Application of ultrasonic CT method in nondestructive detection of interior defects in large scale concrete structural member of bridge

The ultrasonic computed tomography （USCT） method is derived from the basic principles of X-ray section scanning. This method records the arriving times of ultrasonic wave between the probes and the sources to ealculate the elastic wave velocity values in the section using the arrival times. Through analyzed the distribution Of elastic wave velocity in aim area, the information of the strength and the homogeneity of the investigated zone could be got indirectly. The authors introduced the operational principle of USCT and a practical case of using this method to detect the interior defects in large scale concrete structural member. Compared with other exploration methods, this method is more efficient and accurate.

Identification of crack in a structural member using improved radial basis function(IRBF)neural networks

Purpose–The purpose of this paper is to provide an effective and simple technique to structural damage identification,particularly to identify a crack in a structure.Artificial neural networks approach is an alternative to identify the extent and location of the damage over the classical methods.Radial basis function(RBF)networks are good at function mapping and generalization ability among the various neural network approaches.RBF neural networks are chosen for the present study of crack identification.Design/methodology/approach–Analyzing the vibration response of a structure is an effective way to monitor its health and even to detect the damage.A novel two-stage improved radial basis function(IRBF)neural network methodology with conventional RBF in the first stage and a reduced search space moving technique in the second stage is proposed to identify the crack in a cantilever beam structure in the frequency domain.Latin hypercube sampling(LHS)technique is used in both stages to sample the frequency modal patterns to train the proposed network.Study is also conducted with and without addition of 5%white noise to the input patterns to simulate the experimental errors.Findings–The results show a significant improvement in identifying the location and magnitude of a crack by the proposed IRBF method,in comparison with conventional RBF method and other classical methods.In case of crack location in a beam,the average identification error over 12 test cases was 0.69 per cent by IRBF network compared to 4.88 per cent by conventional RBF.Similar improvements are reported when compared to hybrid CPN BPN networks.It also requires much less computational effort as compared to other hybrid neural network approaches and classical methods.Originality/value–The proposed novel IRBF crack identification technique is unique in originality and not reported elsewhere.It can identify the crack location and crack depth with very good accuracy,less computational effort and ease of implementation.

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN AND ENERGY CONSUMPTION ANALYSIS FOR STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS

The engineering community has been striving to design more sustainable buildings in an attempt to reduce both environmental impact and energy use during all phases of design,construction and operation.Design professionals currently have very limited guidance or tools to incorporate life-cycle and sustainability concepts into their designs.After reviewing the capabilities and limitations of four current life cycle analysis(LCA)computer programs,this research has selected the Athena Impact Estimator v4.0 to perform parametric studies of structural members made up of different construction materials.The energy consumption values are calculated and compared for columns,beams,concrete suspended slabs,precast double-tee sections and various other floor types.While Athena did offer some insights based on its LCA results,this research has concluded that existing LCA and sustainability analysis programs have too few options to meet the current needs of design professionals.A more accurate,sophisticated whole-building LCA tool needs to be developed to assess sustainable properties of design alternatives and to produce the most sustainable structural systems.

RESEARCH ON NURBS SKINNING SURFACE VIA COMPLEX CURVES

In order to design the production with complex external shapes, a newmethod is put forward using non-uniform rational B-spline(NURBS)curves to unifythe description of complex curves composed of several segments with different degrees,and then these complex curves are used to construct NURBS skinning surface. Somekinds of skills are used to dispose the knot of NURBS curves and surfaces for practicalproblems. Finally, the method is verified by several complex examples.