found that the current design problem has two disciplines - structural nonlin- ear analysis and occupant analysis. The interdisciplinary relationship between the disciplines is identified and is addressed in the system analysis step in MDOIS. Interdisciplinary variables are belt load and stiffness of the seat, which are determined in system analysis step. The belt load is passed to the structural analysis subspace and stiffness of the seat back frame to the occupant analysis subspace. Determined design vari- ables in each subspace are passed to the system analysis step. In this way, the design process iterates until the convergence criterion is satisfied. As a result of the design, the weight of the BIS and Head Injury Crite- rion (HIC) of an occupant are reduced with specified constraints satisfied at the same time. Since the system analysis cannot be formulated in an explicit form in the current example, an optimization problem is formu - lated to solve the system analysis. The results from MDOIS are discussed.