Liquefaction susceptibility and deformation characteristics of saturated coral sandy soils subjected to cyclic loadings-a critical review

Coral sandy soils widely exist in coral island reefs and seashores in tropical and subtropical regions.Due to the unique marine depositional environment of coral sandy soils,the engineering characteristics and responses of these soils subjected to monotonic and cyclic loadings have been a subject of intense interest among the geotechnical and earthquake engineering communities.This paper critically reviews the progress of experimental investigations on the undrained behavior of coral sandy soils under monotonic and cyclic loadings over the last three decades.The focus of coverage includes the contractive-dilative behavior,the pattern of excess pore-water pressure(EPWP)generation and the liquefaction mechanism and liquefaction resistance,the small-strain shear modulus and strain-dependent shear modulus and damping,the cyclic softening feature,and the anisotropic characteristics of undrained responses of saturated coral sandy soils.In particular,the advances made in the past decades are reviewed from the following aspects:(1)the characterization of factors that impact the mechanism and patterns of EPWP build-up;(2)the identification of liquefaction triggering in terms of the apparent viscosity and the average flow coefficient;(3)the establishment of the invariable form of strain-based,stress-based,or energy-based EPWP ratio formulas and the unique relationship between the new proxy of liquefaction resistance and the number of cycles required to reach liquefaction;(4)the establishment of the invariable form of the predictive formulas of small strain modulus and strain-dependent shear modulus;and(5)the investigation on the effects of stress-induced anisotropy on liquefaction susceptibility and dynamic deformation characteristics.Insights gained through the critical review of these advances in the past decades offer a perspective for future research to further resolve the fundamental issues concerning the liquefaction mechanism and responses of coral sandy sites subjected to cyclic loadings associated with seismic events in marine environments.

Earth slope reliability analysis under seismic loadings using neural network

A new method was proposed to cope with the earth slope reliability problem under seismic loadings. The algorithm integrates the concepts of artificial neural network, the first order second moment reliability method and the deterministic stability analysis method of earth slope. The performance function and its derivatives in slope stability analysis under seismic loadings were approximated by a trained multi-layer feed-forward neural network with differentiable transfer functions. The statistical moments calculated from the performance function values and the corresponding gradients using neural network were then used in the first order second moment method for the calculation of the reliability index in slope safety analysis. Two earth slope examples were presented for illustrating the applicability of the proposed approach. The new method is effective in slope reliability analysis. And it has potential application to other reliability problems of complicated engineering structure with a considerably large number of random variables.

Electrochemically Grown Ultrathin Platinum Nanosheet Electrodes with Ultralow Loadings for Energy-Saving and Industrial-Level Hydrogen Evolution

Nanostructured catalyst-integrated electrodes with remarkably reduced catalyst loadings,high catalyst utilization and facile fabrication are urgently needed to enable cost-effective,green hydrogen production via proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells(PEMECs).Herein,benefitting from a thin seeding layer,bottom-up grown ultrathin Pt nanosheets(Pt-NSs)were first deposited on thin Ti substrates for PEMECs via a fast,template-and surfactant-free electrochemical growth process at room temperature,showing highly uniform Pt surface coverage with ultralow loadings and vertically well-aligned nanosheet morphologies.Combined with an anode-only Nafion 117 catalyst-coated membrane(CCM),the Pt-NS electrode with an ultralow loading of 0.015 mgPt cm−2 demonstrates superior cell performance to the commercial CCM(3.0 mgPt cm^(−2)),achieving 99.5%catalyst savings and more than 237-fold higher catalyst utilization.The remarkable performance with high catalyst utilization is mainly due to the vertically well-aligned ultrathin nanosheets with good surface coverage exposing abundant active sites for the electrochemical reaction.Overall,this study not only paves a new way for optimizing the catalyst uniformity and surface coverage with ultralow loadings but also provides new insights into nanostructured electrode design and facile fabrication for highly efficient and low-cost PEMECs and other energy storage/conversion devices.

Multi-objectives nonlinear structure optimization for actuator in trajectory correction fuze subject to high impact loadings

This paper presents an actuator used for the trajectory correction fuze,which is subject to high impact loadings during launch.A simulation method is carried out to obtain the peak-peak stress value of each component,from which the ball bearings are possible failures according to the results.Subsequently,three schemes against impact loadings,full-element deep groove ball bearing and integrated raceway,needle roller thrust bearing assembly,and gaskets are utilized for redesigning the actuator to effectively reduce the bearings’stress.However,multi-objectives optimization still needs to be conducted for the gaskets to decrease the stress value further to the yield stress.Four gasket’s structure parameters and three bearings’peak-peak stress are served as the four optimization variables and three objectives,respectively.Optimized Latin hypercube design is used for generating sample points,and Kriging model selected according to estimation result can establish the relationship between the variables and objectives,representing the simulation which is time-consuming.Accordingly,two optimization algorithms work out the Pareto solutions,from which the best solutions are selected,and verified by the simulation to determine the gaskets optimized structure parameters.It can be concluded that the simulation and optimization method based on these components is effective and efficient.

Fatigue characteristics and microcosmic mechanism of Al-Si-Mg alloys under multiaxial proportional loadings

With the increasing use of Al-Si-Mg alloys in the automotive industry,the fatigue performance of Al-Si-Mg alloy has become a major concern with regard to their reliability.The fatigue characteristics and microcosmic mechanism of an Al-Si-Mg alloy under multiaxial proportional loadings were investigated in this research.As low cycle fatigue life and material strengthening behavior are closely related,the effect of equivalent strain amplitude on the multiaxial fatigue properties was analyzed.Fatigue tests were conducted to determine the influence of equivalent strain amplitude on the multiaxial proportional fatigue properties.The fatigue life exhibits a stable behavior under multiaxial proportional loadings.The dislocation structures of the Al-Si-Mg alloy were observed by transmission electron microscopy（TEM）.The dislocation structure evolution of the Al-Si-Mg alloy under multiaxial proportional loadings during low cycle fatigue develops step by step by increasing fatigue cycles.Simultaneously,the dislocation structure changes with the change in equivalent strain amplitude under multiaxial proportional loadings.The experimental evidence indicates that the multiaxial fatigue behavior and life are strongly dependent on the microstructure of the material,which is caused by multiaxial proportional loadings.

High microwave absorption performances for single-walled carbon nanotube–epoxy composites with ultra-low loadings

Microwave-absorbing polymeric composites based on single-walled carbon nanotubes （SWNTs） are fabricated via a simple yet versatile method, and these SWNT-epoxy composites exhibit very impressive microwave absorption perfor- mances in a range of 2 GHz-18 GHz. For instance, a maximum absorbing value as high as 28 dB can be achieved for each of these SWNT-epoxy composites （1.3-mm thickness） with only 1 wt% loading of SWNTs, and about 4.8 GHz bandwidth, corresponding to a microwave absorption performance higher than 10 dB, is obtained. Furthermore, such low and appro- priate loadings of SWNTs also enhance the mechanical strength of the composite. It is suggested that these remarkable results are mainly attributable to the excellent intrinsic properties of SWNTs and their homogeneous dispersion state in the polymer matrix.

Mesoscopic modelling of UHPCC material under dynamic tensile loadings

This paper presents a new 3D mesoscopic model of ultra-high performance cement-based composite(UHPCC)to investigate its dynamic tensile behavior.In this model,the UHPCC is regarded as a two-phase material composed of cementitious matrix and randomly distributed fibers.The model is established using the commercial software LS-DYNA and involves generating the randomly distributed fiber elements with considerations of diameter,length,orientation and volume fraction,and then fully constraining them with the matrix.In particular,to capture the slipping effect between fibers and matrix that has a strong influence on the dynamic tensile behavior,the fibers are modelled by a fictitious material represented by the load-slip relation.The strain-rate effect of slipping force neglected in most of previous studies is considered by calibrating constitutive parameters of the fictitious material under different strain-rates based on the single fiber pullout tests.Finally,the 3D mesoscopic model is validated against three sets of tension-dominated experiments covered a wide range of loading intensity.Numerical predictions demonstrate that strain-rate effect of slipping force must be considered,and the neglect of it may lead to a great underestimation of the dynamic tensile strength of UHPCC material and would unavoidably underestimate the blast resistance of UHPCC components.

THE PROBLEM OF AN EXTERNAL CIRCULAR CRACK UNDER ASYMMETRIC LOADINGS

Using the boundary integral equation method, the problem of an external circular crack in a three-dimensional infinite elastic body under asymmetric loadings is investigated. The two-dimensional singular boundary integral equations of the problem were reduced to a system of Abel integral equations by means of Fourier series and hypergeometric functions. The exact solutions of stress intensity factors ore obtained for the problem of an external circular crack under asymmetric loadings, which are even more universal than the results obtained by the use of Hankel transform method. The results demonstrate that the boundary integral equation method has great potential as a new analytic method.

CALCULATION FOR CYLINDRICAL SHELL UNDER LOCAL VERTICAL LOADINGS

In this paper, we use the method of mixed-type series to derive the analytical solutions of cylindrical shell, which is simply supported along the transverse edges and subjected to the local vertical loads, and give the analytical expressions of the solutions for this kind of shell under five types of local vertical loading. A numerical example for a cylindrical shell roof, which is simply supported along the trans verse edges and is free along the longitudinal edges, is given in this paper and from the calculated results it may he seen that the convergence of the solutions is considerably satisfactory. Using the solutions of this paper, we can deal with some practical problems of underground structure.

Applications of AnnAGNPS Model for Sediment and Nutrient Loadings for Funiu Mountain Area, China

The main goal of this study was to evaluate the performance of AnnAGNPS(Annualized AGricultural NonPoint Source)pollution model,in calculating runoff,sediment loading and nutrient loadings for Funiu Mountain area.Most of the model input parameters were sourced from Luanchuan Forest Ecology Station(LFES)in Funiu Mountain area.The data on 23 storms in 2018 was used to calibrate the model and the data on 33 storms in 2019 for validation.The whole evaluation consisted of determining the coefficient of determination(R^(2)),Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient of efficiency(E),and the percentage volume error(VE).Results showed that the runoff volumes were underpredicted by 5.0%with R^(2) of 0.93(P<0.05)during calibration and underpredicted by 5.3%with R^(2) of 0.90(P<0.05)during validation.But sediment loading was able to produce a moderate result.The model underpredicted the daily sediment loading by 15.1%with R^(2) of 0.63(P<0.05)during calibration and 13.5%with R^(2) of 0.66(P<0.05)during validation.Nitrogen loading was overpredicted by 20.3%with R^(2)=0.68(P<0.05),and phosphorus loading performance was slightly poor with R^(2)=0.65(P<0.05)during validation.In general,the model performed well in simulating runoff compared to sediment loading and nutrient loadings.

Nonlinear Bending of Piezoelectric Cylindrical Shell Reinforced with BNNTs under Electro-Thermo-Mechanical Loadings

Under combined electro-thermo-mechanical loadings, the nonlinear bending of piezoelectric cylindrical shell reinforced with boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) is investigated in this paper. By employing nonlinear strains based on Donnell shell theory and utilizing piezoelectric theory including thermal effects, the constitutive relations of the piezoelectric shell reinforced with BNNTs are established. Then the governing equations of the structure are derived through variational principle and resolved by applying the finite difference method. In numerical examples, the effects of geometric nonlinear, voltage, temperature, as well as volume fraction on the deflection and bending moment of axisymmetrical piezoelectric cylindrical shell reinforced with BNNTs are discussed in detail.

Variable-stiffness composite cylinder design under combined loadings by using the improved Kriging model

The large design freedom of variable-stiffness (VS) composite material presupposes its potential for wide engineering application. Previous research indicates that the design of VS cylindrical structures helps to increase the buckling load as compared to quasi-isotropic (QI) cylindrical structures. This paper focuses on the anti-buckling performance of VS cylindrical structures under combined loads and the efficient optimization design method. Two kinds of conditions, bending moment and internal pressure, and bending moment and torque are considered. Influences of the geometrical defects, ovality, on the cylinder's performances are also investigated. To increase the computational efficiency, an adaptive Kriging meta-model is proposed to approximate the structural response of the cylinders. In this improved Kriging model, a mixed updating rule is used in constructing the meta-model. A genetic algorithm (GA) is implemented in the optimization design. The optimal results show that the buckling load of VS cylinders in all cases is greatly increased as compared with a QI cylinder.

Analysis of permanent deformations of railway embankments under repeated vehicle loadings in permafrost regions

By large-scale dynamic tests carried out on a traditional sand-gravel embankment at the Beilu River section along the Qinghai-Tibet Railroad, we collected the acceleration waveforms close to the railway tracks when trains passed. The dynamic train loading was converted into an equivalent creep stress, using an equivalent static force method. Also, the creep equation of frozen soil was introduced according to the results of frozen soil rheological triaxial tests. A coupled creep model based on a time-hardening power function rule and the Druker-Prager yield and failure criterion was estab- lished to analyze the creep effects of a plain fill embankment under repeated train loads. The temperature field of the embankment in the permafrost area was set at the current geothermal conditions. As a result, the permanent deformation of the embankment under train loading was obtained, and the permanent deformation under the train loads to the total embankment deformation was also analyzed.

The Material Deformation and Internal Structure Development of Granular Materials under Different Cyclic Loadings

Common structures in engineering such as slopes,roadbeds,ballasts,etc.,are closely related to granular materials.They are usually subjected to long-term cyclic loads.This study mainly focused on the mechanical behaviors of randomly arranged granular materials before they reach a stable state under different cyclic loads.The variation of the maximum axial strain and the influence of CSR(cyclic stress ratio)were analyzed.The energy consumed in each cycle under constant confining stress loading condition is significantly greater than that of the fixed wall loading condition.The internal deformation evolution of granular materials is studied in detail.The deformation mode of granular material under cyclic loading at different positions inside the material is different according to the strain variation.In addition,the strain,force chain structure and contact force magnitude are combined to explore their effects on local deformation of granular materials under cyclic loading.From the perspective of the deformation form,the material sample can be divided into several regions,and the ability to adjust particle positions determines the deformation mode of different regions.The changes of local strain with the cyclic loading also reflect the contribution of particle displacements to the evolution ofmicrostructure.This research will provide insights into the understanding of granular materials behaviors under cyclic loading.

Responses of HFR-LWC beams under close-range blast loadings accompanying membrane action

The load-carrying capacities and failure patterns of reinforced concrete components can be significantly changed by membrane effects.However,limited work has been carried out to investigate the blast resistance of Hybrid Fiber Reinforced Lightweight Aggregate Concrete(HFR-LWC)members accompanying membrane action.This paper presents a theoretical approach to quantitatively depicting the membrane behavior and its contribution on the behavior of HFR-LWC beams under close-range blast loadings,and the suitability of the proposed model is validated by a series of field tests.An improved Single-Degree-of-Freedom(SDOF)model was employed to describe the dynamic responses of beam-like members under blast loadings accompanying membrane action,where the mass-load coefficient is determined according to the nonuniformly distributed load induced by close-range explosion,and the membrane action is characterized by an in-plane(longitudinal)force and a resisting moment.The elastoplastic and recovery responses of HFR-LWC beams under the combined action of blast load and membrane force were analyzed by the promoted model.A specially built end-constrain clamp was developed to provide membrane action for the beam member when they are subjected to blast load simultaneously.It is demonstrated that the analytical displacement-time histories are in good agreement with experimental results before peak deflections and that the improved SDOF model is an acceptable tool for predicting the behavior of HFR-LWC beams under blast loadings accompanying membrane action.

The Axial and Radial Solid Loadings up the CFB-Riser

1 INTRODUCTIONThe determination of the solids hold-up and local solidfluxes is of paramount importance in the study ofthe hydrodynamics of a two-phase flow.Several tech-niques have been used during the past decades(Table1).These methods can be classified in two groups,depending on their possible disturbance of the two-

Stability of columns with original defects under periodic transient loadings

To study the influence of original defects on the dynamic stability of the columns under periodic transient loadings,the approximate solution method and the Fourier method of the stable periodic solution are adopted while considering the influence of original defects on columns.The dynamic stability of the columns under periodic transient loadings is analyzed theoretically.Through the study of different deflections,the dynamic instability of the columns is obtained by Maple software.The results of theoretical analysis show that the larger the original defects,the greater the unstable area,the stable solution amplitude of columns and the risk of instability caused by parametric resonance will be.The damping of columns is a vital factor in reducing dynamic instability at the same original defects.On the basis of the Mathieu-Hill equation,the relationship between the original defects and deflection is deduced,and the dynamic instability region of the columns under different original defects is obtained.Therefore,reducing the original defects of columns can further enhance the dynamic stability of the compressed columns in practical engineering.

Degradation mechanism of rock under impact loadings by integrated investigation on crack and damage development

Failure of rock under impact loadings involves complex micro-fracturing and progressive damage. Strength increase and splitting failure have been observed during dynamic tests of rock materials. However, the failure mechanism still remains unclear. In this work, based on laboratory tests, numerical simulations with the particle flow code(PFC) were carried out to reproduce the micro-fracturing process of granite specimens. Shear and tensile cracks were both recorded to investigate the failure mode of rocks under different loading conditions. At the same time, a dynamic damage model based on the Weibull distribution was established to predict the deformation and degradation behavior of specimens. It is found that micro-cracks play important roles in controlling the dynamic deformation and failure process of rock under impact loadings. The sharp increase in the number of cracks may be the reason for the strength increase of rock under high strain rates. Tensile cracks tend to be the key reason for splitting failure of specimens. Numerical simulation of crack propagation by PFC can give vivid description of the failure process. However, it is not enough for evaluation of material degradation. The dynamic damage model is able to predict the stress-strain relationship of specimens reasonably well, and can be used to explain the degradation of specimens under impact loadings at macro-scale. Crack and damage can describe material degradation at different scales and can be used together to reveal the failure mechanism of rocks.

Hierarchical models for failure analysis of plates bent by distributed and localized transverse loadings

The failure analysis of simply supported, isotropic, square plates is addressed. Attention focuses on minimum failure load amplitudes and failure locations, von Mises＇ equivalent stress along the plate thickness is also addressed. Several distributed and localized loading conditions are considered. Loads act on the top of the plate. Bi-sinusoidal and uniform loads are taken into account for distributed loadings, while stepwise constant centric and off-centric loadings are addressed in the case of localized loadings. Analysis is performed considering plates whose length-to-thickness ratio a/h can be as high as 100 （thin plates） and as low as 2 （very thick plates）. Results are obtained via several 2D plate models. Classical theories （CTs） and higher order models are applied. Those theories are based on polynomial approximation of the displacement field. Among the higher order theories （HOTs） HOTsa models account for the transverse shear deformations, while HOTs models account for both transverse shear and transverse normal deformations. LHOTs represent a local application of the higher order theories. A layerwise approach is thus assumed： by means of mathematical interfaces, the plate is considered to be made of several fictitious layers. The exact 3D solution is presented in order to determine the accuracy of the results obtained via the 2D models. In this way a hierarchy among the 2D theories is established. CTs provide highly accurate results for a/h greater than 10 in the case of distributed loadings and greater than 20 for localized loadings. Results obtained via HOTs are highly accurate in the case of very thick plates for bi-sinusoidal and centric loadings. In the case of uniform and off-centric loadings a high gradient is present in the neighborhood of the plate top. In those cases, LHOTs yield results that match the exact solution.

Hierarchical closed form solutions for plates bent by localized transverse loadings

3D and 2D closed form plate models are here applied to static analysis of simply supported square isotropic plates. 2D theories are hierarchically classified on the basis of the accuracy of the displacements and stresses obtained by comparison to the 3D exact results that could be assumed by the reader as benchmark for further analyses. Attention is mainly paid on localized loading conditions, that is, piecewise constant load. Also bi-sinusoidal and uniformly distributed loadings are taken into account. All of those configurations are considered in order to investigate the behavior of the 2D models in the case of continu- ous/uncontinuous, centric or off-centric loading conditions. The ratio between the side length a and the plate thickness h has been assumed as analysis parameter. Higher order 2D models yield accurate results for any considered load condition in the case of moderately thick plates, a/h=10. In the case of thick plates, a/h=5, and continuous/uncontinuous centric loading conditions high accuracy is also obtained. For the considered off-centric load condition and thick plates good results are provided for some output quantities. A better solution could be achieved by simply increasing the polynomial approximation order of the axiomatic 2D displacement field.