Influence of Vertical Irregularity on the Seismic Behavior of Base Isolated RC Structures with Lead Rubber Bearings under Pulse-Like Earthquakes

Nowadays,an extensive number of studies related to the performance of base isolation systems implemented in regular reinforced concrete structures subjected to various types of earthquakes can be found in the literature.On the other hand,investigations regarding the irregular base-isolated reinforced concrete structures’performance when subjected to pulse-like earthquakes are very scarce.The severity of pulse-like earthquakes emerges from their ability to destabilize the base-isolated structure by remarkably increasing the displacement demands.Thus,this study is intended to investigate the effects of pulse-like earthquake characteristics on the behavior of low-rise irregular base-isolated reinforced concrete structures.Within the study scope,investigations related to the impact of the pulse-like earthquake characteristics,irregularity type,and isolator properties will be conducted.To do so,different values of damping ratios of the base isolation system were selected to investigate the efficiency of the lead rubber-bearing isolator.In general,the outcomes of the study have shown the significance of vertical irregularity on the performance of base-isolated structures and the considerable effect of pulse-like ground motions on the buildings’behavior.

Kneadable dough-type hydrogel transforming from dynamic to rigid network to repair irregular bone defects

Irregular bone defects,characterized by unpredictable size,shape,and depth,pose a major challenge to clinical treatment.Although various bone grafts are available,none can fully meet the repair needs of the defective area.Here,this study fabricates a dough-type hydrogel(DR-Net),in which the first dynamic network is generated by coordination between thiol groups and silver ions,thereby possessing kneadability to adapt to various irregular bone defects.The second rigid covalent network is formed through photocrosslinking,maintaining the osteogenic space under external forces and achieving a better match with the bone regeneration process.In vitro,an irregular alveolar bone defect is established in the fresh porcine mandible,and the dough-type hydrogel exhibits outstanding shape adaptability,perfectly matching the morphology of the bone defect.After photocuring,the storage modulus of the hydrogel increases 8.6 times,from 3.7 kPa(before irradiation)to 32 kPa(after irradiation).Furthermore,this hydrogel enables effective loading of P24 peptide,which potently accelerates bone repair in Sprague–Dawley(SD)rats with critical calvarial defects.Overall,the dough-type hydrogel with kneadability,space-maintaining capability,and osteogenic activity exhibits exceptional potential for clinical translation in treating irregular bone defects.

Irregular initial solidification by mold thermal monitoring in the continuous casting of steels:A review

Occasional irregular initial solidification phenomena,including stickers,deep oscillation marks,depressions,and surface cracks of strand shells in continuous casting molds,are important limitations for developing the high-efficiency continuous casting of steels.The application of mold thermal monitoring(MTM) systems,which use thermocouples to detect and respond to temperature variations in molds,has become an effective method to address irregular initial solidification phenomena.Such systems are widely applied in numerous steel companies for sticker breakout prediction.However,monitoring the surface defects of strands remains immature.Hence,indepth research is necessary to utilize the potential advantages and comprehensive monitoring of MTM systems.This paper summarizes what is included in the irregular initial solidification phenomena and systematically reviews the current state of research on these phenomena by the MTM systems.Furthermore,the influences of mold slag behavior on monitoring these phenomena are analyzed.Finally,the remaining problems of the formation mechanisms and investigations of irregular initial solidification phenomena are discussed,and future research directions are proposed.

Dynamic Constraint-Driven Event-Triggered Control of Strict-Feedback Systems Without Max/Min Values on Irregular Constraints

This work proposes an event-triggered adaptive control approach for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems under irregular constraints.Unlike the constraints considered in most existing papers,here the external irregular constraints are considered and a constraints switching mechanism(CSM)is introduced to circumvent the difficulties arising from irregular output constraints.Based on the CSM,a new class of generalized barrier functions are constructed,which allows the control results to be independent of the maximum and minimum values(MMVs)of constraints and thus extends the existing results.Finally,we proposed a novel dynamic constraint-driven event-triggered strategy(DCDETS),under which the stress on signal transmission is reduced greatly and no constraints are violated by making a dynamic trade-off among system state,external constraints,and inter-execution intervals.It is proved that the system output is driven to close to the reference trajectory and the semi-global stability is guaranteed under the proposed control scheme,regardless of the external irregular output constraints.Simulation also verifies the effectiveness and benefits of the proposed method.

Performance and Complexity Trade-Off between Short-Length Regular and Irregular LDPC

In this paper, both the high-complexity near-ML list decoding and the low-complexity belief propagation decoding are tested for some well-known regular and irregular LDPC codes. The complexity and performance trade-off is shown clearly and demonstrated with the paradigm of hybrid decoding. For regular LDPC code, the SNR-threshold performance and error-floor performance could be improved to the optimal level of ML decoding if the decoding complexity is progressively increased, usually corresponding to the near-ML decoding with progressively increased size of list. For irregular LDPC code, the SNR-threshold performance and error-floor performance could only be improved to a bottle-neck even with unlimited decoding complexity. However, with the technique of CRC-aided hybrid decoding, the ML performance could be greatly improved and approached with reasonable complexity thanks to the improved code-weight distribution from the concatenation of CRC and irregular LDPC code. Finally, CRC-aided 5GNR-LDPC code is evaluated and the capacity-approaching capability is shown.

Solution of Travelling Wave for Nonlinear Disturbed Long-Wave System

The approximate expressions of the travelling wave solutions for a class of nonlinear disturbed long-wave system are constructed using the generalized variational iteration method.

Effect of temperature difference load of 32 m simply supported box beam bridge on track vertical irregularity

In order to study the effect of temperature difference load （TDL） along the vertical direction of a simply supported beam bridge section on the vertical irregularity, a rail-bridge-piers calculation model was established. Taking 32 m simply supported box beam bridge which is widely used in the construction of pas- senger dedicated line in China as an example, influences of the temperature variation between the bottom and top of the bridge, temperature curve index, type of temperature gradient, and beam height on track vertical irregularity were analyzed with the model. The results show that TDL has more effects on long wave track irregularity than on short one, and the wavelength mainly affected is approxi- mately equal to the beam span. The amplitude of irregu- larity caused by TDL is largely affected by the temperature variation, temperature curve index, and type of temperature gradient, so it is necessary to monitor the temperaturedistribution of bridges in different regions to provide accurate calculation parameters. In order to avoid the irregularity exceeding the limit values, the height of 32, 48, and 64 m simply supported box beam bridges must not be less than 2.15, 3.2, and 4.05 m, respectively.

Approximate Analytic Solution of Solitary Wave for a Class of Nonlinear Disturbed Long-Wave System

In this paper, the approximate expressions of the solitary wave solutions for a class of nonlinear disturbed long-wave system are constructed using the homotopie mapping method.

Comparative investigation of long-wave infrared generation based on ZnGeP_2 and CdSe optical parametric oscillators

Long-wave infrared （IR） generation based on type-Ⅱ （o→e＋o） phase matching ZnGeP2 （ZGP） and CdSe optical parametric oscillators （OPOs） pumped by a 2.05μm Tm,Ho：GdVO4 laser is reported. The comparisons of the birefringent walk-off effect and the oscillation threshold between ZGP and CdSe OPOs are performed theoretically and experimentally. For the ZGP OPO, up to 419 mW output at 8.04 μm is obtained at the 8 kHz pump pulse repetition frequency （PRF） with a slope efficiency of 7.6%. This ZGP OPO can be continuously tuned from 7.8 to 8.5 μm. For the CdSe OPO, we demonstrate a 64 mW output at 8.9μm with a single crystal 28 mm in length.

Subway Embedded Track Geometric Irregularity Safety Limits

A coupling dynamic model of a subway train and an embedded track is established to study the safety limits of track irregularities.The simulated vehicle system was a 74-degrees of freedom multi-rigid body model,and the rail was a Timoshenko beam.The slab was a three-dimensional solid finite element model.The sensitive wavelength irregularity was first studied,and then the safety limit of the sensitive wavelength was analyzed.The wheel-rail lateral force exhibited a substantial effect on the track alignment and gauge irregularity safety limit.The wheel-rail vertical force and the rate of wheel load reduction significantly affected the height and cross-level irregularity safety limit.The results demonstrate that the safety limits of the alignment,gauge,height,and cross-level embedded track geometric irregularity are 5.3 mm,[−10.5,8]mm,5.6 mm,and 6 mm,respectively.

Robust Spectral Estimation of Track Irregularity

Because the existing spectral estimation methods for railway track irregularity analysis are very sensitive to outliers, a robust spectral estimation method is presented to process track irregularity signals. The proposed robust method is verified using 100 groups of clean/contaminated data reflecting he vertical profile irregularity taken from Bejing-Guangzhou railway with a sampling frequency of 33 data every ~10 m, and compared with the Auto Regressive (AR) model. The experimental results show that the proposed robust estimation is resistible to noise and insensitive to outliers, and is superior to the AR model in terms of efficiency, stability and reliability.

Railway subgrade thermal-hydro-mechanical behavior and track irregularity under the sunny-shady slopes effect in seasonal frozen regions

The sunny-shady slopes effect is a phenomenon that impacts the temperature distribution of high-speed railway subgrades,resulting in uneven frost heaving deformation on the subgrade surface,which in turn causes static irregularity in the slab track.Based on the hydraulics theory,a thermal-hydro-mechanical(THM)coupled model of frozen soil is established and verified.We explore the process and characteristics of the temperature field and deformation of soil during the freezing process of high-speed railway subgrades and analyze the track irregularity variation law of China Railway Track SystemⅢslab tracks under uneven frost heaving deformation.The results show that,because the left and right slopes of high-speed railway subgrade are exposed to different amounts of solar radiation,which is the key factor causing uneven frost heaving of subgrade.Different strike angles cause changes in temperature of the subgrade’s upper part and the frost heaving amount on the surface,leading to differences in the deformation of the slab track structure:Increased strike angle weakens the rail level irregularity of the down line and marginally increases the rail level irregularity of the up line,and these become consistent in north-south directions.Therefore,when selecting railway lines in seasonal frozen areas,the west-east direction should be avoided to prevent the extremes in sunny-shady slopes effect on subgrades.

New Exact Solutions to Dispersive Long-Wave Equations in （2＋1）-Dimensional Space

New exact solutions expressed by the Jacobi elliptic functions are obtained to the （2＋1）-dimensional dispersive long-wave equations by using the modified F-expansion method. In the limit case, new solitary wave solutions and triangular periodic wave solutions are obtained as well.

The axisymmetric long-wave interfacial stability of core-annular flow of power-law fluid with surfactant

The long wave stability of core-annular flow of power-law fluids with an axial pressure gradient is investigated at low Reynolds number. The interface between the two fluids is populated with an insoluble surfactant. The analytic solution for the growth rate of perturbation is obtained with long wave approximation. We are mainly concerned with the effects of shear-thinning/thickening property and interfacial surfactant on the flow stability. The results show that the influence of shear-thinning/thickening property accounts to the change of the capillary number. For a clean interface, the shear-thinning property enhances the capillary instability when the interface is close to the pipe wall. The converse is true when the interface is close to the pipe centerline. For shear-thickening fluids, the situation is reversed. When the interface is close to the pipe centerline, the capillary instability can be restrained due to the influence of surfactant. A parameter set can be found under which the flow is linearly stable.

The effect of track alignment irregularity on wheel-rail contact geometry relationship in a turnout zone

The irregularity is a key factor affecting the wheel-rail contact geometry relationship. In this paper, we calculated the wheel-rail contact points at typical sections and obtained the longitudinal variation of the wheel-rail geometry relationship with the trace line method. The profile of the key rail sections was matched by cubic spline curve, and the shape interpolation was realized in non-controlling sections. The results show that the roll angles at each typical section increases gradually with the enlargement of track alignment irregularity. When the flange contact occurs, the roll angle increases dramatically. Proper track alignment irregularity towards the switch rail improves the structure irregularity of the turnout.

Solitons and Waves in （2＋l）-Dimensional Dispersive Long-Wave Equation

For a higher-dimensional integrable nonlinear dynamical system, there are abundant coherent soliton excitations. With the aid of an improved projective Riccati equation approach, the paper obtains several types of exact solutions to the （2＋l）-dimenslonal dispersive long-wave equation, including multiple-soliton solutions, periodic soliton solutions, and Weierstrass function solutions. From these solutions, apart from several multisoliton excitations, we derive some novel features of wave structures by introducing some types of lower-dimensional patterns.

Research on the Changes of Celestial Tide-generating Force and the Outgoing Long-wave Radiation before the Lushan (China) M_S7.0 Earthquake

Calculation of tidal changes reveals that the MS 7. 0 Lushan County,Sichuan,China,earthquake of April 20,2013 occurred at the minimum phase point of tidal force. It indicates that the seismogenic fault on which the tidal force acts on is of thrust type. The outgoing long-wave radiation( OLR) is the energy radiating from the Earth as infrared radiation at low energy to space. According to the tidal cycle,abnormal OLR change is analyzed based on NOAA satellite data around the whole of China before and after the earthquake. The result shows that the OLR changed evidently with the tide force change.Temporally,the change went through the course: initial OLR rise → s trengthening →reaching abnormal peak → a ttenuation → r eturning to normal; in space,the abnormal area was distributed along the Longmenshan fault and evolved as: scattering→ c onvergent→ s cattering. The process is similar to the change process of rock breaking under stress loading. It indicates that the celestial tidal force can trigger earthquakes when the tectonic stress reaches the critical break point of an active fault and the OLR anomaly is proportional to the seismic tectonic stress change. It is of practical value to combine OLR and tidal force anomaly with earthquake precursor studies.

Kubelka-Munk Revised Theory for High Solar Reflectance and High Long-wave Emissivity Coatings Designing

The Kubelka-Munk revised theory was adopted to derive the mix design theory of high solar reflectance and high emissivity coatings.When the concentration of each colorant is within 20%,and the width of the coating is more than 200 μm,each colorant has enough covering power in visible and near-infrared spectral range.It can be assumed that the addition of colorants in coatings can only change the solar spectral absorption ratio rather than solar spectral scattering coefficient.The spectral scattering coefficient of coatings tends to a constant.The spectral absorption-scattering property of each colorant can be characterized through one parameter.The spectral absorption-scattering coefficient of coatings can be calculated with the multivariate linear relationship of each pigment.Moreover,the results can be expanded for high solar reflectivity and high long-wave emissivity coating preparation.The accuracy of Kubelka-Munk revised theory has been tested and verified through comparison between the calculated value and tested value of coating reflectance.

Characterizing neural activities evoked by manual acupuncture through spiking irregularity measures

The neural system characterizes information in external stimulations by different spiking patterns. In order to examine how neural spiking patterns are related to acupuncture manipulations, experiments are designed in such a way that different types of manual acupuncture （MA） manipulations are taken at the ＇Zusanli＇ point of experimental rats, and the induced electrical signals in the spinal dorsal root ganglion are detected and recorded. The interspike interval （ISI） statistical histogram is fitted by the gamma distribution, which has two parameters： one is the time-dependent firing rate and the other is a shape parameter characterizing the spiking irregularities. The shape parameter is the measure of spiking irregularities and can be used to identify the type of MA manipulations. The coefficient of variation is mostly used to measure the spike time irregularity, but it overestimates the irregularity in the case of pronounced firing rate changes. However, experiments show that each acupuncture manipulation will lead to changes in the firing rate. So we combine four relatively rate- independent measures to study the irregularity of spike trains evoked by different types of MA manipulations. Results suggest that the MA manipulations possess unique spiking statistics and characteristics and can be distinguished according to the spiking irregularity measures. These studies have offered new insights into the coding processes and information transfer of acupuncture.

Effect of irregularity on the propagation of torsional surface waves in an initially stressed anisotropic poro-elastic layer

The paper studies the propagation of torsional surface waves in an initially stressed anisotropic poro-elastic layer over a semi-infinite heterogeneous half space with linearly varying rigidity and density due to irregularity at the interface. The irregularity is taken in the half space in the form of a rectangle. It is observed that torsional surface waves propagate in this assumed medium. In the absence of the irregularity, the velocity equation of the torsional surface wave is also obtained. For a layer over a homogeneous half space, the velocity of torsional surface waves coincides with that of the Love waves.