Nonlinear Study on the Mechanical Performance of Built-Up Cold-Formed Steel Concrete-Filled Columns under Compression

Given their numerous functional and architectural benefits,such as improved bearing capacity and increased resistance to elastic instability modes,cold-formed steel(CFS)built-up sections have become increasingly developed and used in recent years,particularly in the construction industry.This paper presents an analytical and numerical study of assembled CFS two single channel-shaped columns with different slenderness and configurations(backto-back,face-to-face,and box).These columns were joined by double-row rivets for the back-to-back and box configurations,whereas they were welded together for the face-to-face design.The built-up columns were filled with ordinary concrete of good strength.Finite element models were applied,using ABAQUS software,to assess mechanical performance and study the influence of assembly techniques on the behavior of cold-formed columns under axial compression.Analytical approaches based on Eurocode 3 and Eurocode 4 recommendations for un-filled and concrete-filled columns respectively were followed for the numerical analysis,and concrete confinement effects were also considered per American Concrete Institute(ACI)standards for face-to-face and box configurations.The obtained results indicated a good correlation between the numerical results and the proposed analytical methodology which did not exceed 8%.The failure modes showed that the columns failed due to instabilities such as local and global buckling.

Application of Monte Carlo method in rudder control precision

After the trajectory simulation model of rudder control rocket with six degrees of freedom is established by Matlab/ Simulink, the simulated targeting of rudder control rocket with rudder angle error and starting control moment error is carried out respectively by means of Monte Carlo method and the distribution of impact points of rudder control rocket is counted from all the successful subsamples. In the case of adding interference errors associated with rudder angle error and starting time error, the simulation analysis of impact point dispersion is done and its lateral and longitudinal correction abilities at different targeting angles are simulated to identify the effects of these factors on characteristics and control precision of the rudder control rocket, which provides the relevant reference for high-precision design of rudder control system.

Hydrodynamic Performance Analysis of Propeller-rudder System with the Rudder Parameters Changing

In order to study the effects of geometric parameters of the rudder on the hydrodynamic performance of the propeller-rudder system,the surface panel method is used to build the numerical model of the steady interaction between the propeller and rudder to analyze the relevant factors.The interaction between the propeller and rudder is considered through the induced velocities,which are circumferentially averaged,so the unsteady problem is translated to steady state.An iterative calculation method is used until the hydrodynamic performance converges.Firstly,the hydrodynamic performance of the chosen propeller-rudder system is calculated,and the comparison between the calculated results and the experimental data indicates that the calculation program is reliable.Then,the variable parameters of rudder are investigated,and the calculation results show that the propeller-rudder spacing has a negative relationship with the efficiency of the propeller-rudder system,and the rudder span has an optimal match range with the propeller diameter.Futhermore,the rudder chord and thickness both have a positive correlation with the hydrodynamic performance of the propeller-rudder system.

CFD simulation of propeller and rudder performance when using additional thrust fins

To analyse a possible way to improve the propulsion performance of ships,the unstructured grid and the Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes equations were used to calculate the performance of a propeller and rudder fitted with additional thrust fins in the viscous flow field.The computational fluid dynamics software FLUENT was used to simulate the thrust and torque coefficient as a function of the advance coefficient of propeller and the thrust efficiency of additional thrust fins. The pressure and velocity flow behind the propeller was calculated. The geometrical nodes of the propeller were constituted by FORTRAN program and the NUMBS method was used to create a configuration of the propeller,which was then used by GAMMBIT to generate the calculation model. The thrust efficiency of fins was calculated as a function of the number of additional fins and the attack angles. The results of the calculations agree fairly well with experimental data,which shows that the viscous flow solution we present is useful in simulating the performance of propellers and rudders with additional fins.

Design and Comparison of H∞/H2 Controllers for Frigate Rudder Roll Stabilization

Roll motion of ships can be distinguished in two parts:an unavoidable part due to their natural movement while turning and an unwanted and avoidable part that is due to encounter with waves and rough seas in general.For the attenuation of the unwanted part of roll motion,ways have been developed such as addition of controllable fins and changes in shape.This paper investigates the effectiveness of augmenting the rudder used for rejecting part of the unwanted roll,while maintaining steering and course changing ability.For this purpose,a controller is designed,which acts through intentional superposition of fast,compared with course change,movements of rudder,in order to attenuate the high-frequency roll effects from encountering rough seas.The results obtained by simulation to exogenous disturbance support the conclusion that the roll stabilization for displacement can be effective at least when displacement hull vessels are considered.Moreover,robust stability and performance is verified for the proposed control scheme over the entire operating range of interest.

Seismic vulnerability evaluation of axially loaded steel built-up laced members I:experimental results

An experimental program was initiated to investigate the seismic performance of built-up laced steel brace members. Quasi-static testing of twelve typical steel built-up laced member （BLM） specimens was conducted. These were designed to span a range of parameters typically encountered for such members based on findings from a survey of commonly used shapes and details that have been historically used. The specimens were subdivided into groups of three different cross-sectional shapes, namely built-up I-shape section, and built-up box shapes buckling about the x or the y axis. Within each group, global and local buckling slenderness ratios had either kl/r values of 60 or 120, and b/t ratios of 8 or 16. The specific inelastic cyclic behavior germane to each specimen, and general observations on overall member hysteretic behavior as a function of the considered parameters, are reported. A companion paper （Lee and Bruneau 2008） investigates this observed response against predictions from analytical models, and behavior in the perspective of system performance.

Assessment of Human Impacts on Vegetation in Built-up Areas in China Based on AVHRR,MODIS and DMSP_OLS Nighttime Light Data,1992–2010

Since the reform and opening-up program started in 1978,the level of urbanization has increased rapidly in China.Rapid urban expansion and restructuring have had significant impacts on the ecological environment especially within built-up areas.In this study,ArcGIS 10,ENVI 4.5,and Visual FoxPro 6.0 were used to analyze the human impacts on vegetation in the built-up areas of 656Chinese cities from 1992 to 2010.Firstly,an existing algorithm was refined to extract the boundaries of the built-up areas based on the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System(DMSP_OLS)nighttime light data.This improved algorithm has the advantages of high accuracy and speed.Secondly,a mathematical model(Human impacts(HI))was constructed to measure the impacts of human factors on vegetation during rapid urbanization based on Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer(AVHRR)Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI)and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS)NDVI.HI values greater than zero indicate relatively beneficial effects while values less than zero indicate proportionally adverse effects.The results were analyzed from four aspects:the size of cities(metropolises,large cities,medium-sized cities,and small cities),large regions(the eastern,central,western,and northeastern China),administrative divisions of China(provinces,autonomous regions,and municipalities)and vegetation zones(humid and semi-humid forest zone,semi-arid steppe zone,and arid desert zone).Finally,we discussed how human factors impacted on vegetation changes in the built-up areas.We found that urban planning policies and developmental stages impacted on vegetation changes in the built-up areas.The negative human impacts followed an inverted′U′shape,first rising and then falling with increase of urban scales.China′s national policies,social and economic development affected vegetation changes in the built-up areas.The findings can provide a scientific basis for municipal planning departments,a decision-making reference for government,and scientific guidance for sustainable development in China.

Using RANS to Simulate the Interaction and overall Performance of Propellers and Rudders with Thrust Fins

The Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) method, along with the Fluent software package, was used to study the steady and unsteady interaction of propellers and rudders with additional thrust fins.The sliding mesh model was employed to simulate unsteady interactions between the blades, the rudder and the thrust fins.Based on the numerical results, the pressure distribution on the propeller and the efficiency of the fins were calculated as a function of the attack angle.The RANS results were compared with results calculated by the potential method.It was found that the results for the potential method and the RANS method have good consistency, but they yield maximum efficiencies for the fins, and thus corresponding attack angles, that are not identical.

Seismic vulnerability evaluation of axially loaded steel built-up laced members II:evaluations

The test results described in Part 1 of this paper （Lee and Bruneau, 2008） on twelve steel built-up laced members （BLMs） subjected to quasi-static loading are analyzed to provide better knowledge on their seismic behavior. Strength capacity of the BLM specimens is correlated with the strength predicted by the AISC LRFD Specifications. Assessments of hysteretic properties such as ductility capacity, energy dissipation capacity, and strength degradation after buckling of the specimen are performed. The compressive strength of BLMs is found to be relatively well predicted by the AISC LRFD Specifications. BLMs with smaller kl/r were ductile but failed to reach the target ductility of 3.0 before starting to fracture, while those with larger kl/r could meet the ductility demand in most cases. The normalized energy dissipation ratio, EC/ET and the normalized compressive strength degradation, Cr″/Cr of BLMs typically decrease as normalized displacements δ/δb,exp increase, and the ratios for specimens with larger kl/r dropped more rapidly than for specimens with smaller kl/r; similar trends were observed for the monolithic braces. The BLMs with a smaller slenderness ratio, kl/r, and width-to-thickness ratio, b/t, experienced a larger number of inelastic cycles than those with larger ratios.

Space-time Relationship Between Urban Municipal District Adjustment and Built-up Area Expansion in China

Municipal district adjustment and built-up area expansion are two main forms of urban spatial expansion. Using geometric methods, this study constructed a space-time path method to characterize the space-time relationship between municipal district adjustment and built-up area expansion, and drew the space-time path sets of major prefecture level cities from 2000 to 2010 by constructing a coordinate system of the standardized built-up areas and municipal district areas. This divided them into four quadrants, namely, H-H, L-H, L-L, and H-L, based on the relative mean value to evaluate overall and individual stability by three indexes of the trajectory vectors, namely, direction, length, and slope. Results provide the following conclusions. 1) Municipal district adjustment is an effective spatial expansion way for city-scale promotion in China. Since 2000, municipal district adjustments have been mainly distributed in the eastern coastal regions and mid-western capital cities along with their surrounding cities. 2) Municipal district adjustment affects the scale and status of a city in China. Many cities that have expanded municipal districts behave stably and cross quadrants. 3) Great majority second-tier cities have effectively promoted their scale and status through municipal district adjustment. The municipal district adjustment of medium and small cities in the mid-west area is relatively advanced compared with city development. 4) Municipal district adjustment with minimal magnitude is severely restricted from upgrading the scale and status of a city. The transformation from entirely incorporated counties or cities to municipal districts should be the mainstream in future municipal district adjustment.

Finite element investigation of steel built-up shear links subjected to inelastic deformations

Non-linear finite element models accounting for large displacements have been used to investigate the behavior of steel built-up shear links that had previously been tested using large-scale experiments. The links were designed using steel grades with yield points ranging from high to low strengths. The objectives of the numerical analyses were to further investigate the non-linear behavior and to correlate the numerical results with experimental observations. Elasto-plastic as well as cyclic stress-strain material properties were incorporated to study the influence of material behavior on the overall shear link response. Non-linear monotonie analyses of the shear links incorporating the cyclic stress-strain steel properties resulted in similar trends in the response as the backbone curves recorded from the physical experiments. The numerical models of built-up shear links utilizing structural grade steels closely correlated to the experimentally recorded shear strength. Models utilizing low yield point steels overestimated the shear strength, which was caused by the characteristics of cyclic behavior of those steels. The detailed numerical models also allowed for investigation of the plastic strain demands on the different components of the link. It was shown that finite element models combined with appropriate stress-strain relationship may be used with confidence to check the design of shear links of different steel grades and sectional geometries.

Application of H~∞ control in rudder/flap vector robust control of a ship's course

Given the uncertainty of parameters and the random nature of disturbances that effect a ships course, a robust course controller should be designed on the basis of rudder/flap vector control. This paper analyzes system uncertainty, and the choice of weighting functions is also discussed. When sea waves operate on a ship, the energy-concentrating frequency varies with the angle of encounter. For different angles of encounter, different weighting functions are designed. For the pole of a nominal model existing in an imaginary axis, the bilinear-transform method is used. The "2-Riccati" equation is adopted to solve the H∞ controller. A system simulation is given, and the results show that, compared with a PID controller, this system has higher course precision and more robust performance. This research has significant engineering value.

Energy Optimization of the Fin/Rudder Roll Stabilization System Based on the Multi-objective Genetic Algorithm （MOGA）

Energy optimization is one of the key problems for ship roll reduction systems in the last decade. According to the nonlinear characteristics of ship motion, the four degrees of freedom nonlinear model of Fin/Rudder roll stabilization can be established. This paper analyzes energy consumption caused by overcoming the resistance and the yaw, which is added to the fin/rudder roll stabilization system as new performance index. In order to achieve the purpose of the roll reduction, ship course keeping and energy optimization, the self-tuning PID controller based on the multi-objective genetic algorithm （MOGA） method is used to optimize performance index. In addition, random weight coefficient is adopted to build a multi-objective genetic algorithm optimization model. The objective function is improved so that the objective function can be normalized to a constant level. Simulation results showed that the control method based on MOGA, compared with the traditional control method, not only improves the efficiency of roll stabilization and yaw control precision, but also optimizes the energy of the system. The proposed methodology can get a better performance at different sea states.

Stress distribution and fatigue life of built-up sleeved backup roll

The advantage of built-up sleeved backup roll was described. Based on the stress distribution analysis and simulation for the built-up sleeved backup roll by using finite element method, the effects of roll sleeve thickness and shrink range on the stress-strain field were studied. Finally, based on the methodology and strategy of the fatigue analysis, fatigue life of backup roll was estimated by using the stress-strain data obtained through finite element simulation. The results show that roll sleeve thickness and shrink range have a great influence on sleeve stress distribution of built-up sleeved roll. Under the circumstance of ensuring transferring enough torque, the shrink range should be kept small. However, thicker roll sleeve has longer roll service life when the shrink range is constant.

Quantitative Analysis of Spatial Vitality of Urban Built-up Area: A Case Study of Shenzhen

As an important goal of urban design research,the evaluation of urban spatial vitality has been widely concerned.Taking Shenzhen as an example,the urban built-up area of Shenzhen was identifi ed using improved DENsi-Graph analysis,from the perspective of quantifi cation of urban spatial morphological features.The accessibility of urban streets,degree of construction and architectural form,and degree of functional mixing were quantitatively analyzed through space syntax,space matrix and mixeduse index(MXI),and the spatial vitality of urban built-up area was evaluated.Research results demonstrated that the improved Densi-Graph analysis could better identify the built-up area of Shenzhen,and the overall classifi cation accuracy was 0.810.The analysis results of spatial vitality showed that the urban spatial vitality in Shenzhen urban built-up area was well created.The street accessibility of Shenzhen generally hindered the creation of urban vitality;the spatial matrix value in the north of Shenzhen urban built-up area was lower;and the MXI of most areas within the study area was above the medium.

Numerical Simulation of Transverse Jet Interaction with Rudders in Supersonic Free Stream for Simplified Missile

Numerical simulation is carried out for jets arranged at 7 different positions for the same model and compared with non-jet flows.The total and rudder force and moment amplification is calculated and analyzed by the pressure distribution on the surface and rudders of the simplified missile.Numerical results show that interactions take great effect on the configuration of the flow field around rudders and the pressure distribution on the missile surface.

Synchro-control of Twin-rudder with Cloud Model

In ships having two rudders, an angle error exists if there is a difference in structural and electrical parameters in two steering gear systems. Such an error also results in reduced efficiency of ship maneuverability during navigation. For the sake of reducing the angle error, a synchro-ballistic control approach based on cloud model is proposed in this paper. First, the mechanism model of steering gear system is introduced. Second, the structure of synchro-control system of twin-rudder is proposed based on the master-slave control strategy. Third, synchro-ballistic controller based on cloud model is designed to solve the nonlinearity and uncertainty of system. Finally, the designed controller is tested via simulation under two different situations. The simulated results demonstrate that this method is simple and has stronger robustness against the variation of states and parameters of plants. Hence, the validity and reliability of the method is proved for synchro-control of two rudders, which is a significant engineering application.

Numerical Evaluation of Rudder Performance Behind a Propeller in Bollard Pull Condition

Correct evaluation of rudder performance is a key issue in assessing ship maneuverability.This paper presents a simplified approach based on a viscous flow solver to address propeller and rudder interactions.Viscous flow solvers have been applied to this type of problems,but the large computational requests limit(or even prevent)their application at a preliminary ship design stage.Based on this idea,a simplified approach to include the propeller effect in front of the rudder is considered to speed up the solution.Based on the concept of body forces,this approach enables sufficiently fast computation for a preliminary ship design stage,therebymaintaining its reliability.To define the limitations of the proposed procedure,an extensive analysis of the simplified method is performed and the results are compared with experimental data presented in the literature.Initially,the reported results show the capability of the body-force approach to represent the inflow field to the rudder without the full description of the propeller,also with regard to the complex bollard pull condition.Consequently,the rudder forces are satisfactorily predicted at least with regard to the lift force.However,the drag force evaluation ismore problematic and causes higher discrepancies.Nevertheless,these discrepancies may be accepted due to their lower influence on the overall ship maneuverability performance.

Rudder Roll Damping Autopilot Using Dual Extended Kalman Filter–Trained Neural Networks for Ships in Waves

The roll motions of ships advancing in heavy seas have severe impacts on the safety of crews,vessels,and cargoes;thus,it must be damped.This study presents the design of a rudder roll damping autopilot by utilizing the dual extended Kalman filter(DEKF)trained radial basis function neural networks(RBFNN)for the surface vessels.The autopilot system constitutes the roll reduction controller and the yaw motion controller implemented in parallel.After analyzing the advantages of the DEKF-trained RBFNN control method theoretically,the ship’s nonlinear model with environmental disturbances was employed to verify the performance of the proposed stabilization system.Different sailing scenarios were conducted to investigate the motion responses of the ship in waves.The results demonstrate that the DEKF RBFNN based control system is efficient and practical in reducing roll motions and following the path for the ship sailing in waves only through rudder actions.

Study on the Built-up Effect of Inorganic Compounds to Flame Retardant Containing Organophosphorus in Suppression of Smoke

The built-up effect of inorganic compounds containing more active metal ions, such as Ca^2＋ , Al^3＋ , Cu^2＋ , and Zn^2＋ , as additives adding to phosphorus-containing flame retarding systems in suppression of smoke was studied. The data presented herein suggested that the amount of smoke in the burning process can be better suppressed after the cotton fabric finishing with built-up system was burnt. Some general principles were identified, and the likely causes of the observed effects were analyzed according to test data.