Structures System Research Articles

A soil base model of adjacent various story structures

In modern geotechnical engineering, owing to the development of information technology and availability of powerful packages for the calculation of the entire base - foundation - structure system, one of the main research areas is to develop, improve and investigate soil base models to ensure the adequate interaction between the components of the system during the construction and operation of buildings and structures (hereinafter referred to as the “structures”). The paper proposes an improved soil base model in the form of a continuous layer of finite distribution capability to simulate and calculate adjacent multistory structures in the base - foundations - structures system using powerful calculation packages such as SOFiSTiK, ABAQUS, PLAXIS, SCAD, Lira and others. The improved model considers the parameters of the stress-strain properties of the soils of the bases, the geometric profile taking account of the distribution capability of the base and different boundary conditions, but differs from the existing models in that it has a stepped geometric profile at the lower boundary of the model because of different compressible layer depths under each foundation of the structures. The use of this model improves the accuracy of simulating a soil base for large-sized foundations of adjacent structures to obtain reliable results of the stress-strain state of the base - foundations - structures system. An example demonstrates how to simulate and calculate raft foundations of a two-section multistory building in the base - foundations - structures system that interacts with an improved soil base model (linear strains of soils under loads are considered here) with reference to different numbers of stories of the sections. The numerical study results show on a specific calculation example that considering different compressible layers depths in the model under differently loaded foundations results in an increase in moment forces of up to 65% as compared with simulating the whole compressible layer, which may lead to the disruption of large-sized raft foundations.

Analysis of Injuries and Cause of Death in Fatal Accidents with Farm Tractors

Abstract Farm tractor accidents are a frequent cause of death for people in agricultural field of work. The aim of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of the fatal farm tractor accidents, as well as the most significant types of injuries and causes of death. Research is based on epidemiological criteria of subjects, traffic participation, cause of death, distribution of injury, outliving period and toxicological details. The study included 22 (4.2%) farm tractor related fatalities out of all 525 subjects who died from sustained injuries or complications of the injuries sustained in road traffic accidents. The highest number of deaths was reported in men in 95.5%. The highest percentage died of bleeding out (41%), while in 18% of cases, complications that occurred during the outliving period were the cause of death. Analyzing injuries through organ systems, it is observed that the highest number of farm tractor drivers had a chest injury (90%), and the most common chest injury was a rib fracture (82%). When determining the outliving period, the highest number of fatal farm tractor drivers died at the scene of accidents (68.2%). Of all of the subjects, 32% were under the influence of alcohol, while 23% had blood alcohol concentration level greater than 0.5 ‰. The high mortality of farm tractor drivers can be reduced by introducing a mandatory rollover protective structures system and the use of a seat belt in farm tractors with cabs, which would reduce the possibility of the driver falling out of the farm tractor seat and additional injuries due to rollover.

Brief Introduction to Properties of Wood and Application of Wood in Architectural Structures

Wood’s existence in earth is much earlier than human beings’ appearance, after thousands of years’ evolution, many kinds of wood are strong enough to support humans’ basic needs. Since the mid-20th century, scientists had made a great progress in chemistry and civil engineering, which made types of materials for architecture become abundant. However, despite of all the advantages that wood has got, the inflammability and mildew are the main reasons that wood cannot be largely used in the super high-rise building or huge building. The passage mainly introduced the excellent architectural properties of wood with detailed data, wood-based structure along with its characteristics and the typical wooden structures worldwide. From the current situation, wood is widely used in the medium and small-scale building for its good properties and well performance on many respects, including the ancient masterpieces. The typical and contemporary wood building structures system have shown the ingenious ideas and connotation within the structure. Furthermore, modified materials based on wood are developed to adapt the higher standards and requirements for architecture. In this way wood shall overcome the disadvantages of inflammability and mildew and other flaws due to congenital defects and acquired defects caused by environment. Finally, the thesis puts forward simple ideas on how to bring the superiority into full play and expects that the adoption of wood-based composite technology for the prospect of wood products in the construction industry.

A Review on using Belt Truss at Different Locations on RCC Building

In past decades, shear walls and x bracing are one of the most appropriate and important structural component in multi-storied building. Therefore, it is very interesting to study the structural response and their systems in multi-storied structure during lateral load i.e earthquake loading. Shear walls and belt truss contribute the stiffness and strength during earthquakes which are often neglected during design of structure and construction. The scope of present paper is to study the effect of seismic loading on placement of belts truss in building at different alternative location. This study shows the effect of belts truss and bracing belts truss which significantly affect the vulnerability of structures. In order to test this hypothesis, RCC building was considered with and without belts truss at different location. The aim of the paper is to detail and conceptualize the varied configurations of belt truss structures system and to integrate current structures into longer structures by use of belt truss system at different location. Additionally, various advantage and disadvantage associated with outriggers and belt truss system also are discussed in this paper. A close of literature review within the field of Outrigger system is applied and therefore the summary on belts truss and gaps encountered within the study are listed during this paper. This paper introduces belt truss at different location. In which, using the belt truss structural within the RCC building so as to extend the performance of the building under the earthquake load and wind loads is studied. Concept of belt truss as Virtual outrigger is reviewed within the paper.

Seismic performance of deep excavation restrained by guardian truss structures system using quasi-static approach

The control of deformation and stability of the deep excavation walls under seismic and static loads is one of the most important issues in geotechnical engineering. Therefore, in the present study, using the finite element method and taking into account Hardening soil's behavioural model, the effect of different parameters affecting the performance of the deep excavation walls with the guardian truss structures using quasi-static analysis and its comparison with static analysis has been performed. According to the most important results, increasing in the geotechnical parameters of soil such as cohesion, friction angle and elastic modulus will reduce the maximum horizontal displacement in the vertical trench wall. Besides, the maximum settling in the adjacent ground and the maximum swelling in the bottom of the excavation will be reduced. In this way, the improvement in soil resistance parameters will increase the safety factor. Conversely, by increasing the horizontal distance between the trusses, the maximum horizontal displacement and the maximum settling in the adjacent ground and the maximum swelling in the bottom of the excavation will increase and the safety factor will be reduced. Also, the findings from this research show that by increasing the horizontal seismic acceleration coefficient (Kh) and as the construction stages progress, the maximum horizontal displacement of the wall, the maximum settling of the adjacent ground of the wall and the maximum swelling on the bottom of the trench increase and the safety factor will decrease. As well as, the results obtained from the quasi-static seismic analysis of the vertical trench restrained by the guardian truss structure such as the maximum horizontal displacement of the vertical trench wall and the maximum settling in the adjacent ground and the maximum swelling of the bottom of the excavation are much more than the static analysis.

Методика проведення функціонального обстеження військової організаційної структури

Специфічні фактори діяльності Повітряних Сил Збройних Сил України вимагають пошуку нових підходів до проектування раціональної організаційно-штатної структури. Показано, що при розробці принципів і методик проектування найбільш важливим є встановлення порядку розподілу завдань між структурними складовими, їх внеску в досягнення цілей організації, а також відповідність штатної чисельності поставленим завданням (функціям). Запропоновано методичний апарат, який дозволяє здійснити наукове обґрунтування основних напрямків як вдосконалення систем управління, так і оптимізації військових організаційних структур в цілому.

Analyzing the Role of Business Intelligence in Using the Information Systems

This study has compared three models: Delone, Mclean and corrected Sedan, by measuring the effect of business intelligence in the construction Armin Beton Yazd construction company with the library method. Then, the mediums and the related structures (information quality, system quality, service quality, system dependence, customer satisfaction and understanding profit (individual effect)) were analyzed to see if they are acting properly. To interpret the results, the authors used content production. The idea was to look for the best results and explanations for results. The main difference between these models is that the Delone and Mclean model consider system dependence (using the system) as a part of the information system's success. In contrast, the Sedan model sees it as a result. It seems that the Sedan model gives best results and explanations about them. Then, an analysis of using structure by the system because of the limited explanatory variation and very few relations with other structures was released to improve the explanatory power of future researches.

Visible light-assisted peroxydisulfate activation via hollow copper tungstate spheres for removal of antibiotic sulfamethoxazole

The contamination of antibiotics in aqueous environment causes increasing concerns recently. Light-assisted activation of peroxydisulfate (PDS) has been demonstrated as an efficient technology for removal of contamination in water. Herein, a hollow sphere of CuWO4 (h-CuWO4) was employed as a visible light-activated photocatalyst for the activation of PDS, and following with high removal efficiency (98%) of antibiotic sulfamethoxazole (SMX). Under visible light irradiation, the degradation rate on hollow structures system is nearly 2 times higher than the traditional solid CuWO4 spheres. Furthermore, the underlying mechanism and detailed pathway of SMX degradation were proposed based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC–MS). This work provides a new feasible way for advanced oxidation processes to remove antibiotics SMX in heterogeneous system, and open up new application possibilities of CuWO4-based materials.

First-principle investigation of monoclinic (AlxInyGa1−x−y)2O3 quaternary alloys

First-principle density functional theory calculations were performed to explore electronic and structural properties of β-(AlxInyGa1−x−y)2O3 quaternary alloys with both Al-content (x) and In-content (y) ranging from 0% to 18.75%. The β-(AlxInyGa1−x−y)2O3 quaternary alloys exhibit indirect band gap property with the bandgap energy varying from 4.432 to 5.171 eV. Electron effective masses are also presented for β-(AlxInyGa1−x−y)2O3 quaternary alloys, showing a general reduction with In-content increases but a general increment with Al-content increases in the material. Further analysis indicates the possibility of achieving lattice-matched or near-lattice-matched β-(AlxInyGa1−x−y)2O3/β-Ga2O3 structures system, which is critical for high performance field effect transistor and deep ultraviolet photodetector applications. Our work shows that the β-(AlInGa)2O3 alloys with proper tuning of Al- and In-content have strong potential to be used as part of the epitaxial layers for β-Ga2O3-based material system.

Community Participation in Integrated Solid Waste Management in Legetafo-Legedadi Town, Oromia, Ethiopia

The idea and practice of Municipal Solid Waste Management is multifaceted problems that cannot be solved when solutions focuses only on technical performance, but also treated in holistic manner. Hence, the status and types of community engagement in SWM at the study area was addressed in detail as an objective of the study. The study employed descriptive survey research design using quantitative and qualitative data. It applied convenience sampling procedure. The data have been collected through key informants interview, document review, field observation, FGD and questionnaire. The data was analyzed using ordinal regression. This study reveals the following findings. The contribution of the society in different perspectives like finance, material and labor ranging in low status of 61.1%., the formal organizational structure create low status of 65.3%. The capacity building and sensitization aspect accounts to 71.4% with low status in raising the society’s awareness’s and sensitization. Whereas, the FGD pertains that at least there were two waste campaigns at the town administration for awareness creation and cleansing. Most of the respondents accounts 217 (63.8%) do not know the laws, regulations and directives of solid waste; and also the status of community empowerment provides 67.5% low. The formal organizational structures system, roles, and responsibilities has very low and low (65.3%). As a result; LagaTafo LagaDadi town is characterized by poor management of solid waste and low community participation in the process. In consequence, poor SWM is becoming a major threat for health, environment and economic development of the town.

Robust stability of uncertain second-order linear time-varying systems

This paper is concerned with robust stability analysis of second-order linear time-varying (SLTV) systems with time-varying uncertainties (perturbations). With the specific Lyapunov functions, a simple and neat algebraic criterion for testing uniformly asymptotic stability of SLTV systems are derived. Without transformation to a system of first-order equations, the new conditions are imposed directly on the time-varying coefficient matrices of the system. The main feature of the proposed algebraic criterion is that the uncertain coefficient matrices are time-varying and not necessarily symmetric. Finally, the proposed stability conditions are used to design the extending space structures system of the spacecraft. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the convenience and effectiveness of the proposed method.

SIMILE STRUCTURE AS AN INCOMPLETE SUBORDINATE CLAUSE

The purpose of the present research is to improve the accuracy of simile structures system of the Russian language, putting the focus on the grammatical nature of comparisons. The object under the study is simile as a figure of speech and other comparison constructions in the composition of sentences. The subject of the study is the grammatical nature of a simile, and its place in the syntactic system of the Russian language. The study was conducted at the philological faculty of the Odessa I. I. Mechnikov National University on the basis of long-term observations of the grammatical analysis of such sentences in the practice of teaching the syntax of the modern Russian language. The study of the data has been carried out by methods of structural, semantic and functional analyses, as well as methods of observation and transformation analysis. As a result of the conducted theoretical research and observations related to the practice of teaching the syntax of the Russian language, the following conclusions have been drawn.The traditional approach considering a simile as a non-predicative construction expending the structure and semantics of a simple sentence is incorrect. Set simile expressions which are not separated intonationally and not marked with commas, are non-predicative. These explicit comparisons are not lexemes but syntaxemes, in other words, word combinations with comparative conjunctions. They function as non-detached members of the sentence. Made up comparisons which are intonationally isolated, and, if presented in a written form, are detached by commas, are potentially predicative, which is recovered from the context. Such a unit is an elliptic subordinate clause, contextually incomplete, within a compound sentence; if this unit is reloaded by some components of the main part being its anaphora and forms of the inflectional paradigm of these components. The simile of this type of structure are capable of expressing circumstantial relations of direct or indirect comparison. Detached comparison structures are semi-predicative ones expending the construction and the semantics of a simple sentence, if it is necessary to use new context-embedded words, introducing new meanings into the construction to make them fully-predicative. The predicative comparison structures are the least problematic when it comes to structural qualification; they function as subordinate part of complex sentences.

Adaptive Uncertainty Propagation for Coupled Multidisciplinary Systems

This paper presents a novel uncertainty propagation approach for multidisciplinary systems with feedback couplings, model discrepancy, and parametric uncertainty. The proposed method incorporates aspects of Gibbs sampling, importance resampling, and density estimation to ensure that, under mild assumptions, the current method is provably convergent in distribution. The method uses the samples available from previously simulating the disciplines by applying sequential importance resampling. The absence or lack of samples in each discipline is addressed by introducing an adaptive greedy sample increment process to improve the efficiency of uncertainty analysis with minimum possible computational cost. A key feature of the approach is that disciplinary models are all synthesized independently based on their available data, and it does not require any full coupled system-level evaluations. The proposed approach is illustrated on the propagation of uncertainty for an aerodynamics–structures system and is compared to a system-level Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis approach.

Safety analysis of structures with probability and evidence theory

In safety analysis of structures, classical probabilistic analysis has been a popular approach in engineering. However, it is not always to obtain sufficient information to model all uncertain parameters of structures system by probability theory, especially at early stage of design. Under this circumstance, probability theory (used to model random uncertainty) combined with evidence theory (used to model epistemic uncertainty) may be utilized in safety analysis of structures. This paper proposed a novel method for safety analysis of structures based on probability and evidence theory. Firstly, Bayes conversion method is used as the way for precision of evidence body, and the mean and variance of epistemic uncertain variables is defined. Then epistemic uncertainty variables is transformed to normal random variables by reflection transformation method, and the checking point method (J-C method) is used to solve most probability point and reliability. A numerical example and two engineering examples are given to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method. The results show both precision and computational efficiency of the method is high. Moreover, the proposed method provides basis for reliability-based optimization with the hybrid uncertainties.

Post-repair seismic assessment of RC bridges damaged with fractured column bars – A numerical approach

Seismic repair of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge columns has been studied extensively during the past several decades; however, few studies have been conducted on the influence of the column repair (member level) on the post-repair performance of bridge structures (system level). In a previous experimental study by the authors, a method was developed to rapidly repair severely-damaged RC bridge columns to enable the quick reopening of the bridge to emergency traffic. Thus a lower limit state was used for the repair design, so that the lateral strength and drift capacity of a repaired RC column with fractured longitudinal bars were not fully restored. In order to investigate whether this reduced performance of the repaired column was acceptable for the overall performance of the repaired bridge, this paper presents a numerical approach to assess the post-repair seismic response of the bridge system. Nonlinear fiber element models were developed using Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (OpenSees) software to simulate the response of the undamaged and repaired columns. Then, a three-span RC bridge structure was selected and modeled with the developed column models, based on which incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) was conducted. Seven scenarios of different combinations of undamaged and repaired columns were analyzed employing 40 ground motion (GM) records. Based on the results, it is shown that the performance of the bridge models containing varied numbers of repaired columns was comparable to that of the bridge containing only original columns with respect to the target system level performance, which confirms the effectiveness of the developed repair method.

PROCESS FEATURES OF FLUCTUATIONS PROPAGATION AT STRESS-STRAIN WORK OF THE RAILWAY TRACK

Purpose. Scientific work aims at the determination the basic laws of fluctuations propagation process from exitation of rolling stock in the design system of permanent way and substructures of the railway lines for studing the deformation processes as the basis for a regulatory framework of the track operation in the conditions of ensuring the reliability of railways. Methodology. To achieve the aim the principles of elasticity theories and wave propagation process in describing the interaction track and rolling stock were applied. Findings. The kinds of fluctuations and system which should be used when considering the fluctuations in the deformation process of rail track were established. The general view of the displacement function was determined. Originality. The theoretical concepts and principles to consider fluctuations of a structures system of permanent way and substructures of the railway track, energised by rolling stock were grounded. This will allow studing the process of deformation work of the mentioned system, which changes its state. That in turn will allow us to determine the parameters of the trains functional reliability, as part of the security passes of rolling stock on the track section with regard to its technical condition. Practical value. Usually for safe crossing of rolling stock parameters of fluctuation process in the system «vehicle-track» are determined. Existing models or carefully consider fluctuations of rolling stock in generalized characteristics of the structures of permanent way and substructures of the railway tracks or view of quasi-dynamic fluctuations rails with general characteristics of under rail base. This review process of oscillations, energised by rolling stock and delivered to all the elements of the permanent way and substructures of the railway track do not allow determining both the reliability parameters of elements in the system of track construction and parameters of functional reliability of trains as part of security checkpoints in the area of rolling stock gauge because of its technical state. Therefore, for examining issues of reliable performance elements of the permanent way and substructures of the railway track are proposed its stress-strain work. It gives the possibility to consider a dynamic process, localized both in time and space.

Effect of Liquid Properties on Phase-Change Heat Transfer in Porous Wick Structures

In a heat pipe, operating fluid saturates wick structures system and establishes a capillary-driven circulation loop for heat transfer. Thus, the thermophysical properties of the operating fluid inevitably impact the transitions of phase-change mode and the capability of heat transfer, which determine both the design and development of the associated heat pipe systems. This article investigates the effect of liquid properties on phase-change heat transfer. Two different copper wick structures, cubic and cylindrical in cross section, 340 μm in height and 150 μm in diameter or width, are fabricated using an electroplating technique. The phase-change phenomena inside these wick structures are observed at various heat fluxes. The corresponding heat transfer characteristics are measured for three different working liquids: water, ethanol, and Novec 7200. Three distinct modes of the phase-change process are identified: (1) evaporation on liquid–vapor interface, (2) nucleate boiling with interfacial evaporation, and (3) boiling enhanced interface evaporation. Transitions between the three modes depend on heat flux and liquid properties. In addition to the mode transition, liquid properties also dictate the maximum heat flux and the heat transfer coefficient. A quantitative characterization shows that the maximum heat flux scales with Merit number, a dimensionless number connecting liquid density, surface tension, latent heat of vaporization, and viscosity. The heat transfer coefficient, on the other hand, is dictated by the thermal conductivity of the liquid. A complex interaction between the mode transition and liquid properties is reflected in Novec 7200. In spite of having the lowest thermal conductivity among the three liquids, an early transition to the mode of the boiling enhanced interface evaporation leads to a higher heat transfer coefficient at low heat flux.

Activities of the Commissioners of the Council on Russian Orthodox Church and the Council on Religious Faiths under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR on the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic during the Great Patriotic War and...

The significance of the present study is caused by the necessity to do a research on the experience of the relations between power structures and religious organizations in the context of civil society mobilization in the face of external threat. The study aims at the research of the activities of the Commissioners of the Council on Russian Orthodox Church and the Council on Religious faiths to the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR on the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (TASSR) during the Great Patriotic War and early post-war years. Civilizational approach is the basic approach to the present research, which allowed examining the study subject along with political and socio-cultural aspects. The research resulted in definitions of the status of the abovementioned Councils’ commissioners in the power structures system of the state, their official and practical functions, and legal basis of their activities. Based on the commissioners’ quarterly plans and reports examination, techniques and methods of the commissioners’ work under relative normalization of relations between the state and confessions in 1943-1948 were revealed. The research materials can be used in the development of training aids, practical activities of the structures implementing state’s policy in the spiritual sphere.

Seismic analysis of 3-D two adjacent buildings connected by viscous dampers with effect of underneath different soil kinds

3D two adjacent buildings with different heights founded in different kinds of soil connected with viscous dampers groups, with especial arrangement in plane, were investigated. Soil structure interaction for three different kinds of soil (stiff, medium and soft) were modeled as 3D Winkler model to give the realistic behavior of adjacent buildings connected with viscous dampers under various earthquake excitations taking in the account the effect of different kinds of soil beneath the buildings, using SAP2000n to model the whole system. A range of soil properties and soil damping characteristics are chosen which gives broad picture of connected structures system behavior resulted from the influence soil-structure interaction. Its conclusion that the response of connected structures system founded on soft soil are more critical than those founded on stiff soil. The behavior of connected structures is different from those with fixed base bigger by nearly 20%, and the efficiency of viscous dampers connecting the two adjacent buildings is reduced by nearly 25% less than those founded on stiff soil.

Evaluation of Seismic Behavior in Building Tube Structures System with Respect to Dense Soil-Structure Interaction Effect

The perceiving local site effects on strong ground motion are particularly important for the mitigation of earthquake disasters as well as future earthquake resistant design. The primary objective of this study is to investigate seismic behavior of building tube structure system with respect to dense soil-structure interaction (sand dense and very hard clay soil with a thickness greater than 30 m). For this purpose, the studied building in this paper is placed over two other different modeled soil types and results of seismic behavior of building for three soil types are compared with each other. Through response spectrum analyses, influence of different sub-soils (dense and loose soil) was determined on seismic behavior of 40-storey building reinforced concrete (RC) with tube in tube structure system and performance of each model was assessed in terms of shear lag behavior, overall and critical (maximum) story drifts. Results illustrate that loose soils amplify seismic waves and increase building drifts and shear lag behavior.