• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.141-156
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• 1994

In this paper, the effect of material elasticity was evaluated through a simple model as proposed by Wang and Yu (1991), for yield mechanisms of a cantilever beam under tip pulse loading. The beam was assumed rigid-perfectly plastic but instead of the usual fully clamped constraints at its root, an elastic-perfectly plastic rotational spring was introduced there so the system had a certain capacity to absorb elastic energy. Compared with a rigid-perfectly plastic beam without a spring root, the present beam-spring model showed differences in the initial plastic hinge position and the minimum magnitude of the dynamic force needed to produce a plastic failure. It was also shown that various failure responses may happen while the hinge travels along the beam segment towards the root, rather than a unique response mode as in a rigid perfectly plastic analysis.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.237-244
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• 2019

This paper suggests novel types of joint mechanisms composed of elastic strings and rigid bodies. All of the human hinge joints have the articular capsule and a pair of collateral ligaments. These fibrous tissues make the joint compliant and stable. The proposed mechanism closely imitates the human hinge joint structure by using the concept of tensegrity. The resultant mechanism has several characteristics shown commonly from both the tensegrity structure and the human joint such as compliance, stability, lightweight, and non-contact between rigid bodies. In addition, the role and feature of the human hinge joints vary according to the origins of a pair of collateral ligaments. Likewise, the locations of two strings corresponding to a pair of collateral ligaments produce different function and motion of the proposed mechanism. It would be one of the advantages obtained from the proposed mechanism. How to make a joint mechanism with different features is also suggested in this paper.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.539-551
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• 2023

In order to study the fire resistance of castellated composite beams with ortho-hexagonal holes and different beam-end restraints, temperature rise tests with constant load were conducted on full-scale castellated composite beams with ortho-hexagonal holes and hinge or rigid joint constraints to investigate the temperature distribution, displacement changes and failure patterns of castellated composite beams with two different beam-end constraints during the whole course of fire. The results show that (1) During the fire, the axial pressure and horizontal expansion deformation generated in the rigid joint constrained composite beam were larger than those in the hinge joint constrained castellated composite beam, and their maximum horizontal expansion displacements were 30.2 mm and 17.8 mm, respectively. (2) After the fire, the cracks on the slab surface of the castellated composite beam with rigid joint constraint were more complicated than hinge restraint, and the failure more serious; the lower flange and web at the ends of the castellated steal beams with hinge and rigid joint constraint produced serious local buckling, and the angles of the ortho-hexagonal holes at the support cracked; the welds at both ends of the castellated composite beam with rigid joint constraint cracked. (3) Based on the simplified calculation method of solid-web composite beam, considering the effect of holes on the web, this paper calculated the axial force and displacement of the beam-end constrained castellated composite beams under fire. The calculation results agreed well with the test results.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.51-73
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• 2014

A three-dimensional finite element model for the Jiashao Bridge, the longest multi-span cable-stayed bridge in the world, is established using the commercial software package ANSYS. Dynamic characteristics of the bridge are analyzed and the effects of structural system measures including the rigid hinge, auxiliary piers and longitudinal constraints between the girders and side towers on the dynamic properties including modal frequency, mode shape and effective mass are studied by referring to the Jiashao Bridge. The analysis results reveal that: (i) the installation of the rigid hinge significantly reduces the modal frequency of the first symmetric lateral bending mode of bridge deck. Moreover, the rigid hinge significantly changes the mode shape and effective mass of the first symmetric torsional mode of bridge deck; (ii) the layout of the auxiliary piers in the side-spans has a limited effect on changing the modal frequencies, mode shapes and effective masses of global vibration modes; (iii) the employment of the longitudinal constraints significantly increases the modal frequencies of the vertical bending modes and lateral bending modes of bridge deck and have significant effects on changing the mode shapes of vertical bending modes and lateral bending modes of bridge deck. Moreover, the effective mass of the first anti-symmetric vertical bending of bridge deck in the longitudinal direction of the fully floating system is significantly larger than that of the partially constrained system and fully constrained system. The results obtained indicate that the structural system measures of the multi-span cable-stayed bridge have a great effect on the dynamic properties, which deserves special attention for seismic design and wind-resistant design of the multi-span cable-stayed bridge.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.16 no.2 s.69
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• pp.201-213
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• 2004

A GA-based optimum design algorithm and a program for plane steel frame structures with semi-rigid connections are presented. The algorithm is incorporated with the refined plastic hinge analysis method wherein geometric nonlinearity is considered by using the stability functions of beam-column members, and material nonlinearity, by using the gradual stiffness degradation model that includes the effects of residual stresses, moment redistribution through the occurrence of plastic hinges, semi-rigid connections, and geometric imperfection of members. In the genetic algorithm, the tournament selection method and micro-GAs are employed. The fitness function for the genetic algorithm is expressed as an unconstrained function composed of objective and penalty functions. The objective and penalty functions are expressed as the weight of steel frames and the constraint functions, respectively. In particular, the constraint functions fulfill the requirements of load-carrying capacity, serviceability, ductility, and construction workability. To verify the appropriateness of the present method, the optimal design results of two plane steel frames with rigid and semi-rigid connections are compared.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.483-492
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• 2009

In this study, nonlinear analysis of steel plane frame was performed using the refined plastic hinge method of advanced analysis techniques. In deterioration of stiffness in plastic zone, influences by flexural bending, residual stress, geometrical non-linearity, and semi-rigid connection are considered. And also, further reduced tangent modulus was used for geometrical non-linearity, top and seat angle were chosen for semi-rigid connection. Furthermore, 3 parameter power model was used for moment-rotation behaviour of beam to column connection. The loading conditions are combined with axial and lateral force and the inverse triangle distribution of lateral and eight type of analytical models were used in analysis. The results of analyses were compared with semi-rigid and rigid connection on behaviour of numerical analysis models. And also, the behaviors of frame with changes of semi-rigidity were analyzed by using the results obtained from MIIDAS-GENw.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.383-398
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• 2009

Applying nonlinear statistical analysis methods in estimating the performance of structures in earthquakes is strongly considered these days. This is due to the methods' simplicity, timely lower cost and reliable estimation in seismic responses in comparison with time-history nonlinear dynamic analysis. Among nonlinear methods, simplified to be incorporated in the future guidelines, Modal Pushover Analysis, known by the abbreviated name of MPA, simply models nonlinear behavior of structures; and presents a very proper estimation of nonlinear dynamic analysis using lateral load pattern appropriate to the mass. Mostly, two kinds of connecting joints, 'hinge' and 'rigid', are carried out in different type of steel structures. However, it should be highly considered that nominal hinge joints usually experience some percentages of fixity and nominal rigid connections do not employ totally rigid. Therefore, concerning the importance of these structures and the significant flexibility effect of connections on force distribution and elements deformation, these connections can be considered as semi-rigid with various percentages of fixity. Since it seems, the application and implementation of MPA method has not been studied on moment-resistant steel frames with semi rigid connections, this research focuses on this topic and issue. In this regard several rigid and semi-rigid steel bending frames with different percentages of fixity are selected. The structural design is performed based on weak beam and strong column. Followed by that, the MPA method is used as an approximated method and Nonlinear Response History Analysis (NL-RHA) as the exact one. Studying the performance of semi-rigid frames in height shows that MPA technique offers reasonably reliable results in these frames. The methods accuracy seems to decrease, when the number of stories increases and does decrease in correlation with the semi-rigidity percentages. This generally implies that the method can be used as a proper device in seismic estimation of different types of low and mid-rise buildings with semi-rigid connections.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.1A
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• pp.9-18
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• 2011

Generally the connection of structural members is assumed as hinge, rigid and semi-rigid connections. The exact tangent stiffness matrix of a semi-rigid frame element is newly derived using the stability functions considering shear deformations. Also, linearized elastic- and geometric-stiffness matrices of shear deformable semi-rigid frame are newly proposed. For the exact stiffness matrix, an accurate displacement field is introduced by equilibrium equation for beam-column under the bending and the axial forces. Also, stability functions considering sway deformation and force-displacement relations with elastic rotational spring on ends are defined. In order to illustrate the accuracy of this study, various numerical examples are presented and compared with other researcher's results. Lastly, shear deformation and semi-rigid effects on buckling behaviors of structure are parametrically investigated.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.81-92
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• 2008

Generally the connection of members is defined as hinge or rigid. But, real joints on structure have to be considered semi-rigid connections because this permits relative rotation for members on joints. The purpose of this study is to derive a generalized tangential stiffness matrix of frames with semi-rigid connections and to develop a buckling analysis program. For the exact stiffness matrix, an accurate displacement field is introduced using an equilibrium equation for beam-columns under the bending and axial forces. Also, stability functions that consider sway deformation and force-displacement relations with rotational spring on ends were defined. In order to illustrate the accuracy of this study and the characteristics of semi-rigid for system buckling load, samples of angle-, portal- and 3-story frames with semi-rigid connections are presented, where the proposed approach is found to be in excellent agreement with other research results. Meanwhile, the application of codes such as Eurocode 3 and LRFD led to significant inaccuracies.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.203-209
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• 2014

The rear center-hinge bracket is designed for supporting and folding the rear-seat backrest. This bracket needs to be strong enough to be able to rigidly hold the rear-seat backrest and to withstand luggage loads from the car trunk that are generated when a vehicle is driving on the roads. Particularly, current accident studies report that many serious occupant injuries occurred when the rear-seat back easily folded inward toward the car interior, driven by the luggage loads in the trunk. Given this fact, the robust design of the rear center-hinge bracket that mainly supports the rear backrest has become more important for providing customer safety and preventing high warranty and durability problems. However, none of the studies have emphasized its significant role and considered its robust optimization. Therefore, this paper presents how the hinge-bracket design is optimized based on an application of the finite-element method coupled with the parameter design using Taguchi's design experiment. Finally, Taguchi method's application optimizes a robust center-hinge bracket that shows more rigid performance although it has lighter weight and thinner thickness.