Search results for " Structural"
showing 10 items of 1751 documents
Assessment of the tuned mass damper inerter for seismic response control of base‐isolated structures
2020
In this paper, the hybrid control of structures subjected to seismic excitation by means of tuned mass damper inerter (TMDI) and base-isolation subsystems is studied with the aim of improving the dynamic performance of base-isolated structures by reducing the displacement demand of the isolation subsystem. The seismic performance of TMDI hybrid controlled structures is investigated in a comparative study, considering simple isolated systems and systems equipped with other absorber devices such as the tuned mass damper (TMD) and the tuned liquid column damper (TLCD). The TMDI has been optimized by performing a simplified approach based on minimizing the base-isolation subsystem displacement …
Optimum design and operation of primary sludge fermentation schemes for volatile fatty acids production.
2003
This paper presents a model-knowledge based algorithm for optimising the primary sludge fermentation process design and operation. This is a recently used method to obtain the volatile fatty acids (VFA), needed to improve biological nutrient removal processes, directly from the raw wastewater. The proposed algorithm consists in a heuristic reasoning algorithm based on the expert knowledge of the process. Only effluent VFA and the sludge blanket height (SBH) have to be set as design criteria, and the optimisation algorithm obtains the minimum return sludge and waste sludge flow rates which fulfil those design criteria. A pilot plant fed with municipal raw wastewater was operated in order to …
A multicriterion design of steel frames with shakedown constraints
2006
The minimum volume design of elastic perfectly plastic steel frames subjected to fixed and cyclic loads is searched in such a way that the structure remains in elastic field in serviceability conditions, while it is subjected to alternating plasticity under very strong cyclic actions, incremental and instantaneous collapse being prevented. The problem is faced on the grounds of a statical and a kinematical approach. The Kuhn-Tucker conditions of the two problems prove that they are each one the dual of the other and provide useful pieces of information about the structural behaviour. Numerical applications confirm the theoretical expectations: optimal designs turn out to be quite light, wit…
Discrete variable design of frames subjected to seismic actions accounting for element slenderness
2015
An optimal design problem formulation of elastic plastic frames under different combinations of fixed and seismic loads is presented. The optimal structure must behave elastically for the fixed loads, shakedown for serviceability conditions and prevent instantaneous collapse for fixed and high seismic loads. P-Delta effects and element buckling are considered. An appropriate modal technique is utilized. The design variables can have components in a continuous field or, alternatively, in chosen discrete sets or, yet, both kind of variables can be present. The design problem is formulated on the ground of a statical approach. The applications are related to steel frames.
Simple Relationships for the Optimal Design of Paired Drip Laterals on Uniform Slopes
2016
Microirrigation plants, if properly designed, allow water use efficiency to be optimized and quite high values of emission uniformity to be obtained in the field. It is known that disposing paired laterals, in which two distribution pipes extend in opposite directions from a common manifold, contribute to increasing water use efficiency. Recently, an analytical procedure has been proposed to optimally design paired drip laterals on uniform slopes under the assumption of neglect: (1) the variations of the emitters’ flow rate along the lateral, and (2) the local losses due to the emitters’ insertions. However, this procedure is not readily usable for every geometric and hydraulic characterist…
Optimization of continuous elastic perfectly plastic beams
2004
Abstract The optimal design of elastic plastic beams subjected to loads quasi-statically variable within a given domain is studied. A minimum volume formulation and a maximum load multiplier formulation are developed, both expressed on the grounds of a statical as well as of a kinematical approach. The search problems are formulated according to three different limiting criteria acting simultaneously. For each criterion a corresponding selected safety factor is imposed. The Euler–Lagrange equations related to the above described problems are deduced. A special iterative technique devoted to the solution of the above referenced problems is proposed. Some numerical examples conclude the paper.
Thermal buckling optimization of composite laminates by evolution strategies
2000
Abstract Thermal buckling optimization of laminated composite plates subject to a temperature rise is presented in this paper. Aerospace structures require such components that are able to withstand the external environment loads without loss of stability. The discrete optimal design problem, formulated under strain and ply contiguity constraints is solved using evolution strategies, a guided random-search method. Two different constraint handling methods are investigated and compared: the disregarding infeasible solutions and the classical penalty function approach. The results are also compared with an exact enumerative study conducted on the problem, showing the effectiveness and perform…
Simplified analytical solution for the optimal design of Tuned Mass Damper Inerter for base isolated structures
2019
Abstract In this paper the use of the Tuned Mass Damper Inerter (TMDI) to control the response of base isolated structures under stochastic horizontal base acceleration is examined. Notably, the TMDI, recently introduced as a generalization of the classical Tuned Mass Damper, allows to achieve enhanced performance compared to the other passive vibration control devices. Thus, it represents an ideal alternative for reducing displacements of base isolated structures. To this aim, firstly a straightforward numerical approach is developed for the optimal design of this device considering a white noise base excitation. Further, a simplified analytical solution for the optimal design of TMDI para…
Base-isolated structure equipped with tuned liquid column damper: An experimental study
2019
Abstract In this study, a novel passive vibration control strategy is investigated experimentally, where a Tuned Liquid Column Damper protects a base-isolated structure. The Tuned Liquid Column Damper is attached to the base, in contrast to typical attachment points of passive energy dissipation devices in high-rise buildings at elevated levels. Experiments on a base-excited small-scale three-story shear frame are conducted in order to study effects of both control devices – base-isolation and Tuned Liquid Column Damper – on the structural model. The dynamic properties of the stand-alone shear frame and the base-isolation subsystem are derived using standard dynamic test methods based on di…
Smart structures through nontraditional design of Tuned Mass Damper Inerter for higher control of base isolated systems
2020
Abstract This paper introduces a smart structure design through the definition of an innovative passive control strategy, referred to as New Tuned Mass Damper Inerter (New TMDI), coupled with a base isolation system (BI), to control displacements in base isolated structures under seismic excitations. The herein proposed New TMDI comprises a recently developed nontraditional Tuned Mass Damper (known as New TMD), in which a secondary mass system is connected to the base plate of the BI system by a spring and to the ground by a dashpot, and of an inerter device placed in parallel with the damper. An optimization procedure which minimizes the base displacement variance of the BI system, conside…