In order to minimize the probability of foundation failure resulting from cyclic action on structures, researchers have developed various constitutive models to simulate the foundation response and soil interaction as a result of these complex cyclic loads. The efficiency and effectiveness of these model is majorly influenced by the cyclic constitutive parameters. Although a lot of research is being carried out on these relatively new models, little or no details exist in literature about the model based identification of the cyclic constitutive parameters. This could be attributed to the difficulties and complexities of the inverse modeling of such complex phenomena. A variety of optimization strategies are available for the solution of the sum of least-squares problems as usually done in the field of model calibration. However for the back analysis (calibration) of the soil response to oscillatory load functions, this paper gives insight into the model calibration challenges and also puts forward a method for the inverse modeling of cyclic loaded foundation response such that high quality solutions are obtained with minimum computational effort. Therefore model responses are produced which adequately describes what would otherwise be experienced in the laboratory or field.
Safety operation of important civil structures such as bridges can be estimated by using fracture analysis. Since the analytical methods are not capable of solving many complicated engineering problems, numerical methods have been increasingly adopted. In this paper, a part of isotropic material which contains a crack is considered as a partial model and the proposed model quality is evaluated. EXtended IsoGeometric Analysis (XIGA) is a new developed numerical approach [1, 2] which benefits from advantages of its origins: eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) and IsoGeometric Analysis (IGA). It is capable of simulating crack propagation problems with no remeshing necessity and capturing singular field at the crack tip by using the crack tip enrichment functions. Also, exact representation of geometry is possible using only few elements. XIGA has also been successfully applied for fracture analysis of cracked orthotropic bodies [3] and for simulation of curved cracks [4]. XIGA applies NURBS functions for both geometry description and solution field approximation. The drawback of NURBS functions is that local refinement cannot be defined regarding that it is based on tensorproduct constructs unless multiple patches are used which has also some limitations. In this contribution, the XIGA is further developed to make the local refinement feasible by using Tspline basis functions. Adopting a recovery based error estimator in the proposed approach for evaluation of the model quality and performing the adaptive processes is in progress. Finally, some numerical examples with available analytical solutions are investigated by the developed scheme.
Polymer modification of mortar and concrete is a widely used technique in order to improve their durability properties. Hitherto, the main application fields of such materials are repair and restoration of buildings. However, due to the constant increment of service life requirements and the cost efficiency, polymer modified concrete (PCC) is also used for construction purposes. Therefore, there is a demand for studying the mechanical properties of PCC and entitative differences compared to conventional concrete (CC). It is significant to investigate whether all the assumed hypotheses and existing analytical formulations about CC are also valid for PCC. In the present study, analytical models available in the literature are evaluated. These models are used for estimating mechanical properties of concrete. The investigated property in this study is the modulus of elasticity, which is estimated with respect to the value of compressive strength. One existing database was extended and adapted for polymer-modified concrete mixtures along with their experimentally measured mechanical properties. Based on the indexed data a comparison between model predictions and experiments was conducted by calculation of forecast errors.
In construction engineering, a schedule’s input data, which is usually not exactly known in the planning phase, is considered deterministic when generating the schedule. As a result, construction schedules become unreliable and deadlines are often not met. While the optimization of construction schedules with respect to costs and makespan has been a matter of research in the past decades, the optimization of the robustness of construction schedules has received little attention. In this paper, the effects of uncertainties inherent to the input data of construction schedules are discussed. Possibilities are investigated to improve the reliability of construction schedules by considering alternative processes for certain tasks and by identifying the combination of processes generating the most robust schedule with respect to the makespan of a construction project.