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Structural walls are used extensively in moderate- and high-rise buildings to resist lateral loads induced by earthquakes. The seismic performance of many buildings is, therefore, closely linked to the behavior of the reinforced concrete walls. The analytical models used in this paper are developed to study the push-over response of T-shaped reinforced concrete walls andinvestigate the influence of the flange walls on laterally loaded walls and nonlinear behavior of shear walls, namely strength, ductility and failure mechanisms. A layered nonlinear finite element method is used to study the behavior of T-shaped and rectangular (barbell) shear walls. This paper introduces a computer program to practically study three-dimensional characteristics of reinforced concrete wall response by utilizing layered modeling. The program is first verified bysimulated and reported experimental response of 3-D reinforced concrete shear walls. Subsequently, a study considering eighteen analytical test specimens of T-shaped and barbell shear walls is carried out. Finally, based on analytical results, a new equation for minimum ratio of shear wall area to floor-plan area is proposed.

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A new approach is proposed to model a crack in orthotropic composite media using the extended finite element method (XFEM). The XFEM uses the concept of partition of unity in addition to meshless basic idea of approximating a field variable by its values at a set of surrounding nodes. As a result, higher order approximations can be designed with the same total number of degrees of freedom. In this procedure, by using meshless based ideas, elements containing a crack are not required to conform to crack edges. Therefore mesh generating is performed without any consideration of crack conformations for elements and the method has the ability of extending the crack without any remeshing. Furthermore, the type of elements around the cracktip is the same as other parts of the finite element model and the number of nodes and consequently degrees of freedom are reduced considerably in comparison to the classical finite element method. Developed orthotropic enrichment functions are further modified to enable modeling isotropic problems.

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This paper describes a numerical model and its finite element implementation that used to compute the cavitation effects on

seismic behavior of concrete dam and reservoir systems. The system is composed of two sub-systems, namely, the reservoir and

the dam. The water is considered as bilinear compressible and inviscid and the equation of motion of fluid domain is expressed

in terms of the pressure variable alone. A bilinear state equation is used to model the pressure–density relationship of a cavitated

fluid. A standard displacement finite element formulation is used for the structure. The Structural damping of the dam material

and the radiation damping of the water and damping from foundation soil and banks have been incorporated in the analysis. The

solution of the coupled system is accomplished by solving the two sub-systems separately with the interaction effects at the damreservoir

interface enforced by a developed iterative scheme. The developed method is validated by testing it against problem for

which, there is existing solution and the effects of cavitation on dynamic response of Konya gravity dam and Morrow Point arch

dam subjected to the first 6 s of the May 1940 El-Centro, California earthquake, is considered. Obtained results show that impact

forces caused by cavitation have a small effect on the dynamic response of dam-reservoir system.

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Concrete bridge deck damage detection by measurement and monitoring variables related to vibration signatures is one of the main tasks of any Bridge Health Monitoring System (BHMS). Generally damage puts some detectable/discoverable signs in the parameters of bridge vibration behavior. However, differences between frequency and mode shape before and after damage are not remarkable as vibration signatures. Therefore most of the introduced methods of damage detection cannot be used practically. Among many methods it seems that models based on artificial intelligence which apply soft computing methods are more attractive for specific structures. In this paper an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) is used to detect the damage location in a concrete bridge deck modeled by finite element method. Some damage scenarios are simulated in different locations of the deck and accelerations as representatives of response at some specific points are calculated. Excitement is done by applying an impact load at the center of the deck. In the proposed ANFIS damage detection model accelerations are inputs and location of the damage is output. Trained model by simulated data can show the location of the damage very well with a few training data and scenarios which are not used in training stage. This system is capable to be included in real-time damage detection systems as well.

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A review of literature reveals that although singly curved conical shells applicable in many fields of mechanical engineering have been studied by many researchers but doubly curved conoidal shells which are very popular as civil engineering roofing units have not received due attention. Hence relative performances of composite conoidal shells in terms of displacements and stress resultants are studied in this paper under static and dynamic loadings. Free vibration frequencies are also reported. A curved quadratic isoparametric eight noded element is used to model the shell surface. Clamped and simply supported boundary conditions are considered. Results obtained from the present study are compared with established ones to check the correctness of the present approach. A number of additional problems of composite conoidal shells are solved for eight different stacking sequences of graphite-epoxy composite for each of the edge conditions. Uniformly distributed load for static bending analysis and step load of infinite duration for solution of forced vibration problem are considered. The results are interpreted from practical application standpoints and findings that are important for a designer to note, before he decides on the shell combination he will finally adopt among a number of possible options, are highlighted.

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Formation of a suitable null basis is the main problem of finite elements analysis via force method. For an optimal analysis, the selected null basis matrices should be sparse and banded corresponding to sparse, banded and well-conditioned flexibility matrices. In this paper, an efficient method is developed for the formation of the null bases of finite element models (FEMs) consisting of tetrahedron elements, corresponding to highly sparse and banded flexibility matrices. This is achieved by associating special graphs with the FEM and selecting appropriate subgraphs and forming the self-equilibrating systems (SESs) on these subgraphs. Two examples are presented to illustrate the simplicity and effectiveness of the presented graph-algebraic method.

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When geogrid reinforcement is used as a treatment method for improving soft subgrade as a roadway foundation, a top layer of subgrade is usually excavated and backfilled with geogrid-reinforced aggregates. This treatment method produces an adequate platform for the planned roadway construction site, where heavy traffic loading is constantly moving. This paper presents a quantitative assessment of subgrade improvement by geogrid reinforcement based on numerical modelling and parametric studies. First of all, the preliminary numerical models were verified by comparing the analysis results with previous studies. Secondly, the major numerical models in this study were assumed to be a simplified simulation of a geogrid-reinforced two-layer system with an aggregate layer above a subgrade layer. The numerical models were applied a quasi-static loading and unloading cycle, in order to monitor the permanent deformation at the surface of the models. Afterwards, thickness of aggregate layer, and subgrade CBR values were varied in order to summarize the outcomes of each case. This approach makes it possible to quantify the effects of geogrid reinforcement and aggregate material in terms of an enhanced California Bearing Ratio (CBR) of a single subgrade clay layer. Results have shown that when the aggregate thickness is up to 450mm, the contribution of enhanced CBR is mostly from aggregate material. However, when the aggregate thickness is about 150mm with a relatively weak subgrade material, the inclusion of geogrid material can contribute about 50% of the enhanced value.

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The purpose of this study is to compare the results of different probabilistic methods such as the perturbation method, Stochastic Finite Element Method (SFEM) and Monte Carlo Method. These methods were used to study the convergence of direct approach for slope stability analysis and are developed for a linear soil behavior. In this study, two dimensional random fields are used and both the First Order Reliability Method (FORM) and Limited Step Length Iteration Method (LSLIM) have been adopted to evaluate the reliability index. The study found that the perturbation method of the second order is easy to apply using the field’s theory because accuracy is reached even with different coefficients of variation of input variables, while the spectral finite element method yields accurate results only for high levels of solution development.

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Incremental launching is a widespread bridge erection technique which may offer many advantages for bridge designers. Since internal forces of deck vary perpetually during construction stages, simulation and modeling of the bridge behavior, for each step of launching, are tedious and time consuming tasks. The problem becomes much more complicated in construction progression. Considering other load cases such as support settlements or temperature effects makes the problem more intricate. Therefore, modeling of construction stages entails a reliable, simple, economical and fast algorithmic solution. In this paper, a new Finite Element (FE) model for study on static behavior of bridges during launching is presented. Also a simple method is introduced to normalize all quantities in the problem. The new FE model eliminates many limitations of some previous models. To exemplify, the present model is capable to simulate all the stages of launching, yet some conventional models of launching are insufficient for them. The problem roots from the main assumptions considered to develop these models. Nevertheless, by using the results of the present FE model, some solutions are presented to improve accuracy of the conventional models for the initial stages. It is shown that first span of the bridge plays a very important role for initial stages it was eliminated in most researches. Also a new simple model is developed named as "semi infinite beam" model. By using the developed model with a simple optimization approach, some optimal values for launching nose specifications are obtained. The study may be suitable for practical usages and also useful for optimizing the nose-deck system of incrementally launched bridges.

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It is well-known that dam-reservoir interaction has significant effects on the response of dams to the earthquakes. This phenomenon should be considered more exactly in the seismic design of dams with a rational and reliable dynamic analysis method. In this research, seismic analysis of the dam-reservoir is studied as a wave propagation problem by using Legendre Spectral element method (SEM). The special FEM and SEM codes are developed to carry out the seismic analysis of the dam-reservoir interaction system. The results of both SEM and FEM models are compared considering the accuracy and the time consumption of the analysis. Attractive spectral convergence of SEM is obtained either by increasing the degree of the polynomials in the reservoir or by the number of elements of dam. It is shown that all boundary conditions of the reservoir domain in the SEM are evaluated by the exact diagonal matrices. The SEM leads to the diagonal mass matrix for both dam and reservoir domains. The stiffness matrices obtained from the SEM are more sparse than the corresponding stiffness matrices in the FEM consequently the SEM needs a significant less time consumption of the analysis.

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To study and predict the behavior of flexible pavement over expansive soils, a pavement structure was subjected to different laboratory and fieldwork experiments. The existing pavement was replaced and designed based on California Bearing Ratio (CBR) method, with a new one, and subjected to the traffic from various number of load cycles from 12.1 up to 155.52 kcycles of standard axle load (80 kN) through dual wheel assembly over a 6-month period. As the preliminary step, the deflection measurements were taken at the asphalt surface layer, using a Total station at different distances as function of truckload applications. The numerical analysis is carried out with the Finite Element software package PLAXIS version 2012. In the new model, the calculation of the transferred pressure to the pavement through contact area of tires is 3D it was turned into a 2D problem, and the pavement was subjected to a static loading using a ratio factor of dynamic additional charge. The materials’ behavior was simulated with nonlinear models: Mohr–Coulomb (MC) for pavement layers and soft-soil model (SSM) for the expansive subgrade, in saturated drained and undrained conditions. The results indicate that displacements under static loading in saturated drained conditions and when non-linear materials are present are the closest to field measured deflections.

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Pile load tests and numerical analysis of a small-scale model pile in unsaturated clayey soil are presented in this paper. A small-scale model pile was simulated to bear a static axial loading in unsaturated soil using finite element method. All parameters used in the finite element method were obtained in laboratory tests, including the direct shear test, interface direct shear test, and filter paper method. The numerical analysis results were compared with the pile load test results. The results show that the general trend of pile load and pile head settlement relationship obtained by the numerical analysis shows a good consistence with the pile load test results. With increasing water content of the soil, the matric suction, dilatancy angle and shear strength decrease, and consequently the ultimate bearing capacity of pile decreases.

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This study presents methods for numerical modelling and the static computer analysis of steel decks fixed on scaffoldings. The main problem raised here is the method of creating models of a single deck and determination of the accuracy of every model for various design situations: the analysis of state stress in components of decks, the strength analysis of scaffolding where decks can be loaded by untypical the arrangement of materials and the strength analysis of full scaffoldings. The analysis of a state stress in components of a deck requires a detailed model. The analyses of scaffoldings with load by materials have to be performed with using more simple models of platforms. The static-strength analysis of full scaffoldings with many frame elements can be performed if the simplest models of decks are used. In this paper the sets of truss elements replace the stiffness of scaffolding decks.