Mathematical modeling and full-scale shaking table tests for multi-curve buckling restrained braces

Buckling restrained braces （BRBs） have been widely applied in seismic mitigation since they were introduced in the 1970s. However, traditional BRBs have several disadvantages caused by using a steel tube to envelope the mortar to prevent the core plate from buckling, such as： complex interfaces between the materials used, uncertain precision, and time consumption during the manufacturing processes. In this study, a new device called the multi-curve buckling restrained brace （MC-BRB） is proposed to overcome these disadvantages. The new device consists of a core plate with multiple neck portions assembled to form multiple energy dissipation segments, and the enlarged segment, lateral support elements and constraining elements to prevent the BRB from buckling. The enlarged segment located in the middle of the core plate can be welded to the lateral support and constraining elements to increase buckling resistance and to prevent them from sliding during earthquakes. Component tests and a series of shaking table tests on a full-scale steel structure equipped with MC-BRBs were carried out to investigate the behavior and capability of this new BRB design for seismic mitigation. The experimental results illustrate that the MC-BRB possesses a stable mechanical behavior under cyclic loadings and provides good protection to structures during earthquakes. Also, a mathematical model has been developed to simulate the mechanical characteristics of BRBs.

Parametric study on performance of bridge retrofitted by unseating prevention devices

Over the past decade, seismically induced damage to bridges has been widely reported following major earthquakes such as the 1994 Northridge, 1995 Kobe and 1999 Chi-Chi events. Since these earthquakes, restrainers and stoppers have been installed on bridges to prevent unseating and excessive displacements, respectively. Alternatively, column jacketing has also been proven to be effective. However, the enhanced shear strength may result in extra retrofitting works on the footing. For bridges damaged in the Chi-Chi earthquake, investigations revealed that most bridge columns experienced none-to-minor damage in the longitudinal direction. The reason for this unexpected performance was the construction practice of using a rubber bearing, which is an unbolted design that may slide under large lateral forces. In this paper, parametric studies on simply-supported bridges retrofitted by a restrainer or concrete shear key along the longitudinal and transverse axes were carried out. The research focuses on finding suitable combinations of the design force and gap spacing so the restrainer and concrete shear key can be used as an unseating prevention device, with respect to the allowable column damage in terms of displacement ductility under near-fault type earthquakes. A two-lane PCI-girder bridge was selected as the benchmark model. In the longitudinal direction, a total of nine combinations considering yielding strength and gap spacing for the restrainer were analyzed; while parameters for the concrete shear key were divided into three shear force levels and three gap spacings. In the transverse direction, a similar approach was adapted, except smaller gap spacing was used. For each of the above mentioned earthquakes, seven input ground motions were selected and their PGAs were adjusted to 0.36g and 0.45g as the Design earthquake and Maximum Considerable Earthquake, respectively. Based on the results of nonlinear time history analyses, proper parameters to design the restrainers and concrete shear keys are obtained. Responses obtained from numerical simulations under the Chi-Chi earthquake leaded to new implications to design those devices. Restrainer should not exceed its breaking strain and sufficient unseating length will be needed always. Concrete Shear key was determined by considering both displacement demand of the superstructure and displacement ductility of the column at the same time. Further study is needed to provide optimal design parameters for use in performance based bridge design.

Assessment of early-age cracking of high-performance concrete in restrained ring specimens

High-performance concrete （HPC） is stronger and more durable than conventional concrete. However, shrinkage and shrinkage cracking are common phenomena in HPC, especially early-age cracking. This study assessed early-age cracking of HPC for two mixtures using restrained ring tests. The two mixtures were produced with water/binder mass ratio （mw/mB） of 0.22 and 0.40, respectively. The results show that, with greater steel thickness, the higher degree of restraint resulted in a higher interface pressure and earlier cracking. With steel thickness of 6 mm, 19 mm, and 30 mm, the age of cracking were, respectively, 12 days, 8 days, and 5.4 days with the mw/mB = 0.22 mixture; and 22.5 days, 12.6 days, and 7.1 days with the mw/mB= 0.40 mixture. Cases of the same steel thickness show that the ring specimens with a thicker concrete wall crack later. With the mw/mB = 0.22 mixture, concrete walls with thicknesses of 37.5 mm, 75 mm, and 112.5 mm cracked at 3.4 days, 8.0 days, and 9.8 days, respectively; with the mw/mB = 0.40 mixture, the ages of cracking were 7.1 days, 12.6 days, and 16.0 days, respectively.

Machine Learning-Based Seismic Fragility Analysis of Large-Scale Steel Buckling Restrained Brace Frames

Steel frames equipped with buckling restrained braces(BRBs)have been increasingly applied in earthquake-prone areas given their excellent capacity for resisting lateral forces.Therefore,special attention has been paid to the seismic risk assessment(SRA)of such structures,e.g.,seismic fragility analysis.Conventional approaches,e.g.,nonlinear finite element simulation(NFES),are computationally inefficient for SRA analysis particularly for large-scale steel BRB frame structures.In this study,amachine learning(ML)-based seismic fragility analysis framework is established to effectively assess the risk to structures under seismic loading conditions.An optimal artificial neural network model can be trained using calculated damage and intensity measures,a technique which will be used to compute the fragility curves of a steel BRB frame instead of employing NFES.Numerical results show that a highly efficient instantaneous failure probability assessment can be made with the proposed framework for realistic large-scale building structures.

Neuropeptide Y and nestin expression in the hippocampal CA3 region following restrained and inverted stress in rats

Our preliminary study demonstrated that neuropeptide Y （NPY）/nestin-positive cells exhibit a consistent spatial distribution in the hippocampus of normal adult rats. However, following severe acute and chronic stress-induced impaired learning and memory, synchronous decreased expression of nestin and NPY takes place in the hippocampus, and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In the present study, acute and chronic stress rat models were established using combined restrained and inverted stress. Results showed that learning and memory significantly decreased in acute and chronic stress rats. In addition, hippocampal cells were damaged, in particular in the acute stress rats, and nestin and NPY expression, as well as the number of NPY/nestin-positive cells in the CA3 region, significantly decreased. Furthermore, mature neurofilament 200-positive neurons were absent in the chronic stress rats. The NPY and cytoskeletal protein system equally contributed to stress-induced early learning and memory deficits as well as sustained cerebral iniurv in the adult hippocampus.

Free vibrations of simply supported nonhomogeneous isotropic rectangular plates of bilinearly varying thickness and elastically restrained edges against rotation using Rayleigh-Ritz method

This paper addresses the free transverse vibrations of thin simply supported nonhomogeneous isotropic rectangular plates of bilinearly varying thickness with elastically restrained edges against rotation. The Gram-Schmidt process has been used to generate two-dimensional boundary characteristic orthogonal polynomials, which have been used in the Rayleigh-Ritz method to study the problem. The lowest three frequencies have been computed for various values of nonhomogeneous parameters, thickness parameters, aspect ratio and flexibility parameters. A comparison of the results with those available in the literature has been made. Three-dimensional mode shapes for the specified plate have been presented.

Image segmentation algorithm based on high-dimension fuzzy character and restrained clustering network

An image segmentation algorithm of the restrained fuzzy Kohonen clustering network （RFKCN） based on high- dimension fuzzy character is proposed. The algorithm includes two steps. The first step is the fuzzification of pixels in which two redundant images are built by fuzzy mean value and fuzzy median value. The second step is to construct a three-dimensional （3-D） feature vector of redundant images and their original images and cluster the feature vector through RFKCN, to realize image seg- mentation. The proposed algorithm fully takes into account not only gray distribution information of pixels, but also relevant information and fuzzy information among neighboring pixels in constructing 3- D character space. Based on the combination of competitiveness, redundancy and complementary of the information, the proposed algorithm improves the accuracy of clustering. Theoretical anal- yses and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has a good segmentation performance.

Catenary action of restrained steel beam against progressive collapse of steel frameworks

The changing law of internal forces during the whole deformation development process was analyzed. The process was divided into five stages based on the internal force state of the beam and the assumptions of internal force relationship of five stages were proposed. Then, the formulas for determining the midspan deflection of the steel beam under distributed load, which was restrained both in rotational and axial directions, were obtained using restraint coefficient method and rigid-plastic mechanism, thereby the deformation development process was expressed accurately in a quantified way. Priority was given to the analysis of the process from bending to tension-bending, then the final state totally depends on tension to resist the external loads, that is the problem of catenary action of the restrained beam under distributed load. Additionally, finite element analysis was carried out with soitware ABAQUS6.7 on a restrained steel beam under distributed load with different axial and rotational restraint coefficients. The accuracy of the formulas presented was verified by the results of the behavior of the restrained beams. Finally, error analysis was conducted and some formulas were corrected according to the reasons of errors. The calculated results of corrected formulas match the FEM analysis results better, thus the accuracy of these formulas is improve .

Time-dependent Early-age Behaviors of Concrete under Restrained Condition

To investigate the early-age behaviors of concrete under a restrained condition, a set of apparatus was developed. In this way, the tensile creep and other early-age properties can be investigated in depth. By measuring the modulus of elasticity of concrete, synchronous shrinkage of concrete and steel rings and free shrinkage of concrete, the deformations of concrete ring can be quantified respectively. The experimental results show the tensile stress in concrete is time-dependent, and the stress at cracking is much lower than the tensile strength at that age; the tensile creep plays an important role in relaxing the tensile stress and postponing the cracking of concrete.

Element-free Galerkin method for free vibration of rectangular plates with interior elastic point supports and elastically restrained edges

The element-free Galerkin method is proposed to solve free vibration of rectangular plates with finite interior elastic point supports and elastically restrained edges.Based on the extended Hamilton＇s principle for the elastic dynamics system,the dimensionless equations of motion of rectangular plates with finite interior elastic point supports and the edge elastically restrained are established using the element-free Galerkin method.Through numerical calculation,curves of the natural frequency of thin plates with three edges simply supported and one edge elastically restrained,and three edges clamped and the other edge elastically restrained versus the spring constant,locations of elastic point support and the elastic stiffness of edge elastically restrained are obtained.Effects of elastic point supports and edge elastically restrained on the free vibration characteristics of the thin plates are analyzed.

Hydration Process and Crack Tendency of Concrete Based on Resistivity and Restrained Shrinkage Crack

Hydration process, crack potential and setting time of concrete grade C30, C40 and C50 were monitored by using a non-contact electrical resistivity apparatus, a novel plastic ring mould and penetration resistance methods, respectively. The results show the highest resistivity of C30 at the early stage until a point when C50 accelerated and overtook the others. It has been experimentally confirmed that the crossing point of C30 and C50 corresponds to the final setting time of C50. From resistivity derivative curve, four different stages were observed upon which the hydration process is classified; these are dissolution, induction, acceleration and deceleration periods. Consequently, restrained shrinkage crack and setting time results demonstrated that C50 set and cracked the earliest. The cracking time of all the samples occurred within a reasonable experimental period thus the novel plastic ring is a convenient method for predicting concrete＇s crack potential. The highest inflection time（t_i） obtained from resistivity curve and the final setting time（t_f） were used with crack time（t_c） in coming up with mathematical models for the prediction of concrete＇s cracking age for the range of concrete grade considered. Finally, an ANSYS numerical simulation supports the experimental findings in terms of the earliest crack age of C50 and the crack location.

Wear and Corrosion Properties of Mo Surface-modified Layer in TiNi Alloy Prepared by Plasma Surface Alloying

In order to improve the wear resistance and restrain nickel release of TiNi alloys,the Mo modified layers on TiNi substrates were obtained using the double glow plasma surface alloying technique.Scanning electron microscopy（SEM）,glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy（GDOES） and X-ray diffraction（XRD） were employed to investigate the morphology,composition and structure.Microhardness test and scratch test were performed to analyze the microhardness and coating/substrate adhesion.Tribological and electrochemical behaviors of the Mo modified layers on TiNi were tested by the reciprocating wear instrument and electrochemical measurement system.The Ni concentrations in Hanks’ solution where surface electrochemical tests took place were measured by mass spectrometry.The surface-modified layer contained a Mo deposition layer and a Mo diffusion layer.The X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the modified layers were composed of Mo,MoTi,Mo Ni,and Ti2Ni.The microhardnesses of the Mo modified layers treated at 900 ℃ and 950 ℃ were 832.8 HV and 762.4 HV,respectively,which was about 3 times the microhardness of the TiNi substrate.Scratch tests indicated that the modified layers possessed good adhesion with the substrate.Compared with as-received TiNi alloy,the modified alloys exhibited significant improvement of wear resistance against Si3N4 with low normal loads during the sliding tests.Mass spectrometry displayed that the Mo alloy layers had successfully inhibited the Ni release into the body.

Restrained Bending of Thin-Walled Box Beam with Honeycomb Core

Restrained bending of thin-walled box beam with honeycomb core is analyzed on the basis of rigid profile assumption. The method of variable separation is applied and two ordinary differential governing equations are established and solved. The boundary conditions are satisfied rigorously and the solutions are expressed by means of eigen function expansions. The diagram of shearing force is formulated by trigonometric series and used to determine the coefficients in above expansions. The computational resuits give the chord and span wise distributions of nomal and shear stress in the cover plate and the honeycomb core. At the same time, the attenuation of additional stress from fixed end to free end along the length of beam is shown clearly.

Restrained Torsion of Thin-walled Box Beam with Honeycomb Core

Restrained torsion of thin-walled box beam with honeycomb core is analyzed on the basis of rigid profile assumption. The method of variable separation is applied and two ordinary differential governing equations are established and solved. The boundary conditions are satisfied rigorously and the solutions are expressed by means of eigen function expansions. The diagram of torque is formulated by trigonometric series and used to determine the coefficients in above expansions. The results of computation provide the chord-wise and span-wise distributions of normal and shear stress in the face plate along with shear stress in the honeycomb core.

Effects of connection types and elevated temperature on the impact behaviour of restrained beam in portal steel frame

Based on the background of structural protection and Disaster Reduction Engineering, the dynamic behaviour and failure mechanism of restrained beams in portal steel frames in localised fire are investigated via experimental measurement and numerical simulation techniques. Comprehensive parametric studies are carried out to discuss the influence of end connection types, temperature, impact velocity,impact mass and span-to-depth ratio(SDR) on the dynamic response of the beams. The characteristics of deformation, internal force and energy distribution about the restrained beams and its joints are investigated. A temperature dependent criterion for evaluating the frame joint performance is proposed to measure the degree of performance degradation and impact resistance of the joint. The dynamic displacement amplification factor in different temperature environments are proposed for the different beam end constraint types and SDRs. Results of the experimental and numerical analysis show that the welded connection(WC) of three typical joint types is the strongest, and the extended endplate connection(EEC) is the weakest in terms of the impact resistance performance. With regard to the failure mode of the joint, the failure positions of the WC and the welded-bolted connection are located in the inner web of the column. Meanwhile, the EEC is located in the connection position between the beam and the endplate. Three different internal force stages and two obvious critical temperature boundaries of the restrained beams emerge with the increase in temperature, and they have significant characteristics in terms of deformation trend, internal force transfer and energy distribution. During the impact, a phenomenon known as “compression arch action” develops into “catenary action” with the increase in deflection in the frame beam mechanism.

A Simple Empirical Formula for Predicting the Ultimate Strength of Ship Plates with Elastically Restrained Edges in Axial Compression

An investigation is conducted on the static ultimate limit state assessment of ship hull plates with elastically restrained edges subjected to axial compression.Both material and geometric non-linearities were considered in finite element(FE)analysis.The initial geometric imperfection of the plate was considered,while the residual stress introduced by welding was not considered.The ultimate strength of simply supported ship hull plates compared well with the existing empirical formula to validate the correctness of the applied boundary conditions,initial imperfection and mesh size.The extensive FE calculations on the ultimate strength of ship hull plates with elastically restrained edges are presented.Then a new simple empirical formula for plate ultimate strength is developed,which includes the effect of the rotational restraint stiffness,rotational restraint stiffness,and aspect ratios.By applying the new formula and FE method to ship hull plates in real ships,a good coincidence of the results between these two methods is obtained,which indicates that the new formula can accurately predict the ultimate strength of ship hull plates with elastically restrained edges.

A new anti-influenza animal model for Traditional Chinese Medicine, restraint stress induces influenza susceptibility by regulating mitochondrial antiviral signaling pathway

There are many kinds of Chinese patent medicine used to fight against influenza efficiently in clinical practice. However, little experimental data confirmed the anti-influenza the activities since non-suitable animal model and in vitro antiviral experiments. This paradox can be explained by host factors are important in the patho- genesis and outcome of influenza infection. Accordingly, we set up a mouse model by using restraint stress plus vi- ral infection, which is more conducive to simulate the clinical features of susceptible population and evaluate the activities of Chinese herbal medicine. Our results demonstrated that stress-induced corticosterone （CORT） , a stres- sor sensor, increased the morbidity and the mortality of virus infected mice loaded with restraint stress. CORT also increased expression of Mfn2, and accordingly decreased mitochondrial antiviral signaling （MAVS） aggregates in the host cells. Mfn2 overexpression increased NP and decreased IFN-β and IFITM3 protein expressions in influenza virus infected A549 cells. These findings suggested that the mechanism of restraint stress increased the susceptibili- ty due to CORT induces activation of Mfn2 mediated MAVS pathway.

Mechanical Analysis of Concrete Specimen under Restrained Condition

In order to quantify the development of the tensile stresses and obtain a reliable estimation of the cracking risk, the concrete was subjected to restrained conditions. The fully restrained condition was achieved by keeping the length constant of a concrete specimen. Comparing the free shrinkage with the restrained shrinkage, tensile creep could be discriminated from shrinkage. The testing method was introduced in details, and the mechanical behoviors under tensile lond were analyzed. Results show that conerete exhibits a pronounced viscoelasticity. Under restroined condition, the self-induced tensile stress increases with time. The lower the water to cement ratio, the larger the tensile stress at the same age. The tensile creep of hardening concrete is much larger than that of hardened concrete. The relationships among autogenous shrinkage unter free condition, elastic strain and creep under restrained condition are described, and the mathematical model for the calculation of elastic strain and creep is propased.

Nuclear magnetic resonance based structure of the protoberberine alkaloid coralyne and its self-association by spectroscopy techniques

Coralyne is an important alkaloid due to its anti-cancer and other medicinal properties.It targets DNA in cells and acts as human topoisomerase-I poison,telomerase inhibitor and nucleic acid intercalator.It has high tendency to undergo self-association,which is a matter of concern for therapeutic applications.The understanding of its interaction with DNA requires precise knowledge of chemical shifts in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance(NMR)spectra besides self-association.The present study is the first report of a complete assignment of all 1H/13C resonances in NMR spectra of coralyne in DMSO-d6 using one dimensional 1H/13C and two dimensional NMR experiments.The chemical shift of all proton and several 13C resonances have also been obtained in D2O and ethanol-d6.The same has been calculated using Density Functional Theory(DFT).NMR spectra of coralyne show upfield shift of 0.6e1.2 ppm in aromatic ring protons suggesting stacking interactions.Apart from 11 intra molecular NOE cross peaks in 2D 1H e1H ROESY spectra,3 short distance NOE correlations,H6e10OCH3,H5e10OCH3 and H12e16CH3,give direct independent evidence of the formation of a stacked dimer.The absorbance,fluorescence,circular dichroism and fluorescence lifetime experiments conducted in the present investigations corroborate results obtained by NMR.

Stability Performance of Buckling-Restrained Brace with Brace Joints

The stability and ductility of four buckling-restrained braces (BRBs) with brace joints were studied. The load-carrying element of BRB was fabricated with steel (Chinese Q235), and a layer of colloidal silica sheet (0.5 mm in thickness) or four layers of plastic film (0.2 mm in thickness) were used as unbonding materials to provide space to prevent the buckling of inner core in higher modes and facilitate its lateral expansion in case of compression. Based on the equation of BRBs with brace joints of different restrained stiffnesses, the buckling load is calculated considering the initial geometric imperfections and residual stress, and the theoretical values agree well with the experiment results. It is concluded that the buckling load and ductility of BRBs are influenced greatly by the restrained stiffness of brace joints. If the restrained stiffness is deficient, the unstrained segment of BRBs with less stiffness will buckle firstly. As a result, the ultimate load of BRBs decreases, and the maximum compression load is reduced to about 65% of the maximum tension load; the stiffness also degenerates, and there is a long decreasing stage on the back-bone curve in compression phase; the ductility decreases, i.e., the ultimate tension ductility and ultimate compression ductility are approximately 15 and 1.3 respectively, and the cumulative plastic ductility is only approximately 200. If the restrained stiffness of joint is large enough, the stability will be improved as follows: the yielding strength and ultimate strength of BRBs are nearly the same, and there is an obvious strain intensification in both tension and compression phases; the ductility of brace also increases obviously, i.e., the ultimate tension ductility and ultimate compression ductility are both approximately 14, and the cumulative plastic ductility reaches 782.