Search results for "racking"
showing 10 items of 815 documents
Simple Plastic Model for Shear Critical SFRC Beams
2010
A simple physical model, for prediction of ultimate shear strength of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) beams is developed on the basis of a plastic approach originally proposed for reinforced concrete (RC) beams without stirrups. It is founded on the hypothesis that cracks can be transformed into yield lines, and thus is know as Crack Sliding Model (CSM). First, the CSM is improved in order to take into account the shear strength increase for deep beams, due to the arch effect. Then, the effectiveness factors for fibrous concrete under biaxial stresses are evaluated, taking into account the post-cracking tensile strength of SFRC and its ability to control slippage along shear cracks. …
A theoretical and experimental study to point out the notion of loading mode in damage mechanicsApplication to the identification and validation of a…
2002
A model of fatigue-induced intralaminar cracking in strongly anisotropic laminates is presented. The features of the microscopic phenomenon are explicitly taken into account at the macroscopic level by the use of two variables, which define a new concept in Damage Mechanics that results not only in a coherent model of crack density evolution, but also in a coherent treatment of damage deactivation. Damage evolution indeed is strongly dependent on the local loading mode in each ply where cracking occurs. Experiments on complex lay-ups provided sufficient data for complete calibration of the model. These tests also allowed to validate the theoretical choice of the damage variable. Finally, nu…
Flexural response of FRC corbels
2009
Abstract A strut-and-tie macro-model is proposed to determine the flexural response of fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) corbels, reinforced with longitudinal bars and subjected to vertical load. The effects of the corbel geometry, the percentage of steel fibers, and grades of concrete and steel bars are also included. The model, which is specific for FRC corbels with hooked steel fibers, allows the determination of load levels, and corresponding displacements, associated with the first cracking, yielding of the main steel bars and crushing of the concrete strut. The sequential occurrence of these phenomena is established, depending on the amounts of steel fibers and reinforcing steel. The si…
Steel fiber-reinforced concrete corbels:experimental behavior and shear strength prediction
2007
Corbels are structural members often used in reinforced concrete structures to transfer vertical and horizontal forces to principal members. This paper presents experimental research regarding the flexural behavior of corbels in plain and fibrous concrete and in the presence of steel bars. The study considers the influence of the type of concrete grade (normal- and high-strength concretes), of the fiber percentage and of the arrangement and percentage of the steel bars on the flexural behavior of the corbels. The results in terms of load-deflection curves and crack patterns show the effectiveness in using fibrous reinforced concrete corbels as well as in the presence of stirrups ensuring ad…
Micro-cracking of brittle polycrystalline materials with initial damage
2016
In this paper, the effect of pre-existing damage on brittle micro-cracking of polycrystalline materials is explored. The behaviour of single and multiple cracks randomly distributed within a grain scale polycrystalline aggregate is investigated using a recently developed grain boundary 3D computational framework. Each grain is modelled as a single crystal anisotropic domain. Opening, sliding and/or contact at grain boundaries are modelled using nonlinear cohesive-frictional laws. The polycrystalline micro-morphologies are generated using Voronoi tessellation algorithms in combination with a regularisation scheme to avoid the presence of unnecessary small geometrical entities (edges and face…
Demonstration of remote optical measurement configuration that correlates to glucose concentration in blood
2010
An optical approach allowing the extraction and the separation of remote vibration sources has recently been proposed. The approach has also been applied for medical related applications as blood pressure and heart beats monitoring. In this paper we demonstrate its capability to monitor glucose concentration in blood stream. The technique is based on the tracking of temporal changes of reflected secondary speckle produced in human skin (wrist) when being illuminated by a laser beam. A temporal change in skin’s vibration profile generated due to blood pulsation is analyzed for estimating the glucose concentration. Experimental tests that were carried out in order to verify the proposed appro…
Robust control for autonomous spacecraft evacuation with model uncertainty and upper bound of performance with constraints
2014
Published version of an article in the journal: Mathematical Problems in Engineering. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/589381 This paper studies the problem of guaranteed cost control for spacecraft evacuation. The relative dynamic model is established based on Clohessy-Wiltshire (C-W) equations. The paper has taken parameter uncertainty, output tracking, disturbance attenuation, and fuel cost into consideration. The paper introduces a new Lyapunov approach, so the controller design problem can be transferred into a convex optimization problem subject to linear matrix inequality (LMI) constraints. By using the controller, the spacecraft evacuation can be …
Approximation-Based Adaptive Fuzzy Tracking Control for a Class of Nonstrict-Feedback Stochastic Nonlinear Time-Delay Systems
2015
This paper focuses on the problem of approximation-based adaptive fuzzy tracking control for a class of stochastic nonlinear time-delay systems with a nonstrict-feedback structure. A variable separation approach is introduced to overcome the design difficulty from the nonstrict-feedback structure. Mamdani-type fuzzy logic systems are utilized to model the unknown nonlinear functions in the process of controller design, and an adaptive fuzzy tracking controller is systematically designed by using a backstepping technique. It is shown that the proposed controller guarantees that all signals in the closed-loop system are fourth-moment semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded, and the tracking…
Maximum Power Point Tracker for Standalone PV System Using Neural Networks
2019
In this work, designing and implementation of a maximum power point tracker (MPPT) based on an artificial neural network is proposed. The output voltage of the selected photovoltaic array is controlled by a DC to DC boost converter in a way that the PV array generates the available possible maximum power correspond to the available solar irradiance and temperature. The neural network (NN) is capable of forecasting the required terminal voltage of the PV array in order to generate the possible maximum power. The pulse width modulation (PWM) signal, which drives the boost converter, is generated through a raspberry pi according to the forecasted terminal voltage. The terminal voltage of the P…
Real time estimation of photovoltaic modules characteristics and its application to maximum power point operation
2007
In this paper, an approximate curve fitting method for photovoltaic modules is presented. The operation is based on solving a simple solar cell electrical model by a microcontroller in real time. Only four voltage and current coordinates are needed to obtain the solar module parameters and set its operation at maximum power in any conditions of illumination and temperature. Despite its simplicity, this method is suitable for low cost real time applications, as control loop reference generator in photovoltaic maximum power point circuits. The theory that supports the estimator together with simulations and experimental results are presented.