Microscopic damage and dynamic mechanical properties of rock under freeze-thaw environment

For understanding the rock microscopic damage and dynamic mechanical properties subjected to recurrent freeze-thaw cycles, experiments for five groups of homogeneous sandstone under different freeze-thaw cycles were conducted. After freezethaw, nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR) tests and impact loading tests were carried out, from which microscopic damage characteristics of sandstone and dynamic mechanical parameters were obtained. The results indicate that the porosity increases with the increase of cycle number, the rate of porosity growth descends at the beginning of freeze-thaw, yet accelerates after a certain number of cycles. The proportion of pores with different sizes changes dynamically and the multi-scale distribution of pores tends to develop on pore structure with the continuing impact of freeze-thaw and thawing. Dynamic compressive stress-strain curve of sandstone undergoing freeze-thaw can be divided into four phases, and the phase of compaction is inconspicuous compared with the static curve. Elastic modulus and dynamic peak intensity of sandstone gradually decrease with freeze-thaw cycles, while peak strain increases. The higher the porosity is, the more serious the degradation of dynamic intensity is. The porosity is of a polynomial relationship with the dynamic peak intensity.

Dynamic behavior of reinforced concrete frame structure during construction

The effects of concrete's time-variant elastic modulus,casting structural components,assembling temporary shoring framework system,and shock by operating construction equipment on dynamic behavior of the reinforced concrete frame structure during construction were investigated. The dynamic tests of an eight-storey reinforced concrete frame structure during full-scaled stages of the sixth storey construction cycle were carried out by ambient vibration. Natural frequencies,corresponding mode shapes and damping ratio were determined by power spectrum processing the tested signal data in frequency domain. The changes of frequencies,mode shapes and damping ratios at different construction stages were given. The results show that natural frequencies and modal damping ratios reach the maximum at stage of casting fresh concrete,especially for higher modes. Modal damping ratios at each construction stage are less than 5% of those during usage.

A novel ring vibrating gyroscope based on side piezo-electrodes

Solid-state wave gyroscope is one kind of high-performance vibrating gyroscopes. The present work develops a new type of solid-state wave gyroscope—a ring vibrating gyroscope driven by piezo-electrodes located on the sidewall of the structure. It has advantages of large vibrating amplitude, high energy conversion efficiency and compact structure. The working principle of the piezoelectric ring vibrating gyroscope is based on the inertia effect of the standing wave in the axisymmetric resonator caused by Coriolis force. The finite element method(FEM) analysis has been implemented to characterize the ring type resonator. The prototypal gyroscope was manufactured and has been trimmed by mechanical way. The harmonic response of the ring vibrating gyroscope has been tested. The resonating frequency of the ring type resonator is 3715.6 Hz and the frequency split of the two working modes before trimming was about 5 Hz and was reduced to sub-0.01 Hz after trimming procedure. The Q-factor of the ring type resonator was 2504. Then, the turntable experiment was implemented. The measured scale factor k is 9.24 m V/[(°)·s] and the full scale range of the gyroscope is larger than ±300(°)/s.

Influence of System Uncertainties on Structural Damage Identification through Ambient Vibrations of Steel Structures

The practical difficulties presented by forced vibration testing of large steel structures, such as tall buildings, transmission lines or bridges, led to an increased interest in structural monitoring through ambient vibrations, which usually allows the proper identification of modal properties, natural frequencies, damping and modes of vibration. Changes in these modal properties constitute an indication of structural damage, which may then be assessed on the basis of experimental evidence. The authors proposed an approach to determine the so-called damage damping and stiffness matrices, which are essential to identify the location and intensity of damage. No restrictions were introduced on the damping matrix of the system. The approach requires ambient vibration data of all relevant coordinates used in the structural model, which are processed employing the SSI method. In practice, the identification method is seriously hampered by ambient factors such as temperature or humidity. In general those effects must be filtered out in other to obtain a reliable diagnosis of damage, approach that demands long term monitoring. In this paper, an alternative approach is explored, based on the introduction of error damping and stiffness matrices. Data on both matrices is generated on the basis of observed variations of structural member stiffness and damping caused by ambient factors. The influence of this uncertainty on the identified spectral properties is assessed by simulation.

Structural finite element model updating using incomplete ambient vibration modal data

This paper presents an effective approach for updating finite element dynamic model from incomplete modal data identified from ambient vibration measurements.The proposed method is based on the relationship between the perturbation of structural parameters such as stiffness and mass changes and the modal data measurements of the tested structure such as measured mode shape readings.Structural updating parameters including both stiffness and mass parameters are employed to represent the differences in structural parameters between the finite element model and the associated tested structure.These updating parameters are then evaluated by an iterative solution procedure,giving optimised solutions in the least squares sense without requiring an optimisation technique.In order to reduce the influence of modal measurement uncertainty,the truncated singular value decomposition regularization method incorporating the quasi-optimality criterion is employed to produce reliable solutions for the structural updating parameters.Finally,the numerical investigations of a space frame structure and the practical applications to the Canton Tower benchmark problem demonstrate that the proposed method can correctly update the given finite element model using the incomplete modal data identified from the recorded ambient vibration measurements.