A review on modelling and monitoring of railway ballast

Ngamkhanong, Chayut,Kaewunruen, Sakdirat,Baniotopoulos, Charalampos Techno-Press 2017 Structural monitoring and maintenance Vol.4 No.3

Nowadays, railway system plays a significant role in transportation, conveying cargo, passengers, minerals, grains, and so forth. Railway ballasted track is a conventional railway track as can be seen all over the world. Ballast, located underneath the sleepers, is the most important elements on ballasted track, which has many functions and requires routine maintenance. Ballast needs to be maintained frequently to prevent rail buckling, settlement, misalignment so that ballast has to be modelled accurately. Continuum model was introduced to model granular material and was extended in ballast. However, ballast is a heterogeneous material with highly nonlinear behaviour. Hence, ballast could not be modelled accurately in continuum model due to the discontinuities nature and material degradation of ballast. Discrete element modelling (DEM) is proposed as an alternative approach that provides insight into constitutive model, realistic particle, and contact algorithm between each particle. DEM has been studied in many recent decades. However, there are limitations due to the high computational time and memory consumption, which cause the lack of using in high range. This paper presents a review of recent ballast modelling with benefits and drawbacks. Ballast particles are illustrated either circular, circular crump, spherical, spherical crump, super-quadric, polygonal and polyhedral. Moreover, the gaps and limitations of previous studies are also summarized. The outcome of this study will help the understanding into different ballast modelling and particle. The insight information can be used to improve ballast modelling and monitoring for condition-based track maintenance.

Net-Zero Energy Building Optimization Based on Simulation by African Vulture Optimization Algorithm: Cases of Italy

Wang Ziyu,Yin Haoyu,Baniotopoulos Charalampos,Zafetti Nicholas 대한전기학회 2023 Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology Vol.18 No.6

Obtaining the optimum integration of design policies is the target in net-zero energy buildings. This is designed to solve the energy operation problems in a specific building. A multi-objective optimization method is proposed in this paper for net-zero energy building operation optimization to achieve the best design solution among Pareto set solutions. This method is based on simulation and includes simulation of the building, optimization, multi-criteria decision-making approach, and sensitivity analysis to confirm the validity of the optimum results. Some cases of Italy with various climatic conditions are selected to be investigated in terms of the cost-efficiency potential to optimize the net-zero energy building design. To improve this design and to help decision-making in the early design steps of the building, the presented method can be efficient. For the minimization of the electrical, and thermal demands and also life cycle costs while obtaining net-zero energy balance, an optimization algorithm called African Vulture Optimization Algorithm is proposed. Also, to achieve an optimum solution, the Elimination and Choice Expressing the Reality method is used in the Pareto set. Based on the best design variables and their related objective functions, in comparison to the base case, the yearly thermal loads lowered from 18.9 to 33.5% by optimum designs, and the solar domestic hot water electrical power use lowered up to 7.6% and the life cycle cost is decreased up to 14.7%.

Investigation of stiffening scheme effectiveness towards buckling stability enhancement in tubular steel wind turbine towers

Nafsika Stavridou,Evangelos Efthymiou,Simos Gerasimidis,Charalampos C. Baniotopoulos 국제구조공학회 2015 Steel and Composite Structures, An International J Vol.19 No.5

Current climate conditions along with advances in technology make further design and verification methods for structural strength and reliability of wind turbine towers imperative. Along with the growing interest for "green" energy, the wind energy sector has been developed tremendously the past decades. To this end, the improvement of wind turbine towers in terms of structural detailing and performance result in more efficient, durable and robust structures that facilitate their wider application, thus leading to energy harvesting increase. The wind tower industry is set to expand to greater heights than before and tapered steel towers with a circular cross-section are widely used as more capable of carrying heavier loads. The present study focuses on the improvement of the structural response of steel wind turbine towers, by means of internal stiffening. A thorough investigation of the contribution of stiffening rings to the overall structural behavior of the tower is being carried out. These stiffening rings are placed along the tower height to reduce local buckling phenomena, thus increasing the buckling strength of steel wind energy towers and leading the structure to a behavior closer to the one provided by the beam theory. Additionally to ring stiffeners, vertical stiffening schemes are studied to eliminate the presence of short wavelength buckles due to bending. For the purposes of this research, finite element analysis is applied in order to describe and predict in an accurate way the structural response of a model tower stiffened by internal stiffeners. Moreover, a parametric study is being performed in order to investigate the effect of the stiffeners' number to the functionality of the aforementioned stiffening systems and the improved structural behavior of the overall wind converter.

Probabilistic fatigue assessment of rib-to-deck joints using thickened edge U-ribs

Junlin Heng,Kaifeng Zheng,Sakdirat Kaewunruen,Jin Zhu,Charalampos Baniotopoulos 국제구조공학회 2020 Steel and Composite Structures, An International J Vol.35 No.6

Fatigue cracks of rib-to-deck (RD) joints have been frequently observed in the orthotropic steel decks (OSD) using conventional U-ribs (CU). Thickened edge U-rib (TEU) is proposed to enhance the fatigue strength of RD joints, and its effectiveness has been proved through fatigue tests. In-depth full-scale tests are further carried out to investigate both the fatigue strength and fractography of RD joints. Based on the test result, the mean fatigue strength of TEU specimens is 21% and 17% higher than that of CU specimens in terms of nominal and hot spot stress, respectively. Meanwhile, the development of fatigue cracks has been measured using the strain gauges installed along the welded joint. It is found that such the crack remains almost in semi-elliptical shape during the initiation and propagation. For the further application of TEUs, the design curve under the specific survival rate is required for the RD joints using TEUs. Since the fatigue strength of welded joints is highly scattered, the design curves derived by using the limited test data only are not reliable enough to be used as the reference. On this ground, an experiment-numerical hybrid approach is employed. Basing on the fatigue test, a probabilistic assessment model has been established to predict the fatigue strength of RD joints. In the model, the randomness in material properties, initial flaws and local geometries has been taken into consideration. The multiple-site initiation and coalescence of fatigue cracks are also considered to improve the accuracy. Validation of the model has been rigorously conducted using the test data. By extending the validated model, large-scale databases of fatigue life could be generated in a short period. Through the regression analysis on the generated database, design curves of the RD joint have been derived under the 95% survival rate. As the result, FAT 85 and FAT 110 curves with the power index m of 2.89 are recommended in the fatigue evaluation on the RD joint using TEUs in terms of nominal stress and hot spot stress respectively. Meanwhile, FAT 70 and FAT 90 curves with m of 2.92 are suggested in the evaluation on the RD joint using CUs in terms of nominal stress and hot spot stress, respectively.