• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.93-106
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• 2022

The total embankment settlement consists of three stages: the initial settlement, the primary consolidation settlement, and the secondary consolidation settlement. The total embankment settlement is largely controlled by the primary consolidation settlement, which is usually computed with numerical models that implement Biot's theory of consolidation. The key parameter that affects the primary consolidation time is the coefficient of permeability. Due to the complex stress and strain states in the foundation soil under the embankment, to be able to predict the consolidation time more precisely, aside from porosity-dependency, the strain-dependency of the coefficient of permeability should be also taken into account in numerical analyses. In this paper, we propose a two-dimensional plane strain numerical model of embankment primary consolidation, which implements Biot's theory of consolidation with both porosity-dependent and strain-dependent coefficient of permeability. We perform several numerical simulations. First, we demonstrate the influence of the strain-dependent coefficient of permeability on the computed results. Next, we validate our numerical model by comparing computed results against in-situ measurements for two road embankments: one near the city of Saga, and the other near the city of Boston. Finally, we give our concluding remarks.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.471-487
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• 2020

In this work, the buckling analysis of material sandwich plates based on a two-parameter elastic foundation under various boundary conditions is investigated on the basis of a new theory of refined trigonometric shear deformation. This theory includes indeterminate integral variables and contains only four unknowns in which any shear correction factor not used, with even less than the conventional theory of first shear strain (FSDT). Applying the principle of virtual displacements, the governing equations and boundary conditions are obtained. To solve the buckling problem for different boundary conditions, Galerkin's approach is utilized for symmetric EGM sandwich plates with six different boundary conditions. A detailed numerical study is carried out to examine the influence of plate aspect ratio, elastic foundation coefficients, ratio, side-to-thickness ratio and boundary conditions on the buckling response of FGM sandwich plates. A good agreement between the results obtained and the available solutions of existing shear deformation theories that have a greater number of unknowns proves to demonstrate the precision of the proposed theory.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.4
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• pp.491-504
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• 2018

Because of sandwich structures with low weight and high stiffness have much usage in various industries such as civil and aerospace engineering, in this article, buckling and free vibration analyses of coupled micro composite sandwich plates are investigated based on sinusoidal shear deformation (SSDT) and most general strain gradient theories (MGSGT). It is assumed that the sandwich structure rested on an orthotropic elastic foundation and make of four composite face sheets with temperature-dependent material properties that they reinforced by carbon and boron nitride nanotubes and two flexible transversely orthotropic cores. Mathematical formulation is presented using Hamilton's principle and governing equations of motions are derived based on energy approach and applying variation method for simply supported edges under electro-magneto-thermo-mechanical, axial buckling and pre-stresses loadings. In order to predict the effects of various parameters such as material length scale parameter, length to width ratio, length to thickness ratio, thickness of face sheets to core thickness ratio, nanotubes volume fraction, pre-stress load and orthotropic elastic medium on the natural frequencies and critical buckling load of double-bonded micro composite sandwich plates. It is found that orthotropic elastic medium has a special role on the system stability and increasing Winkler and Pasternak constants lead to enhance the natural frequency and critical buckling load of micro plates, while decrease natural frequency and critical buckling load with increasing temperature changes. Also, it is showed that pre-stresses due to help the axial buckling load causes that delay the buckling phenomenon. Moreover, it is concluded that the sandwich structures with orthotropic cores have high stiffness, but because they are not economical, thus it is necessary the sandwich plates reinforce by carbon or boron nitride nanotubes specially, because these nanotubes have important thermal and mechanical properties in comparison of the other reinforcement.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.357-386
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• 2016

In this research work, an exact analytical solution for thermal stability of solar functionally graded rectangular plates subjected to uniform, linear and non-linear temperature rises across the thickness direction is developed. It is assumed that the plate rests on two-parameter elastic foundation and its material properties vary through the thickness of the plate as a power function. The neutral surface position for such plate is determined, and the efficient hyperbolic plate theory based on exact neutral surface position is employed to derive the governing stability equations. The displacement field is chosen based on assumptions that the in-plane and transverse displacements consist of bending and shear components, and the shear components of in-plane displacements give rise to the quadratic distribution of transverse shear stress through the thickness in such a way that shear stresses vanish on the plate surfaces. Therefore, there is no need to use shear correction factor. Just four unknown displacement functions are used in the present theory against five unknown displacement functions used in the corresponding ones. The non-linear strain-displacement relations are also taken into consideration. The influences of many plate parameters on buckling temperature difference will be investigated. Numerical results are presented for the present theory, demonstrating its importance and accuracy in comparison to other theories.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.711-731
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• 2020

This paper deals with free vibration of FG sandwich annular sector plates on Pasternak elastic foundation with different boundary conditions, based on the three-dimensional theory of elasticity. The plates with simply supported radial edges and arbitrary boundary conditions on their circular edges are considered. The influence of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) waviness, aspect ratio, internal pores and graphene platelets (GPLs) on the vibrational behavior of functionally graded nanocomposite sandwich plates is investigated in this research work. The distributions of CNTs are considered functionally graded (FG) or uniform along the thickness of upper and bottom layers of the sandwich sectorial plates and their mechanical properties are estimated by an extended rule of mixture. In this study, the classical theory concerning the mechanical efficiency of a matrix embedding finite length fibers has been modified by introducing the tube-to-tube random contact, which explicitly accounts for the progressive reduction of the tubes' effective aspect ratio as the filler content increases. The core of structure is porous and the internal pores and graphene platelets (GPLs) are distributed in the matrix of core either uniformly or non-uniformly according to three different patterns. The elastic properties of the nanocomposite are obtained by employing Halpin-Tsai micromechanics model. A semi-analytic approach composed of 2D-Generalized Differential Quadrature Method (2D-GDQM) and series solution is adopted to solve the equations of motion. The fast rate of convergence and accuracy of the method are investigated through the different solved examples. Some new results for the natural frequencies of the plate are prepared, which include the effects of elastic coefficients of foundation, boundary conditions, material and geometrical parameters. The new results can be used as benchmark solutions for future researches.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.99-112
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• 2022

The present study examines the natural frequencies (NFs) of perfect/imperfect functionally graded sandwich beams (P/IP-FGSBs), which are composed of a porous core constructed of functionally graded materials (FGMs) and a homogenous isotropic metal and ceramic face sheets resting on elastic foundations. To accomplish this, the material properties of the FGSBs are assumed to vary continuously along the thickness direction as a function of the volume fraction of constituents expressed by the modified rule of the mixture, which includes porosity volume fraction represented using four distinct types of porosity distribution models. Additionally, to characterize the reaction of the two-parameter elastic foundation to the Perfect/Imperfect (P/IP) FGSBs, the medium is assumed to be linear, homogeneous, and isotropic, and it is described using the Winkler-Pasternak model. Furthermore, the kinematic relationship of the P/IP-FGSBs resting on the Winkler-Pasternak elastic foundations (WPEFs) is described using trigonometric shear deformation theory (TrSDT), and the equations of motion are constructed using Hamilton's principle. A closed-form solution is developed for the free vibration analysis of P/IP-FGSBs resting on the WPEFs under four distinct boundary conditions (BCs). To validate the new formulation, extensive comparisons with existing data are made. A detailed investigation is carried out for the effects of the foundation coefficients, mode numbers (MNs), porosity volume fraction, power-law index, span to depth ratio, porosity distribution patterns (PDPs), skin core skin thickness ratios (SCSTR), and BCs on the values of the NFs of the P/IP-FGSBs.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.129-147
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• 2022

The properties of soil are naturally highly variable and thus, to ensure proper safety and reliability, we need to test a large number of samples across the length and depth. In pile foundations, conducting field tests are highly expensive and the traditional empirical relations too have been proven to be poor in performance. The study proposes a state-of-art Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) hybridized Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) and Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS); and comparative analysis of metaheuristic models (ANN-PSO, ELM-PSO, ANFIS-PSO) for prediction of bearing capacity of pile foundation trained and tested on dataset of nearly 300 dynamic pile tests from the literature. A novel ensemble model of three hybrid models is constructed to combine and enhance the predictions of the individual models effectively. The authenticity of the dataset is confirmed using descriptive statistics, correlation matrix and sensitivity analysis. Ram weight and diameter of pile are found to be most influential input parameter. The comparative analysis reveals that ANFIS-PSO is the best performing model in testing phase (R² = 0.85, RMSE = 0.01) while ELM-PSO performs best in training phase (R² = 0.88, RMSE = 0.08); while the ensemble provided overall best performance based on the rank score. The performance of ANN-PSO is least satisfactory compared to the other two models. The findings were confirmed using Taylor diagram, error matrix and uncertainty analysis. Based on the results ELM-PSO and ANFIS-PSO is proposed to be used for the prediction of bearing capacity of piles and ensemble learning method of joining the outputs of individual models should be encouraged. The study possesses the potential to assist geotechnical engineers in the design phase of civil engineering projects.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.10 no.4 s.37
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• pp.577-587
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• 1998

The influences of high speed train on the dynamic responses of steel composite railway bridges are investigated. The bridge system which has two I-girder and several cross beams is modeled with plate and frame elements. With assumption of concrete slabs are fully connected with steel girders, the offset between slabs and girders is modeled using constraint equation. The track system is modeled using beams on elastic foundation theory. And, the TGV train model is developed in 2-dimension considering bouncing and pitching motion. And braking action of vehicle is considered using speed dependent braking function. To investigate the behavior of bridges due to moving trains, parametric studies on the variation of natural frequency of bridge, speed parameter, vehicle modeling method, braking action of train, etc are performed.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.19-26
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• 1988

A stochastic numerical model for predictions of differential settlement of foundation Eoils is developed in this Paper. The differential settlement is highly dependent on the spatial variability of elastic modulus of soil. The Kriging method is used to account for the spatial variability of the elastic modulus. This technique provides the best linear unbiased estimator of a parameter and its minimum variance from a limited number of measured data. The stochastic finite element method, employing the first-order second-moment analysis for computations of error Propagation, is used to obtain the means, ariances, and covariances of nodal displacements. Finally, a reliability model of differential settlement is proposed by using the results of the stochastic FEM analysis. It is found that maximum differential settlement occurs when the distance between two foundations is approximately same It with the scale of fluctuation in horizontal direction, and the probability that differential settlement exceeds the allot.able vague might be significant.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.273-287
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• 2018

Buckling and free vibration analysis of sandwich micro plate (SMP) integrated with piezoelectric layers embedded in orthotropic Pasternak are investigated in this paper. The refined Zigzag theory (RZT) is taken into consideration to model the SMP. Four different types of functionally graded (FG) distribution through the thickness of the SMP core layer which is reinforced with single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are considered. The modified couple stress theory (MCST) is employed to capture the effects of small scale effects. The sandwich structure is exposed to a two dimensional magnetic field and also, piezoelectric layers are subjected to external applied voltages. In order to obtain governing equation, energy method as well as Hamilton's principle is applied. Based on an analytical solution the critical buckling loads and natural frequency are obtained. The effects of volume fraction of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), different distributions of CNTs, foundation stiffness parameters, magnetic and electric fields, small scale parameter and the thickness of piezoelectric layers on the both critical buckling loads and natural frequency of the SMP are examined. The obtained results demonstrate that the effects of volume fraction of CNTs play an important role in analyzing buckling and free vibration behavior of the SMP. Furthermore, the effects of magnetic and electric fields are remarkable on the mechanical responses of the system and cannot be neglected.