• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.43 no.6
• /
• pp.739-759
• /
• 2012

The tailoring optimization technique recently developed by the author for improving structural response and energy absorption of composites is extended to sandwich shells using a previously developed zig-zag shell model with hierarchic representation of displacements. The in-plane variation of the stiffness properties of plies and the through-the thickness variation of the core properties are determined solving the Euler-Lagrange equations of an extremal problem in which the strain energy due to out-of-plane strains and stresses is minimised, while that due to their in-plane counterparts is maximised. In this way, the energy stored by unwanted out-of-plane modes involving weak properties is transferred to acceptable in-plane modes. As shown by the numerical applications, the critical interlaminar stress concentrations at the interfaces with the core are consistently reduced without any bending stiffness loss and the strength to debonding of faces from the core is improved. The structural model was recently developed by the author to accurately describe strain energy and interlaminar stresses from the constitutive equations. It a priori fulfills the displacement and stress contact conditions at the interfaces, considers a second order expansion of Lame's coefficients and a hierarchic representation that adapts to the variation of solutions. Its functional d.o.f. are the traditional mid-plane displacements and the shear rotations, so refinement implies no increase of the number of functional d.o.f. Sandwich shells are represented as multilayered shells made of layers with different thickness and material properties, the core being treated as a thick intermediate layer.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.14 no.5
• /
• pp.831-845
• /
• 2014

This paper proposed a discrete wavelet transform based method for time-varying physical parameter identification of shear type structures. The time-varying physical parameters are dispersed and expanded at multi-scale as profile and detail signal using discrete wavelet basis. To reduce the number of unknown quantity, the wavelet coefficients that reflect the detail signal are ignored by setting as zero value. Consequently, the time-varying parameter can be approximately estimated only using the scale coefficients that reflect the profile signal, and the identification task is transformed to an equivalent time-invariant scale coefficient estimation. The time-invariant scale coefficients can be simply estimated using regular least-squares methods, and then the original time-varying physical parameters can be reconstructed by using the identified time-invariant scale coefficients. To reduce the influence of the ill-posed problem of equation resolving caused by noise, the Tikhonov regularization method instead of regular least-squares method is used in the paper to estimate the scale coefficients. A two-story shear type frame structure with time-varying stiffness and damping are simulated to validate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method. It is demonstrated that the identified time-varying stiffness is with a good accuracy, while the identified damping is sensitive to noise.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.623-643
• /
• 2013

Concrete filled steel tubular members (CFST) become a popular choice for modern building construction due to their numerous structural benefits and at the same time aging of those structures and member deterioration are often reported. Therefore, actions like implement of new materials and strengthening techniques become essential to combat this problem. The application of carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) with concrete structures has been widely reported whereas researches related to strengthening of steel structures using fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) have been limited. The main objective of this study is to experimentally investigate the suitability of CFRP to strengthening of CFST members under flexure. There were three wrapping schemes such as Full wrapping at the bottom (fibre bonded throughout entire length of beam), U-wrapping (fibre bonded at the bottom throughout entire length and extended upto neutral axis) and Partial wrapping (fibre bonded in between loading points at the bottom) introduced. Beams strengthened by U-wrapping exhibited more enhancements in moment carrying capacity and stiffness compared to the beams strengthened by other wrapping schemes. The beams of partial wrapping exhibited delamination of fibre and were failed even before attaining the ultimate load of control beam. The test results showed that the presence of CFRP in the outer limits was significantly enhanced the moment carrying capacity and stiffness of the beam. Also, a non linear finite element model was developed using the software ANSYS 12.0 to validate the analytical results such as load-deformation and the corresponding failure modes.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.14 no.5
• /
• pp.479-489
• /
• 2018

In this paper, a comparative study of the effects of soil modelling on the interaction between tunnelling in soft soil and adjacent piled structure is presented. Several three-dimensional finite element analyses are performed to study the deformation of pile caps and piles as well as tunnel internal forces during the construction of an underground tunnel. The soil is modelled by two material models: the simple, yet approximate Mohr Coulomb (MC) yield criterion; and the complex, but reasonable hardening soil (HS) model with hyperbolic relation between stress and strain. For the former model, two different values of the soil stiffness modulus ($E_{50}$ or $E_{ur}$) as well as two profiles of stiffness variation with depth (constant and linearly increasing) were used in attempts to improve its prediction. As these four attempts did not succeed, a hybrid representation in which the hardening soil is used for soil located at the highly-strained zones while the Mohr Coulomb model is utilized elsewhere was investigated. This hybrid representation, which is a compromise between rigorous and simple solutions yielded results that compare well with those of the hardening soil model. The compared results include pile cap movements, pile deformation, and tunnel internal forces. Problem symmetry is utilized and, therefore, one symmetric half of the soil medium, the tunnel boring machine, the face pressure, the final tunnel lining, the pile caps, and the piles are modelled in several construction phases.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.46 no.2
• /
• pp.153-177
• /
• 2013

Pendulums can be used as passive vibration control devices in several structures and machines. In the present work, the nonlinear behavior of a pendulum-tower system is studied. The tower is modeled as a bar with variable cross-section with concentrated masses. First, the vibration modes and frequencies of the tower are obtained analytically. The primary structure and absorber together constitute a coupled system which is discretized as a two degrees of freedom nonlinear system, using the normalized eigenfunctions and the Rayleigh-Ritz method. The analysis shows the influence of the geometric nonlinearity of the pendulum absorber on the response of the tower. A parametric analysis also shows that, with an appropriate choice of the absorber parameters, a pendulum can decrease the vibration amplitudes of the tower in the main resonance region. The results also show that the pendulum nonlinearity cannot be neglected in this type of problem, leading to multiplicity of solutions, dynamic jumps and instability. In order to improve the effectiveness of the control during the transient response, a hybrid control system is suggested. The added control force is implemented as a non-linear variable stiffness device based on position and velocity feedback. The obtained results show that this strategy of nonlinear control is attractive, has a good potential and can be used to minimize the response of slender structures under various types of excitation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.52 no.1
• /
• pp.149-172
• /
• 2014

Four algorithms for damage detection of trusses are presented in this paper. These approaches can detect damage by using both complete and incomplete measurements. The suggested methods are based on the minimization of the difference between the measured and analytical static responses of structures. A non-linear constrained optimization problem is established to estimate the severity and location of damage. To reach the responses, the successive quadratic method is used. Based on the objective function, the stiffness matrix of the truss should be estimated and inverted in the optimization procedure. The differences of the proposed techniques are rooted in the strategy utilized for inverting the stiffness matrix of the damaged structure. Additionally, for separating the probable damaged members, a new formulation is proposed. This scheme is employed prior to the outset of the optimization process. Furthermore, a new tactic is presented to select the appropriate load pattern. To investigate the robustness and efficiency of the authors' method, several numerical tests are performed. Moreover, Monte Carlo simulation is carried out to assess the effect of noisy measurements on the estimated parameters.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.135-146
• /
• 2009

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to report the effect of live leech(hirudo medicinalis) therapy with oriental medication on the patient with regional rheumatoid arthritis. The patient had resistant to DMARDs so she was in the debilitating condition and suffered from edema, pain, stiffness of joint and purpura before live leech(hirudo medicinalis) therapy. Methods : The regional rheumatoid arthritis patient had edema, pain, stiffness of joint and purpura on right foot. We treated the patient with live leech(hirudo medicinalis) therapy and oriental medicine. Results : The symptoms of regional rheumatoid arthritis was improved through live leech(hirudo medicinalis) therapy and oriental medicine. The patient maintains her condition with oriental medicine treatment after stopped all DMARDs such as MTX(methotrexate) and NSAIDs. After this treatment the patient's walking difficulty has been improved. Conclusions : This study shows that live leech(hirudo medicinalis) therapy and oriental medicine can elevate the regional rheumatoid arthritis patient's quality of life with continuous health care and treatment for major problem. For more accurate studies, further studies would be needed with more cases.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.57-63
• /
• 2003

An eigenvalue design sensitivity formulation of a general nonsymmetric-matrix rotor-bearing system is devised. using the DDM (direct differential method). Then, investigations on the design sensitivities of critical speeds are carried out for an APU turbogenerator with a spline shaft connection. Results show that the dependence of the rate of change of the critical speed on the stiffness changes of bearing models of spline shaft connection points is negligible, and thereby their modeling uncertainty does not present any problem. And the passing critical speeds up to the 4th critical speed are not sensitive to the design stiffness coefficients of four main bearings. Further, the dependence of the rate of change of the critical speed on the shaft-element length changes shows quantitatively that the spline shaft has some limited influence on the 4th critical speed but no influence on the 1st to 3rd critical speeds. With no adverse effect from the spline shaft, the APU system achieves a critical speed separation margin of more than 40% at a rated speed of 60,000 rpm.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.73-84
• /
• 2012

This paper strongly addresses to the problem of the mechanical systems in which parameters are uncertain and bounded. Interval calculation is used to find sharp bounds of the structural parameters for infilled frame system modeled with finite element method. Infill walls are generally treated as non-structural elements considerably to improve the lateral stiffness, strength and ductility of the structure together with the frame elements. Because of their complex nature, they are often neglected in the analytical model of building structures. However, in seismic design, ignoring the effect of infill wall in a numerical model does not accurately simulate the physical behavior. In this context, there are still some uncertainties in mechanical and also geometrical properties in the analysis and design procedure of infill walls. Structural uncertainties can be studied with a finite element formulation to determine sharp bounds of the structural parameters such as wall thickness and Young's modulus. In order to accomplish this sharp solution as much as possible, interval finite element approach can be considered, too. The structural parameters can be considered as interval variables by using the interval number, thus the structural stiffness matrix may be divided into the product of two parts which correspond to the interval values and the deterministic value.

• Magazine of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.180-189
• /
• 1994

An approximate method of normal coordinate idealization for use in nonlinear R /C frames has been developed. Normal coordinate apporaches have been used for nonlinear problems in the past, but they are not recerved wide acceptance because of the need for eigenvector computation in each time step. The proposed method circumvents the eigenvector recalculation problem by evaluating a limited number of sets of mode shapes in performing the dynamic analysis. Then some of the predetermined sets of eigenvectors are used in the nonlinear dynamic repeatedly. The method is applied to frame structures with ductile R /C elements. The plastic hinge zones are modeled with hysteres~s loops which evince degrading stiffness and pinching effects. Effxiencies and accuracies of the method for this application are presented.