International Journal of Structural Stability and Dynamics

The sliding base (SB) technique is an efficient and economical approach to mitigating seismic damage of low-rise buildings in rural areas. Based on the previous work on single-story SB structures, this study investigates the earthquake forces acting on multistory SB structures. Response history analyses of SB structures subjected to three-component earthquake excitations were performed. The computed results indicate that the increase in the number of stories tends to reduce the mean value of the peak base shear but has little influence on the coefficient of variation of the peak base shear. The peak story shears of a multistory SB structure subjected to an earthquake ground motion are reached at different time instants for different stories. The distributions of the equivalent lateral forces for SB structures with different story numbers follow the same trend, and the equivalent lateral forces tend to concentrate at the upper floors as the normalized peak ground acceleration and mass ratio increase. Simplified equations for computing the distribution of equivalent lateral forces were developed for design purposes.

The focus of this paper is to examine the dynamic factor of the suburban railway by utilizing the random vibration approach. Breaking through the previous methods of relying on huge amounts of measured data, herein, the dynamic factor essentially results from two major parts: the dynamic effect caused by moving train loads and that generated by track irregularity, which has clear physical significance. As the internal excitation of the vehicle–bridge system, track irregularity has strong randomness. Based on the dimension reduction method, the spatial domain power spectral density (PSD) of the track irregularity is transformed into the time-domain PSD. Therefore, the randomness of the random process is reduced by exploiting the constraint form of a random function, and then, the typical samples of the track irregularity considering randomness are constructed. Using the vehicle–bridge coupled vibration model, the standard deviation of the dynamic factor is evaluated accounting for the random track irregularity and 99.7% guarantee rate. Finally, the impact coefficient of the track irregularity on the bridge is methodically obtained. The sensitivity of the standard deviation of the dynamic factor to vehicle speed and bridge frequency is analyzed. The given solution methodology can fully take into account the randomness of the track irregularity. Thereby, it provides the dynamic factor formulas as a reference for the dynamic performance evaluation of suburban railway bridges and possible revision of current design specifications.

This paper proposed a novel amplifying damping transfer system (ADTS) as a new damping enhancement solution for high-rise structures like wind turbines. The proposed ADTS can transfer the upper rotation of turbine tower to its bottom with damping amplification mechanism. Hence, viscous damper can be installed on wind turbines in a very convenient and efficient way. The dynamic characteristics of wind turbines equipped with ADTS were parametrically investigated concerning the influence of the damping, stiffness, and position of the ADTS based on complex frequency analysis. It was found that each mode has a maximum damping ratio, which is affected by the ADTS stiffness and position. The optimal ADTS position of the first mode is about 0.7 H (turbine height), and the optimal positions of the second mode are at 0.3 H and 0.86 H. The proposed ADTS considerably attenuated both drift and acceleration responses of wind turbines caused by winds and earthquakes. For example, as compared to the optimized tuned mass damper, ADTS further decreases the displacement (acceleration) of wind turbine tower by about 22% (38%).

The field load test is a direct and effective method for evaluating the performance of bridge structures. However, the existing bridge static load tests on site are costly, inefficient, and obstruct traffic; moreover, improper loading may also cause some damage to the bridge structure. This paper proposes a random model update method based on bridge dynamic load tests and the Bayesian inference as an alternative to the static load test. The Gaussian process model was used instead of the finite element model to reduce the cost of model calculation. Furthermore, choose the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method based on delay rejection adaptive Metropolis algorithm for Bayesian inference to improve the speed of the Bayesian method inferring the posterior probability density of updated parameters. First, the parameters to be updated for the bridge structure analysis model were determined based on the global sensitivity analysis method. Second, a uniform design sampling method was used to establish the Gaussian process optimization model to update the random model of the bridge structure. Finally, a reinforced concrete truss arch bridge was used to verify the correctness of the static load results of the bridge predicted by the random model update method based on dynamic load testing and Bayesian inference. The results show that the predicted results of the bridge static load test based on the dynamic load test and Bayesian reasoning method have an excellent agreement with the measured results, and this method can effectively overcome the adverse effects of the existing bridge static load test.

Affected by the near-fault pulse-like ground motions, the tunnels emerged in adverse geology, especially in an inhomogeneous strata are more vulnerable. However, the quantitative index effects on tunnel response during pulse identification are unclear and the propagation features of the near-fault pulse-like waves in a soft soil interlayer site are seldom revealed. In view of this, an improved energy-based pulse identification was used in this study to quantitatively extract the potential pulse energies emerged in velocity time-histories of ground motions. Subsequently, a series of numerical simulations were carried out to consider the critical parameters of soft soil layer and input ground motions. Finally, the dynamic response of the tunnel and interaction differences of soil and tunnel subjected to three types of ground motions were revealed. The result showed that the near-fault pulse-like ground motions pose a commonly severe damage to the tunnel, especially in the high pulse period ground motions based on the energy-based pulse identification method. The pulse energy of ground motions is an effective pulse index to analyze the seismic effects on tunnel when pulse periods of two different ground motions are uniform, and the index affects the tunnel in dynamic internal forces. More importantly, the existence of soft soil layer severely affects the propagation of input ground motions. At frequency domain, the ground response increases at high frequency component in the near-fault pulse-like ground motion, while the response shows a decreasing at low frequency component.

Straightforward analytical free vibration solutions of non-Lévy-type open cylindrical shells are obtained in this study by the finite integral transform method, which was not achieved by conventional semi-inverse methods. Three double finite integral transforms are imposed on the high-order partial differential equations (PDEs) for the problems, with some boundary conditions input, by which the relations between the transformed quantities and specific unknowns are given. Substituting the corresponding inverse transforms into the other boundary conditions provides systems of linear algebraic equations for determining the final analytical solutions. Comprehensive benchmark results for representative open cylindrical shells under different boundary conditions are shown. The results are well verified by other solution methods. With the present solutions, the effects of geometric parameters and boundary conditions on the vibration behaviors are quantitatively revealed by a parametric study. Due to its rigorous and straightforward solution procedure, this study presents a solid easy-to-implement way to explore new analytical solutions of similar problems.

Bio-inspired helicoidal carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite (CFRPC) laminates stacked with Bouligand configurations are considered to own great potential in engineering fields. The optimization design of helicoidal layups with single-form and combination-form of linear and nonlinear helicoidal arrangements is carried out using ABAQUS and Isight. Two single-objective optimizations and one multi-objective optimization of maximum fundamental frequency and the difference among the first four adjacent vibration frequencies of helicoidal CFRPC laminated plates are performed and the nonlinear free vibration characteristics of optimal ones are investigated for the first time. Numerical studies are carried out for 16-ply symmetrical rectangular helicoidal laminated plates under two different boundary conditions compared with quasi-isotropic counterparts. The results show that the combination-form helicoidal layup sequences can improve the linear vibration characteristics of CFRPC laminated plates. The plates stacked with the combination form of nonlinear Fibonacci and linear patterns are expected to provide better vibration characteristics.

The nonlinear vibration response of rectangular plates made of functionally graded porous materials (FGPs) induced by hygrothermal loading is investigated in this article using a numerical approach. The effect of elastic foundation on the vibrations is taken into account according to the Winkler–Pasternak model. Hygroscopic stresses produced due to nonlinear rise in moisture concentration are also considered. The temperature-dependent material properties of plate are computed based on the modified Voigt’s rule of mixture and Touloukian experiments for even and uneven distribution patterns of porosity. Within the framework of the first-order shear deformation plate theory and von-Kármán nonlinearity, Hamilton’s principle is utilized in order to derive the equations of motions. To achieve the temporal evolution of maximum lateral deflection of hygrothermally-induced plates, the generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) and Newmark integration methods are employed. Selected numerical results are presented to study the influences of temperature distribution, porosity volume fraction, moisture concentration, geometrical parameters, elastic foundation parameters and FG index on the geometrically nonlinear vibrations of FG porous plates with various boundary conditions.

Acoustic black hole (ABH) with the power-law profile has the advantages of strong designability and vibration suppression. This study provides a novel virtual spring energy method (VEM) to solve the vibration characteristics of a plate embedded or attached with acoustic black hole. Firstly, the virtual springs in this study can deal with boundary conditions, continuity conditions, and periodic conditions. After solving the kinetic and potential energy of a plate cell embedded with acoustic black hole, the periodic structure’s kinetic and potential energy need not be calculated repeatedly. The method is verified by the finite element method. Secondly, to overcome the stiffness reduction owing to the varying thickness of ABH in the primary bearing structure, a composite ABH structure called “Plate–ABH” is proposed, in which a damping layer is designed with an ABH profile and attached to the primary plate structure. The two layers connect each other through the virtual springs. The vibration characteristics of the composite ABH plate are given by employing the VEM. The composite ABH structure shows strong damping ability and lighter weight compared with a plate attached with the uniform thickness damping layer. Plate–ABH can be effectively used in the engineering of vibration reduction.

Precast segmental beams with prestressed external tendons have become increasingly common in bridge constructions owing to the merits of high-quality control and fast onsite construction with minimum environmental impact. Due to the nonlinear characteristics of the dynamic behavior of these segmental beams associated to the joint opening, the traditional condition monitoring and damage assessment methods based on vibration parameters either in time or frequency domain using the linear theory are unsuitable. To overcome this challenge, this paper proposes a damage assessment method through analyzing nonlinear structural dynamic responses for monitoring the conditions of segmental beams with different joint types and prestressed external tendons. Two damage indices are proposed to identify the occurrence of damage and to qualitatively indicate the damage severity. In the proposed approach, the measured dynamic responses of the segmental concrete beams under hammer impact are first adaptively decomposed into a finite number of mono-components by using variational mode decomposition (VMD) technique. Then, the instantaneous frequencies of the decomposed mono-components from the dynamic responses are obtained by conducting the Hilbert transform. Two damage indicators are defined for the damage assessment and for the identification of the damage location, respectively. Three four-span segmental beams with different types of joints (i.e. dry joints or epoxy joints) and prestressing tendon types (i.e. steel and carbon fiber reinforced polymer tendons) were constructed and tested under five loading levels with different damage severities. The feasibility and accuracy of the proposed approach are verified by comparing the identification results with the secant and initial stiffness extracted from the load–deflection curves at different loading levels. The effectiveness of these two damage indicators is also validated with the structural conditions observed in the tests. The results show that the proposed approach can successfully identify damage in segmental concrete beams.

Presented herein is an investigation for the nonlinear vibration and stability analysis of rotating functionally graded (FG) piezoelectric nanobeams based on the nonlocal strain gradient theory. The present model can be regarded as a simplified version for the rotating nanowire of biomechanical nanogenerators. The Hamilton principle is used to derive nonlinear equations of motion and their related boundary conditions, which are then discretized to form a set of algebraic equations. Accordingly, the nonlinear vibration frequencies and buckling loads of the nanobeams can be determined by an iterative method. A parametric study of rotational velocity, nonlocal parameter, material length parameter, power-law index, and electrostatic voltage on the dynamic stability behavior of such nanobeams is also presented. In the cantilever case, increasing the nonlocal parameter and material length parameter can result in a stiffness-hardening effect that is unaffected by rotational velocity and the material length parameter to nonlocal parameter ratio. Yet, this has not been reported previously. More importantly, incorporating the effect of geometric nonlinearity on the dynamic responses and stability results of the nanobeams is indispensable. In particular, new observations for the coupling effect of vibration amplitude and power-law index on the electric potential effect are useful for the design of rotating microelectromechanical devices.

This study aims to examine the dynamic characteristics of a sandwich composite nanoplate when exposed to a nano damper–spring–mass stimulator. The composite structure consists of a core layer composed of magnetostrictive material, accompanied by upper and lower facesheets made of functionally graded material (FGM). Moreover, the proposed framework is designed to be based on a visco-Pasternak medium. The governing equations of nanoplates are derived using the higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT) and Hamilton’s principle. In the end, Navier’s solution is utilized to solve partial differential equations, while the Laplace transform is employed for solving ordinary differential equations. Subsequently, a thorough investigation is conducted with a primary focus on examining the impact of different parameters on the dynamic response of the continuous system. The findings indicate that the incorporation of the damper–spring–mass system into the nanoplate has a notable impact on its natural frequency. The results can serve as reference points for the effective development of nanosensors, nanoresonators, drug delivery systems, and biosensors.

The fourth-order governing equation of Euler-Bernoulli beams necessitates the employment of C¹ Hermite shape functions in finite element analysis. However, unlike the C⁰ finite element shape functions that can be easily formulated as Lagrangian polynomials in a unified manner, the Hermite shape functions of Euler-Bernoulli beam elements are usually constructed case by case. In this work, a simple and unified meshfree path is proposed to develop arbitrary order Hermite shape functions of Euler-Bernoulli beam elements. This approach is realized by proving that the Hermite reproducing kernel meshfree shape functions degenerate to the interpolatory Hermite finite element shape functions under a proper choice of support sizes. The proposed approach provides an explicit formalism for Hermite finite element shape functions, which enables an easy construction of arbitrary order Hermite beam elements. Accordingly, in addition to the conventional cubic Hermite beam elements, explicit shape functions, mass and stiffness matrices for quintic and septic Hermite beam elements are presented. Meanwhile, the frequency errors and general higher order mass matrix formulation for these Hermite beam elements are elaborated as well. These theoretical results are consistently demonstrated by numerical examples with respect to both static and free vibration analysis.