This book presents a hybrid approach to the mechanics of thin bodies. Classical theories of rods, plates and shells with constrained shear are based on asymptotic splitting of the equations and boundary conditions of three-dimensional elasticity. The asymptotic solutions become accurate as the thickness decreases, and the three-dimensional fields of stresses and displacements can be determined. The analysis includes practically important effects of electromechanical coupling and material inhomogeneity. The extension to the geometrically nonlinear range uses the direct approach based on the principle of virtual work. Vibrations and buckling of pre-stressed structures are studied with the help of linearized incremental formulations, and direct tensor calculus rounds out the list of analytical techniques used throughout the book. A novel theory of thin-walled rods of open profile is subsequently developed from the models of rods and shells, and traditionally applied equations are proven to be asymptotically exact. The influence of pre-stresses on the torsional stiffness is shown to be crucial for buckling analysis. Novel finite element schemes for classical rod and shell structures are presented with a comprehensive discussion regarding the theoretical basis, computational aspects and implementation details. Analytical conclusions and closed-form solutions of particular problems are validated against numerical results. The majority of the simulations were performed in the Wolfram Mathematica environment, and the compact source code is provided as a substantial and integral part of the book.

This book presents innovations for sustainable building design and refurbishment developed and tested through feasibility studies undertaken by researchers at Scottish universities in collaboration with small to medium size enterprises in Scotland during the ‘CIC Start Online’ project that ran from September 2009 to February 2013. The project was led by Glasgow Caledonian University in collaboration with Edinburgh Napier University, Glasgow School of Art, Heriot-Watt University, the Robert Gordon University, University of Edinburgh and the University of Strathclyde Glasgow. The book includes chapters on Context and Policies, Planning, Building Design, Technologies, Construction, Refurbishment and Performance.   The contents of each chapter are based on 63 completed studies that were initiated by businesses operating in the construction sector or providing services to the sector, indicating the scope of research required to assist the industry to develop more sustainable products and processes. The book informs the reader about the range of innovations that were tested and highlight potential future research areas. Readers can find in-depth information by accessing the project website www.cicstart.org, where full reports on most studies and the video recordings of interactive online seminars that presented the outcomes of the studies are available.   Along with the new knowledge on how innovations for sustainable building design and refurbishment can be applied in practice, the book demonstrates how joint projects of several universities can be successfully managed and how an immediate knowledge transfer can be organized by using web tools to reach over 2,200 current members nationally and internationally (in UK and 53 other countries).

This book presents recent advances in optimization and control methods with applications to industrial engineering and construction management. It consists of 15 chapters authored by recognized experts in a variety of fields including control and operation research, industrial engineering and project management. Topics include numerical methods in unconstrained optimization, robust optimal control problems, set splitting problems, optimum confidence interval analysis, a monitoring networks optimization survey, distributed fault detection, nonferrous industrial optimization approaches, neural networks in traffic flows, economic scheduling of CCHP systems, a project scheduling optimization survey, lean and agile construction project management, practical construction projects in Hong Kong, dynamic project management, production control in PC4P and target contracts optimization. The book offers a valuable reference work for scientists, engineers, researchers and practitioners in industrial engineering and construction management.

This book presents and applies a novel efficient meta-heuristic optimization algorithm called Colliding Bodies Optimization (CBO) for various optimization problems. The first part of the book introduces the concepts and methods involved, while the second is devoted to the applications. Though optimal design of structures is the main topic, two chapters on optimal analysis and applications in constructional management are also included. This algorithm is based on one-dimensional collisions between bodies, with each agent solution being considered as an object or body with mass. After a collision of two moving bodies with specified masses and velocities, these bodies again separate, with new velocities. This collision causes the agents to move toward better positions in the search space. The main algorithm (CBO) is internally parameter independent, setting it apart from previously developed meta-heuristics. This algorithm is enhanced (ECBO) for more efficient applications in the optimal design of structures. The algorithms are implemented in standard computer programming languages (MATLAB and C++) and two main codes are provided for ease of use.

Written by an international group of active researchers in the field, this volume presents innovative formulations and applied procedures for sensitivity analysis and structural design optimization. Eight chapters discuss subjects ranging from recent developments in the determination and application of topological gradients, to the use of evolutionary algorithms and meta-models to solve practical engineering problems. With such a comprehensive set of contributions, the book is a valuable source of information for graduate students and researchers entering or working in the matter.

Special Topics in Structural Dynamics, Volume 6: Proceedings of the 31st IMAC, A Conference and Exposition on Structural Dynamics, 2013, the sixth volume of seven from the Conference, brings together contributions to this important area of research and engineering. The collection presents early findings and case studies on fundamental and applied aspects of Structural Dynamics, including papers on: Teaching Experimental & Analytical Structural Dynamics Sensors & Instrumentation Aircraft/Aerospace Bio-Dynamics Sports Equipment Dynamics Advanced ODS & Stress Estimation Shock & Vibration Full-Field Optical Measurements & Image Analysis Structural Health Monitoring Operational Modal Analysis Wind Turbine Dynamics Rotating Machinery Finite Element Methods Energy Harvesting

Elastic, Plastic and Yield Design of Reinforced Structures presents a whole set of new results which have been published by the authors over the last 30 years in the field of continuum solid mechanics applied to the analysis and design of reinforced civil engineering structures. The focus is on the development and application of up-scaling/homogenization methods in the design of such composite structures, with a special emphasis on the plastic behavior and ultimate strength of materials. The specificity of the book is highlighted by at least two completely innovative concepts which lie at the very heart of the book's originality: the elaboration of a fully comprehensive homogenization-based method for the design of reinforced structures (and not only materials), through the study of macroscopic behavior, and the development of a multiphase model for materials reinforced by linear inclusions, which considerably extends the range of applicability of the classical homogenization procedure.

This book addresses the formulation, approximation and numerical solution of optimal shape design problems: from the continuous model through its discretization and approximation results, to sensitivity analysis and numerical realization. Shape optimization of structures is addressed in the first part, using variational inequalities of elliptic type. New results, such as contact shape optimization for bodies made of non-linear material, sensitivity analysis based on isoparametric technique, and analysis of cost functionals related to contact stress distribution are included. The second part presents new concepts of shape optimization based on a fictitious domain approach. Finally, the application of the shape optimization methodology in the material design is discussed. This second edition is a fully revised and up-dated version of Finite Element Method for Optimal Shape Design. Numerous numerical examples illustrate the theoretical results, and industrial applications are given.

This is a State of the Art Report resulting from the work of RILEM Technical Committee 224-AAM in the period 2007-2013. The Report summarises research to date in the area of alkali-activated binders and concretes, with a particular focus on the following areas: binder design and characterisation, durability testing, commercialisation, standardisation, and providing a historical context for this rapidly-growing research field.

This sixth volume of eight from the IMAC - XXXII Conference, brings together contributions to this important area of research and engineering. The collection presents early findings and case studies on fundamental and applied aspects of Structural Dynamics, including papers on: Linear Systems Substructure Modelling Adaptive Structures Experimental Techniques Analytical Methods Damage Detection Damping of Materials & Members Modal Parameter Identification Modal Testing Methods System Identification Active Control Modal Parameter Estimation Processing Modal Data

The compaction guide to greater profits, less hassle. Boost your bottom line with the expert, efficient soil compaction techniques and technological solutions in this fully updated Second Edition. This revision will provide the contractor, fill inspector, and geotechnical engineer with greater coverage of environmental topics, including.
* Septic system site investigation, evaluation, design, and construction, plus existing system renovation, repair, maintenance, and management
* The latest uses of artificial fills from around the world--foam plastics, Elastizell, Geocell, Solite, and waste materials like shredded tires and wood chips
* New material and helpful case studies on the correlation of Standard and Modified Proctor densities and a method for determining numerical values of bearing capacities for Proctor densities
In addition to the current state of the art of fill technology, basic insights into soil behavior are provided. Innovative and patented methods of design are presented, especially valuable for young practitioners and those responsible for their supervision and continuing education. Reviewed as "conversational," "humorous," "full of wisdom," and "practical," this unusually readable resource is a profit-maker no construction professional can afford to do without.

The idea of this monograph is to present the latest results related to experimental and numerical investigations of advanced materials and structures. The contributions cover the field of mechanical, civil and materials engineering, ranging from new modelling and simulation techniques, advanced analysis techniques, optimization of structures and materials and constitutive modelling. Well known experts present their research on damage and fracture of material and structures, materials modelling and evaluation up to image processing and visualization for advanced analyses and evaluation.

It is estimated that 225,000 bridges, including nearly 40% of highway bridges, in the United States today are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. While the urgency of this problem has begun to be acknowledged at official levels, and more public funds set aside for bridge inspection and rehabilitation, the need remains for engineers versed in contemporary rehabilitation methods. Unfortunately, until the publication of this book, engineers' efforts to educate themselves in the field have been thwarted by the fact that good, up-to-date material on bridge inspection and repair could be obtained only through a painstaking search through hundreds of specialized publications. Edited by Louis G. Silano, P.E., Senior Vice President and Technical Director of Structures with the firm of Parsons Brinckerhoff, Bridge Inspection and Rehabilitation: A Practical Guide is the first and only "A-to-Z" guide to practical aspects of bridge inspection and rehabilitation. Comprising contributions from a group of seasoned professionals from around the nation, it provides insights into every element of bridge structure, including broad coverage of materials and design types. Among important topics covered in Bridge Inspection and Rehabilitation are: advances in inspection techniques, including underwater inspection and nondestructive testing; all bridge design types, including suspension bridges, cable-stayed bridges, trusses, moveable bridges, and others; basic structural elements, such as substructures, superstructures, decks, bearings, and joints; and special topics of contemporary concern, such as seismic design and seismic retrofitting, environmental control issues, maintenance of trafficduring rehabilitation, repair of historical bridges, and much more. Generously illustrated with nearly 200 line illustrations and photographs and offering in-depth coverage of most practical aspects of bridge assessment and repairs, Bridge Inspection and Rehabilitation is an invaluable resource for practicing bridge engineers and contractors.

The fifteen chapters of this book are arranged in a logical progression. The text begins with the more fundamental material on stress and strain transformations with elasticity theory for plane and axially symmetric bodies, followed by a full treatment of the theories of bending and torsion. Coverage of moment distribution, shear flow, struts and energy methods precede a chapter on finite elements. Thereafter, the book presents yield and strength criteria, plasticity, collapse, creep, visco-elasticity, fatigue and fracture mechanics. Appended is material on the properties of areas, matrices and stress concentrations. Each topic is illustrated by worked examples and supported by numerous exercises drawn from the author's teaching experience and professional institution examinations (CEI). This edition includes new material and an extended exercise section for each of the fifteen chapters, as well as three appendices. The broad text ensures its suitability for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in which the mechanics of solids and structures form a part including: mechanical, aeronautical, civil, design and materials engineering.

The book analyzes a quasi-static fracture process in concrete and reinforced concrete by means of constitutive models formulated within continuum mechanics. A continuous and discontinuous modelling approach was used. Using a continuous approach, numerical analyses were performed using a finite element method and four different enhanced continuum models: isotropic elasto-plastic, isotropic damage and anisotropic smeared crack one. The models were equipped with a characteristic length of micro-structure by means of a non-local and a second-gradient theory. So they could properly describe the formation of localized zones with a certain thickness and spacing and a related deterministic size effect. Using a discontinuous FE approach, numerical results of cracks using a cohesive crack model and XFEM were presented which were also properly regularized. Finite element analyses were performed with concrete elements under monotonic uniaxial compression, uniaxial tension, bending and shear-extension. Concrete beams under cyclic loading were also simulated using a coupled elasto-plastic-damage approach. Numerical simulations were performed at macro- and meso-level of concrete. A stochastic and deterministic size effect was carefully investigated. In the case of reinforced concrete specimens, FE calculations were carried out with bars, slender and short beams, columns, corbels and tanks. Tensile and shear failure mechanisms were studied. Numerical results were compared with results from corresponding own and known in the scientific literature laboratory and full-scale tests.

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This introduction to the theory of rigid structures explains how to analyze the performance of built and natural structures under loads, paying special attention to the role of geometry. The book unifies the engineering and mathematical literatures by exploring different notions of rigidity - local, global, and universal - and how they are interrelated. Important results are stated formally, but also clarified with a wide range of revealing examples. An important generalization is to tensegrities, where fixed distances are replaced with 'cables' not allowed to increase in length and 'struts' not allowed to decrease in length. A special feature is the analysis of symmetric tensegrities, where the symmetry of the structure is used to simplify matters and allows the theory of group representations to be applied. Written for researchers and graduate students in structural engineering and mathematics, this work is also of interest to computer scientists and physicists.

This text addresses the modeling of vibrating systems with the perspective of finding the model of minimum complexity which accounts for the physics of the phenomena at play. The first half of the book (Ch.1-6) deals with the dynamics of discrete and continuous mechanical systems; the classical approach emphasizes the use of Lagrange's equations. The second half of the book (Ch.7-12) deals with more advanced topics, rarely encountered in the existing literature: seismic excitation, random vibration (including fatigue), rotor dynamics, vibration isolation and dynamic vibration absorbers; the final chapter is an introduction to active control of vibrations. The first part of this text may be used as a one semester course for 3rd year students in Mechanical, Aerospace or Civil Engineering. The second part of the text is intended for graduate classes. A set of problems is provided at the end of every chapter. The author has a 35 years experience in various aspects of Structural dynamics, both in industry (nuclear and aerospace) and in academia; he was one of the pioneers in the field of active structures. He is the author of several books on random vibration, active structures and structural control.

Nanotechnology in Civil Infrastructure is a state-of-the art reference source describing the latest developments in nano-engineering and nano-modification of construction materials to improve the bulk properties, development of sustainable, intelligent, and smart concrete materials through the integration of nanotechnology based self-sensing and self-powered materials and cyber infrastructure technologies, review of nanotechnology applications in pavement engineering, development of novel, cost-effective, high-performance and long-lasting concrete products and processes through nanotechnology-based innovative processing of cement and cement paste, and advanced nanoscience modeling, visualization, and measurement systems for characterizing and testing civil infrastructure materials at the nano-scale. Researchers, practitioners, undergraduate and graduate students engaged in nanotechnology related research will find this book very useful.

Safety and reliability are important for the whole expected service duration of an engineering structure. Therefore, prognostical solutions for different building types are needed and uncertainties have to be handled. Life-cycle strategies to control future structural degradations by concepts of appropriate design have to be developed, in case including means of inspection, maintenance, and repair. Aspects of costs and sustainability also matter. The Cooperative Research Center for Lifetime-Oriented Design Concepts (SFB 398) at Ruhr University in Bochum combines the wide range of scientific topics between structural engineering, structural and soil mechanics and material sciences regarding structural lifetime management in this present extraordinary monolithic format. The characterization and modeling of lifetime-related external actions of multiple origin are presented in this book as well as the physical description, the modeling and the validation of material degradation. Adaptive numerical methods and simulation techniques are provided for the lifetime-oriented design concepts to forecast material and structural degradation. Stochastic aspects, mathematical optimization methods and interactions between various influences are included. Thus, a solid basis is provided for future practical use and also for standardization of structural design with respect to lifetime-prediction.

Design of Welded Steel Structures: Principles and Practice provides a solid foundation of theoretical and practical knowledge necessary for the design of welded steel structures. The book begins by explaining the basics of arc welding, describing the salient features of modern arc welding processes as well as the types and characteristics of welded joints, their common defects, and recommended remedial measures. The text then: Addresses the analysis and design of welded structures Explores the design of joints in respect to common welded steel structures Identifies the cost factors involved in welded steelwork Design of Welded Steel Structures: Principles and Practice draws not only from the author's own experience, but also from the vast pool of research conducted by distinguished engineers around the globe. Detailed bibliographies are included at the end of each chapter.

Risk and reliability analysis is an area of growing importance in geotechnical engineering, where many variables have to be considered. Statistics, reliability modeling and engineering judgement are employed together to develop risk and decision analyses for civil engineering systems. The resulting engineering models are used to make probabilistic predictions, which are applied to geotechnical problems.
Reliability & Statistics in Geotechnical Engineering comprehensively covers the subject of risk and reliability in both practical and research terms
* Includes extensive use of case studies
* Presents topics not covered elsewhere--spatial variability and stochastic properties of geological materials
* No comparable texts available
Practicing engineers will find this an essential resource as will graduates in geotechnical engineering programmes.

FirstEdition DUE TO THE necessity to save weight and materialin the design ofmodern structures and machines, stability problems have become increasingly im- portant. The classicalengineering approach to this type of problem has been characterized by the tacit assumption that structures are nongyroscopic conservative systems,that is, bythegeneraladoptionofthemethodsdeveloped for this particular case. During the last decades numerous stability problems of a more complicated nature have become important, and it has therefore become necessary to correlate the various types of problems with the ap- proaches to be used in their solution. The principal object ofthis little bookisthis correlation between the systems to be investigated and the methods to be used for this purpose, In other words, our main concern is the choice of a correct approach. It is evident that this idea renders it necessary to distinguish between the various types of problems or systems. At the same time the similarities and the connections between apparently quite different problems will become obvious, and it will be evident that there islittle differencebetween, say, the buckling of a column, thecritical speed of a turbine shaft, and the stability of an airplane, a control mechanism, or an electric circuit.

Structural health monitoring (SHM) has emerged as a prominent research area in recent years owing to increasing concerns about structural safety, and the need to monitor and extend the lives of existing structures. Structural Health Monitoring Using Genetic Fuzzy Systems elaborates the process of intelligent SHM development and implementation using the evolutionary system. The use of a genetic algorithm automates the development of the fuzzy system, and makes the method easy to use for problems involving a large number of measurements, damage locations and sizes; such problems being typical of SHM. The ideas behind fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms and genetic fuzzy systems are also explained. The functionality of the genetic fuzzy system architecture is elucidated within a case-study framework, covering: * SHM of beams; * SHM of composite tubes; and * SHM of helicopter rotor blades. Structural Health Monitoring Using Genetic Fuzzy Systems will be useful for aerospace, civil and mechanical engineers working with structures and structured components. It will also be useful for computer scientists and applied mathematicians interested in the application of genetic fuzzy systems to engineering problems.

The book analyzes a quasi-static fracture process in concrete and reinforced concrete by means of constitutive models formulated within continuum mechanics. A continuous and discontinuous modelling approach was used. Using a continuous approach, numerical analyses were performed using a finite element method and four different enhanced continuum models: isotropic elasto-plastic, isotropic damage and anisotropic smeared crack one. The models were equipped with a characteristic length of micro-structure by means of a non-local and a second-gradient theory. So they could properly describe the formation of localized zones with a certain thickness and spacing and a related deterministic size effect. Using a discontinuous FE approach, numerical results of cracks using a cohesive crack model and XFEM were presented which were also properly regularized. Finite element analyses were performed with concrete elements under monotonic uniaxial compression, uniaxial tension, bending and shear-extension. Concrete beams under cyclic loading were also simulated using a coupled elasto-plastic-damage approach. Numerical simulations were performed at macro- and meso-level of concrete. A stochastic and deterministic size effect was carefully investigated. In the case of reinforced concrete specimens, FE calculations were carried out with bars, slender and short beams, columns, corbels and tanks. Tensile and shear failure mechanisms were studied. Numerical results were compared with results from corresponding own and known in the scientific literature laboratory and full-scale tests.