Energy approach for dynamic buckling of shallow fixed arches under step loading with infinite duration

Yong-Lin Pi,Mark Andrew Bradford,Weilian Qu 국제구조공학회 2010 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.35 No.5

Shallow fixed arches have a nonlinear primary equilibrium path with limit points and an unstable postbuckling equilibrium path, and they may also have bifurcation points at which equilibrium bifurcates from the nonlinear primary path to an unstable secondary equilibrium path. When a shallow fixed arch is subjected to a central step load, the load imparts kinetic energy to the arch and causes the arch to oscillate. When the load is sufficiently large, the oscillation of the arch may reach its unstable equilibrium path and the arch experiences an escaping-motion type of dynamic buckling. Nonlinear dynamic buckling of a two degree-of-freedom arch model is used to establish energy criteria for dynamic buckling of the conservative systems that have unstable primary and/or secondary equilibrium paths and then the energy criteria are applied to the dynamic buckling analysis of shallow fixed arches. The energy approach allows the dynamic buckling load to be determined without needing to solve the equations of motion.

Energy approach for dynamic buckling of shallow fixed arches under step loading with infinite duration

Pi, Yong-Lin,Bradford, Mark Andrew,Qu, Weilian Techno-Press 2010 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.35 No.5

Shallow fixed arches have a nonlinear primary equilibrium path with limit points and an unstable postbuckling equilibrium path, and they may also have bifurcation points at which equilibrium bifurcates from the nonlinear primary path to an unstable secondary equilibrium path. When a shallow fixed arch is subjected to a central step load, the load imparts kinetic energy to the arch and causes the arch to oscillate. When the load is sufficiently large, the oscillation of the arch may reach its unstable equilibrium path and the arch experiences an escaping-motion type of dynamic buckling. Nonlinear dynamic buckling of a two degree-of-freedom arch model is used to establish energy criteria for dynamic buckling of the conservative systems that have unstable primary and/or secondary equilibrium paths and then the energy criteria are applied to the dynamic buckling analysis of shallow fixed arches. The energy approach allows the dynamic buckling load to be determined without needing to solve the equations of motion.

Long-term structural analysis and stability assessment of three-pinned CFST arches accounting for geometric nonlinearity

Kai Luo,Yong-Lin Pi,Wei Gao,Mark A.Bradford 국제구조공학회 2016 Steel and Composite Structures, An International J Vol.20 No.2

Due to creep and shrinkage of the concrete core, concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) arches continue to deform in the long-term under sustained loads. This paper presents analytical investigations of the effects of geometric nonlinearity on the long-term in-plane structural performance and stability of three-pinned CFST circular arches under a sustained uniform radial load. Non-linear long-term analysis is conducted and compared with its linear counterpart. It is found that the linear analysis predicts long-term increases of deformations of the CFST arches, but does not predict any long-term changes of the internal actions. However, non-linear analysis predicts not only more significant long-term increases of deformations, but also significant long-term increases of internal actions under the same sustained load. As a result, a three-pinned CFST arch satisfying the serviceability limit state predicted by the linear analysis may violate the serviceability requirement when its geometric nonlinearity is considered. It is also shown that the geometric nonlinearity greatly reduces the long-term in-plane stability of three-pinned CFST arches under the sustained load. A three-pinned CFST arch satisfying the stability limit state predicted by linear analysis in the long-term may lose its stability because of its geometric nonlinearity. Hence, non-linear analysis is needed for correctly predicting the long-term structural behaviour and stability of three-pinned CFST arches under the sustained load. The non-linear long-term behaviour and stability of three-pinned CFST arches are compared with those of twopinned counterparts. The linear and non-linear analyses for the long-term behaviour and stability are validated by the finite element method.

Experimental and numerical investigations on remaining strengths of damaged parabolic steel tubular arches

Yonghui Huang,Airong Liu,Yong-Lin Pi,Mark A. Bradford,Jiyang Fu 국제구조공학회 2020 Steel and Composite Structures, An International J Vol.34 No.1

This paper presents experimental and numerical studies on effects of local damages on the in-plane elastic-plastic buckling and strength of a fixed parabolic steel tubular arch under a vertical load distributed uniformly over its span, which have not been reported in the literature hitherto. The in-plane structural behaviour and strength of ten specimens with different local damages are investigated experimentally. A finite element (FE) model for damaged steel tubular arches is established and is validated by the test results. The FE model is then used to conduct parametric studies on effects of the damage location, depth and length on the strength of steel arches. The experimental results and FE parametric studies show that effects of damages at the arch end on the strength of the arch are more significant than those of damages at other locations of the arch, and that effects of the damage depth on the strength of arches are most significant among those of the damage length. It is also found that the failure modes of a damaged steel tubular arch are much related to its initial geometric imperfections. The experimental results and extensive FE results show that when the effective cross-section considering local damages is used in calculating the modified slenderness of arches, the column bucking curve b in GB50017 or Eurocode3 can be used for assessing the remaining in-plane strength of locally damaged parabolic steel tubular arches under uniform compression. Furthermore, a useful interaction equation for assessing the remaining in-plane strength of damaged steel tubular arches that are subjected to the combined bending and axial compression is also proposed based on the validated FE models. It is shown that the proposed interaction equation can provide lower bound assessments for the remaining strength of damaged arches under in-plane general loading.

Member capacity of columns with semi-rigid end conditions in Oktalok space frames

Zhao, Xiao-Ling,Lim, Peter,Joseph, Paul,Pi, Yong-Lin Techno-Press 2000 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.10 No.1

The Oktalok nodal connection system is an aesthetic and efficient system. It has been widely used throughout Australia. The paper will briefly introduce the concept and application of the Oktalok nodal system. The existing design method is based on the assumption that the joints are pin-ended, i.e., the rotational stiffness of the joints is zero. However the ultimate capacity of the frame may increase significantly depending on the rotational stiffness of the joints. Stiffness tests and finite element simulations were carried out to determine the rotational stiffness of the Oktalok joints. Column buckling tests and non-linear finite element analyses were performed to determine the member capacity of columns with semi-rigid end conditions. A simple formulae for the effective length factor of column buckling is derived based on the above experimental and theoretical investigations.

Optimization of long span portal frames using spatially distributed surrogates

Zhifang Zhang,Jingwen Pan,Jiyang Fu,Hemant Kumar Singh,Yong-Lin Pi,Jiurong Wu,Rui Rao 국제구조공학회 2017 Steel and Composite Structures, An International J Vol.24 No.2

This paper presents optimization of a long-span portal steel frame under dynamic wind loads using a surrogate-assisted evolutionary algorithm. Long-span portal steel frames are often used in low-rise industrial and commercial buildings. The structure needs be able to resist the wind loads, and at the same time it should be as light as possible in order to be cost-effective. In this work, numerical model of a portal steel frame is constructed using structural analysis program (SAP2000), with the web-heights at five locations of I-sections of the columns and rafters as the decision variables. In order to evaluate the performance of a given design under dynamic wind loading, the equivalent static wind load (ESWL) is obtained from a database of wind pressures measured in wind tunnel tests. A modified formulation of the problem compared to the one available in the literature is also presented, considering additional design constraints for practicality. Evolutionary algorithms (EA) are often used to solve such non-linear, black-box problems, but when each design evaluation is computationally expensive (e.g., in this case a SAP2000 simulation), the time taken for optimization using EAs becomes untenable. To overcome this challenge, we employ a surrogate-assisted evolutionary algorithm (SAEA) to expedite the convergence towards the optimum design. The presented SAEA uses multiple spatially distributed surrogate models to approximate the simulations more accurately in lieu of commonly used single global surrogate models. Through rigorous numerical experiments, improvements in results and time savings obtained using SAEA over EA are demonstrated.