Universitätsbibliothek
Weimar Open Access

This paper extends further the strain smoothing technique in finite elements to 8-noded hexahedral elements (CS-FEM-H8). The idea behind the present method is similar to the cell-based smoothed 4-noded quadrilateral finite elements (CS-FEM-Q4). In CSFEM, the smoothing domains are created based on elements, and each element can be further subdivided into 1 or several smoothing cells. It is observed that: 1) The CS-FEM using a single smoothing cell can produce higher stress accuracy, but insufficient rank and poor displacement accuracy; 2) The CS-FEM using several smoothing cells has proper rank, good displacement accuracy, but lower stress accuracy, especially for nearly incompressible and bending dominant problems. We therefore propose 1) an extension of strain smoothing to 8-noded hexahedral elements and 2) an alternative CS-FEM form, which associates the single smoothing cell issue with multi-smoothing cell one via a stabilization technique. Several numerical examples are provided to show the reliability and accuracy of the present formulation.

Recently, the demand for residence and usage of urban infrastructure has been increased, thereby resulting in the elevation of risk levels of human lives over natural calamities. The occupancy demand has rapidly increased the construction rate, whereas the inadequate design of structures prone to more vulnerability. Buildings constructed before the development of seismic codes have an additional susceptibility to earthquake vibrations. The structural collapse causes an economic loss as well as setbacks for human lives. An application of different theoretical methods to analyze the structural behavior is expensive and time-consuming. Therefore, introducing a rapid vulnerability assessment method to check structural performances is necessary for future developments. The process, as mentioned earlier, is known as Rapid Visual Screening (RVS). This technique has been generated to identify, inventory, and screen structures that are potentially hazardous. Sometimes, poor construction quality does not provide some of the required parameters; in this case, the RVS process turns into a tedious scenario. Hence, to tackle such a situation, multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods for the seismic vulnerability assessment opens a new gateway. The different parameters required by RVS can be taken in MCDM. MCDM evaluates multiple conflicting criteria in decision making in several fields. This paper has aimed to bridge the gap between RVS and MCDM. Furthermore, to define the correlation between these techniques, implementation of the methodologies from Indian, Turkish, and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) codes has been done. The effects of seismic vulnerability of structures have been observed and compared.

Complex vortex flow patterns around bridge piers, especially during floods, cause scour process that can result in the failure of foundations. Abutment scour is a complex three-dimensional phenomenon that is difficult to predict especially with traditional formulas obtained using empirical approaches such as regressions. This paper presents a test of a standalone Kstar model with five novel hybrid algorithm of bagging (BA-Kstar), dagging (DA-Kstar), random committee (RC-Kstar), random subspace (RS-Kstar), and weighted instance handler wrapper (WIHWKstar) to predict scour depth (ds) for clear water condition. The dataset consists of 99 scour depth data from flume experiments (Dey and Barbhuiya, 2005) using abutment shapes such as vertical, semicircular and 45◦ wing. Four dimensionless parameter of relative flow depth (h/l), excess abutment Froude number (Fe), relative sediment size (d50/l) and relative submergence (d50/h) were considered for the prediction of relative scour depth (ds/l). A portion of the dataset was used for the calibration (70%), and the remaining used for model validation. Pearson correlation coefficients helped deciding relevance of the input parameters combination and finally four different combinations of input parameters were used. The performance of the models was assessed visually and with quantitative metrics. Overall, the best input combination for vertical abutment shape is the combination of Fe, d50/l and h/l, while for semicircular and 45◦ wing the combination of the Fe and d50/l is the most effective input parameter combination. Our results show that incorporating Fe, d50/l and h/l lead to higher performance while involving d50/h reduced the models prediction power for vertical abutment shape and for semicircular and 45◦ wing involving h/l and d50/h lead to more error. The WIHW-Kstar provided the highest performance in scour depth prediction around vertical abutment shape while RC-Kstar model outperform of other models for scour depth prediction around semicircular and 45◦ wing.

A computational library for multiscale modeling of material failure

A coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical model of jointed hard rock for compressed air energy storage