A general solution to the material performance index for bending strength design

This paper presents a general solution to the material performance index for the bending strength design of beams. In general, the performance index for strength design is where σ_f is the material strength, ρ is the material density and q is a function of the direction of scaling. Previous studies have only solved q for three particular cases: proportional scaling of width and height (q = 2/3), constrained height (q = 1) and constrained width (q = 1/2). This paper presents a general solution to the exponent q for any arbitrary direction of scaling. The index is used to produce performance maps that rank relative material performance for particular design cases. The performance index and the performance maps are applied to a design case study.     

Accounting for components interactions in the differential importance measure

A limitation of the importance measures (IMs) currently used in reliability and risk analyses is that they rank only individual components or basic events whereas they are not directly applicable to combinations or groups of components or basic events. To partially overcome this limitation, recently, the differential importance measure (DIM), has been introduced for use in risk-informed decision making. The DIM is a first-order sensitivity measure that ranks the parameters of the risk model according to the fraction of total change in the risk that is due to a small change in the parameters’ values, taken one at a time. However, it does not account for the effects of interactions among components. In this paper, a second-order extension of the DIM, named DIM^II, is proposed for accounting of the interactions of pairs of components when evaluating the change in system performance due to changes of the reliability parameters of the components. A numerical application is presented in which the informative contents of DIM and DIM^II are compared. The results confirm that in certain cases when second-order interactions among components are accounted for, the importance ranking of the components may differ from that produced by a first-order sensitivity measure.     

Reliability and performance analysis for fault-tolerant programs consisting of versions with different characteristics

This paper presents a simple straightforward algorithm for evaluating reliability and expected execution time for software systems consisting of fault-tolerant components. The components are built from functionally equivalent but independently developed versions characterized by different reliability and performance. Both N-version programming (with parallel and sequential execution of the versions) and the recovery block scheme are considered within a universal model.     

Fatigue of land-based structures

Some of the more important aspects of the fatigue of land-based structures are reviewed: the types of loading due to vehicles, wind and people are considered and examples are given of fatigue in service, taken from the literature on highway bridges.Several of the most common types of design detail that have to be assessed for fatigue are covered. These include welded connections between plates, with an emphasis on long endurance, and behaviour under pulsating-compression loading. The fatigue performance of reinforcement bars is considered in relation to type of test, type of manufacture and corrosion. The performance of lapped, welded and mechanical connections are summarized and related to continuous bars and to class D for BS5400.Three other types of structural connection are reviewed: high strength bolted connections between plates, shear connectors between steel and concrete, and epoxy resin bonding between steel and concrete.     

Reliability analysis of mining equipment: A case study of a crushing plant at Jajarm Bauxite Mine in Iran

The performance of mining machines depends on the reliability of the equipment used, the operating environment, the maintenance efficiency, the operation process, the technical expertise of the miners, etc. As the size and complexity of mining equipments continue to increase, the implications of equipment failure become ever more critical. Therefore, reliability analysis is required to identify the bottlenecks in the system and to find the components or subsystems with low reliability for a given designed performance. It is important to select a suitable method for data collection as well as for reliability analysis. This paper presents a case study describing reliability and availability analysis of the crushing plant number 3 at Jajarm Bauxite Mine in Iran. In this study, the crushing plant number 3 is divided into six subsystems. The parameters of some probability distributions, such as Weibull, Exponential, and Lognormal distributions have been estimated by using ReliaSoft's Weibull++6 software. The results of the analysis show that the conveyer subsystem and secondary screen subsystem are critical from a reliability point of view, and the secondary crusher subsystem and conveyer subsystem are critical from an availability point of view. The study also shows that the reliability analysis is very useful for deciding maintenance intervals.     

Generalised importance measures for multi-state elements based on performance level restrictions

In this paper we consider some commonly used importance measures in a generalised version proposed by some of the authors for application to multi-state systems constituted by multi-state elements. Physically, these measures characterize the importance for a multi-state element of achieving a given level of performance and their definitions entail evaluating the system availability and/or performance when the functioning of the element of interest is restricted in performance.With reference to a predefined threshold of element performance, two different types of restrictions are considered. The first one limits the elements' reachable states to those corresponding to performances either larger or not larger than the threshold level. The second one allows the element to visit all its states but limits its performance to values larger or not larger than the performance threshold.An approach based on the universal generating function technique is proposed for the evaluation of the introduced importance measures. A numerical application is provided in order to highlight the informative content of the introduced measures.     

Efficient evaluation of probabilistic constraints using an envelope function

Probabilistic design optimization deals with uncertainties quantitatively and can be characterized by probabilistic constraints. As evaluating the probabilistic constraints requires quite large computational cost, reduction of the number of the probabilistic constraints by using an envelope function can improve the efficiency of the optimization process. Several numerical examples are tested adopting the reliability index approach and the performance measure approach with or without the envelope function. The results show that the proposed method requires fewer function evaluations. Efficiency improvement would be remarkable for large structural problems.     

Sensitivity analysis of frame structures (virtual distortion method approach)

A novel approach to sensitivity analysis of frame structures based on the virtual distortion method (VDM) has been presented. The sensitivity analysis has been performed for elasto‐plastic material behaviour with respect to selected structural parameters e.g. cross‐sectional area, hardening/softening coefficient and yield stress. Advantages of applying the virtual distortion method to sensitivity analysis have been emphasised i.e. making use of the so‐called influence matrix, constant for the whole analysis and solving only local sets of equations corresponding to plastic locations. Theoretical background as well as the whole variety of examples has been presented. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sensitivity analysis of truss structures (virtual distortion method approach)

A new approach to structural sensitivity analysis based on the so-called virtual distortion method is presented. The proposed methodology enables the calculation of derivatives for elastic as well as elasto-plastic structures on the basis of knowledge of current strains, permanent plastic deformations and influence matrix, describing interactions between a chosen member and the entire structure. The analytical basis as well as numerical verification of the concept is demonstrated. Advantages of the proposed approach, in the sense of numerical cost, are summarized in conclusions. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Current research in composite structures at NASA’s langley research center

Research on the mechanics of composite structures atnasa’s Langley Research Center is discussed. The advantages and limitations of special purpose and general purpose analysis tools used in research are reviewed. Future directions in computational structural mechanics are described to address analysis short-comings. Research results on the buckling and postbuckling of unstiffened and stiffened composite structures are presented. Recent investigations of the mechanics of failure in compression and shear are reviewed. Preliminary studies of the dynamic response of composite structures due to impacts encountered during crash-landings are presented. Needs for future research are discussed.     

Combining road safety information in a performance index

In this paper we focus on an essential step in the construction process of a composite road safety performance indicator: the assignment of weights to the individual indicators. In the composite indicator literature, this subject has been discussed for a long time, and no agreement has been reached so far. The aim of this research is to provide insights in the most important weighting methods: factor analysis, analytic hierarchy process, budget allocation, data envelopment analysis and equal weighting. We will give the essential theoretical considerations, apply the methods on road safety data from various countries and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. This will facilitate the selection of a justifiable method. It is shown that the position of a country in the ranking is influenced by the method used. The weighting methods agree more for countries with a relatively bad road safety performance. Of the five techniques, the weights based on data envelopment analysis resulted in the highest correlation with the road safety ranking of 21 European countries based on the number of traffic fatalities per million inhabitants. This method is valuable for the development of a road safety index.     

Mechanical performance of through-thickness tufted sandwich structures

This paper presents a study about the influence of through-thickness tufted fibres on compression and bending properties of sandwich structures. The tufting process aims to avoid the delamination between the skin and core in order to improve the performance of sandwich structures, increase the interlaminar strength and damage tolerance of sandwich structures.     

A damage identification method for truss structures using a flexibility-based damage probability index and differential evolution algorithm

An efficient method for the multiple damage detection of truss systems using a flexibility-based damage probability index (FBDPI) and differential evolution algorithm (DEA) is proposed. In the first step, a new FBDPI is introduced to find the potentially damaged elements of truss systems. The proposed FBDPI is based on the changes of elemental strain, due to damage, computed by the flexibility matrix of the structure. The flexibility matrix of the structure is dynamically estimated using modal analysis data. In the second step, the reduced damage problem is transformed into a standard optimization problem having few damage variables. Then, the DEA is employed to solve the optimization problem for determining the actual location and severity of damaged elements. Simulation results considering measurement noise demonstrate the high efficiency of the proposed method for the damage detection of truss structures.     

Infrastructure Communication Sensitivity Analysis of Wireless Sensor Networks

Sensitivity or importance analysis has been widely used for identifying system weaknesses and supporting system improvement and maintenance activities. Despite the rich literature on the sensitivity analysis of many mission‐critical and safety‐critical systems, no existing work has been devoted to wireless sensor networks (WSN). In this paper, we first analyze link and node importance with respect to the infrastructure communication reliability of WSN systems. The binary decision diagrams based algorithms are implemented to evaluate and compare three importance measures: structural importance measure, Birnbaum's measure, and criticality importance measure. The effects of node degree, choice of the destination node, data delivery models, as well as mission time on the importance analysis results are investigated through examples. Results from this work can facilitate the design, deployment, and maintenance of reliable WSN for critical applications. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integrated system identification and reliability evaluation of stochastic building structures

System identification and reliability evaluation play a significant role in structural health monitoring to ensure the serviceability and safety of existing structures. Although the development of system identification methods has attained much attention and some degree of maturity, reliability evaluation of existing structures still remains a challenging problem especially when uncertainties in measurement data and inherent randomness, which are inevitably involved in civil structures, are considered. In this regard, this paper presents a framework for integrated system identification and reliability evaluation of stochastic building structures. Two algorithms are proposed to respectively evaluate component reliability and system reliability of stochastic building structures by combining a statistical moment-based system identification method and a probability density evolution equation-based reliability evaluation method. System identification is embedded in the procedure of reliability evaluation of a stochastic building structure. The uncertainties in both the structure and the external excitation are considered. Numerical examples show that the structural component and system reliabilities of a three-story shear building structure with three damage scenarios can be effectively evaluated by the proposed methods.     

现代建筑中的折叠结构

可展与折叠结构是一类可以自由地大尺度改变几何构形的结构。它们可以从体积较小的闭合或者收缩状态变换到开启或者展开状态。相对于传统结构而言,可展与折叠结构具有建造速度快、施工方便等优点,而且便于运输和存储,可反复使用,因而在民用、军事、航天等领域被广泛应用。针对可展与折叠结构的共性问题及关键技术,采用理论分析、数值模拟、物理模型实验相结合的研究手段,对多种新型可展与折叠结构的几何构成、运动过程以及受力性能等进行了深入的研究。     

Voigt–Reuss topology optimization for structures with nonlinear material behaviors

This work is directed toward optimizing concept designs of structures featuring inelastic material behaviours by using topology optimization. In the proposed framework, alternative structural designs are described with the aid of spatial distributions of volume fraction design variables throughout a prescribed design domain. Since two or more materials are permitted to simultaneously occupy local regions of the design domain, small-strain integration algorithms for general two-material mixtures of solids are developed for the Voigt (isostrain) and Reuss (isostress) assumptions, and hybrid combinations thereof. Structural topology optimization problems involving non-linear material behaviours are formulated and algorithms for incremental topology design sensitivity analysis (DSA) of energy type functionals are presented. The consistency between the structural topology design formulation and the developed sensitivity analysis algorithms is established on three small structural topology problems separately involving linear elastic materials, elastoplastic materials, and viscoelastic materials. The good performance of the proposed framework is demonstrated by solving two topology optimization problems to maximize the limit strength of elastoplastic structures. It is demonstrated through the second example that structures optimized for maximal strength can be significantly different than those optimized for minimal elastic compliance. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fatigue assessment of welded structures: practical aspects for stress analysis and fatigue assessment

Analysis of welded structures still remains a challenge for the analyst and in fact cannot be considered as fully solved for practical applications. For many years, a large international aggregation of researchers has developed methods to assess fatigue behaviour of welded structures. Nowadays many suggestions and methods exist to estimate fatigue life of welded structures with respect to nominal, structural, notch stress or fracture mechanics approaches. All of them are still under improvement. The high motivation and many activities of experts in the International Institute of Welding (IIW) group of researchers is a good demonstration of the complexity and need for analysis methods in that field. The purpose of this paper is to provide some discussion on selected methods available. Both authors are giving lectures to transfer methods to industrial applications. It is their experience that a large amount of knowledge has been developed although proper applications require some grading and comments on the use of those methods. This paper should give some comments and recommendations for the practical application of a selection of methods already available. A hierarchical two‐step procedure for the assessment of large welded structures will be described and recommended. Also benchmark results are presented on a sample structure for sake of comparison of a few selected methods. Finally a presentation of results obtained by application of selected methods on real structures in comparison with fatigue lives from experiments will be presented. The methods selected within the paper cover the approaches for modelling, structural analysis and assessment of welded structures using finite element analysis (FEA) and stress based concepts for fatigue life estimation.     

Improved resilience measure for component recovery priority in power grids

Given the complexity of power grids, the failure of any component may cause large-scale economic losses. Consequently, the quick recovery of power grids after disasters has become a new research direction. Considering the severity of power grid disasters, an improved power grid resilience measure and its corresponding importance measures are proposed. The recovery priority of failed components after a disaster is determined according to the influence of the failed components on the power grid resilience. Finally, based on the data from the 2019 Power Yearbook of each city in Shandong Province, China, the power grid resilience after a disaster is analyzed for two situations, namely, partial components failure and failure of all components. Result shows that the recovery priorities of components with different importance measures vary. The resilience evaluations under different repair conditions prove the feasibility of the proposed method.