A Numerical Study of Liquid Sloshing in a Two-dimensional Tank under External Excitations

In this research, liquid sloshing behavior in a 2-D rectangular tank was simulated using ANSYS-FLUENT software subject to single or multiple-coupled external excitations （such as sway coupled with roll, and sway and roll coupled with heave）. The volume of fluid （VOF） method was used to track the free surface of sloshing. External excitation was imposed through the motion of the tank by using the dynamic mesh technique. The study shows that if the tank is subjected to multiple coupled excitations and resonant excitation frequencies, liquid sloshing will become violent and sloshing loads, including impact on the top wall, will be intensified.

Seismic spatial effects on long-span bridge response in nonstationary inhomogeneous random fields

The long-span bridge response to nonstationary multiple seismic random excitations is investigated using the PEM (pseudo excitation method). This method transforms the nonstationary random response analysis into ordinary direct dynamic analysis, and therefore, the analysis can be solved conveniently using the Newmark, Wilson-9 schemes or the precise integration method. Numerical results of the seismic response for an actual long-span bridge using the proposed PEM are given and compared with the results based on the conventional stationary analysis. From the numerical comparisons, it was found that both the seismic spatial effect and the nonstationary effect are quite important, and that both stationary and nonstationary seismic analysis should pay special attention to the wave passage effect.

Seismic spatial effects on dynamic response of long-span bridges in stationary inhomogeneous random fields

The seismic analysis of long-span bridges subjected to multiple ground excitations is an important problem. The conventional response spectrum method neglects the spatial effects of ground motion,and therefore may result in questionable conclusions.The random vibration approach has been regarded as more reliable.Unfortunately,so far, computational difficulties have not yet been satisfactorily resolved.In this paper,an accurate and efficient random vibration approach—pseudo excitation method (PEM),by which the above difficulties are overcome,is presented.It has been successfully used in the three dimensional seismic analysis of a number of long-span bridges with thousands of degrees of freedom and dozens of supports.The numerical results of a typical bridge show that the seismic spatial effects~ particularly the wave passage effect,are sometimes quite important in evaluating the safety of long-span bridges.

Strength failure of spatial reticulated structures under multi-support excitation

Under strong earthquakes, long-span spatial latticed structures may collapse due to dynamic instability or strength failure. The elasto-plastic dynamic behaviors of three spatial latticed structures, including two double-layer cylindrical shells and one spherical shell constructed for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, were quantitatively examined under multi-support excitation （MSE） and uniform support excitation （USE）. In the numerical analyses, several important parameters were investigated such as the peak acceleration and displacement responses at key joints, the number and distribution of plastic members, and the deformation of the shell at the moment of collapse. Analysis results reveal the features and the failure mechanism of the spatial latticed structures under MSE and USE. In both scenarios, the double-layer reticulated shell collapses in the ＂overflow＂ mode, and the collapse is governed by the number of invalid plastic members rather than the total number of plastic members, beginning with damage to some of the local regions near the supports. By comparing the numbers and distributions of the plastic members under MSE to those under USE, it was observed that the plastic members spread more sufficiently and the internal forces are more uniform under MSE, especially in cases of lower apparent velocities in soils. Due to the effects of pseudo-static displacement, the stresses in the members near the supports under MSE are higher than those under USE.

Multiple resonant excitations of surface plasmons in a graphene stratified slab by Otto configuration and their independent tuning

Multiple resonant excitations of surface plasmons in a graphene stratified slab are realized by Otto configuration at terahertz frequencies. The proposed graphene stratified slab consists of alternating dielectric layers and graphene sheets, and is sandwiched between a prism and another semi-infinite medium. Optical response and field distribution are determined by the transfer matrix method with the surface current density boundary condition.Multiple resonant excitations appear on the angular reflection spectrum, and are analyzed theoretically via the phase-matching condition. Furthermore, the effects of the system parameters are investigated. Among them, the Fermi levels can tune the corresponding resonances independently. The proposed concept can be engineered for promising applications, including angular selective or multiplex filters, multiple channel sensors, and directional delivery of energy.

Strength behavior and collapse of spatial-reticulated structures under multi-support excitation

Under strong shocks,long-span spatial-latticed structures may collapse due to dynamic instability or strength failure.The elasto-plastic dynamic behaviors of three spatiallatticed structures,including two double-layer cylindrical shells and a spheri-cal shell used for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing,were quantitatively examined under multi-support excitation(MSE) and uniform support excitation(USE).Numerical analyses described several important parameters such as the peak acceleration and displacement responses at key joints,the number and distribution of plastic elements,and the deformation of the shell at the moment of collapse.Results of the analysis revealed the features and the failure mechanism of the spatial-latticed structures under MSE and USE.In both scenarios,the double-layer reticulated shell collapsed in the "overflow" mode,collapse was govrned by the number of invalid plastic elements rather than the total number of plastic elements,and the collapse of the structure began with damage to certain local regions near the supports.By comparing the numbers and distributions of the plastic members under MSE to those under USE,it was observed that the plastic members spread more sufficiently and the internal forces were more uniform under MSE,especially for lower apparent velocities in soils.Due to the effects of pseudo-static displacement,the stresses in members near supports under MSE were higher than those under USE.These regions are prone to failure during earthquakes and deserve special attention in the seismic design of reticulated structures.

Surface-plasmonic sensor using a columnar thin film in the grating-coupled configuration [Invited]

The excitation of a surface-plasmon-polariton(SPP) wave guided by a columnar thin film(CTF) deposited on a one-dimensional metallic surface-relief grating was investigated for sensing the refractive index of a fluid infiltrating that CTF. The Bruggemann homogenization formalism was used to determine the relative permittivity scalars of the CTF infiltrated by the fluid. The change in the refractive index of the fluid was sensed by determining the change in the incidence angle for which an SPP wave was excited on illumination by a p-polarized plane wave, when the plane of incidence was taken to coincide with the grating plane but not with the morphologically significant plane of the CTF. Multiple excitations of the same SPP wave were found to be possible, depending on the refractive index of the fluid, which can help increase the reliability of results by sensing the same fluid with more than one excitation of the SPP wave.