Seismic Performance Assessment of Deteriorated Two-Span Reinforced Concrete Bridges

This paper presents a nonlinear analysis procedure for the seismic performance assessment of deteriorated reinforced concrete bridges using a modified damage index. A finite-element analysis program, RCAHEST (Reinforced Concrete Analysis in Higher Evaluation System Technology), is used to analyze deteriorated two-span simply supported reinforced concrete bridges. The new nonlinear material models for deteriorated reinforced concrete behaviors were proposed, considering corrosion effects as shown in a reduction in reinforcement section and bond strength. A modified damage index aims to quantify the seismic performance level in deteriorated reinforced concrete bridges. Several parameters of two-span simply supported deteriorated reinforced concrete bridge have been studied to determine the seismic performance levels. The newly developed analytical method for assessing the seismic performance of deteriorated reinforced concrete bridges is verified by comparison with the experimental and analytical parameter results.

Evaluation of a Suitable Material for Soft Actuator Through Experiments and FE Simulations

Soft actuators are generally built to achieve extension, contraction, curling, or bending motions needed for robotic or medical applications. It is prepared with a cylindrical tube, braided with fibers that restrict the radial motion and produce the extension, contraction, or bending. The actuation is achieved through the input of compressed air with a different pressure. The stiffness of the materials controls the magnitude of the actuation. In the present study, Silastic-P1 silicone RTV and multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) with reinforced silicone are considered for the evaluation. The dumbbell samples are prepared from both materials as per ASTM D412-06a (ISO 37) standard and their corresponding tensile strength, elongation at break, and tensile modulus are measured. The Ogden nonlinear material constants of respective materials are estimated and used further in the finite element analysis of extension, contraction, and bending soft actuators. It is observed that silicone RTV is better in high strain and fast response, whereas, silicone/MWCNT is better at achieving high actuation.

Comparison of flexural capacity of different hollow slab beams with/without pavement layer reinforced by steel plates

PurposeReinforcement of reinforced concrete (RC) beams in-service have always been an important research field, anchoring steel plate in the bottom of the beams is a kind of common reinforcement methods. In actual engineering, the contribution of pavement layer to the bearing capacity of RC beams is often ignored, which underestimates the bearing capacity and stiffness of RC beams to a certain extent. The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of pavement layer on the RC beams before and after reinforcement.Design/methodology/approachFirst, static load experiments are carried out on three in-service RC hollow slab beams, meanwhile, nonlinear finite element models are built to study the bearing capacity of them. The nonlinear material and shear slip effect of studs are considered in the models. Second, the finite element models are verified, and the numerical simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental results. Last, the finite element models are adopted to carry out the research on the influence of different steel plate thicknesses on the flexural bearing capacity and ductility.FindingsThe experimental results showed that pavement layers increase the flexural capacity of hollow slab beams by 16.7%, and contribute to increasing stiffness. Ductility ratio of SPRCB3 and PRCB2 was 30% and 24% lower than that of RCB1, respectively. The results showed that when the steel plate thickness was 1 mm–6 mm, the bearing capacity of the hollow slab beam increased gradually from 2158.0 kN.m to 2656.6 kN.m. As the steel plate thickness continuously increased to 8 mm, the ultimate bearing capacity increased to 2681.0 kN.m. The increased thickness did not cause difference to the bearing capacity, because of concrete crushing at the upper edge.Originality/valueIn this paper, based on the experimental study, the bearing capacity of hollow beam strengthened by steel plate with different thickness is extrapolated by finite element simulation, and its influence on ductility is discussed. This method not only guarantees the accuracy of the bearing capacity evaluation, but also does not require a large number of samples, and has certain economy. The research results provide a basis for the reinforcement design of similar bridges.

propSym: a tool to establish relationships between property constants for material property tensors of any order

The properties of crystalline materials can be described mathematically by tensors whose components are generally known as property constants. Tabulations of these constants in terms of the independent components are well known for common material properties (e.g. elasticity, piezoelectricity etc.) aptly described by tensors of lower rank (e.g. ranks 2–4). General relationships between constants of higher rank are often unknown and sometimes reported incorrectly. A computer program is developed here to calculate the property constant relationships of a property of any order, represented by a tensor of any rank and point group. Tensors up to rank 12, e.g. the tensor of sixth-order elastic constants c 6 ijklmnpqrs , can be calculated on a standard computer, while ranks higher than 12 are best handled on a supercomputer. Output is provided in either full index form or a reduced index form, e.g. the Voigt index notation common to elasticity. As higher-order tensors are often associated with nonlinear material responses, the program provides an accessible means to investigate the important constants involved in nonlinear material modeling. The routine has been used to discover several incorrect relationships reported in the literature.

Material Design for Low-Loss Non-Oriented Electrical Steel for Energy Efficient Drives

Due to the nonlinear material behavior and contradicting application requirements, the selection of a specific electrical steel grade for a highly efficient electrical machine during its design stage is challenging. With sufficient knowledge of the correlations between material and magnetic properties and capable material models, a material design for specific requirements can be enabled. In this work, the correlations between magnetization behavior, iron loss and the most relevant material parameters for non-oriented electrical steels, i.e., alloying, sheet thickness and grain size, are studied on laboratory-produced iron-based electrical steels of 2.4 and 3.2 wt % silicon. Different final thicknesses and grain sizes for both alloys are obtained by different production parameters to produce a total of 21 final material states, which are characterized by state-of-the-art material characterization methods. The magnetic properties are measured on a single sheet tester, quantified up to 5 kHz and used to parametrize the semi-physical IEM loss model. From the loss parameters, a tailor-made material, marked by its thickness and grain size is deduced. The influence of different steel grades and the chance of tailor-made material design is discussed in the context of an exemplary e-mobility application by performing finite-element electrical machine simulations and post-processing on four of the twenty-one materials and the tailor-made material. It is shown that thicker materials can lead to fewer iron losses if the alloying and grain size are adapted and that the three studied parameters are in fact levers for material design where resources can be saved by a targeted optimization.

A Design Optimization Study for the Die Dimensioning Using the Locking Nut Folding Simulation

An inverse analysis based on optimization process is performed to determine die curvatures for a locking nut’s flange folding process which has highly nonlinear material behaviour. The nut material is AISI C1040 steel. The ring material is polyamide 6. The Chaboche’s nonlinear kinematic hardening rule is combined with bilinear isotropic hardening model as a hardening rule for the plasticity model combined with associated flow rule and von Mises yield criterion. The inverse analysis is applied to determine the curvatures by using genetic algorithm optimization method based on dimensional accuracy. The optimum mould curvatures are determined. So a comprehensive methodology is presented for determination of curvatures.

A Comparison of Shell and Solid Finite Element Models of Austenitic Stainless Steel Columns in Compression

The subject of this article is the implementation of new knowledge on material and geometric characteristics obtained from an experimental research program in advanced numerical modelling of compressed columns made of austenitic stainless steel using the ANSYS Classic software. Nonlinear stress–strain curves were obtained using our own experimental program and studied in terms of identifying the most suitable nonlinear material model. Additional material and geometric characteristics were obtained from literature and other independent research. Numerical models differing in mesh density localization, formulation of element integration, non-linear material model, and initial geometric imperfections were created and compared. The aim of the models was the ultimate limit state of a strut of circular hollow cross-section stressed by compression and analysed using the geometrically and materially nonlinear solution with consideration to the influence of initial imperfections. Static resistance and limit state deformations are compared for each model. The paper presents the analysis of model uncertainty by comparing SHELL and SOLID FE models, which must be characterized before the start of the analysis of the random influence of imperfections on the limit states. The mean values and the coefficients of variation are practically the same for both approaches. In summary, the presented models can be considered sufficiently validated and eligible for integration in tandem with simulation sampling methods.