56.03 Methoden im Bauingenieurwesen
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VARIATION OF ROTATIONAL RESTRAINT IN GRID DECK CONNECTION DUE TO CORROSION DAMAGE AND STRENGTHENING
(2006)
The approach to assessment of rotational restraint of stringer-to-crossbeam connection in a deck of 100-year old steel truss bridge is presented. Sensitivity of rotational restraint coefficient of the connection to corrosion damage and strengthening is analyzed. Two criteria of the assessment of the rotational restraint coefficient are applied: static and kinematic one. The former is based on bending moment distribution in the considered member, the latter one – on the member rotation at the given joint. 2D-element model of finite element method is described: webs and flanges are modeled with shell elements, while rivets in the connection – with system of beam and spring elements. The method of rivet modeling is verified by T-stub connection test results published in literature. FEM analyses proved that recorded extent of corrosion damage does not alter the initial rotational restraint of stringer-to-crossbeam connection. Strengthening of stringer midspan influences midspan bending moment and stringer end rotation in a different way. Usually restoring member load bearing capacity means strengthening its critical regions (where the highest stress levels occur). This alters flexural stiffness distribution over member length and influences rotational restraint at its connection to other members. The impact depends on criterion chosen for rotational restraint coefficient assessment.
The uncertainty existing in the construction industry is bigger than in other industries. Consequently, most construction projects do not go totally as planned. The project management plan needs therefore to be adapted repeatedly within the project lifecycle to suit the actual project conditions. Generally, the risks of change in the project management plan are difficult to be identified in advance, especially if these risks are caused by unexpected events such as human errors or changes in the client preferences. The knowledge acquired from different resources is essential to identify the probable deviations as well as to find proper solutions to the faced change risks. Hence, it is necessary to have a knowledge base that contains known solutions for the common exceptional cases that may cause changes in each construction domain. The ongoing research work presented in this paper uses the process modeling technique of Event-driven Process Chains to describe different patterns of structure changes in the schedule networks. This results in several so called “change templates”. Under each template different types of change risk/ response pairs can be categorized and stored in a knowledge base. This knowledge base is described as an ontology model populated with reference construction process data. The implementation of the developed approach can be seen as an iterative scheduling cycle that will be repeated within the project lifecycle as new change risks surface. This can help to check the availability of ready solutions in the knowledge base for the situation at hand. Moreover, if the solution is adopted, CPSP, “Change Project Schedule Plan „a prototype developed for the purpose of this research work, will be used to make the needed structure changes of the schedule network automatically based on the change template. What-If scenarios can be implemented using the CPSP prototype in the planning phase to study the effect of specific situations without endangering the success of the project objectives. Hence, better designed and more maintainable project schedules can be achieved.
Monitoring und Bewertung sind Hauptaufgaben im Management bzw. der Revitalisierung von Bauwerken. Unterschiedliche Verfahren können bei der Akquisition der erforderlichen geometrischen Information, wie z. B. Größe oder Verformung eines Gebäudes, eingesetzt werden. Da das Potenzial der digitalen Fotografie kontinuierlich wächst, stellt die Industriephotogrammetrie heute eine bedeutende Alternative zu den klassischen Verfahren wie Dehnmessstreifen oder anderen taktilen Sensoren dar. Moderne Industriephotogrammetrie erfasst die Bilder mittels digitaler Systeme. Dies bedeutet, dass die Information digitaler Bilder mit Hilfe der digitalen Bildverarbeitung untersucht werden muss, um die Bildkoordinaten der Messpunkte zu erhalten. Eine der Aufgaben der Bildverarbeitung für photogrammetrische Zwecke besteht somit darin, den Mittelpunkt von kreisförmigen Marken zu lokalisieren. Die modernen Operatoren liefern Subpixelgenauigkeit für die Koordinaten des Punktes. Das optische Messverfahren der Industriephotogrammetrie erfordert hinsichtlich der Hardware in erster Linie hochauflösende digitale Kameras. Dabei lassen sich die Kameras in Videokameras, HighSpeed-Kameras, intelligente Kameras sowie so genannte Consumer und Professionelle Kameras unterscheiden. Die geometrische Auflösung digitaler HighEnd-Kameras liegt heute bei über 10 Megapixel. In punkto Datentransfer zum Rechner sind verschiedene Standards am Markt verfügbar, z. B. USB2.0, GigE-Vision, CameraLink oder Firewire. Die Wahl des Standards hängt immer von der spezifischen Aufgabenstellung ab, da keine der Techniken eine führende Position einnimmt. Die moderne Photogrammetrie bietet viele neue Möglichkeiten für das Monitoring und die Bewertung von Bauwerken. Sie kann ein-, zwei-, drei- oder vierdimensionale Informationen liefern, falls erforderlich auch in Echtzeit. Als berührungsloses Messverfahren ist der Einsatz der Photogrammetrie noch möglich, wenn die taktilen Sensoren z. B. aufgrund ihres Platzbedarfes nicht mehr eingesetzt werden können. Hochauflösende Videokameras erlauben es, selbst dynamische Untersuchungen mit großer Präzision durchzuführen.
Car following models are used to describe the behavior of a number of cars on the road dependent on the distance to the car in front. We introduce a system of ordinary differential equations and perform a theoretical and numerical analysis in order to find solutions that reflect various traffic situations. We present three different variations of the model motivated by reality.
Die Kommunale Wohnungsgesellschaft mbH Erfurt(KoWo) ist mit ihren rund 20.000 Wohnungen in der Landeshauptstadt das größte Wohnungsunternehmen in Thüringen. Der Immobilienbestand ist heterogen in seinem technischen Zustand und im Bezug auf die unterschiedlichen Lagen der Objekte. Bedingt durch Leerstände und unterschiedliche Modernisierungsmaßnahmen und -stände unterscheidet sich die Wirtschaftlichkeit verschiedener Objekte deutlich. Ohne eine einheitliche Einwertung des Immobilienbestandes im Bezug auf die Objektattraktivität, die Standortqualität und die Objektwirtschaftlichkeit fällt eine langfristige strategische Entwicklung des Immobilienportfolios schwer. Über die Schritte der technischen Bestandserfassung, die Einwertung über ein Scorintmodell, die Abbildung in einem Portfoliomodell mit zugehöriger Normstrategie bis hin zur Weiterverarbeitung der Daten in der 20-jährigen Instandsetzungsplanung wird praxisnah aufgezeigt, wie die Vorgehensweise bei der Einwertung des Immobilienportfolios ist.
The numerical simulation of microstructure models in 3D requires, due to enormous d.o.f., significant resources of memory as well as parallel computational power. Compared to homogeneous materials, the material hetrogeneity on microscale induced by different material phases demand for adequate computational methods for discretization and solution process of the resulting highly nonlinear problem. To enable an efficient/scalable solution process of the linearized equation systems the heterogeneous FE problem will be described by a FETI-DP (Finite Element Tearing and Interconnecting - Dual Primal) discretization. The fundamental FETI-DP equation can be solved by a number of different approaches. In our approach the FETI-DP problem will be reformulated as Saddle Point system, by eliminating the primal and Lagrangian variables. For the reduced Saddle Point system, only defined by interior and dual variables, special Uzawa algorithms can be adapted for iteratively solving the FETI-DP saddle-point equation system (FETI-DP SPE). A conjugate gradient version of the Uzawa algorithm will be shown as well as some numerical tests regarding to FETI-DP discretization of small examples using the presented solution technique. Furthermore the inversion of the interior-dual Schur complement operator can be approximated using different techniques building an adequate preconditioning matrix and therewith leading to substantial gains in computing time efficiency.
Quality is one of the most important properties of a product. Providing the optimal quality can reduce costs for rework, scrap, recall or even legal actions while satisfying customers demand for reliability. The aim is to achieve ``built-in'' quality within product development process (PDP). The common approach therefore is the robust design optimization (RDO). It uses stochastic values as constraint and/or objective to obtain a robust and reliable optimal design. In classical approaches the effort required for stochastic analysis multiplies with the complexity of the optimization algorithm. The suggested approach shows that it is possible to reduce this effort enormously by using previously obtained data. Therefore the support point set of an underlying metamodel is filled iteratively during ongoing optimization in regions of interest if this is necessary. In a simple example, it will be shown that this is possible without significant loss of accuracy.
BAUHAUS ISOMETRY AND FIELDS
(2012)
While integration increases by networking, segregation strides ahead too. Most of us fixate our mind on special topics. Yet we are relying on our intuition too. We are sometimes waiting for the inflow of new ideas or valuable information that we hold in high esteem, although we are not entirely conscious of its origin. We may even say the most precious intuitions are rooting in deep subconscious, collective layers of the mind. Take as a simple example the emergence of orientation in paleolithic events and its relation to the dihedral symmetry of the compass. Consider also the extension of this algebraic matter into the operational structures of the mind on the one hand and into the algebra of geometry, Clifford algebra as we use to call it today, on the other. Culture and mind, and even the individual act of creation may be connected with transient events that are subconscious and inaccessible to cognition in principle. Other events causative for our work may be merely invisible too us, though in principle they should turn out attainable. In this case we are just ignorant of the whole creative process. Sometimes we begin to use unusual tools or turn into handicraft enthusiasts. Then our small institutes turn into workshops and factories. All this is indeed joining with the Bauhaus and its spirit. We shall go together into this, and we shall present a record of this session.
Im Bereich der Altbausanierung und der Bestandserfassung im Bauwesen ist es häufig notwendig, bestehende Pläne hinsichtlich des Bauwerkszustandes zu aktualisieren oder, wenn diese Pläne nicht (mehr) zugänglich sind, gänzlich neue Planunterlagen des Ist-Zustandes zu erstellen. Ein komfortabler Weg, diese Bauwerksdaten zu erheben, eröffnet die Technologie der Laservermessung. Der vorliegende Artikel stellt in diesem Zusammenhang Ansätze zur Teilautomatisierung der Generierung eines dreidimensionalen Computermodells eines Bauwerkes vor. Als Ergebnis wird ein Volumenmodell bereitgestellt, in dem zunächst die geometrischen und topologischen Informationen über Flächen, Kanten und Punkte im Sinne eines B-rep Modells beschrieben sind. Die Objekte dieses Volumenmodells werden mit Verfahren aus dem Bereich der künstlichen Intelligenz analysiert und in Bauteilklassen systematisch kategorisiert. Die Kenntnis der Bauteilsemantik erlaubt es somit, aus den Daten ein Bauwerks-Produktmodell abzuleiten und dieses einzelnen Fachplanern – etwa zur Erstellung eines Energiepasses – zugänglich zu machen. Der Aufsatz zeigt den erfolgreichen Einsatz virtueller neuronaler Netze im Bereich der Bestandserfassung anhand eines komplexen Beispiels.
Unconstrained models are very often found in the broad spectrum of different theories of traffic demand models. In these models there are none or only one-sided restrictions influencing the choice of the individual. However in the traffic demand different deciding dependencies of the traffic volume with regard to the specific conditions of the territory structure potentials exist. Kichhoff and Lohse introduced bi- and tri-linearly constrained models to show these dependencies. In principle, the dependencies are described as hard, elastic and open boundary sum criteria. In this article a model is formulated which gets away from these predefined boundary sum criteria and allows a free determination of minimal and maximal boundary sum criteria. The iterative solution algorithm is shown according to a FURNESS procedure at the same time. With the approach of freely selectable minimal and maximal boundary sum criteria the modeling transport planner gets the possibility to show the traffic event even better. Furthermore all common boundary sum criteria can be calculated with this model. Therewith the often necessary and sensible standard and special cases can also be modeled.
Räume und Gebäude sind heute wegen der enormen Funktionalität der technischen Gebäudeausrüstung (TGA) in Kombination mit der sonstigen Ausstattung und den diversen Anwendungsprozessen und Nutzergruppen ohne innovative Konzepte der integrierten Bedienung kaum noch beherrschbar bzw. optimal nutzbar. Dies gilt sowohl für Wohn- als auch für Zweckimmobilien. Die Gebäudeleittechnik (GLT) und die Gebäudeautomation (GA) können hier unter sinnvoller Integration der Möglichkeiten der Mikroelektronik, Multimedia-, Kommunikations- und Informationstechnik erheblich zu nutzbringenden Innovationen beitragen. Die Automobilindustrie hat in den letzten Jahren gezeigt, wie durch einen integralen Systemansatz und durch Einsatz von Elektronik, Kommunikations- und Informationstechnik eine sinnvolle technische Assistenz der Anwender machbar ist. Genannt sei hier das Konzept des Cockpits mit integrierter Funktionsbündelung und der Informationskonzentration am Armaturenbrett. Im Gegensatz zum Automobil ist der Bereich der technischen Gebäudeausstattung in Wohn- und Nutzimmobilien gekennzeichnet durch eine starke Fragmentierung in unterschiedlichste Gewerke unter Beteiligung vieler oft schlecht koordinierter Akteure. Durch das Duisburger inHaus-Innovationszentrum für Intelligente Raum- und Gebäudesysteme der Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft wurden in den letzten Jahren neuartige Konzepte der Systemintegration heterogener Technik auf der Basis von Middleware-Plattformen und Multimedia-Technologien und -Geräten entwickelt, getestet und in die Anwendung getragen. Einer der ersten Systemanwendungen dieses offenen Infrastrukturkonzepts ist die integrierte Systembedienung mit zum Teil völlig neuen Bedienkonzepten und einer starken Bedienungsvereinfachung auch komplexester Technikausrüstungen in Immobilien. Der Beitrag beschreibt nach einer Analyse der Ausgangslage die technologischen Grundzüge der integrierten Systembedienung. Es folgen einige Anwendungsbeispiele und eine zusammenfassende Bewertung mit einem Ausblick auf weiterführende Aktivitäten.
Mikroelektronik und Mikrosystemtechnik in Kombination mit Informations- und Kommunikations-technik erlauben es mittlerweile, Rechenleistung und Kommunikationsfähigkeit in kleinsten Formaten, mit geringsten Energien und zu günstigen Preisen nutzbringend in unser privates und berufliches Umfeld einzubringen. Beispiele sind Notebook-PC, PDA, Handy und das Navigationßystem im Auto. Aber auch eingebettete Elektronik in Komponenten, Geräten und Systemen ist nunmehr zur Selbstverständlichkeit geworden. Bekannte Beispiele aus der Haustechnik sind Mikroprozeßoren in Heizungs- und Alarmanlagen und aber auch in Komponenten wie Brand- und Bewegungsmelder. Wir nähern uns dem vor einigen Jahren noch als Vision bezeichneten Zustand der überall vorhandenen elektronischen Rechenleistung (engl. ubiquitous computing) bzw. des von Informationsverarbeitung durchdrungenen täglichen Umfelds (engl. pervasive computing). Werden die TGA-Komponenten genau wie die größeren Computerkomponenten (z.B. PCs, Server) über Datenschnittstellen zu räumlich verteilten Netzwerken verknüpft (z.B. Internet, Intranet) und mit einer systemübergreifenden und adäquaten Intelligenz (Software) programmiert, so können neuartige Funktionalitäten im jeweiligen Anwendungsumfeld (engl. ambient intelligence, kurz AmI, [1]) entstehen. Hier liegt bei Gebäuden und Räumen speziell eine große Chance, die bislang einer ganzheitlichen Systemkonzeption unter Einschluß von Architektur, Gebäudephysik, technischer Gebäudeausrüstung (TGA) und Gebäudeautomation (GA) im Wege stehende Gewerketrennung zu überwinden. Es entstehen für div. Anwendungszwecke systemisch integrierte >smart areas< (nach Prof. Becker, FH Biberach). Im vorliegenden Beitrag erläuterte Beispiele für AmI-Lösungen im Immobilienbereich sind Raumsysteme zur automatischen und sicheren Erkennung von Notfällen, z.B. in Pflegeheimen; sich automatisch an die Nutzung und den Nutzer bzgl. Klima und Beleuchtung adaptierende Raumsysteme im Büro- oder Hotelbereich und die elektronische Aßistenz des Bau- und Betriebsprozeßes von Gebäuden. Im Duisburger inHaus-Innovationszentrum für Intelligente Raum- und Gebäudesysteme der Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft wurden in den letzten Jahren erste Lösungen mit diesem neuartigen Ansatz konzipiert, entwickelt und erprobt. Der Beitrag beschreibt nach einer kurzen Skizzierung des Ambient-Intelligence-Ansatzes an Beispielen Möglichkeiten für den Transfer dieser neuen Technologie in den Raum- und Gebäudebereich. Es folgt eine abschließende Zusammenfaßung und eine Einschätzung der Zukunftspotenziale der Ambient Intelligence in Raum und Bau.
The topic of structural robustness is covered extensively in current literature in structural engineering. A few evaluation methods already exist. Since these methods are based on different evaluation approaches, the comparison is difficult. But all the approaches have one in common, they need a structural model which represents the structure to be evaluated. As the structural model is the basis of the robustness evaluation, there is the question if the quality of the chosen structural model is influencing the estimation of the structural robustness index. This paper shows what robustness in structural engineering means and gives an overview of existing assessment methods. One is the reliability based robustness index, which uses the reliability indices of a intact and a damaged structure. The second one is the risk based robustness index, which estimates the structural robustness by the usage of direct and indirect risk. The paper describes how these approaches for the evaluation of structural robustness works and which parameters will be used. Since both approaches needs a structural model for the estimation of the structural behavior and the probability of failure, it is necessary to think about the quality of the chosen structural model. Nevertheless, the chosen model has to represent the structure, the input factors and reflect the damages which occur. On the example of two different model qualities, it will be shown, that the model choice is really influencing the quality of the robustness index.
In distributed project organisations and collaboration there is a need for integrating unstructured self-contained text information with structured project data. We consider this a process of text integration in which various text technologies can be used to externalise text content and consolidate it into structured information or flexibly interlink it with corresponding information bases. However, the effectiveness of text technologies and the potentials of text integration greatly vary with the type of documents, the project setup and the available background knowledge. The goal of our research is to establish text technologies within collaboration environments to allow for (a) flexibly combining appropriate text and data management technologies, (b) utilising available context information and (c) the sharing of text information in accordance to the most critical integration tasks. A particular focus is on Semantic Service Environments that leverage on Web service and Semantic Web technologies and adequately support the required systems integration and parallel processing of semi-structured and structured information. The paper presents an architecture for text integration that extends Semantic Service Environments with two types of integration services. Backbone to the Information Resource Sharing and Integration Service is a shared environment ontology that consolidates information on the project context and the available model, text and general linguistic resources. It also allows for the configuration of Semantic Text Analysis and Annotation Services to analyse the text documents as well as for capturing the discovered text information and sharing it through semantic notification and retrieval engines. A particular focus of the paper is the definition of the overall integration process configuring a complementary set of analyses and information sharing components.
In this paper we evaluate 2D models for soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC), that incorporate the hysteretic nature of the relationship between volumetric water content Θ and suction Ψ. The models are based on nonlinear least squares estimation of the experimental data for sand. To estimate the dependent variable Θ the proposed models include two independent variables, suction and sensors reading position (depth d in the column test). The variable d represents not only the position where suction and water content are measured but also the initial suction distribution before each of the hydraulic loading test phases. Due to this the proposed 2D regression models acquire the advantage that they: (a) can be applied for prediction of Θ for any position along the column and (b) give the functional form for the scanning curves.
The use of virtual reality techniques in the development of educational applications brings new perspectives to the teaching of subjects related to the field of civil construction in Civil Engineering domain. In order to obtain models, which would be able to visually simulate the construction process of two types of construction work, the research turned to the techniques of geometric modelling and virtual reality. The applications developed for this purpose are concerned with the construction of a cavity wall and a bridge. These models make it possible to view the physical evolution of the work, to follow the planned construction sequence and to visualize details of the form of every component of the works. They also support the study of the type and method of operation of the equipment necessary for these construction procedures. These models have been used to distinct advantage as educational aids in first-degree courses in Civil Engineering. Normally, three-dimensional geometric models, which are used to present architectural and engineering works, show only their final form, not allowing the observation of their physical evolution. The visual simulation of the construction process needs to be able to produce changes to the geometry of the project dynamically. In the present study, two engineering construction work models were created, from which it was possible to obtain three-dimensional models corresponding to different states of their form, simulating distinct stages in their construction. Virtual reality technology was applied to the 3D models. Virtual reality capacities allow the interactive real-time viewing of 3D building models and facilitate the process of visualizing, evaluating and communicating.
The main aim of the research project in progress is to develop virtual models as tools to support decision-making in the planning of construction maintenance. The virtual models gives the capacity to allow them to transmit, visually and interactively, information related to the physical behaviour of materials, components of given infrastructures, defined as a function of the time variable. The interactive application allows decisions to be made on conception options in the definition of plans for maintenance, conservation or rehabilitation. The first virtual prototype that is now in progress concerns just lamps. It allows the examination of the physical model, visualizing, for each element modelled in 3D and linked to a database, the corresponding technical information concerned with the wear and tear aspects of the material, calculated for that period of time. In addition, the analysis of solutions for repair work or substitution and inherent cost are predicted, the results being obtained interactively and visualized in the virtual environment itself. The aim is that the virtual model should be able to be applied directly over the 3D models of new constructions, in situations of rehabilitation. The practical usage of these models is directed, then, towards supporting decision-making in the conception phase and the planning of maintenance. In further work other components will be analysed and incorporated into the virtual system.
Die effektive Kooperation aller beteiligten Fachplaner im Bauplanungsprozess ist die Voraussetzung für wirtschaftliches und qualitativ hochwertiges Bauen. Bauprojektorganisationen bestehen in der Regel aus zahlreichen unabhängigen Planungspartnern, die örtlich verteilt spezifische Planungsaufgaben bearbeiten und die Ergebnisse in Teilproduktmodellen ablegen. Da Planungsprozesse im Bauwesen stark arbeitsteilig ablaufen, sind die Teilproduktmodelle der einzelnen Fachplanungen in hohem Maße voneinander abhängig. Ziel des hier vorgestellten Ansatzes ist die Integration der Teilproduktmodelle der Gebäudeplanung in einem netzwerkbasierten Modellverbund am Beispiel der Brandschutzplanung. Im Beitrag werden die Probleme der Verteiltheit und insbesondere der semantischen Heterogenität der involvierten Teilproduktmodelle betrachtet. Der verteilte Zugriff wird mithilfe mobiler Software-Agenten realisiert. Die Agenten können sich dabei frei im netzwerkbasierten Planungsverbund bewegen und agieren als Vertreter der Fachplaner. Das Problem der semantischen Heterogenität der Teilproduktmodelle wird auf der Basis von Ontologien gelöst. Dazu werden erstens Domänenontologien entwickelt, die Objekte der realen Welt einer abgeschlossenen Domäne, hier des Brandschutzes, abbilden. Zweitens werden Applikationsontologien entwickelt, die die einzelnen proprietären Datenhaltungen (im Sinne von Teilproduktmodellen) der jeweiligen Fachplanungen repräsentieren. Beide Ontologien werden mit einem regelbasierten Ansatz verknüpft. Im vorgestellten Anwendungsfall Brandschutz dient die Domänenontologie als einheitliche Schnittstelle für den Zugriff auf die verteilten Modelle und abstrahiert dabei von deren Datenbankspezifika und proprietären Schemata. Mithilfe von mobilen Agenten und semantischen Technologien kann so eine Plattform zur Verfügung gestellt werden, die erstens die dynamische Integration von Ressourcen in den Planungsverbund erlaubt und zweitens auf deren Basis unabhängig von der Verteiltheit und Heterogenität der eingebundenen Ressourcen ingenieurgerechte Verarbeitungsmethoden realisiert werden können.
The changed global security situation in the last eight years has shown the importance of emergency management plans in public buildings. Therefore, the use of computer simulators for surveying fire safety design and evacuation process is increasing. The aim of these simulators is to have more realistic evacuation simulations. The challenge is, firstly, to realize the virtual simulation environment based on geometrical and material boundary conditions, secondly, to considerate the mutual interaction effects between different parameters and, finally, to have a realistic visualization of the simulated results. In order to carry out this task, an especial new software method on a BIM-platform has to be developed which can integrate all required simulations and will be able to have an immersive output BIM ISEE (Immersive Safety Engineering Environment). The new BIM-ISEE will integrate the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) for fire and evacuation simulation in the Autodesk Revit which is a BIM-platform and will represent the simulation results in the immersive virtual environment at the institute (CES-Lab). With BIM-ISEE the fire safety engineer will be able to obtain more realistic visualizations in the immersive environment, to modify his concept more effectively, to evaluate the simulation results more accurately and to visualize the various simulation results. It can also give the rescue staff the opportunity to perform and evaluate emergency evacuation trainings.
The growing competition pressure in the building industry increases the demands on the design and construction processes in respect to economical, technical and time aspects. These demands require efficient improvements of the value-added chain, which can be realized mainly with the usage of innovative information- and communication-technologies. To support the collaboration of all participants involved in a certain building project the Workflow-Management-System “BauKom-Online” has been developed. In the focus of the system is to support the coordination of the participants and their information exchange. Such a software-method is well suited to ensure a high quality planning process. The modelling of business-processes enables a better self-comprehension of the participants work and helps to enhance the project performance. The system architecture of BauKom-Online contains two basic components: the processmodelling tool and the workflow-engine. The process-model contains of activities and states of the planning and construction processes and their relations. These connected processes compose the workflow. Such a process-model for engineering purposes has to satisfy several needs, e.g., the consideration of planning and building alternatives, dynamic changes of the model during execution of the project and the linkage to further technical objects like costs, building structure, specifications and documentmanagement. Furthermore, the scheduling of the project can be done within the process-model and can be visualized as a Gantt-diagram. ...
As a result of the pilot-project “Grundwasser-Online” the supervision and the active controlling of large monitoring- and catchment-areas are realised by a co-operative integration of all related institutions, a synchronisation-process to combine all distributed data into one central server database, and a high-level eGovernment-Service to provide evaluated information over the internet. Based on this software system the local authorities are able to supervise the groundwater-levels and to find adequate decisions, which finally result in official permissions for the usage of groundwater-reservoirs by the water supply companies.
Durch die Betrachtung des Produktions-Prozesses als zentrales Transformationselement wird die Struktur der Bauproduktion realitätsnah gefasst. Die Integration der prozessorientierten Kostendefinition setzt relevante Kostenparameter und Produktionsfaktoren so in Beziehung, dass sie im Einklang mit der realen Kostenstruktur und Kostendynamik einer Baustelle stehen. Die Beziehung zwischen Bauzeit und Kosten wird direkt erfasst und ausgewertet. Der hohen Dynamik der Bauproduktion zwischen kapazitätsbeschränkten Einsatzmitteln und Produktionsprozessen wurde durch das Poolmodell und der Simulation als Berechnungsmethode Rechnung getragen. Eine einfache Modellierung von sich zyklusartig wiederholenden Arbeitsvorgängen (Taktplanung) ist möglich. Die Taktbildung vollzieht sich bei der Simulation durch Kapazitätsbeschränkungen ohne Zutun des Benutzers. Durch eine Optimierungsmethode kann automatisiert nach der kostengünstigsten oder zeitlich schnellsten Produktionsvariante gesucht werden
MODELLING THE PLASTIC HINGE IN THE STATICALLY INDETERMINABLE REINFORCED CONCRETE BAR ELEMENTS
(2006)
The paper presents the example numerical model to calculate the reinforced concrete bar structures. Usually applied methods of structure dimensioning do not include the case of plastic hinges occurrence under the limit load of construction. The model represented by A. Borcz is based on the differential equation of deflection line of the beam and it includes the effects of rearrangement of the internal forces and reological effects. The experimental parameters obtained in earlier investigations describe effects resulting from the rise of plastic hinges in the proposed equation.
We present the way of calculation of displacement in the bent reinforced concrete bar elements where rearrangement of internal forces and plastic hinge occurred. The described solution is based on prof. Borcz’s mathematical model. It directly takes into consideration the effects connected with the occurrence of plastic hinge, such as for example a crack, by means of a differential equation of axis of the bent reinforced concrete beam. The EN Eurocode 2 makes it possible to consider the influence of plastic hinge on the values of the reinforced concrete structures. This influence can also be assumed using other analytical methods. However, the results obtained by the application of Eurocode 2 are higher from those received in testing. Just comparably big error level occurs when calculations are made by means of Borcz’s method, but in the latter case, the results depend on the assumptions made beforehand. This method makes it possible to apply the experimental results using parameters r1 i r0. When the experimental results are taken into account, one could observe the compatibility between the calculations and actual deflections of the structure.
The Laguerre polynomials appear naturally in many branches of pure and applied mathematics and mathematical physics. Debnath introduced the Laguerre transform and derived some of its properties. He also discussed the applications in study of heat conduction and to the oscillations of a very long and heavy chain with variable tension. An explicit boundedness for some class of Laguerre integral transforms will be present.
In photogrammetry and computer vision the trifocal tensor is used to describe the geometric relation between projections of points in three views. In this paper we analyze the stability and accuracy of the metric trifocal tensor for calibrated cameras. Since a minimal parameterization of the metric trifocal tensor is challenging, the additional constraints of the interior orientation are applied to the well-known projective 6-point and 7-point algorithms for three images. The experimental results show that the linear 7-point algorithm fails for some noise-free degenerated cases, whereas the minimal 6-point algorithm seems to be competitive even with realistic noise.
Several results concerning the distribution of the headway of busses in the flow behind a traffic signal are presented. In the main focus of interest is the description of analytical models, which are verified by the results of Monte-Carlo-Methods. The advantage of analytical models (verified, but not derived by simulation methods) is their flexibility with respect to possible generalizations. For instance, several random distributions of the flow incoming to the traffic signal can be compared. The attention will be directed at the question, how the primary headway H (analyzed in front of the traffic signal) is mapped to the headway H’ analyzed behind of the traffic signal and how the random distribution of H is mapped to that of H’. For the traffic flow in front of the traffic signal several models will be discussed. The first case considers the situation, that busses operate on a common lane with the individual motor car traffic and the traffic flow is saturated. In the second situation, busses operate on a separated bus lane. Moreover, a mixed situation is discussed to model as close to reality as possible.
This research focuses on the Case-based Reasoning paradigm in architectural design (CBD) and education. Initial point for further exploring this only seemingly comprehensive investigated field of research constitutes the finding that promising looking concepts exist but that they do not play a role in daily routine of designing architects or in university education. In search of reasons for this limited success a critical review of the CBR approach to architectural education and design was performed. The aim was to identify gaps in the CBD research and to discover potential fields of research within CBR research in architectural education and design to improve acceptance and practical suitability. Two major shortcomings could be identified. In the first place the way retrieval mechanisms of systems under investigation relate to the needs of architectural designers and students. At second: Successful CBD systems rely on the work of third-parties in sharing their experiences with others and filling the databases with relevant cases. Therefore two questions remain unanswered: The question of which projects become part of the database and how get existing projects not only described but evaluated. This is an essential task and prerequisite to meet the requirements of the underlying theory of CBR.
By the use of numerical methods and the rapid development of computer technology in the recent years, a large variety, complexity, refinement and capability of partial models have been achieved. This can be noticed in the evaluation of the reliability of structures, e.g. the increased use of spatial structural systems. For the different fields of civil engineering, well developed partial models already exist. Because these partial models are most often used separately, the general view is not entirely illustrated. Until now, there has been no common methodology for evaluating the efficiency of models; the trust in the prediction of a special engineering model has generally relied on the engineer’s experience. In this paper the basics of evaluation of simple models and coupled partial models of frame structures will be discussed using sustainable numerical methods. Furthermore, quality classes (levels) of design tasks will be defined based on their practical relevance. In addition, analysis methods will be systemized. After analysis of different published assessment methods, it may be noted, that the Efficiency Indicator Method (EWM) is most suitable for the observed evaluation problem. Therefore, the EWM was modified to the Model Efficiency Analysis (MEA) for the purpose of a holistic evaluation. The criteria are characterized by two groups, benefit and expenditure, and it is possible by calculating the quotient (benefit/expenditure) to make a statement about the efficiency of the observed models. Presently, the expenditure value is not a subject of investigation, and so the model efficiency is calculated only by the benefit value. This paper also contains the associated criteria catalog, different normalization methods, as well as weighting possibilities.
In the paper presented, reinforced concrete shells of revolution are analyzed in both meridional and circumferential directions. Taking into account the physical non-linearity of the material, the internal forces and the deflections of the shell as well as the strain distribution at the cross-sections are calculated. The behavior of concrete under compression is described by linear and non-linear stress-strain relations. The description of the behavior of concrete under tension must account for tension stiffening effects. A tri-linear function is used to formulate the material law of reinforcement. The problem cannot be solved analytically due to the physical non-linearity. Thus a numerical solution is formulated by means of the LAGRANGE Principle of the minimum of the total potential energy. The kinematically admissible field of deformation is defined by the displacements u in the meridional and w in the radial direction. These displacements must satisfy the equations of compatibility and the kinematical boundary conditions of the shell. The strains are linearly distributed across the wall thickness. The strain energy depends on the specific of the material behavior. Using integral formulations of the material law [1], the strain energy of each part of the cross-section is defined as a function of the strains at the boundaries of the cross-sections. The shell is discretised in the meridional direction. Various methods of numerical differentiation and numerical integration are applied in order to determine the deformations and the strain energy. The unknown displacements u and w are calculated by a non-restricted extremum problem based on the minimum of the total potential energy. From mathematical point of view, the objective function is a convex function, thus the minimum can be determined without difficulty. The advantage of this formulation is that unlike non-linear methods with path-following algorithms the calculation does not have to account for changing stiffness and load increments. All iterations necessary to find the solution are integrated into the “Solver”. The model presented provides many ways of investigating the influence of various material parameters on the stresses and deformations of the entire shell structure.
The presented method for an physically non-linear analysis of stresses and deformations of composite cross-sections and members based on energy principles and their transformation to non-linear optimisation problems. From the LAGRANGE principle of minimum of total potential energy a kinematic formulation of the mechanical problem can be developed, which has the general advantage that pre-deformations excited by shrinkage, temperature, residual deformations after unloading et al., can be considered directly. Thus the non-linear analysis of composite cross-sections with layers of different mechanical properties and different preloading becomes possible and cracks in concrete, stiffness degradation and other specifics of the material behaviour can be taken into account without cardinal modification of the mathematical model. The impact of local defects on the bearing capacity of an entire element can also be analysed in this principle way. Standard computational systems for mathematical optimisation or general programs for spreadsheet analysis enable an uncomplicated implementation of the developed models and an effective non-linear analysis for composite cross-sections and elements.
An energy method based on the LAGRANGE Principle of the minimum of total potential en-ergy is presented to calculate the stresses and strains of composite cross-sections. The stress-strain relation of each partition of the cross-section can be an arbitrary piecewise continuous function. The strain energy is transformed into a line integral by GAUSS’s integral theorem. The total strain of each partition of the cross-section is split into load-dependent strain and pre-strain. Pre-strains have to be taken into account when the cross-section is pre-stressed, retrofit-ted or influenced by shrinkage, temperature etc. The unconstrained minimum problem can be solved for each load combination using standard software. The application of the method presented in the paper is demonstrated by means of examples.
A new approach to the non-linear analysis of cross-sections loaded by normal forces and bending moments is presented in the paper. The mechanical model is based on the LAGRANGE principle of minimum of total potential energy. Deformations, stresses and limit load parameters are obtained by solving a non-linear optimisation problem. The mathematical model is independent of the specifics of material. In addition to the stress strain relation and the specific strain energy W(ε) two further functions F(ε) and Φ(ε) are introduced to describe the material behaviour. Thus cracks in concrete, non-linearity of material etc. can be taken into account without basic modification of the numerical algorithm. For polygonal cross-sections the GAUSS' integral theorem is used. Numerical solutions of the non-linear optimisation problems can be found by application of standard software. Thus the analysis of reinforced concrete cross-sections or more general composite cross-sections with non-linear behaviour of material is as simple as in the case of linear elasticity. The application of the method is demonstrated for polygonal cross-sections. Pre-stresses or pre-strains can easily be included in the mathematical model.
As numerical techniques for solving PDE or integral equations become more sophisticated, treatments of the generation of the geometric inputs should also follow that numerical advancement. This document describes the preparation of CAD data so that they can later be applied to hierarchical BEM or FEM solvers. For the BEM case, the geometric data are described by surfaces which we want to decompose into several curved foursided patches. We show the treatment of untrimmed and trimmed surfaces. In particular, we provide prevention of smooth corners which are bad for diffeomorphism. Additionally, we consider the problem of characterizing whether a Coons map is a diffeomorphism from the unit square onto a planar domain delineated by four given curves. We aim primarily at having not only theoretically correct conditions but also practically efficient methods. As for FEM geometric preparation, we need to decompose a 3D solid into a set of curved tetrahedra. First, we describe some method of decomposition without adding too many Steiner points (additional points not belonging to the initial boundary nodes of the boundary surface). Then, we provide a methodology for efficiently checking whether a tetrahedral transfinite interpolation is regular. That is done by a combination of degree reduction technique and subdivision. Along with the method description, we report also on some interesting practical results from real CAD data.
Major problems of applying selective sensitivity to system identification are requirement of precise knowledge about the system parameters and realization of the required system of forces. This work presents a procedure which is able to deriving selectively sensitive excitation by iterative experiments. The first step is to determine the selectively sensitive displacement and selectively sensitive force patterns. These values are obtained by introducing the prior information of system parameters into an optimization which minimizes the sensitivities of the structure response with respect to the unselected parameters while keeping the sensitivities with respect to the selected parameters as a constant. In a second step the force pattern is used to derive dynamic loads on the tested structure and measurements are carried out. An automatic control ensures the required excitation forces. In a third step, measured outputs are employed to update the prior information. The strategy is to minimize the difference between a predicted displacement response, formulated as function of the unknown parameters and the measured displacements, and the selectively sensitive displacement calculated in the first step. With the updated values of the parameters a re-analysis of selective sensitivity is performed and the experiment is repeated until the displacement response of the model and the actual structure are conformed. As an illustration a simply supported beam made of steel, vibrated by harmonic excitation is investigated, thereby demonstrating that the adaptive excitation can be obtained efficiently.
The paper presents a linear static analysis on continuous orthotropic thin-walled shell structures simply supported at the transverse ends with a random deformable contour of the cross section. The external loads can be random as well. The class of this structures involves most of the bridges, scaffold bridges, some roof structures etc. A numerical example of steel continuous structures on five spans with an open contour of the cross-section has been solved. The examination of the structure has used the following two computation models: a prismatic structure consisting of isotropic strips, a plates and ribs, with considering their real interaction, and a smooth orthotropic plate equivalent to the structure in the first model. The displacements and forces of the structure characterizing its stressed and deformed condition have been determined. The results obtained from the two solutions have been analyzed. The study on the structure is made with the force method in combination with the analytical finite strip method (AFSM) in displacements. The basic system is obtained by separating the superstructure from the understructure at the places of intermediate supports and consists of two parts. The first part is a single span thin-walled prismatic shell structure; the second part presents supports (columns, space frames etc.). The connection between the superstructure and intermediate supports is made under random supporting conditions. The forces at the supporting points in the direction of the connections removed are assumed to be the basic unknowns of the force method. The solution of the superstructure has been accomplished by the AFSM in displacements. The structure is divided in only one (transverse) direction into a finite number of plain strips connected to each other in longitudinal linear nodes. The three displacements of the points on the node lines and the rotation around those lines have been assumed to be the basic unknown in each node. The boundary conditions of each strip of the basic system correspond to the simply support along the transverse ends and the restraint along the longitudinal ones. The particular strip of the basic system has been solved by the method of the single trigonometric series. The method is reduced to solving a discrete structure in displacements and restoring its continuity at the places of the sections made in respect to both the displacements and forces. The two parts of the basic system have been solved in sequence under the action of single values of each of the basic unknowns and with the external load. The solution of the support part is accomplished using software for analyzing structures by the FEM. The basic unknown forces have been determined from system of canonic equations, the conditions of the deformations continuity on the places of the removed connections under superstructure and intermediate supports. The final displacements and forces at a random point of a continuous superstructure have been determined using the principle of superposition. The computations have been carried by software developed with Visual Fortran version 5.0 for PC.
Let the information of a civil engineering application be decomposed into objects of a given set of classes. Then the set of objects forms the data base of the application. The objects contain attributes and methods. Properties of the objects are stored in the attributes. Algorithms which the objects perform are implemented in the methods of the objects. If objects are modified by a user, the consistency of data in the base is destroyed. The data base must be modified in an update to restore its consistency. The sequence of the update operations is not arbitrary, but is governed by dependence between the objects. The situation can be described mathematically with graph theory. The available algorithms for the determination of the update sequence are not suitable when the data base is large. A new update algorithm for large data bases has been developed and is presented in this paper.
The paper is dedicated to decidability exploration of market segmentation problem with the help of linear convolution algorithms. Mathematical formulation of this problem represents interval task of bipartite graph cover by stars. Vertices of the first partition correspond to types of commodities, vertices of the second – to customers groups. Appropriate method is offered for interval problem reduction to two-criterion task that has one implemented linear convolution algorithm. Unsolvability with the help of linear convolution algorithm of multicriterion, and consequently interval, market segmentation problem is proved.
Integrated Engineering Workflow focused on the Structural Engineering in the Industrial Environment
(2004)
The engineering and construction industry has been slow to exploit the full potential of information technology. The industry is highly fragmented, price sensitive, risk-adverse, and profit margins are small. Each project is unique with a small amount of technological innovation opportunities to capitalise on from one project to the next. Technological innovations that have been taking place are just simulating the old traditional paper workflow. Engineering information in digital form is being conveyed using traditional paper representations, which have to be interpreted by humans before the information can be used in other applications, thereby creating ‘islands of information’. It can be seen that poorly implemented IT strategies are duplicating paperwork, rather than reducing or eliminating it (Crowley et al., 2000). This paper will introduce the Integrated Engineering Workflow (IEW) concept to re-organise a structural discipline working on multi-disciplinary projects so as to maximise the advantages offered by new information technology.
Water resources development and management is a complex problem. It includes the design and operation of single system components, often as part of larger interrelated systems and usually on the basis of river basins. While several decades ago the dominant objective was the maximization of economic benefit, other objectives have evolved as part of the sustainable development envisaged. Today, planning and operation of larger water resources systems is practically impossible without adequate computer tools, normally being one or several models, increasingly combined with data bank management systems and multi criteria assessment procedures in decision support systems. The use of models in civil engineering already has a long history when structural engineering is considered. These design support models, however, must rather be seen as expert systems made to support the engineer with his daily work. They often have no direct link to stakeholders and the decision makers community. The scale of investigation is often much larger in water resources engineering than in structural engineering which is related to different stakeholders and decision making procedures. Still, several similarities are obvious which can be summarized as the search for a compromise solution on a complex, i.e. multiobjective and interdisciplinary decision problem. While in structural engineering e.g. aestetics, stability and energy consumption might be important evaluation criteria in addition to construction and maintenance cost other or additional criteria have to be considered in water resources planning such as political, environmental and social criteria. In this respect civil engineers tend to overemphasize technical criteria. For the future the existing expert systems should be embedded into an improved decision support shell, keeping in mind that decision makers are hardly interested in numerical modelling results. The paper will introduce into the problem and demonstrate the state of the art by means of an example.
Nonlinear analyses are characterised by approximations of the fundamental equations in different quality. Starting with a general description of nonlinear finite element formulation the fundamental equations are derived for plane truss elements. Special emphasis is placed on the determination of internal and external system energy as well as influence of different quality approaches for the displacement-strain relationship on solution quality. To simplify the solution procedure the nonlinear function describing the kinematics is expanded into a Taylor series and truncated after the n-th series term. The different kinematics influence speed of convergence as well as exactness of solution. On a simple truss structure this influence is shown. To assess the quality of different formulations concerning the nonlinear kinematic equation three approaches are discussed. First the overall internal and external energy is compared for different kinematical models. In a second step the energy content related to single terms describing displacement-strain relationship is investigated and used for quality control following two different paths. Based on single ε-terms an adaptive scheme is used to change the kinematical model depending on increasing nonlinearity of the structure. The solution quality has turned out satisfactory compared to the exact result. More detailed investigations are necessary to find criteria for the threshold values for the iterative process as well as for decision on number and step size of incremental load steps.
This study contributes to the identification of coupled THM constitutive model parameters via back analysis against information-rich experiments. A sampling based back analysis approach is proposed comprising both the model parameter identification and the assessment of the reliability of identified model parameters. The results obtained in the context of buffer elements indicate that sensitive parameter estimates generally obey the normal distribution. According to the sensitivity of the parameters and the probability distribution of the samples we can provide confidence intervals for the estimated parameters and thus allow a qualitative estimation on the identified parameters which are in future work used as inputs for prognosis computations of buffer elements. These elements play e.g. an important role in the design of nuclear waste repositories.
Sand-bentonite mixtures are well recognized as buffer and sealing material in nuclear waste repository constructions. The behaviour of compacted sand-bentonite mixture needs to be well understood in order to guarantee the safety and the efficiency of the barrier construction. This paper presents numerical simulations of swelling test and coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) test on compacted sand-bentonite mixture in order to reveal the influence of the temperature and hydraulic gradients on the distribution of temperature, mechanical stress and water content in such materials. Sensitivity analysis is carried out to identify the parameters which influence the most the response of the numerical model. Results of back analysis of the model parameters are reported and critically assessed.
A four-node quadrilateral shell element with smoothed membrane-bending based on Mindlin-Reissner theory is proposed. The element is a combination of a plate bending and membrane element. It is based on mixed interpolation where the bending and membrane stiffness matrices are calculated on the boundaries of the smoothing cells while the shear terms are approximated by independent interpolation functions in natural coordinates. The proposed element is robust, computationally inexpensive and free of locking. Since the integration is done on the element boundaries for the bending and membrane terms, the element is more accurate than the MITC4 element for distorted meshes. This will be demonstrated for several numerical examples.
Monogenic functions play a role in quaternion analysis similarly to that of holomorphic functions in complex analysis. A holomorphic function with nonvanishing complex derivative is a conformal mapping. It is well-known that in Rn+1, n ≥ 2 the set of conformal mappings is restricted to the set of Möbius transformations only and that the Möbius transformations are not monogenic. The paper deals with a locally geometric mapping property of a subset of monogenic functions with nonvanishing hypercomplex derivatives (named M-conformal mappings). It is proved that M-conformal mappings orthogonal to all monogenic constants admit a certain change of solid angles and vice versa, that change can characterize such mappings. In addition, we determine planes in which those mappings behave like conformal mappings in the complex plane.
A numerical analysis of the mode of deformation of the main load-bearing components of a typical frame sloping shaft headgear was performed. The analysis was done by a design model consisting of plane and solid finite elements, which were modeled in the program «LIRA». Due to the numerical results, the regularities of local stress distribution under a guide pulley bearing were revealed and parameters of a plane stress under both emergency and normal working loads were determined. In the numerical simulation, the guidelines to improve the construction of the joints of guide pulleys resting on sub-pulley frame-type structures were established. Overall, the results obtained are the basis for improving the engineering procedures of designing steel structures of shaft sloping headgear.
In spite of the extensive research in dynamic soil-structure interaction (SSI), there still exist miscon-ceptions concerning the role of SSI in the seismic performance of structures, especially the ones founded on soft soil. This is due to the fact that current analytical SSI models that are used to evaluate the influence of soil on the overall structural behavior are approximate models and may involve creeds and practices that are not always precise. This is especially true in the codified approaches which in-clude substantial approximations to provide simple frameworks for the design. As the direct numerical analysis requires a high computational effort, performing an analysis considering SSI is computationally uneconomical for regular design applications. This paper outlines the set up some milestones for evaluating SSI models. This will be achieved by investigating the different assumptions and involved factors, as well as varying the configurations of R/C moment-resisting frame structures supported by single footings which are subject to seismic excita-tions. It is noted that the scope of this paper is to highlight, rather than fully resolve, the above subject. A rough draft of the proposed approach is presented in this paper, whereas a thorough illustration will be carried out throughout the presentation in the course of the conference.
Low-skilled labor makes a significant part of the construction sector, performing daily production tasks that do not require specific technical knowledge or confirmed skills. Today, construction market demands increasing skill levels. Many jobs that were once considered to be undertaken by low or un-skilled labor, now demand some kind of formal skills. The jobs that require low skilled labor are continually decreasing due to technological advancement and globalization. Jobs that previously required little or no training now require skilful people to perform the tasks appropriately. The study aims at ameliorating employability of less skilled manpower by finding ways to instruct them for performing constructions tasks. A review of exiting task instruction methodologies in construction and the underlying gaps within them warrants an appropriate way to train and instruct low skilled workers for the tasks in construction. The idea is to ensure the required quality of construction with technological and didactic aids seeming particularly purposeful to prepare potential workers for the tasks in construction without exposing them to existing communication barriers. A BIM based technology is considered promising along with the integration of visual directives/animations to elaborate the construction tasks scheduled to be carried on site.
MODEL DESCRIBING STATIC AND DYNAMIC DISPLACEMENTS OF SILOS WALL DURING THE FLOW OF LOOSE MATERIAL
(2012)
Correct evaluation of wall displacements is a key matter when designing silos. This issue is important from both the standpoint of design engineer (load-bearing capacity of structures) and end-consumer (durability of structures). Commonplace methods of silo design mainly focus on satisfying limit states of load-bearing capacity. Current standards fail to specify methods of dynamic displacements analysis. Measurements of stressacting on silo walls prove that the actual stress is sum of static and dynamic stresses. Janssen came up with differential equation describing state of static equilibrium in cross-section of a silo. By solving the equation static stress of granular solid on silo walls can be determined. Equations of motion were determined from equilibrium equations of feature objects. General solution, describing dynamic stresses was presented as parametric model. This paper presents particular integrals of differential equation, which enable analysing displacements and vibrations for different rigidities of silo walls, types of granular solid and its flow rate.
The paper is a proposal of calculation of internal forces and dislocations in the reinforced concrete beams before and after cracking. For the ideally elastic bars transfer matrix proposed by Rakowski was applied. The effects associated with cracking were introduced by means of the Borcz's theory in the spectrally way. Numerical example was shown. The presented attitude also enables to calculate dynamic problems and those connected with the stability of the compressed and bending cracked beams and columns.
In this paper experimental studies and numerical analysis carried out on reinforced concrete beam are partially reported. They aimed to apply the rigid finite element method to calculations for reinforced concrete beams using discrete crack model. Hence rotational ductility resulting from crack occurrence had to be determined. A relationship for calculating it in static equilibrium was proposed. Laboratory experiments proved that dynamic ductility is considerably smaller. Therefore scaling of the empirical parameter was carried out. Consequently a formula for its value depending on reinforcement ratio was obtained.
DISCRETE CRACK MODEL OF BORCZ FOR CALCULATING THE DEFLECTIONS OF BENDING REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAM
(2012)
In the design of the reinforced concrete beams loaded by the bending moment, it is assumed that the structure can be used at a level of load, that there are local discontinuities - cracks. Designing the element demands checking two limit states of construction, load capacity and usability. Limit states usability include also the deflection of the element. Deflections in the reinforced concrete beams with cracks are based on actual rigidity of the element. After cracking there is a local change in rigidity of the beam. The rigidity is variable in the element’s length and due to the heterogeneous structure of concrete, it is not possible to clearly describe those changes. Most standards of testing methods tend to simplify the calculations and take the average value of the beam’s rigidity on its entire length. The rigidity depends on the level of the maximal load of the beam. Experimental researches verify the value by inserting the coefficients into the formulas used in the theory of elasticity. The researches describe the changes in rigidity in the beam’s length more precisely. The authors take into consideration the change of rigidity, depending on the level of maximum load (continuum models), or localize the changes in rigidity in the area of the cracks (discrete models). This paper presents one of the discrete models. It is distinguished by the fact that the left side of the differential equation, that depends on the rigidity, is constant, and all effects associated with the scratches are taken as the external load and placed on the right side of the equation. This allows to generalize the description. The paper presents a particular integral of the differential equation, which allow analyzing the displacement and vibration for different rigidity of the silo’s walls, the flow rate and type of the flowing material.
FREE VIBRATION FREQUENCIES OF THE CRACKED REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS - METHODS OF CALCULATIONS
(2010)
The paper presents method of calculation of natural frequencies of the cracked reinforced concrete beams including discreet model of crack. The described method is based on the stiff finite elements method. It was modified in such a way as to take into account local discontinuities (ie. cracks). In addition, some theoretical studies as well as experimental tests of concrete mechanics based on discrete crack model were taken into consideration. The calculations were performed using the author’s own numerical algorithm. Moreover, other calculation methods of dynamic reinforced concrete beams presented in standards and guidelines are discussed. Calculations performed by using different methods are compared with the results obtained in experimental tests.
This article presents the Rigid Finite Element Method in the calculation of reinforced concrete beam deflection with cracks. Initially, this method was used in the shipbuilding industry. Later, it was adapted in the homogeneous calculations of the bar structures. In this method, rigid mass discs serve as an element model. In the flat layout, three generalized coordinates (two translational and one rotational) correspond to each disc. These discs are connected by elastic ties. The genuine idea is to take into account a discrete crack in the Rigid Finite Element Method. It consists in the suitable reduction of the rigidity in rotational ties located in the spots, where cracks occurred. The susceptibility of this tie results from the flexural deformability of the element and the occurrence of the crack. As part of the numerical analyses, the influence of cracks on the total deflection of beams was determined. Furthermore, the results of the calculations were compared to the results of the experiment. Overestimations of the calculated deflections against the measured deflections were found. The article specifies the size of the overestimation and describes its causes.
This paper deals with the development of a new multi-objective evolution strategy in combination with an integrated pollution-load and water-quality model. The optimization algorithm combines the advantages of the Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm and Self-Adaptive Evolution Strategies. The identification of a good spread of solutions on the pareto-optimum front and the optimization of a large number of decision variables equally demands numerous simulation runs. In addition, statements with regard to the frequency of critical concentrations and peak discharges require continuous long-term simulations. Therefore, a fast operating integrated simulation model is needed providing the required precision of the results. For this purpose, a hydrological deterministic pollution-load model has been coupled with a river water-quality and a rainfall-runoff model. Wastewater treatment plants are simulated in a simplified way. The functionality of the optimization and simulation tool has been validated by analyzing a real catchment area including sewer system, WWTP, water body and natural river basin. For the optimization/rehabilitation of the urban drainage system, both innovative and approved measures have been examined and used as decision variables. As objective functions, investment costs and river water quality criteria have been used.
This paper presents a methodology for uncertainty quantification in cyclic creep analysis. Several models- , namely BP model, Whaley and Neville model, modified MC90 for cyclic loading and modified Hyperbolic function for cyclic loading are used for uncertainty quantification. Three types of uncertainty are included in Uncertainty Quantification (UQ): (i) natural variability in loading and materials properties; (ii) data uncertainty due to measurement errors; and (iii) modelling uncertainty and errors during cyclic creep analysis. Due to the consideration of all type of uncertainties, a measure for the total variation of the model response is achieved. The study finds that the BP, modified Hyperbolic and modified MC90 are best performing models for cyclic creep prediction in that order. Further, global Sensitivity Analysis (SA) considering the uncorrelated and correlated parameters is used to quantify the contribution of each source of uncertainty to the overall prediction uncertainty and to identifying the important parameters. The error in determining the input quantities and model itself can produce significant changes in creep prediction values. The variability influence of input random quantities on the cyclic creep was studied by means of the stochastic uncertainty and sensitivity analysis namely the Gartner et al. method and Saltelli et al. method. All input imperfections were considered to be random quantities. The Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) numerical simulation method (Monte Carlo type method) was used. It has been found by the stochastic sensitivity analysis that the cyclic creep deformation variability is most sensitive to the Elastic modulus of concrete, compressive strength, mean stress, cyclic stress amplitude, number of cycle, in that order.
The modeling of crack propagation in plain and reinforced concrete structures is still a field for many researchers. If a macroscopic description of the cohesive cracking process of concrete is applied, generally the Fictitious Crack Model is utilized, where a force transmission over micro cracks is assumed. In the most applications of this concept the cohesive model represents the relation between the normal crack opening and the normal stress, which is mostly defined as an exponential softening function, independently from the shear stresses in tangential direction. The cohesive forces are then calculated only from the normal stresses. By Carol et al. 1997 an improved model was developed using a coupled relation between the normal and shear damage based on an elasto-plastic constitutive formulation. This model is based on a hyperbolic yield surface depending on the normal and the shear stresses and on the tensile and shear strength. This model also represents the effect of shear traction induced crack opening. Due to the elasto-plastic formulation, where the inelastic crack opening is represented by plastic strains, this model is limited for applications with monotonic loading. In order to enable the application for cases with un- and reloading the existing model is extended in this study using a combined plastic-damage formulation, which enables the modeling of crack opening and crack closure. Furthermore the corresponding algorithmic implementation using a return mapping approach is presented and the model is verified by means of several numerical examples. Finally an investigation concerning the identification of the model parameters by means of neural networks is presented. In this analysis an inverse approximation of the model parameters is performed by using a given set of points of the load displacement curves as input values and the model parameters as output terms. It will be shown, that the elasto-plastic model parameters could be identified well with this approach, but require a huge number of simulations.
The Element-free Galerkin Method has become a very popular tool for the simulation of mechanical problems with moving boundaries. The internally applied Moving Least Squares approximation uses in general Gaussian or cubic weighting functions and has compact support. Due to the approximative character of this method the obtained shape functions do not fulfill the interpolation condition, which causes additional numerical effort for the imposition of the essential boundary conditions. The application of a singular weighting function, which leads to singular coefficient matrices at the nodes, can solve this problem, but requires a very careful placement of the integration points. Special procedures for the handling of such singular matrices were proposed in literature, which require additional numerical effort. In this paper a non-singular weighting function is presented, which leads to an exact fulfillment of the interpolation condition. This weighting function leads to regular values of the weights and the coefficient matrices in the whole interpolation domain even at the nodes. Furthermore this function gives much more stable results for varying size of the influence radius and for strongly distorted nodal arrangements than classical weighting function types. Nevertheless, for practical applications the results are similar as these obtained with the regularized weighting type presented by the authors in previous publications. Finally a new concept will be presented, which enables an efficient analysis of systems with strongly varying node density. In this concept the nodal influence domains are adapted depending on the nodal configuration by interpolating the influence radius for each direction from the distances to the natural neighbor nodes. This approach requires a Voronoi diagram of the domain, which is available in this study since Delaunay triangles are used as integration background cells. In the numerical examples it will be shown, that this method leads to a more uniform and reduced number of influencing nodes for systems with varying node density than the classical circular influence domains, which means that the small additional numerical effort for interpolating the influence radius leads to remarkable reduction of the total numerical cost in a linear analysis while obtaining similar results. For nonlinear calculations this advantage would be even more significant.
In engineering science the modeling and numerical analysis of complex systems and relations plays an important role. In order to realize such an investigation, for example a stochastic analysis, in a reasonable computational time, approximation procedure have been developed. A very famous approach is the response surface method, where the relation between input and output quantities is represented for example by global polynomials or local interpolation schemes as Moving Least Squares (MLS). In recent years artificial neural networks (ANN) have been applied as well for such purposes. Recently an adaptive response surface approach for reliability analyses was proposed, which is very efficient concerning the number of expensive limit state function evaluations. Due to the applied simplex interpolation the procedure is limited to small dimensions. In this paper this approach is extended for larger dimensions using combined ANN and MLS response surfaces for evaluating the adaptation criterion with only one set of joined limit state points. As adaptation criterion a combination by using the maximum difference in the conditional probabilities of failure and the maximum difference in the approximated radii is applied. Compared to response surfaces on directional samples or to plain directional sampling the failure probability can be estimated with a much smaller number of limit state points.
ESTIMATING UNCERTAINTIES FROM INACCURATE MEASUREMENT DATA USING MAXIMUM ENTROPY DISTRIBUTIONS
(2010)
Modern engineering design often considers uncertainties in geometrical and material parameters and in the loading conditions. Based on initial assumptions on the stochastic properties as mean values, standard deviations and the distribution functions of these uncertain parameters a probabilistic analysis is carried out. In many application fields probabilities of the exceedance of failure criteria are computed. The out-coming failure probability is strongly dependent on the initial assumptions on the random variable properties. Measurements are always more or less inaccurate data due to varying environmental conditions during the measurement procedure. Furthermore the estimation of stochastic properties from a limited number of realisation also causes uncertainties in these quantities. Thus the assumption of exactly known stochastic properties by neglecting these uncertainties may not lead to very useful probabilistic measures in a design process. In this paper we assume the stochastic properties of a random variable as uncertain quantities caused by so-called epistemic uncertainties. Instead of predefined distribution types we use the maximum entropy distribution which enables the description of a wide range of distribution functions based on the first four stochastic moments. These moments are taken again as random variables to model the epistemic scatter in the stochastic assumptions. The main point of this paper is the discussion on the estimation of these uncertain stochastic properties based on inaccurate measurements. We investigate the bootstrap algorithm for its applicability to quantify the uncertainties in the stochastic properties considering imprecise measurement data. Based on the obtained estimates we apply standard stochastic analysis on a simple example to demonstrate the difference and the necessity of the proposed approach.
In this paper we review two distint complete orthogonal systems of monogenic polynomials over 3D prolate spheroids. The underlying functions take on either values in the reduced and full quaternions (identified, respectively, with R3 and R4), and are generally assumed to be nullsolutions of the well known Riesz and Moisil Théodoresco systems in R3. This will be done in the spaces of square integrable functions over R and H. The representations of these polynomials are explicitly given. Additionally, we show that these polynomial functions play an important role in defining the Szegö kernel function over the surface of 3D spheroids. As a concrete application, we prove the explicit expression of the monogenic Szegö kernel function over 3D prolate spheroids.
Die d - Dirac - Funktion d(x-xi) und Heviside - Funktion wurden vor allem zur Beschreibung diskontinuierlicher Belastungsfunktionen von gebogenen Balken angewendet. Im Referat werden die mathematischen Operationen auf den erwähnten Funktionen dargestellt. Darüber hinaus wird die Möglichkeit eindeutiger Aufschreibung von belibigen Belestungsfunktionen vorgeschlagen, die fast alle Fälle der in der Ingenieurpraxis auftretenden Belastungen umfassen. Die vorgeschlagenen Lösungen geben die Möglichkeit leichter Aufschreibung im Form eines Algorithmus, das die Ausnutzung von Komputertechnik in statischen Berechnungen ermöglicht. Am Ende des Referates werden die Zahlebeispiele dargestellt, die die Möglichkeiten praktischer Anwendungen der besprochenen Funktionen darstellen.
The paper is devoted to the investigation of dynamical behavior of a cable under influence of various types of excitations. Such element has a low rigidity and is sensitive to dynamic effect. The structural scheme is a cable which ends are located at different level. The analysis of dynamical behavior of the cable under effect of kinematical excitation which is represented by the oscillations of the upper part of tower is given. The scheme of cable is accepted such, that lower end of an inclined cable is motionless. The motion of the upper end is assumed only in horizontal direction. The fourth-order Runge-Kutta method was realized in software. The fast Fourier transform was used for spectral analysis. Standard graphical software was adopted for presenting results of investigations. The mathematical model of oscillations of a cable was developed by the account of the viscous damping. The analysis of dynamical characteristics of a cable for various parameters of damping and kinematical excitation was carried out. The time series, spectral characteristics and amplitude-frequencies characteristics was obtained. The resonance amplitude for different oscillating regimes was estimated. It is noted that increasing of the coefficient of the viscous damping and decreasing of the amplitude of tower's oscillations reduces the value of the critical frequency and the resonant amplitudes.
Due to the complex interactions between the ground, the driving machine, the lining tube and the built environment, the accurate assignment of in-situ system parameters for numerical simulation in mechanized tunneling is always subject to tremendous difficulties. However, the more accurate these parameters are, the more applicable the responses gained from computations will be. In particular, if the entire length of the tunnel lining is examined, then, the appropriate selection of various kinds of ground parameters is accountable for the success of a tunnel project and, more importantly, will prevent potential casualties. In this context, methods of system identification for the adaptation of numerical simulation of ground models are presented. Hereby, both deterministic and probabilistic approaches are considered for typical scenarios representing notable variations or changes in the ground model.
A stress based remodeling approach is used to investigate the sensitivity of the collagen architecture in humane eye tissues on the biomechanical response of the lamina cribrosa with a particular focus on the stress environment of the nerve fibers. This approach is based on a multi-level biomechanical framework, where the biomechanical properties of eye tissues are derived from a single crimped fibril at the micro-scale via the collagen network of distributed fibrils at the meso-scale to the incompressible and anisotropic soft tissue at the macro-scale. Biomechanically induced remodeling of the collagen network is captured on the meso-scale by allowing for a continuous reorientation of collagen fibrils. To investigate the multi-scale phenomena related to glaucomatous neuropathy a generalized computational homogenization scheme is applied to a coupled two-scale analysis of the human eye considering a numerical macro- and meso-scale model of the lamina cribrosa.
We provide a critical overview of the current status of computational support for construction the management and building performance evaluation in North-America. This overview is based on the research conducted in relation to the design and construction of the Intelligent Workplace (IW), Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. With regard to the commercial software products in the field of construction management the following limitations can be identified: Although project planning, cost estimating and construction simulation are supported, tasks like bidding as well as site and material management have not received the same level of attention. Few project management software packages are integrated in a total design support software system. Little analysis or evaluation options are provided to support managerial decision making. Various research groups address the construction planning and scheduling, construction contracting, site layout generation as well as the integration of these three topics. Currently problems such as efficient material management and calculation of environmental and energy responsive site management are insufficiently addressed within the ongoing research projects. In the domain of building performance simulation and decision support one can notice that, the development and application of computational tools is industry driven. As a result the concerns addressed by the tools are mainly issues pertaining to the selection and sizing of systems and components rather than an integrated performance evaluation. Consequently, these programs are rarely used by building designers, especially in the early design stages, where the predictive capabilities of simulation tools could be of significant value. Although many research institutions address the necessity for the integration of performance simulation within the overall design support environments most of the practically available performance simulation tools still remain mono-dimensional and isolated.
Requires for reliability and durability of structures and their elements with simultaneous material economy have stimulated improvement of constitutive equations for description of elasto-plastic deformation processes. This has led to the development of phenomenological modelling of complex phenomena of irreversible deformation including history-dependent and rate-dependent effects. During the last several decades many works have been devoted to the development of elasto-plastic models, in order to better predict the material behavior under combined variable thermo-mechanical loading. The increase of accuracy of stress analysis and safety factors for complex structures with the help of modern finite-element packages (ABAQUS, ANSYS, COSMOS, LS-DYNA, MSC.MARC, MSC.NASTRAN, PERMAS and other) can be provided only by use of complex and special variants of plasticity theories, which are adequate for the considered loading conditions and based on authentic information about properties of materials. The areas of application of the various theories (models) are as a rule unknown to the users of finite-element packages at the existing variety loading condition sin machine-building designs. At the moment a universal theory of inelasticity is absent and even the most accomplished theories can not guarantee adequate description of deformation processes for arbitrary structure under wide range of loading programs. The classifier of materials, loading conditions, effects (phenomena) and list of basic experiments are developed by the authors. Use of these classifiers for an establishment of hierarchy of models is a first step for introduction of the multimodel analysis into computational practice. The set of the classic and modern inelasticity theories is considered, so that they are applicable for stress analysis of structures under complex loading programs. Among them there are plastic flow theories with linear and nonlinear isotropic and kinematic hardening, multisurface theories, endochronic theory, holonomic theory, rheologic models, theory of elasto-plastic processes, slip theory, physical theories (single crystal and polycrystalline models) and others. The classification of materials provides rearranging by a degree of homogeneous, chemical composition, level of strength and plasticity, behavior under cyclic loading, anisotropy of properties at initial condition, anisotropy of properties during deformation process, structural stability. The classification of loading conditions takes into consideration proportional and non-proportional loading, temperature range, combination of cyclic and monotonous loading, one-axial, two-axial and complex stress state, curvature of strain path, presence of stress concentrators and level of strain gradient. A unified general form of constitutive equations is presented for all used material models based upon the concept of internal state variables. The wide range of mentioned above inelastic material models has been implemented into finite element program PANTOCRATOR developed by authors (see for details www.pantocrator.narod.ru). Application possibility of different material models is considered both for material element and for complex structures subjected to complex non-proportional loading.
A new application of software technology is the application area of smart living or sustainable living. Within this area application platforms are designed and realized with the goal to support value added services. In this context value added services integrates microelectronics, home automation and services to enhance the attractiveness of flats, homes and buildings. Especially real estate companies or service providers dealing with home services are interested in an effective design and management of their services. Service Engineering is the approved approach for designing customer oriented service processes. Service engineering consists of several phases; from situation analysis to service creation and service design to service management. This article will describe how the method service blueprint can be used to design service processes. Smart living includes all actions to enlarge a flat to a smart home for living. One special requirement of this application domain is the use of local components (actuators, sensors) within service processes. This article will show how this extended method supports service providers to improve the quality of customer oriented service processes and the derivation of needed interfaces of involved actors. For the civil engineering process it will be possible to derive needed information from a built in home automation system. The aim is to show, how to get needed smart local components to fullfill later offered it-supported value added services. Value added services focused on inhabitants are grouped to consulting and information, care and supervision, leisure time activities, repairs, mobility and delivery, safety and security, supply and disposal.
In this paper, we present an empirical approach for objective and quantitative benchmarking of optimization algorithms with respect to characteristics induced by the forward calculation. Due to the professional background of the authors, this benchmarking strategy is illustrated on a selection of search methods in regard to expected characteristics of geotechnical parameter back calculation problems. Starting from brief introduction into the approach employed, a strategy for optimization algorithm benchmarking is introduced. The benchmarking utilizes statistical tests carried out on well-known test functions superposed with perturbations, both chosen to mimic objective function topologies found for geotechnical objective function topologies. Here, the moved axis parallel hyper-ellipsoid test function and the generalized Ackley test function in conjunction with an adjustable quantity of objective function topology roughness and fraction of failing forward calculations is analyzed. In total, results for 5 optimization algorithms are presented, compared and discussed.
Civil engineers take advantage of models to design reliable structures. In order to fulfill the design goal with a certain amount of confidence, the utilized models should be able to predict the probable structural behavior under the expected loading schemes. Therefore, a major challenge is to find models which provide less uncertain and more robust responses. The problem gets even twofold when the model to be studied is a global model comprised of different interacting partial models. This study aims at model quality evaluation of global models with a focus on frame-wall systems as the case study. The paper, presents the results of the first step taken toward accomplishing this goal. To start the model quality evaluation of the global frame-wall system, the main element (i.e. the wall) was studied through nonlinear static and dynamic analysis using two different modeling approaches. The two selected models included the fiber section model and the Multiple-Vertical-Line-Element-Model (MVLEM). The influence of the wall aspect ratio (H=L) and the axial load on the response of the models was studied. The results from nonlinear static and dynamic analysis of both models are presented and compared. The models resulted in quite different responses in the range of low aspect ratio walls under large axial loads due to different contribution of the shear deformations to the top displacement. In the studied cases, the results implied that careful attention should be paid to the model quality evaluation of the wall models specifically when they are supposed to be coupled to other partial models such as a moment frame or a soil-footing substructure which their response is sensitive to shear deformations. In this case, even a high quality wall model would not result in a high quality coupled system since it fails to interact properly with the rest of the system.
In many applications such as parameter identification of oscillating systems in civil enginee-ring, speech processing, image processing and others we are interested in the frequency con-tent of a signal locally in time. As a start wavelet analysis provides a time-scale decomposition of signals, but this wavelet transform can be connected with an appropriate time-frequency decomposition. For instance in Matlab are defined pseudo-frequencies of wavelet scales as frequency centers of the corresponding bands. This frequency bands overlap more or less which depends on the choice of the biorthogonal wavelet system. Such a definition of frequency center is possible and useful, because different frequencies predominate at different dyadic scales of a wavelet decomposition or rather at different nodes of a wavelet packet decomposition tree. The goal of this work is to offer better algorithms for characterising frequency band behaviour and for calculating frequency centers of orthogonal and biorthogonal wavelet systems. This will be done with some product formulas in frequency domain. Now the connecting procedu-res are more analytical based, better connected with wavelet theory and more assessable. This procedures doesn’t need any time approximation of the wavelet and scaling functions. The method only works in the case of biorthogonal wavelet systems, where scaling functions and wavelets are defined over discrete filters. But this is the practically essential case, because it is connected with fast algorithms (FWT, Mallat Algorithm). At the end corresponding to the wavelet transform some closed formulas of pure oscillations are given. They can generally used to compare the application of different wavelets in the FWT regarding it’s frequency behaviour.
At the 16th IKM Bock, Falcão and Gürlebeck presented examples of the application of some specially developed Maple-Software in hypercomplex analysis. Other papers of those authors continued this work and showed the efficiency of such tools for concrete numerical calculations as well as for numerical experiments, supporting the detection of new relationships and even theorems in a highly technical theoretical work. The mentioned software has been developed mainly for the use on mapping problems in the Euclidean spaces of dimension 3 and 4 by means of Bergman kernel methods (BKM), which are related to monogenic functions as solutions of generalized Cauchy-Riemann equations with respect to the Euclidean metric (Riesz system). The developed procedures concerning generalized powers of totally regular variables and the corresponding homogeneous polynomials basically rely on results and conventions introduced in the paper "Power series representation for monogenic functions in Rm+1 based on a permutational product", Complex Variables, 15, No.3, 181-191 (1990) by H. Malonek. Since 1992 H. Leutwiler, S. L. Eriksson and others developed in a number of papers a modified Clifford analysis and, particularly, a modified quaternionic analysis. The modification mainly consists in considering generalized Cauchy-Riemann equations with respect to a hyperbolic metric in a half space. The aim of this contribution is to show how through a change of the basic combinatorial relations used in the modified quaternionic analysis the aforementioned Maple-software (that has been recently published on CD-Rom as integrated part of the text book "Funktionentheorie in der Ebene und im Raum" by K. Gürlebeck, K. Habetha, and W. Sprössig, in the series "Grundstudium Mathematik" of Birkhäuser Verlag, 2006) can directly be used for numerical calculations in the modified theory.
The aim of our contribution is to clarify the relation between totally regular variables and Appell sequences of hypercomplex holomorphic polynomials (sometimes simply called monogenic power-like functions) in Hypercomplex Function Theory. After their introduction in 2006 by two of the authors of this note on the occasion of the 17th IKM, the latter have been subject of investigations by different authors with different methods and in various contexts. The former concept, introduced by R. Delanghe in 1970 and later also studied by K. Gürlebeck in 1982 for the case of quaternions, has some obvious relationship with the latter, since it describes a set of linear hypercomplex holomorphic functions all power of which are also hypercomplex holomorphic. Due to the non-commutative nature of the underlying Clifford algebra, being totally regular variables or Appell sequences are not trivial properties as it is for the integer powers of the complex variable z=x+ iy. Simple examples show also, that not every totally regular variable and its powers form an Appell sequence and vice versa. Under some very natural normalization condition the set of all para-vector valued totally regular variables which are also Appell sequences will completely be characterized. In some sense the result can also be considered as an answer to a remark of K. Habetha in chapter 16: Function theory in algebras of the collection Complex analysis. Methods, trends, and applications, Akademie-Verlag Berlin, (Eds. E. Lanckau and W. Tutschke) 225-237 (1983) on the use of exact copies of several complex variables for the power series representation of any hypercomplex holomorphic function.
In recent years special hypercomplex Appell polynomials have been introduced by several authors and their main properties have been studied by different methods and with different objectives. Like in the classical theory of Appell polynomials, their generating function is a hypercomplex exponential function. The observation that this generalized exponential function has, for example, a close relationship with Bessel functions confirmed the practical significance of such an approach to special classes of hypercomplex differentiable functions. Its usefulness for combinatorial studies has also been investigated. Moreover, an extension of those ideas led to the construction of complete sets of hypercomplex Appell polynomial sequences. Here we show how this opens the way for a more systematic study of the relation between some classes of Special Functions and Elementary Functions in Hypercomplex Function Theory.
Portugal is one of the European countries with higher spatial and population freeway network coverage. The sharp growth of this network in the last years instigates the use of methods of analysis and the evaluation of their quality of service in terms of the traffic performance, typically performed through internationally accepted methodologies, namely that presented in the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM). Lately, the use of microscopic traffic simulation models has been increasingly widespread. These models simulate the individual movement of the vehicles, allowing to perform traffic analysis. The main target of this study was to verify the possibility of using microsimulation as an auxiliary tool in the adaptation of the methodology by HCM 2000 to Portugal. For this purpose, were used the microscopic simulators AIMSUN and VISSIM for the simulation of the traffic circulation in the A5 Portuguese freeway. The results allowed the analysis of the influence of the main geometric and traffic factors involved in the methodology by HCM 2000. In conclusion, the study presents the main advantages and limitations of the microsimulators AIMSUN and VISSIM in modelling the traffic circulation in Portuguese freeways. The main limitation is that these microsimulators are not able to simulate explicitly some of the factors considered in the HCM 2000 methodology, which invalidates their direct use as a tool in the quantification of those effects and, consequently, makes the direct adaptation of this methodology to Portugal impracticable.
This research focuses on an approach to describe principles in architectural layout planning within the domain of revitalization. With the aid of mathematical rules, which are executed by a computer, solutions to design problems are generated. Provided that "design" is in principle a combinatorial problem, i.e. a constraint-based search for an overall optimal solution of a problem, an exemplary method will be described to solve such problems in architectural layout planning. To avoid conflicts relating to theoretical subtleness, a customary approach adopted from Operations Research has been chosen in this work. In this approach, design is a synonym for planning, which could be described as a systematic and methodical course of action for the analysis and solution of current or future problems. The planning task is defined as an analysis of a problem with the aim to prepare optimal decisions by the use of mathematical methods. The decision problem of a planning task is represented by an optimization model and the application of an efficient algorithm in order to aid finding one or more solutions to the problem. The basic principle underlying the approach presented herein is the understanding of design in terms of searching for solutions that fulfill specific criteria. This search is executed by the use of a constraint programming language.
The design and application of high performance materials demands extensive knowledge of the materials damage behavior, which significantly depends on the meso- and microstructural complexity. Numerical simulations of crack growth on multiple length scales are promising tools to understand the damage phenomena in complex materials. In polycrystalline materials it has been observed that the grain boundary decohesion is one important mechanism that leads to micro crack initiation. Following this observation the paper presents a polycrystal mesoscale model consisting of grains with orthotropic material behavior and cohesive interfaces along grain boundaries, which is able to reproduce the crack initiation and propagation along grain boundaries in polycrystalline materials. With respect to the importance of modeling the geometry of the grain structure an advanced Voronoi algorithm is proposed to generate realistic polycrystalline material structures based on measured grain size distribution. The polycrystal model is applied to investigate the crack initiation and propagation in statically loaded representative volume elements of aluminum on the mesoscale without the necessity of initial damage definition. Future research work is planned to include the mesoscale model into a multiscale model for the damage analysis in polycrystalline materials.
In civil engineering practice, values of column forces are often required before any detailed analysis of the structure has been performed. One of the reasons for this arises from the fast-tracked nature of the majority of construction projects: foundations are laid and base columns constructed whilst analysis and design are still in progress. A need for quick results when feasibility studies are performed or when evaluating the effect of design changes on supporting columns form other situations in which column forces are required, but where a detailed analysis to get these forces seems superfluous. Thus it was concluded that the development of an efficient tool for column force calculations, in which the extensive input required in a finite element analysis is to be avoided, would be highly beneficial. The automation of the process is achieved by making use of a Voronoi diagram. The Voronoi diagram is used a) for subdividing the floor into influence areas and b) as a basis for automatic load assignment. The implemented procedure is integrated into a CAD system in which the relevant geometric information of the floor, i.e. its shape and column layout, can be defined or uploaded. A brief description of the implementation is included. Some comparative results and considerations regarding the continuation of the study are given.
Steel profiles with slender cross-sections are characterized by their high susceptibility to instability phenomena, especially local buckling, which are intensified under fire conditions. This work presents a study on numerical modelling of the behaviour of steel structural elements in case of fire with slender cross-sections. To accurately carry out these analyses it is necessary to take into account those local instability modes, which normally is only possible with shell finite elements. However, aiming at the development of more expeditious methods, particularly important for analysing complete structures in case of fire, recent studies have proposed the use of beam finite elements considering the presence of local buckling through the implementation of a new effective steel constitutive law. The objective of this work is to develop a study to validate this methodology using the program SAFIR. Comparisons are made between the results obtained applying the referred new methodology and finite element analyses using shell elements. The studies were made to laterally restrained beams, unrestrained beams, axially compressed columns and columns subjected to bending plus compression.
This paper presents a robust model updating strategy for system identification of wind turbines. To control the updating parameters and to avoid ill-conditioning, the global sensitivity analysis using the elementary effects method is conducted. The formulation of the objective function is based on M¨uller-Slany’s strategy for multi-criteria functions. As a simulationbased optimization, a simulation adapter is developed to interface the simulation software ANSYS and the locally developed optimization software MOPACK. Model updating is firstly tested on the beam model of the rotor blade. The defect between the numerical model and the reference has been markedly reduced by the process of model updating. The effect of model updating becomes more pronounced in the comparison of the measured and the numerical properties of the wind turbine model. The deviations of the frequencies of the updated model are rather small. The complete comparison including the free vibration modes by the modal assurance criteria shows the excellent coincidence of the modal parameters of the updated model with the ones from the measurements. By successful implementation of the model validation via model updating, the applicability and effectiveness of the solution concept has been demonstrated.
There are many different approaches to simulate the mechanical behavior of RC−Frames with masonry infills. In this paper, selected modeling techniques for masonry infills and reinforced concrete frame members will be discussed − stressing the attention on the damaging effects of the individual members and the entire system under quasi−static horizontal loading. The effect of the infill walls on the surrounding frame members is studied using equivalent strut elements. The implemented model consider in−plane failure modes for the infills, such as bed joint sliding and corner crushing. These frame member models differ with respect to their stress state. Finally, examples are provided and compared with experimental data from a real size test executed on a three story RC−Frame with and without infills. The quality of the model is evaluated on the basis of load−displacement relationships as well as damage progression.
Interval analysis extends the concept of computing with real numbers to computing with real intervals. As a consequence, some interesting properties appear, such as the delivery of guaranteed results or confirmed global values. The former property is given in the sense that unknown numerical values are in known to lie in a computed interval. The latter property states that the global minimum value, for example, of a given function is also known to be contained in a interval (or a finite set of intervals). Depending upon the amount computation effort invested in the calculation, we can often find tight bounds on these enclosing intervals. The downside of interval analysis, however, is the mathematically correct, but often very pessimistic size of the interval result. This is in particularly due to the so-called dependency effect, where a single variable is used multiple times in one calculation. Applying interval analysis to structural analysis problems, the dependency has a great influence on the quality of numerical results. In this paper, a brief background of interval analysis is presented and shown how it can be applied to the solution of structural analysis problems. A discussion of possible improvements as well as an outlook to parallel computing is also given.
This paper is focused on the first numerical tests for coupling between analytical solution and finite element method on the example of one problem of fracture mechanics. The calculations were done according to ideas proposed in [1]. The analytical solutions are constructed by using an orthogonal basis of holomorphic and anti-holomorphic functions. For coupling with finite element method the special elements are constructed by using the trigonometric interpolation theorem.
It is well known that complex quaternion analysis plays an important role in the study of higher order boundary value problems of mathematical physics. Following the ideas given for real quaternion analysis, the paper deals with certain orthogonal decompositions of the complex quaternion Hilbert space into its subspaces of null solutions of Dirac type operator with an arbitrary complex potential. We then apply them to consider related boundary value problems, and to prove the existence and uniqueness as well as the explicit representation formulae of the underlying solutions.
MULTI-SITE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT SCHEDULING CONSIDERING RESOURCE MOVING TIME IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
(2010)
Under the booming construction demands in developing countries, particularly in Vietnam situation, construction contractors often perform multiple concurrent projects in different places. In construction project scheduling processes, the existing scheduling methods often assume the resource moving time between activities/projects to be negligible. When multiple projects are deployed in different places and far from each other, this assumption has many shortcomings for properly modelling the real-world constraints. Especially, with respect to developing countries such as the Vietnam which contains transportation systems that are still in backward and low technical standards. This paper proposes a new algorithm named Multi-Site Construction Project Scheduling - MCOPS. The objective of this algorithm is to solve the problem of minimising multi-site construction project duration under limited available conditions of renewable resources (labour, machines and equipment) combining with the moving time of required resource among activities/projects. Additionally, in order to mitigate the impact of resource moving time into the multi-site project duration, this paper proposed a new priority rule: Minimum Resource Moving Time (MinRMT). The MinRMT is applied to rank the finished activities according to a priority order, to support the released resources to the scheduling activities. In order to investigate the impact of the resource moving time among activities during the scheduling process, computational experimentation was implemented. The results of the MCOPS-based computational experiments showed that, the resource moving time among projects has significantly impacted the multi-site project durations and this amount of time can not be ignored in the multi-site project scheduling process. Besides, the efficient application of the MinRMT is also demonstrated through the achieved results of the computational experiment in this paper. Though the efforts in this paper are based on the Vietnamese construction conditions, the proposed method can be usefully applied in other developing countries which have similar construction conditions.
In this note, we describe quite explicitly the Howe duality for Hodge systems and connect it with the well-known facts of harmonic analysis and Clifford analysis. In Section 2, we recall briefly the Fisher decomposition and the Howe duality for harmonic analysis. In Section 3, the well-known fact that Clifford analysis is a real refinement of harmonic analysis is illustrated by the Fisher decomposition and the Howe duality for the space of spinor-valued polynomials in the Euclidean space under the so-called L-action. On the other hand, for Clifford algebra valued polynomials, we can consider another action, called in Clifford analysis the H-action. In the last section, we recall the Fisher decomposition for the H-action obtained recently. As in Clifford analysis the prominent role plays the Dirac equation in this case the basic set of equations is formed by the Hodge system. Moreover, analysis of Hodge systems can be viewed even as a refinement of Clifford analysis. In this note, we describe the Howe duality for the H-action. In particular, in Proposition 1, we recognize the Howe dual partner of the orthogonal group O(m) in this case as the Lie superalgebra sl(2 1). Furthermore, Theorem 2 gives the corresponding multiplicity free decomposition with an explicit description of irreducible pieces.
Many structures in different engineering applications suffer from cracking. In order to make reliable prognosis about the serviceability of those structures it is of utmost importance to identify cracks as precisely as possible by non-destructive testing. A novel approach (XIGA), which combines the Isogeometric Analysis (IGA) and the Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) is used for the forward problem, namely the analysis of a cracked material, see [1]. Applying the NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline) based approach from IGA together with the XFEM allows to describe effectively arbitrarily shaped cracks and avoids the necessity of remeshing during the crack identification problem. We want to exploit these advantages for the inverse problem of detecting existing cracks by non-destructive testing, see e.g. [2]. The quality of the reconstructed cracks however depends on two major issues, namely the quality of the measured data (measurement error) and the discretization of the crack model. The first one will be taken into account by applying regularizing methods with a posteriori stopping criteria. The second one is critical in the sense that too few degrees of freedom, i.e. the number of control points of the NURBS, do not allow for a precise description of the crack. An increased number of control points, however, increases the number of unknowns in the inverse analysis and intensifies the ill-posedness. The trade-off between accuracy and stability is aimed to be found by applying an inverse multilevel algorithm [3, 4] where the identification is started with short knot vectors which successively will be enlarged during the identification process.
In this paper we present an inverse method which is capable of identifying system components in a hydro-mechanically coupled system, i.e. for fluid flow in porous media. As an example we regard water dams that were constructed more than hundred years ago but which are still in use. Over the time ageing processes have changed the condition of these dams. Within the dams fissures might have grown. The proposed method is designed to locate these fissures out of combined mechanical and hydraulic measurements. In a numerical example the fissures or damaged zones are described by a smeared crack model. The task is now to identify simultaneously the spatial distribution of Young’s modulus and the hydraulic permeability due to the fact, that in regions where damages are present, the mechanical stiffness of the system is reduced and the permeability increased. The inversion is shown to be an ill-posed problem. As a consequence regularizing methods have to be applied, where the nonlinear Landweber method (a gradient type method combined with a discrepancy principle) has proven to be an efficient choice.
Prozesse im Bauingenieurwesen sind komplex und beinhalten eine große Anzahl verschiedener Aufgaben mit vielen logischen Abhängigkeiten. Basierend auf diesen projektspezifischen Abhängigkeiten wird gewöhnlich ein Bauablaufplan manuell erstellt. In der Regel existieren mehrere Varianten und somit alternative Bauabläufe um ein Projekt zu realisieren. Welche dieser Ausführungsvarianten zur praktischen Anwendung kommt, wird durch den jeweiligen Projektmanager bestimmt. Falls Ä;nderungen oder Störungen während des Bauablaufs auftreten, müssen die davon betroffenen Aufgaben und Abläufe per Hand modifiziert und alternative Aufgaben sowie Abläufe stattdessen ausgeführt werden. Diese Vorgehensweise ist oft sehr aufwändig und teuer. Aktuelle Forschungsansätze beschäftigen sich mit der automatischen Generierung von Bauabläufen. Grundlage sind dabei Aufgaben mit ihren erforderlichen Voraussetzungen und erzeugten Ergebnissen. Im Rahmen dieses Beitrags wird eine Methodik vorgestellt, um Bauabläufe mit Ausführungsvarianten in Form von Workflow-Netzen zu jeder Zeit berechnen zu können. Die vorgestellte Methode wird anhand eines Beispiels aus dem Straßenbau schematisch dargestellt.
Für die Ausführung des Oberbaus von Verkehrsflächen existiert in Abhängigkeit von projektspezifischen Voraussetzungen eine Vielzahl von verschiedenen Varianten. Aufgrund von Erfahrungen der Projektplaner werden bei ähnlichen Voraussetzungen häufig gleichartige Ausführungsvarianten gewählt. Um eine mögliche Lösungsvariante für den Straßenoberbau zu erhalten, sollten daher nicht nur die gesetzlichen Richtlinien sondern auch bereits beendete Projekte berücksichtigt werden. Im Rahmen eines Wissenschaftlichen Kollegs an der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar wurde die Anwendung des Case-Based Reasoning für die Auswahl von Ausführungsvarianten für den Straßenoberbau untersucht. In diesem Beitrag werden die grundlegenden Konzepte des Case-Based Reasoning und die Bestimmung von ähnlichen Varianten anhand einfacher Beispiele aus dem Straßenoberbau dargestellt.
The planning of projects in building engineering is a complex process which is characterized by a dynamical composition and many modifications during the definition and execution time of processes. For a computer-aided and network-based cooperation a formal description of the planning process is necessary. In the research project “Relational Process Modelling in Cooperative Building Planning” a process model is described by three parts: an organizational structure with participants, a building structure with states and a process structure with activities. This research project is part of the priority program 1103 “Network-Based Cooperative Planning Processes in Structural Engineering” promoted by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Planning processes in civil engineering can be described by workflow graphs. The process structure describes the logical planning process and can be formally defined by a bipartite graph. This structure consists of activities, transitions and relationships between activities and transitions. In order to minimize errors at execution time of a planning process a consistent and structurally correct process model must be guaranteed. This contribution considers the concept and the algorithms for checking the consistency and the correctness of the process structure.
For many applications, nonuniformly distributed functional data is given which lead to large–scale scattered data problems. We wish to represent the data in terms of a sparse representation with a minimal amount of degrees of freedom. For this, an adaptive scheme which operates in a coarse-to-fine fashion using a multiscale basis is proposed. Specifically, we investigate hierarchical bases using B-splines and spline-(pre)wavelets. At each stage a leastsquares approximation of the data is computed. We take into account different requests arising in large-scale scattered data fitting: we discuss the fast iterative solution of the least square systems, regularization of the data, and the treatment of outliers. A particular application concerns the approximate continuation of harmonic functions, an issue arising in geodesy.
THE INFLUENCE OF THE LOCAL CONCAVITY ON THE FUNCTIONING OF BEARING SHELL OF HIGH-RISE CONSTRUCTION
(2012)
Areas with various defects and damages, which reduce carrying capacity, were examined in a study of metal chimneys. In this work, the influence of the local dimples on the function of metal chimneys was considered. Modeling tasks were completed in the software packages LIRA and ANSYS. Parameters were identified, which characterize the local dimples, and a numerical study of the influence of local dimples on the stress-strain state of shells of metal chimneys was conducted. A distribution field of circular and meridional tension was analyzed in a researched area. Zones of influence of dimples on the bearing cover of metal chimneys were investigated. The bearing capacities of high-rise structures with various dimple geometries and various cover parameters were determined with respect to specified areas of the trunk. Dependent relationships are represented graphically for the decrease in bearing capacity of a cover with respect to dimples. Diameter and thickness of covers of metal chimneys were constructed according to the resulting data.
We show a close relation between the Schrödinger equation and the conductivity equation to a Vekua equation of a special form. Under quite general conditions we propose an algorithm for explicit construction of pseudoanalytic positive formal powers for the Vekua equation that as a consequence gives us a complete system of solutions for the Schrödinger and the conductivity equations. Besides the construction of complete systems of exact solutions for the above mentioned second order equations and the Dirac equation, we discuss some other applications of pseudoanalytic function theory.
In this paper we present some rudiments of a generalized Wiman-Valiron theory in the context of polymonogenic functions. In particular, we analyze the relations between different notions of growth orders and the Taylor coefficients. Our main intention is to look for generalizations of the Lindel¨of-Pringsheim theorem. In contrast to the classical holomorphic and the monogenic setting we only obtain inequality relations in the polymonogenic setting. This is due to the fact that the Almansi-Fischer decomposition of a polymonogenic function consists of different monogenic component functions where each of them can have a totally different kind of asymptotic growth behavior.
The quaternionic operator calculus can be applied very elegantly to solve many important boundary value problems arising in fluid dynamics and electrodynamics in an analytic way. In order to set up fully explicit solutions. In order to apply the quaternionic operator calculus to solve these types of boundary value problems fully explicitly, one has to evaluate two types of integral operators: the Teodorescu operator and the quaternionic Bergman projector. While the integral kernel of the Teodorescu transform is universal for all domains, the kernel function of the Bergman projector, called the Bergman kernel, depends on the geometry of the domain. Recently the theory of quaternionic holomorphic multiperiodic functions and automorphic forms provided new impulses to set up explicit representation formulas for large classes of hyperbolic polyhedron type domains. These include block shaped domains, wedge shaped domains (with or without additional rectangular restrictions) and circular symmetric finite and infinite cylinders as particular subcases. In this talk we want to give an overview over the recent developments in this direction.