Model test assessment of the generation of underground cavities and ground cave-ins by damaged sewer pipes

Ground cave-ins caused by damaged sewer pipes have been frequently reported in metropolitan areas and have caused severe socioeconomic losses. In this study, model experiments were conducted to determine how damaged sewer pipes generate ground cave-ins or cavities, with a focus on the influence of the soil type and density. Digital images of the model ground were captured to evaluate the internal deformation of the model grounds. Additionally, the vertical displacement at the surface, the size of the cavity, and the weight of the discharged soil were measured in each test. The results indicate that uniform soil with no fines content was more vulnerable to ground cavities than well-graded soil with fines content. Loose soil led to a ground cave-in with significant deformation over the entire model ground, whereas deformation was concentrated only on the ground cavities in the dense soil ground.     

Sliding mode cutting force regulator for turning processes

Continuous sliding mode control is applied to turning processes for cutting force regulation. The motivation of the use of the slide mode control scheme is to solve the nonlinearity problem caused by the feedrate override command element in the commercial CNC machine tool. When the adaptive control algorithm is applied to the commercial CNC machine tool, it is one of the practical methods that the programmed feedrate is overridden after the control algorithm is carried out. However, most CNC lathe manufacturers offer limited number of data bits for feedrate override, thus resulting in nonlinear behavior of the machine tools. Such nonlinearity brings ‘quantized' or discrete effect so that the optimal feedrate is rounded off before being fed into the CNC system. To compensate for this problem, continuous sliding mode control is applied. Simulation and experimental results are presented in comparison with those obtained from applying adaptive control which is a widely used approach in cutting force regulation. Adaptive control loses its effectiveness in the presence of nonlinearity since it generally requires linear parametrization of the control law or the system dynamics. Experiments are conducted under various machining conditions, subject to changes in spindle speed, material of work-piece, and type of machining process. The suggested slide mode controller shows smoother cutting force fluctuation, which cannot be achieved by the conventional adaptive controller. The experimental set-up reflects the emphasis on the practicality of the sliding mode controller. In order to avoid the use of a dynamometer in the course of measuring the cutting force, the indirect cutting force measuring system is used by means of feed drive servo-motor current sensing.     

Computationally Efficient and Accurate Simulation of Cyclic Behavior for Rectangular HSS Braces

During earthquakes, braces behave in complex manners because of the asymmetric response nature of their responses in tension and compression. Hollow structural sections (HSS) have been popularly used for braces due to their sectional efficiency in compression. The purpose of this study is to accurately simulate the cyclic behavior of rectangular HSS braces using a computationally efficient numerical model. A conceptually efficient and simple physical theory model is used as a basis model. To improve the accuracy of the model, cyclic beam growth and buckling load, as well as the incidences of local buckling and brace fracture are estimated using empirical equations obtained from regression analyses using test data on rectangular HSS braces. The accuracy of the proposed model is verified by comparing actual and simulated cyclic curves of brace specimens with various slenderness and width-to-thickness ratios.     

An experimental investigation of heat transfer in forced convective boiling of R134a,R123 and R134a/R123 in a horizontal tube

This paper reports an experimental study on flow boiling of pure refrigerants R134a and R123 and their mixtures in a uniformly heated horizontal tube. The flow pattern was observed through tubular sight glasses with an internal diameter of 10 mm located at the inlet and outlet of the test section. Tests were run at a pressure of 0.6 MPa in the heat flux ranges of 5–50 kW/m², vapor quality 0–100 percent and mass velocity of 150–600 kg/m²s. Both in the nucleate boiling-dominant region at low quality and in the two-phase convective evaporation region at higher quality where nucleation is supposed to be fully suppressed, the heat transfer coefficient for the mixture was lower than that for an equivalent pure component with the same physical properties as the mixture. The reduction of the heat transfer coefficient in mixture is explained by such mechanisms as mass transfer resistance and non-linear variation in physical properties etc. In this study, the contribution of convective evaporation, which is obtained for pure refrigerants under the suppression of nucleate boiling, is multiplied by the composition factor by Singal et al. (1984). On the basis of Chen’s superposition model, a new correlation is presented for heat transfer coefficients of mixture.     

A study on the fault diagnosis of the 3-d roll shape in cold rolling

The metal processing system usually consists of various components such as motors, work rolls, backup rolls, idle rolls, sensors, etc. Even a simple fault in a single component in the system may cause a serious damage on the final product. It is, therefore, necessary to diagnose the faults of the components to detect and prevent a system failure. Especially, the defects in a work roll are critical to the quality of strip. In this study, a new 3-D diagnosis method was developed for roll shape defects in rolling processes. The new method was induced from analyzing the rolling mechanism by using a rolling force model, a tension model, the Hitchcock’ s equation, and measurement of the strip thickness, etc. Computer simulation shows that the proposed method is very useful in the diagnosis of the 3-D roll shape.     

Thermal error analysis for a CNC lathe feed drive system

The development of high-speed feed drive systems has been a major issue in the machine tool industry for the past few decades. The resulting reduction in the time needed for tool changes and the rapid travel time can enhance productivity. However, a high-speed feed drive system naturally generates more heat and resultant thermal expansion, which adversely affects the accuracy of machined parts. This paper divides the feed drive system into two parts: the ball screw and the guide way. The thermal behavior model for each part is developed separately, in order to estimate the position errors of the feed drive system caused by thermal expansion. The modified lumped capacitance method (MLCM) and genius education algorithm (GEA) are used to analyse the linear positioning error of the ball screw. Thermal deformation of the guide way affects straightness and introduces angular errors, as well as affecting linear positioning. The finite element method is used to estimate the thermal behavior of the guide way. The effectiveness of the proposed models is verified through experiments using a laser interferometer.     

平常材料非常表现--以"CIPEA"主委会办公室设计中材料运用试验

CIPEA（China International Practice Exhibition of Architecture）,详见《室内设计与装修》2005年04期）组委会办公室位于南京市中心区。对于这个280m^2的室内，功能上的要求是办公和展示，造价上是简装，甲方似乎除了这两个要求外并没有再提其他，因为毕竟对于尚在校学习、还没有一个建成项目的我们来说，甲方与其提出什么苛求，不如营造一个宽松的气氛。而我们却捏了一把汗，因为这儿将有我们崇拜的国内外最著名的建筑大师到来……     

Finite element analyses of repaired articular surfaces.

The response to a compressive load of a repaired cartilage surface, consisting of full-thickness repair tissue adjacent to normal cartilage, was predicted by the u-p finite element method and compared to that of a normal cartilage surface under the same loading conditions. By individually varying the aggregate modulus, permeability and Poisson's ratio for the repair tissue, analyses were performed to assess the contributions of each to the changes in mechanical behaviour. In comparing the repaired to normal surfaces, the presence of a softer repair tissue resulted in increased axial and decreased radial deformations at any given time point, while a repaired surface with an increased permeability compressed more easily due to the increased fluid flow and caused equilibrium to occur sooner. For smaller Poisson's ratio, the axial deformation was not different from normal if the aggregate modulus was the same as normal; however, the radial expansion was reduced as the repair tissue experienced a larger volume change. These results indicate that the presence of repair tissue in a joint surface can have a strong influence on the mechanical behaviour of the surface.     

Retrofit of RC frames against progressive collapse using prestressing tendons

This study investigates the effect of prestressing tendons on the progressive collapse performance of a 6‐ and 20‐story reinforced concrete model structures. According to nonlinear static and dynamic analysis results, the analysis model structures turned out to be vulnerable to progressive collapse caused by sudden loss of a first story column. However, the RC structures reinforced by external prestressing tendons along floor girders showed stable behavior against progressive collapse. The retrofit effect increased as the initial tension and cross‐sectional area of tendons increased. The incremental dynamic analyses showed that the seismic performance of the model structure was also enhanced after the retrofit using tendons. Based on analysis results, it was concluded that the retrofit of existing buildings using prestressing tendons could be effective for increasing both progressive collapse resisting capacity and seismic performance of RC framed structures. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Moving average correction method for compensation of differential column shortenings in high‐rise buildings

The differential length changes of vertical members in a high‐rise building due to elastic, creep and shrinkage shortenings are of primary concern since the differential shortening of the vertical members causes unexpected damages on structural and nonstructural members. In contrast to researches on prediction methods for calculation of the amount of the shortenings, only few methods or algorithms of compensation of the differential column shortenings have been reported. In this paper, a practical compensation method using moving average correction is presented. The proposed method is applied to the compensation of the differential shortenings of the vertical members in a 70‐story high‐rise building. The performance of the moving average correction method is compared with the optimal compensation method based on simulated annealing algorithm. It is demonstrated that the magnitude of the differential shortening or the degree of the slab tilt due to the length changes in the vertical members can be controlled without using structural optimization techniques. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.