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Publication Date: 2025
Engineering Structures (18737323)327
This study introduces a novel Replaceable Fuses Metallic Damper (RFMD) with a double-stage yield mechanism, aiming to enhance the energy dissipation capacity of structures across multiple seismic levels. The RFMD, designed with two steel pieces as the main body and a series of mild steel round bars as energy absorbers, is intended for installation along the bracing element. The external part of the RFMD must be fixed, while the internal part, with one degree of translational freedom, acts like a sliding piston along its longitudinal axis. During tension and compression in the brace, the movement of the internal part leads to bending and axial plastic deformations in the bars, absorbing energy and providing damping for the structure. Furthermore, shifts in the boundary conditions of the fuses during the loading procedure result in a two-stage yielding mechanism. The performance of a series of full-scale RFMDs was carefully examined through displacement-control monotonic and cyclic tests, demonstrating consistent stable hysteretic behavior and proper ductility over numerous cycles with no sudden decrease in stiffness or strength. The damper enables easy replacement of its fuses, which could prevent the necessity of post-earthquake replacements if engineered to avoid bar failure during intended movement. Serving as a simple, practical, and cost-effective passive energy dissipation device, the RFMD offers adequate ductility and energy dissipation, making it valuable for protecting the key components of structures. © 2025 Elsevier Ltd
Publication Date: 2024
Structures (23520124)69
Bolted shear connectors have recently been introduced and studied as a convenient and demountable alternative for shear studs in steel-concrete composite beams. The major problem of welded studs is their undeconstructability. Bolted shear connectors make it possible to deconstruct and reuse the connection after its service life. In this study, the cyclic behavior of embedded bolted shear connectors in steel-concrete composite beams was investigated. The specimens included prefabricated concrete slabs with a square hole, which was filled with grout after assembling the concrete slab and steel section. Eight specimens were fabricated and tested to examine the effect of the bolt's diameter and strength on the cyclic behavior. To determine its behavior characteristics force-slip curves were applied. Ductility, strength degradation, and energy dissipation were the primary parameters investigated in this study. The results showed that the bolt's diameter and strength significantly influenced the cyclic behavior of composite beams. Increasing the bolt's diameter and strength improved the connection's ductility and energy dissipation. Furthermore, doubling the bolt's cross-section increased the connection's ultimate strength by more than twice. © 2024 Institution of Structural Engineers
Publication Date: 2024
Mechanics Based Design of Structures and Machines (15397742)52(11)pp. 9381-9411
One of the significant obstacles in conducting linear and non-linear time history analysis is its time-consuming nature. In this article, a new downsamlping method based on discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and smoothing is proposed to overcome this problem. In order to assess the precision of this approach, 50,000 linear and non-linear dynamic analyses of single degree of freedom (SDOF) systems and 300 nonlinear dynamic analyses of frame structures have been performed. One hundred Fema440 records were utilized to generate approximate waves up to the third level and the outcomes of this method were then contrasted with those of DWT. It has been demonstrated that the third-level approximate wave produced by DWT, previously considered dependable in other research, generates significant errors in results and the average error (absolute error percentage of the acceleration spectrum) of its third-level approximate wave is approximately 17.5%. On the other hand, the proposed method generated approximate waves with an average error of less than 4.5% across all behavior coefficients and periods and the error rate decreases as the period and behavior coefficient increase. Analysis of steel moment-resisting frames indicated that the lowest error in both methods is achieved for the base shear and across different engineering demand parameters, the average error rate for the proposed method was below 7.5%. Furthermore, caution must be exercised when employing the proposed method for structures with periods shorter than 0.5 s. © 2024 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Publication Date: 2024
Amirkabir Journal of Civil Engineering (2588297X)56(3)pp. 321-324
It’s important to study the liquid motion and its effect on the tanks. The method of fundamental solution (MFS) is a novel meshless numerical method proposed to solve incompressible inviscid fluid flow problems with moving boundaries. In this paper, this method is developed for two-dimensional rectangular water reservoirs under harmonic and earthquake excitations. For modeling of fluid motion with a moving free surface, Lagrangian formulation is used to pressure equation, like a potential equation and so the geometry is updated in each time step through an implicit algorithm. In recent research, equations are used with linearized boundary conditions, while due to the Lagrangian approach of pressure-based equations; the boundary conditions of the problem are very simple and it’s easy to solve complex problems. The innovation of this study is considering earthquake loads to simulate sloshing water surfaces applied by the Method of fundamental solution (MFS). The nature of earthquake excitation due to frequency content and fast acceleration changes leads to singularity problems in tank corners. So, the solution is expressed as a linear Green basis function in the method of fundamental solutions to avoid the singularity problem and to obtain better results. The numerical results are compared with other numerical and experimental results to show the proposed procedure precisely taking into account the effects of earthquake excitation. © 2024, Amirkabir University of Technology. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2023
Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering (02677261)175
One of the main problems of nonlinear time history analysis is its high computational effort, especially in structures with large number of structural components, high-rise buildings and complex structural systems. The ground motions recorded in recent years also include more recorded points than in the past, which has also increased the required volume of calculations. In this paper, three downsampling methods for reducing calculation costs of nonlinear time history analysis are presented and their applicability is investigated through practical examples of complex structures. These methods include the discrete wavelet transform, the time step correction, and the wavelet time step correction which is introduced in this paper. The efficiency of these downsampling methods is investigated for near-fault and far-fault earthquake records, as well as for records on different soil types. A comprehensive study is performed on five sets of ground motions consisting of 20 records. Each record is filtered up to three stages using one half, one quarter, and one eighth of the number of the main record points. First the linear and nonlinear response spectra based on the original records and the approximate waves are investigated. Subsequently, to evaluate the performance of the methods on more complex structural systems, two three-dimensional structures of 6-story and 15-story are analyzed. The 6-story structure is equipped with viscous dampers, while the 15-story structure has seismic isolators. The results indicate that the wavelet time step correction method has better performance in most cases, compared to the other two methods. It is shown that careful consideration is needed when dealing with earthquake records with high frequency contents. In such situations, one filtering step for the discrete wavelet transform method and two filtering steps for the other two methods are recommended. Also, in practical applications, it is advisable to choose earthquake records exhibiting the least error based on the results of SDOF systems analyses. Employing this technique can significantly cut down computational effort (up to 90%), while maintaining an average error ranging from 1% to 2% for the wavelet time step correction method. © 2023
Publication Date: 2020
Ocean Engineering (00298018)218
The Makran subduction located at the northwest of the Indian ocean, at the Oman Sea mouth has been and is the source of massive tsunamis that threatens the coasts of Iran, Pakistan, India and Oman. The initial tsunami wave produced by the magnitude and focal depth of Makran submarine earthquake in 1945 is determined based on the Okada algorithm. 3D propagation of the generated mega wave in the Indian Ocean and Oman Sea is simulated by adopting OpenFOAM open source CFD software, in its global sense and verified vs. the available data. The wave characteristics are extracted from the global model at the mouth of Chabahar Bay are inserted as the input in a regional model which consist of precise geometry and bathymetry of the bay and finer mesh size. The wave run-up is predicted at the main ports at the Indian Ocean and Oman Sea coastline. The obtained results are implemented to assess the tsunami risk zone of Teess beach town, at Chabahar Bay coastline. The advanced procedure applied in this research consists of the accurate production of the original tsunami and three stages of global and regional 3D and local 2D propagation simulation, that provides reliable results in more accurate estimation of wave run up height and tsunami risk zone, for practical engineering applications. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd
Publication Date: 2019
Environmental Fluid Mechanics (15677419)19(6)pp. 1431-1454
Solitary wave theories are frequently adopted to simulate the characteristics of tsunami and to predict the resulting run-up in a numerical and experimental manner. A mesh-free method based on exponential basis functions (EBFs) is implemented to simulate the generation and propagation of solitary waves generated by piston-type wave maker. The pressure form of the Euler equations in a Lagrangian formulation is considered in the method. One of the most significant issues in the numerical simulation of solitary wave is to stabilize the wave height during the propagation. A new stable Lagrangian time marching algorithm is introduced which applies an adaptive parameter based on pressure formulation for tracking free surface and to minimize the discrepancies. In order to evaluate the accuracy of this newly introduced scheme, the results of EBF numerical model is applied to wave propagation according to six solitary wave theories. The results indicate the advantage of the introduced adaptive Lagrangian time marching algorithm and the EBF method in simulating solitary wave propagation with pronounced accuracy, convenient performances and the least run time calculation with implications for predicting solitary wave run-up on the beach. © 2019, Springer Nature B.V.
Publication Date: 2017
Environmental Fluid Mechanics (15677419)17(5)pp. 1015-1034
A meshless method based on exponential basis functions (EBFs) is developed to simulate the propagation of solitary waves and run-up on the slope. The presented method is a boundary-type meshless method applying the exponential basis functions with complex exponents. The solution of governing equations is considered as a series of these basis functions. Boundary conditions are satisfied through a point-wise collocation approach. Based on the presented EBF meshless method, a new formula is introduced for the maximum run-up height on different slopes, valuable for engineering applications. The results obtained through the numerical method in the prediction of solitary wave propagation and estimation of run-up are verified through the comparison with experimental data. The comparison with 159 experimental data indicates that this new formula is more accurate than the preceding formulas in predicting the maximum run-up of non-breaking solitary waves. Minimum calculation time and convenient performances are the other advantages of this method. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.
Publication Date: 2017
Ocean Engineering (00298018)134pp. 176-177
In this reply, we re-emphasize on the fact that in the simulation of inviscid incompressible fluid flows using Lagrangian description, under some conditions, the divergence operator and the material derivative operator commute and thus the Laplace of the pressure is applicable in practical engineering problems as it has already been used and verified in numerous studies by many researchers. We show that the incompressibility condition suggested by the author of the discussion (discusser), as the replacement for divergence of the velocity field in using finite time increments, is insufficient and wrong. It will be shown that the concept has totally been misinterpreted by the discusser. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd
Publication Date: 2016
Ocean Engineering (00298018)122pp. 54-67
In this paper, it is first proven that instead of Poisson's equation one can use Laplace's equation for the pressure, which is much simpler to solve, in Lagrangian simulation of incompressible inviscid Newtonian fluid flow problems starting from a divergence-free initial acceleration condition. When Laplace's equation for the pressure is used in Newmark time integration scheme it guarantees mass conservation with O(Δt3) accuracy. Next in this paper a consistent 3D mesh-free method for the solution of free surface sloshing in tanks is presented. In this method a linear summation of exponential basis functions (EBFs) is assumed as an approximation to the solution. The coefficients of the series are determined by a collocation technique used on a set of boundary nodes. These coefficients and the surface boundary nodes are updated through a time marching algorithm. Linear/non-linear 3D sloshing problems are solved in both rectangular and cylindrical basins. It is shown that the method may be used as an effective tool for 3D simulation of tanks with various shapes without the need for a huge number of domain/boundary elements for the discretization. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd
Publication Date: 2012
Journal of Computational Physics (10902716)231(2)pp. 505-527
In this paper, a new simple meshless method is presented for the solution of incompressible inviscid fluid flow problems with moving boundaries. A Lagrangian formulation established on pressure, as a potential equation, is employed. In this method, the approximate solution is expressed by a linear combination of exponential basis functions (EBFs), with complex-valued exponents, satisfying the governing equation. Constant coefficients of the solution series are evaluated through point collocation on the domain boundaries via a complex discrete transformation technique. The numerical solution is performed in a time marching approach using an implicit algorithm. In each time step, the governing equation is solved at the beginning and the end of the step, with the aid of an intermediate geometry. The use of EBFs helps to find boundary velocities with high accuracy leading to a precise geometry updating. The developed Lagrangian meshless algorithm is applied to variety of linear and nonlinear benchmark problems. Non-linear sloshing fluids in rigid rectangular two-dimensional basins are particularly addressed. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.
Publication Date: 2012
Journal of Computational Physics (10902716)231(21)pp. 7255-7273
In this paper exponential basis functions (EBFs) satisfying the governing equations of elastic problems with incompressible materials are introduced. Due to similarity between elasticity problems and steady state fluid problems the bases found for the former problems are used for latter problems. We discuss on using single field form known as displacement/velocity based formulation and also on using a two-field form known as u-p formulation. In the first formulation we find the pressure bases through performing a limit analysis using a fictitious bulk modulus while in the second formulation the bases are found directly by considering the pressure as a separate variable. In the second formulation we directly apply the condition of incompressibility. It is shown that both formulations yield identical bases meaning that the first one may be used in a standard approach. However, it is also shown that when the incompressibility condition is applied by a Laplacian of pressure in the second formulation, some additional spurious EBFs may be obtained. Having defined appropriate bases, we follow the solution strategy recently introduced by the authors for other engineering problems. Some well-known benchmark problems are solved to show the capabilities of the method. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.
In this paper, exponential basis functions (EBFs) are used in a boundary collocation style to solve elasticity and steady Navier-Stokes equations in problems with fully incompressible materials. In the presented method, the approximate solution of the standard form of elasticity and Navier-Stokes equations is expressed by a linear combination of EBFs with complex-valued exponents multiplied by polynomials. Constant coefficients of the solution series are evaluated through a point collocation method on the domain boundaries via a complex discrete transformation technique. With these basis functions, the standard equations can be solved with Poisson's ratio equals to 0.5. Furthermore, Pressure basis functions can be straightforwardly evaluated by calculating the limit of bulk modulus multiplied by volumetric strain when Poisson's ratio approaches to 0.5. Some benchmark problems have been solved to show the capabilities of the method. © 2010 Civil-Comp Press.
