Synchronized Assessment of Bridge Structural Damage and Moving Force via Truncated Load Shape Function

Moving load and structural damage assessment has always been a crucial topic in bridge health monitoring, as it helps analyze the daily operating status of bridges and provides fundamental information for bridge safety evaluation. However, most studies and research consider these issues as two separate problems. In practice, unknown moving loads and damage usually coexist and influence the bridge vibration synergically. This paper proposes an innovative synchronized assessment method that determines structural damages and moving forces simultaneously. The method firstly improves the virtual distortion method, which shifts the structural damage into external virtual forces and hence transforms the damage assessment as well as the moving force identification to a multi-force reconstruction problem. Secondly, a truncated load shape function (TLSF) technique is developed to solve the forces in the time domain. As the technique smoothens the pulse function via a limited number of TLSF, the singularity and dimension of the system matrix in the force reconstruction is largely reduced. A continuous beam and a three-dimensional truss bridge are simulated as examples. Case studies show that the method can effectively identify various speeds and numbers of moving loads, as well as different levels of structural damages. The calculation efficiency and robustness to white noise are also impressive.

Study of flexural wave propagation through a cable stayed beam subjected to a moving load

A physical perspective of the propagation and attenuation of flexural waves is presented in this paper for the dynamic behaviors of cable stayed beams subjected to a moving load. Based on the method of reverberation-ray matrix (MRRM), the waveform solutions of the wave equations of a simplified beam-cable system subjected to a moving load (hereinafter referred to as a beam-cable system) are given, and the theory is verified by a numerical example. The dynamic response of cable stayed beams is decomposed into nine kinds of flexural waves, including traveling waves, near-field waves, and nondispersive waves, according to the wavenumber characteristics. Numerical examples are analyzed to demonstrate the propagation characteristics of flexural waves through cable stayed beams. Numerical results show that the flexural waves in the cable stayed beams are mainly low-frequency waves whose frequencies are less than 3 times the structural fundamental frequency, which can be used to further improve the computational efficiency of response analysis method based on MRRM, and the proportion of high-frequency components increases gradually with increasing structural stiffness. The near-field wave can be transformed into a traveling shear wave when its frequency is larger than the critical frequency, which decreases with increasing radius of gyration and decreasing elastic modulus of the beam. With the increase in the radius of gyration and the elastic modulus of the beam, the attenuation effect of the near-field wave weakens. The wave velocity and the wave dispersion effect have a positive correlation with the stiffness-related parameters of the beam-cable system. The study of the effect of the beam-cable system parameters on flexural wave propagation characteristics can be applied to achieve a better dynamic design for engineering structures.

A New Moving Kirchhoff-Love Plate Element for Dynamic Analysis of Vehicle-Pavement Interaction

A new moving Kirchhoff-Love plate element is developed in this work to accurately and efficiently calculate the dynamic response of vehicle-pavement interaction. Since the vehicle can only affect a small region nearby, the wide pavement is reduced to a small reduced plate area around the vehicle. The vehicle loads moving along an arbitrary trajectory is considered, and the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method is used here for coordinate conversion. The reduced plate area is spatially discretized using the current moving plate element, where its governing equations are derived using Lagrange's equations. The moving plate element is validated by different plate subjected to moving load cases, where the influences of different factors on reduced plate area length of the RBM model are also investigated. Then a vehicle-pavement interaction case with constant and variable speed is analyzed here. The calculation results from the moving plate element are in good agreement with those from the modal superposition method (MSM), and the calculation time with the moving plate element is only one third of that using the MSM. It is also found that the moving load velocity and ground damping have great influences on reduced plate area length of the RBM. The moving plate element is accurate and more efficient than the MSM in calculating the dynamic response of the vehicle-pavement interaction.

Multiobjective optimization of internal and surface structure of high-speed and heavy-duty brake disc

The brake disc plays a crucial role to keep the stable braking of a high-speed and heavy-duty disc brake. There is always high temperature, brake vibration, and even serious deformation under braking pressure and frictional resistance. To improve brake performance, this paper aims to find new internal and surface structures of the brake disc. An equivalent moving load (EML) topology optimization method for internal structure is proposed. Topography optimization method oriented to displacement and stress control for surface structure is carried out. Multiobjective functions containing thermal-structural coupled rigidity and natural frequency of the brake disc are established in the internal and surface structure optimizations. Internal and surface structures of the brake disc are optimized, and the mechanic properties of the brake disc are improved. Thermal-structural coupling and modal analyses are verified with high-speed and heavy-duty brake working conditions. The results show that new brake disc structures meet the requirements, and the effectiveness of the proposed EML topology optimization and topography optimization methods has been proved.

MODELING THE ACTION OF THE SHOCK-WAVE LOAD ON THE HULLS ELEMENTS OF VEHICLES

To study the effect of shock wave load on the body elements of vehicles, a setting has been developed that takes into account the mobile nature of this load. A specialized parametric finite-element model of the body layout has been created armored-carrier, taking into account the peculiarities of the studied process. The problem of determining the stress-strain state armored-hulls solved in static and dynamic formulation. The space-time distributions of components and characteristics of the stress-strain state of the investigated model armored-carrier of armored hulls are given. The results of research in the used formulations indicate the need to solve the problem in a complete dynamic formulation with account for plastic deformations. This establishes a new methodology for the rational choice of engineering solutions. Keywords: stress-strain state; armored carrier; armored hulls; shock wave; moving load; sample; rational constructive decision

INFLUENCE OF FRICTION IN THE ARMORED FACE CONVEYOR CHAIN ON DYNAMICS AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY

The range of values ​​of the coefficient of resistance to movement of the chain of typical longwall armored face conveyors and the coefficient of inner viscous friction in the chain, both immersed in the moving load and during the idle run of the conveyor, is estimated. The computer model of the conveyor is built as a multi-mass elastic-viscous stretched closed chain without sag with the number of masses n = 200 and one induction drive motor located in the head of the conveyor. Using the constructed model, three-dimensional space-time dynamic characteristics of speeds and forces in the chain of the CP72 longwall armored face conveyor are obtained. Start up to rated speed v≈1 m / s and the working process is simulated with an unloaded conveyor. The spatial form of frictional self-oscillations in the model with distributed parameters is shown. The resonance frequencies and amplitudes of oscillations of the efforts in the circuit and the length of the corresponding spatial waves have been determined. It was found that at the first and second resonance frequencies, self-oscillations are not excited, since the damping effect of the electric drive is quite pronounced in this frequency band. The direct connection of vibration amplitudes with the energy efficiency of the conveyor electric drive is indicated.