Condition Assessment of Installed Timber Piles by Dispersive Wave Propagation

Author(s):  
Shunyi Chen ◽  
Y. Richard Kim

Timber piles are widely used for supporting bridges, piers, wharves, and other marine structures. As they age, it becomes critical that their in situ condition be assessed so their remaining service life can be evaluated. Current inspection methods involving visual examinations and sounding tests are unable to quantitatively disclose a pile's degree of deterioration, depth of penetration, or remaining load-bearing capacity. Years of exposure to wood-decomposing fungi and weathering may have substantially decreased a pile's effective cross-sectional area, so that the pile can no longer function as originally intended. A study was conducted in which nondestructive dispersive wave propagation tests were applied to both laboratory pile models and field timber piles. The laboratory models consisted of acrylic cylinders having different wall thicknesses to simulate various levels of internal deterioration and timber posts with drilled holes to simulate damage created by marine borers. Seven installed and two uninstalled field timber piles were tested. Laboratory experiments indicated that the dispersive wave propagation test is an excellent means for evaluating the degree of hollowness and borer damage. Field experiments further verified the applicability of the dispersive wave propagation in finding the condition of the installed timber piles. The approaches found to be promising for the condition assessment were (a) phase velocity comparison between the first pass and the return pass and (b) wave speed versus test location. The general trend of the dispersion field in condition assessment is the higher the wave speed, the better the condition.

2015 ◽  
Vol 770 ◽  
pp. 156-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricio Winckler ◽  
Philip L.-F. Liu

A cross-sectionally averaged one-dimensional long-wave model is developed. Three-dimensional equations of motion for inviscid and incompressible fluid are first integrated over a channel cross-section. To express the resulting one-dimensional equations in terms of the cross-sectional-averaged longitudinal velocity and spanwise-averaged free-surface elevation, the characteristic depth and width of the channel cross-section are assumed to be smaller than the typical wavelength, resulting in Boussinesq-type equations. Viscous effects are also considered. The new model is, therefore, adequate for describing weakly nonlinear and weakly dispersive wave propagation along a non-uniform channel with arbitrary cross-section. More specifically, the new model has the following new properties: (i) the arbitrary channel cross-section can be asymmetric with respect to the direction of wave propagation, (ii) the channel cross-section can change appreciably within a wavelength, (iii) the effects of viscosity inside the bottom boundary layer can be considered, and (iv) the three-dimensional flow features can be recovered from the perturbation solutions. Analytical and numerical examples for uniform channels, channels where the cross-sectional geometry changes slowly and channels where the depth and width variation is appreciable within the wavelength scale are discussed to illustrate the validity and capability of the present model. With the consideration of viscous boundary layer effects, the present theory agrees reasonably well with experimental results presented by Chang et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 95, 1979, pp. 401–414) for converging/diverging channels and those of Liu et al. (Coast. Engng, vol. 53, 2006, pp. 181–190) for a uniform channel with a sloping beach. The numerical results for a solitary wave propagating in a channel where the width variation is appreciable within a wavelength are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chennakesava Kadapa

AbstractThis paper presents a novel semi-implicit scheme for elastodynamics and wave propagation problems in nearly and truly incompressible material models. The proposed methodology is based on the efficient computation of the Schur complement for the mixed displacement-pressure formulation using a lumped mass matrix for the displacement field. By treating the deviatoric stress explicitly and the pressure field implicitly, the critical time step is made to be limited by shear wave speed rather than the bulk wave speed. The convergence of the proposed scheme is demonstrated by computing error norms for the recently proposed LBB-stable BT2/BT1 element. Using the numerical examples modelled with nearly and truly incompressible Neo-Hookean and Ogden material models, it is demonstrated that the proposed semi-implicit scheme yields significant computational benefits over the fully explicit and the fully implicit schemes for finite strain elastodynamics simulations involving incompressible materials. Finally, the applicability of the proposed scheme for wave propagation problems in nearly and truly incompressible material models is illustrated.


2006 ◽  
Vol 100 (2) ◽  
pp. 384-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolai Aljuri ◽  
Jose G. Venegas ◽  
Lutz Freitag

To test the hypothesis that peak expiratory flow is determined by the wave-speed-limiting mechanism, we studied the time dependency of the trachea and its effects on flow limitation. For this purpose, we assessed the relationship between transmural pressure and cross-sectional area [the tube law (TL)] of six excised human tracheae under controlled conditions of static (no flow) and forced expiratory flow. We found that TLs of isolated human tracheae followed quite well the mathematical representation proposed by Shapiro (Shapiro AH. J Biomech Eng 99: 126–147, 1977) for elastic tubes. Furthermore, we found that the TL measured at the onset of forced expiratory flow was significantly stiffer than the static TL. As a result, the stiffer TL measured at the onset of forced expiratory flow predicted theoretical maximal expiratory flows far greater than those predicted by the more compliant static TL, which in all cases studied failed to explain peak expiratory flows measured at the onset of forced expiration. We conclude that the observed viscoelasticity of the tracheal walls can account for the measured differences between maximal and “supramaximal” expiratory flows seen at the onset of forced expiration.


1986 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 701-705 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. T. Yen ◽  
Y. C. Fung ◽  
H. H. Ho ◽  
G. Butterman

The speed of stress waves in the lung parenchyma was investigated to understand why, among all internal organs, the lung is the most easily injured when an animal is subjected to an impact loading. The speed of the sound is much less in the lung than that in other organs. To analyze the dynamic response of the lung to impact loading, it is necessary to know the speed of internal wave propagation. Excised lungs of the rabbit and the goat were impacted with water jet at dynamic pressure in the range of 7–35 kPa (1–5 psi) and surface velocity of 1–15 m/s. The stress wave was measured by pressure transducer. The distance between the point of impact and the sensor at another point on the far side of the lung and the transit time of the stress wave were measured. The wave speed in the goat lung was found to vary from 31.4 to 64.7 m/s when the transpulmonary pressure Pa-Ppl was varied from 0 to 20 cmH2O where Pa represents airway pressure and Ppl represents pleural pressure. In rabbit lung the wave speed varied from 16.5 to 36.9 m/s when Pa-Ppl was varied from 0 to 16 cmH2O. Using measured values of the bulk modulus, shear modulus, and density of the parenchyma, reasonable agreement between theoretical and experimental wave speeds were obtained.


BioResources ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1171-1186
Author(s):  
Xin Li ◽  
Wei Qian ◽  
Liting Cheng ◽  
Lihong Chang

Based on the experimental idea of reverse simulation, a quantitative area of hole was excavated at the sectional center of a wood specimen. The excavation area was 1/32S, 1/16S, 1/8S, 1/4S, and 1/2S (where S represents cross-sectional area of the complete specimen) and stress wave nondestructive testing of six sensors was performed. The stress wave propagation paths were statistically summarized to obtain the stress wave propagation velocity (Va) for two adjacent sensors, the stress wave propagation velocity (Vb) for two separated sensors, and the stress wave propagation velocity (Vc) for two opposite sensors. Furthermore, by analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of grey relation and stepwise discriminant model when both of them were used alone, a coupling model generated from them was established to dispose the test data. The attenuation ratios Ψa, Ψb, and Ψc of stress wave under three propagation paths and their relation ratios Va/Vb, Vb/Vc, and Va/Vc, a total of six groups of measured data, were selected as discriminant factors for the hole area grade of the wood specimen. The verification results showed that the discriminant accuracy of the coupling model was 100%, and it was concluded that the attenuation ratio (Ψb) of the stress wave propagation velocity for two separated sensors had the strongest discriminant ability against cross-sectional area of the specimen.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathon Blank ◽  
Darryl Thelen ◽  
Matthew S. Allen ◽  
Joshua Roth

The use of shear wave propagation to noninvasively gauge material properties and loading in tendons and ligaments is a growing area of interest in biomechanics. Prior models and experiments suggest that shear wave speed primarily depends on the apparent shear modulus (i.e., shear modulus accounting for contributions from all constituents) at low loads, and then increases with axial stress when axially loaded. However, differences in the magnitudes of shear wave speeds between ligaments and tendons, which have different substructures, suggest that the tissue’s composition and fiber alignment may also affect shear wave propagation. Accordingly, the objectives of this study were to (1) characterize changes in the apparent shear modulus induced by variations in constitutive properties and fiber alignment, and (2) determine the sensitivity of the shear wave speed-stress relationship to variations in constitutive properties and fiber alignment. To enable systematic variations of both constitutive properties and fiber alignment, we developed a finite element model that represented an isotropic ground matrix with an embedded fiber distribution. Using this model, we performed dynamic simulations of shear wave propagation at axial strains from 0% to 10%. We characterized the shear wave speed-stress relationship using a simple linear regression between shear wave speed squared and axial stress, which is based on an analytical relationship derived from a tensioned beam model. We found that predicted shear wave speeds were both in-range with shear wave speeds in previous in vivo and ex vivo studies, and strongly correlated with the axial stress (R2 = 0.99). The slope of the squared shear wave speed-axial stress relationship was highly sensitive to changes in tissue density. Both the intercept of this relationship and the apparent shear modulus were sensitive to both the shear modulus of the ground matrix and the stiffness of the fibers’ toe-region when the fibers were less well-aligned to the loading direction. We also determined that the tensioned beam model overpredicted the axial tissue stress with increasing load when the model had less well-aligned fibers. This indicates that the shear wave speed increases likely in response to a load-dependent increase in the apparent shear modulus. Our findings suggest that researchers may need to consider both the material and structural properties (i.e., fiber alignment) of tendon and ligament when measuring shear wave speeds in pathological tissues or tissues with less well-aligned fibers.


1964 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 409-416
Author(s):  
H. Deresiewicz ◽  
J. T. Rice

abstract The passage of plane body waves across a plane interface from one to another, contiguous, porous aggregate is examined, with particular attention paid to motions involving wave lengths large in comparison with cross-sectional pore dimensions. The results are obtained for a rather general set of boundary conditions which take account of possible resistance to flow due to partial nonalignment of pores at the interface. It is found that when certain conditions of equality of material constants for the two media are met one or more of the reflected and transmitted waves are extinguished.


Agriculture ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Castellano ◽  
Antonella Di Palma ◽  
Giacinto Germinara ◽  
Marco Lippolis ◽  
Giuseppe Starace ◽  
...  

The effectiveness of experimental nets in preventing the access of adult meadow spittlebug Philaenus spumarius L., the main vector of Xylella fastidiosa Wells et al. subspecies pauca, sequence type (ST) 53, in olive tree nurseries and orchards was evaluated. To optimize the net design, mesh size, kind of fabric, thread typology, and radiometric properties, six nets with different mesh sizes and kinds of fabric were evaluated in laboratory and in field experiments. Laboratory bioassays evaluating the capability of adult spittlebugs to pass through nets with different mesh sizes (1.2, 1.8, 2.4 mm) showed that all nets with a mesh size equal to or lower than 2.4 mm prevented insect crossing. These results were confirmed in field conditions using an experimental net box apparatus. Further laboratory tests showed a positive correlation between porosity and radiometric properties of the nets. Three prototypes of thermally stabilized flat woven nets made of circular cross-sectional yarns, knitted net with strips, and knitted nets made of yarns were tested after the evaluation of their potential usability in terms of porosity stability. The knitted net features were found to be the most suitable. The net transmissivity of the total and direct component of solar radiation in the photosynthetically active radiation and the infrared ranges increased with the net porosity. A prism-shaped wooden frame with a triangular base covered with the knitted net with a 2.4 mm mesh confirmed the insect’s capability of reaching considerable heights, up to 2.85 m. Hence, based on our results, the monowire knitted net with a 2.4 mm mesh can be used in open field nursery and olive orchards to prevent the access of P. spumarius adults and to shield the openings of greenhouse nurseries.


Author(s):  
Mary L. Hughes ◽  
C. Allen Ross ◽  
Voncile L. Ashley

The Air Force has been interested for some time in the development of computer codes that accurately predict the penetrator trajectory created when munitions are fired into concrete and geomaterial targets, as well as the resulting depth of penetration. Recent work has focused on experimental research performed to determine quasistatic, dynamic, unconfined and confined material properties for development of an elastic/viscoplastic constitutive equation. This constitutive equation has shown some promise in predicting stress and strains but lacks a consistent damage parameter to predict damage or fractures exhibited by the target material during experimental impact tests. Current damage level predictors that employ a scalar damage parameter are not sufficient to predict the directional damage or fracture that occurs in simple uniaxial compression tests of concrete and geomaterials. Tensorial or directional damage parameters coupled with constitutive relations are necessary for better understanding and accurate prediction of damage exhibited when munitions impact concrete and geomaterials. The primary objective of the study described herein was to identify, quantify and characterize damage parameters associated with certain constitutive responses of cementitious and geologic materials. To that end, longitudinal wave speed and biaxial strain data were collected simultaneously on a series of grout cubes as they were being loaded to failure in uniaxial compression. The results of these tests, and a comparison to existing related data [1, 2] are presented.


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