Experimental and Numerical Study on the Protective Behavior of Weldox 900 E Steel Plates Impacted by Blunt-Nosed Projectiles

To demonstrate the importance of incorporating Lode angle into fracture criterion in predicting the penetration resistance of high-strength steel plates, ballistic tests of blunt-nosed projectiles with a diameter of 5.95 mm impacted 4 mm thick Weldox 900 E steel plates were conducted. Impacting velocity range was 136.63~381.42 m/s. The fracture behavior and the ballistic limit velocities (BLVs) were obtained by fitting the initial-residual velocities of the projectiles. Subsequently, axisymmetric finite element (FE) models parallel to the tests were built by using Abaqus/Explicit software, and the Lode-independent Johnson–Cook (JC) and the Lode-dependent ASCE fracture criterion were incorporated into the finite element model for numerical simulation. Meanwhile, to verify the sensitivity of the mesh size in the numerical simulation, different mesh sizes were used in the shear plug area of the target. It can be found that Weldox 900 E steel has obvious mesh size sensitivity by comparing the experimental results and numerical simulation, and the JC fracture criterion and the ASCE fracture criterion predicted similar BLV for the same mesh size.

Analysis on Dynamic Characteristics and Seismic Response of Wooden Structure of South Gate Building in Jiangzhang Town

In order to study the seismic performance of ancient wooden structures with single eaves and beam lifting in China, the finite element model of the upper floor of the south gate of Jiangzhang town in Shanxi Province was established by using ANSYS. Through modal analysis, the main frequencies and modes of the south gate of Jiangduan were obtained. Through the seismic response analysis of the south gate tower model, the displacement and acceleration response curves of the top nodes of the outer eaves column, golden column and through column under various working conditions of the South gate tower are obtained. The results show that the first and second order frequencies of the South Gate tower model are 1.830Hz and 1.855Hz, and the first two order modes are mainly transitional. With the increase of seismic excitation, the displacement and acceleration response of the top joints of the outer eave column, golden column and through column increase.

Research on Mechanical Response of Pavement Structure to Differential Settlement of Subgrade on Highway Widening

Based on the widening project of Ri-Lan highway in China, the finite element model is established by PLAXIS. By applying differential settlement at the bottom of the pavement, the mechanical response of the pavement structure is analysed. Finally, the differential settlement control standard indicated by crack strength is proposed. The results show that, under the effect of differential settlement, within about 4 cm of old pavement surface and upper base bear tensile stress, the base first reaches the failure strength. Under 4 cm of the old pavement surface, the subbase first reaches the failure strength. The differential settlement control standard of the pavement structure is determined by the splitting strength of the material, and we, respectively, control the differential settlement of less than 23.4 mm, where the corresponding cross-slope rate is 0.33%, and below 75.2 mm, where the corresponding cross-slope rate is 0.54%. It could support practical engineering applications.

Evaluation of Machine Learning Methods for Monitoring the Health of Guyed Towers

This paper presents the development of a methodology to detect and evaluate faults in cable-stayed towers, which are part of the infrastructure of Brazil’s interconnected electrical system. The proposed method increases system reliability and minimizes the risk of service failure and tower collapse through the introduction of predictive maintenance methods based on artificial intelligence, which will ultimately benefit the end consumer. The proposed signal processing and interpretation methods are based on a machine learning approach, where the tower vibration is acquired from accelerometers that measure the dynamic response caused by the effects of the environment on the towers through wind and weather conditions. Data-based models were developed to obtain a representation of health degradation, which is primarily based on the finite element model of the tower, subjected to wind excitation. This representation is also based on measurements using a mockup tower with different types of provoked degradation that was subjected to ambient changes in the laboratory. The sensor signals are preprocessed and submitted to an autoencoder neural network to minimize the dimensionality of the resources involved, being analyzed by a classifier, based on a Softmax configuration. The results of the proposed configuration indicate the possibility of early failure detection and evolution evaluation, providing an effective failure detection and monitoring system.

Finite element simulation and experimental investigation on the effect of temperature on pseudoelastic behavior of perforated Ni–Ti shape memory alloy strips

In the present study, the temperature-dependent pseudoelastic behavior of shape memory alloy sheets is studied experimentally and by finite element modeling. For this purpose, temperature-dependent mechanical properties for Ni-Ti alloy materials are first obtained by using direct tensile and three-point bending experiments at 23, 50, and 80 °C temperatures, respectively. The structure of these materials is examined at different temperatures using SEM images and the XRD test. Furthermore, using the finite element model, the pseudoelastic behavior and the effect of temperature on the residual deflection of the prose-shape memory strips with a circular hole under three-point bending loads are studied. After validating the results of the finite element model with the results of experimental tests, the effects of various parameters such as the diameter and number of holes on residual deformation and residual strains are investigated. The results show that with increasing temperature, the mechanical properties including the tensile strength, Young's modulus, yield stress, and flexural strength of SMA strips increase significantly. For solid strips, although increasing the temperature increases the maximum flexural force, in contrast, it reduces the flexural stiffness. In solid strips, flexural stiffness decreases by 5.5% with increasing temperature from 23 °C to 80 °C.

Multi-Response Optimisation of Automotive Door Using Grey Relational Analysis with Entropy Weights

Tail-welded blanks (TWBs) are widely used in automotive bodies to improve structural performance and reduce weight. The stiffness and modal lightweight design optimisation of TWBs for automotive doors was performed in this study. The finite element model was validated through physical experiments. An L27 (312) Taguchi orthogonal array was used to collect the sample points. The multi-objective optimisation problem was transformed into a single-objective optimisation problem based on the grey relational degree. The optimal combination of structural design parameters was obtained for a tail-welded door using the proposed method; the weight of the door structure was reduced by 2.83 kg. The proposed optimisation method has fewer iterations and a lower computational cost, enabling the design of lightweight TWBs.

A STUDY ON FEMU: INFLUENCE OF SELECTION OF EXPERIMENTS ON RESULTS FOR ABS-M30 MATERIAL

This paper examines the effect of experiments used to identify material parameters of a more complex material model (12 material parameters). The set of experiments includes tensile tests and indentation tests with different loading conditions at 4 different temperatures (a total of 14 experiments) for the ABS-M30 material. The behaviour of the material was simulated using Anand's material model, and the Finite Element Model Updating approach was used to identify the material parameters. The parameters are solved for 3 variants: identification from indentation tests, identification from tensile tests, identification from all experiments. For the first two variants, the remaining experiments are used to verify. Finally, all results are compared.

Investigation on the Performance of Partial Penetration Welds in Multicell Concrete Filled Steel Tubes

This paper presents an experimental and analytical investigation on the performance of partial penetration welds used to adjoin steel plates in irregular shaped multicell concrete filled steel tubes. The experimental program of this study is designed based on an actual implementation of such members as mega columns in a super high rise building in China. A total of six specimens are designed with different plate arrangements for the purpose of testing the performance of the partial penetration welds at different locations of the specimen. The designed specimens are tested under different load procedures and directions; this is achieved by placing them in vertical and slantwise manners between two loading plates which impose monotonic and cyclic actions. The failure conditions of each of the tested specimens are presented and discussed in detail and are based on the conclusions drawn from the experimental observations; the partial penetration weld at the corner of the tested specimens is found to be the most vulnerable. To facilitate large scale analysis, a finite element model constructed by the finite element analysis program ABAQUS is verified against experimental results. The evaluation of the stress at the partial penetration welded corner is carried out following an empirical procedure, which is adopted due to the complexity of the problem domain. The adopted procedure consists of two steps: the first one is to initially evaluate the stress based on an existing method in the literature, and the second one is to fit the results of the initial evaluation with the finite element model results based on parametric and regression analysis. After performing regression analysis, a formula to predict the weld stress is concluded, and the results of the proposed equation are found to be satisfactory when compared with the finite element model results.

Study on Influence of Ballast Spring Modulus on Track Structure Based on Finite Element Method

The finite element method is used to simulate the orbital structure, and the finite element model of "rail - sleepers - ballast" can be established. The model of the elastic modulus of different ballast and sleeper is calculated, and the rail displacement, the sleeper stress and the fastening force are deduced. The results show that the elastic modulus of the ballast can be increased to reduce the displacement of the rail and the supporting force of the fastener, but the stress of the sleeper will be increased. When the modulus of elasticity increases, the rail displacement, small.

Interaction Assessment of Diagonally-Spaced Identical Corrosion Defects and Fully-Aligned Unequal-Sized Corrosion Defects Under Combined Loads

In this study, the interaction effects of closely-spaced corrosion defects on the burst capacity of oil and gas pipelines under combined internal pressure and longitudinal compression are investigated by using parametric three-dimensional elasto-plastic finite element analyses. Full-scale burst tests reported in the literature are used to validate the finite element model. It is observed that the interaction effects of diagonally-spaced defects on the burst capacity is strongly related to the overlapping portion of the defect width or circumferential spacing between the two defects. The analysis results indicate that the strongest interaction between diagonally-spaced defects under combined loads occurs if the defects have zero circumferential separation. The interaction weakens as the defects are more and more overlapped or separated circumferentially. It is also observed that the interaction effect associated with longitudinally- or circumferentially-aligned, unequal-sized corrosion defects is negligible under the internal pressure only or combined loads.