JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING (ESTEGHLAL)
Year:2015 | Volume:34 | Issue:1|Papers Count:10

In this paper, a nonlinear model of clamped-clamped microbeam actuated by electrostatic load with stretching and thermoelastic effects is presented. Free vibration frequency is calculated by discretization based on DQ method. Frequency is a complex value due to the thermoelastic effect that dissipates the energy. By separating the real and imaginary parts of frequency, quality factor of thermoelastic damping is calculated. Both stretching and thermoelastic effects are validated against the results of the reference papers. The variations of thermoelastic damping versus elasticity modulus, coefficient of thermal expansion and geometrical parameters such as thickness, gap distance, and length are investigated and these results are compared in the linear and nonlinear models for high values of voltage. Also, this paper shows that since for high values of electrostatic voltage the linear model reveals a large error for calculating the thermoelastic damping, the nonlinear model should be used for this purpose.

This research study presents a numerical study on forced convection heat transfer of an aqueous ferrofluid passing through a circular copper tube in the presence of an alternating magnetic field. The flow passes through the tube under a uniform heat flux and laminar flow conditions. The primary objective was to intensify the particle migration and disturbance of the boundary layer by utilizing the magnetic field effect on the nanoparticles for more heat transfer enhancement. Complicated convection regimes caused by interactions between magnetic nanoparticles under various conditions were studied. The process of heat transfer was examined with different volume concentrations and under different frequencies of the applied magnetic field in detail. The convective heat transfer coefficient for distilled water and ferrofluid was measured and compared under various conditions. The results showed that applying an alternating magnetic field can enhance the convective heat transfer rate. The effects of magnetic field, volume concentration and Reynolds Number on the convective heat transfer coefficient were widely investigated, and the optimum conditions were obtained. Increasing the alternating magnetic field frequency and the volume fraction led to better heat transfer enhancement. The effect of the magnetic field in low Reynolds numbers was higher. The results showed that the modeling data were in a very good agreement with experimental data. The maximum error was around 10%.

In this research, nonlinear dynamic analysis of concrete shear wall using a new nonlinear model based on damage mechanics approach and considering bond slip effects is presented. Nonlinear behavior of concrete is modeled by a rotational smeared crack model using damage mechanics approach. The proposed model considers major characteristics of the concrete subjected to two and three dimensional loading conditions. These characteristics are pre-softening behavior, softening initiation criteria and fracture energy conservation. The model was used in current research analysis after verification by some available numerical tests. Reinforcements are modeled by a bilinear relationship using two models: Discrete truss steel element and Smeared model. In Discrete model the effects of bond-slide between concrete and rebar is mentioned using the bond-link element model concept. Based on the presented algorithms and methodology, an FEM code is developed in FORTRAN. The validity of the proposed models and numerical algorithms has been checked using the available experimental results. Finally, numerical simulation of CAMUS I and CAMUS III reinforced concrete shear walls is carried out. Comparisons of deduced results confirm the validity of proposed models. The obtained results, both in the expected displacements and crack profiles for the walls, show a good accuracy with respect to the experimental results. Also, using discrete truss element model with respect to the smeared steel model leads to increasing the accuracy of maximum displacement response to 7% in analysis.

Since there is no closed-form formula for designing TMD (Tuned Mass Damper) for nonlinear structures, some researchers have proposed numerical optimization procedures such as a genetic algorithm to obtain the optimal values of TMD parameters for nonlinear structures. These methods are based on determining the optimal values of TMD parameters to minimize the maximum response (e.g. inter story drift) of the controlled structure subjected to a specific earthquake record. Therefore, the performance of TMD that has been designed using a specific record strongly depends on the characteristics of the earthquake record. By changing the characteristics of the input earthquake record, the efficiency of TMD is changed and in some cases, it is possible that the response of the controlled structure is increased. To overcome the shortcomings of the previous researches, in this paper, an efficient method for designing optimal TMD on nonlinear structures is proposed, in which the effect of different ground motion records is considered in the design procedure. In the proposed method, the optimal value of the TMD parameters are determined so that the average maximum response (e.g. inter story drift) resulting from different records in the controlled structure is minimized. To illustrate the procedure of the propose method, the method is used to design optimal TMD for a sample structure. The results of numerical simulations show that the average maximum response of controlled structure resulting from different records is reduced significantly. Hence, it can be concluded that the proposed method for designing optimal TMD under different earthquakes is effective.

In this research, a new method called elastic surface algorithm is presented for inverse design of 2-D airfoil in a viscous flow regime. In this method as an iterative one, airfoil walls are considered as flexible curved beams. The difference between the target and the current pressure distribution causes the flexible beams to deflect at each shape modification step. In modification shape algorithm, the finite element equations of two-node Timoshenko beam are solved to calculate the deflection of the beams. In order to validate the proposed method, various airfoils in subsonic and transonic regimes are studied, which show the robustness of the method in the viscous flow regime with separation and normal shock. Also, three design examples are presented here, which show the capability of the proposed method.

In this paper, considering all the linear and nonlinear inertia terms of moving masses on a flexible beam, the dynamic response and dynamic stability of the beam are studied. Homotopy perturbation method is used to perform the analysis and results are provided in a stability map for the different values of mass and velocity of the moving masses. It is concluded that there is a borderline in the diagram that separates the stable and unstable regions. For the first time, this borderline is determined semi-analytically. Results of the stability analysis are validated using the Floquet theory. In addition to this borderline, it is also concluded that the Homotopy perturbation method is capable of evaluating the new critical values for mass and velocity which cause vibration resonance in the beam. The locus of these resonant points, which is totally a new finding in dynamic analysis of beam-moving mass problem, is determined semi-analytically. Finally, the effect of the friction between the beam and the moving mass is studied on the stability of the system and resonant conditions. Accuracy of the results for this case is also evaluated with a numerical simulation.

In this study, for the first time, a comparison of single-relaxation-time, multi-relaxation-time and entropic lattice Boltzmann methods on non-uniform meshes is performed and application of these methods for simulation of two-dimensional cavity flows, channel flows and channel flows with sudden expansion is studied in the slip and near transition regimes. In this work, Taylor series expansion and least squares based lattice Boltzmann method is utilized in order to apply the lattice Boltzmann models on non-uniform meshes. A diffuse scattering boundary condition and a combination of bounce-back and specular boundary conditions are employed to obtain the slip at the walls. Besides, the relaxation times of lattice Boltzmann methods are computed in terms of Knudsen number. Different lattice Boltzmann methods are used to simulate lid-driven micro cavity flows and their results are compared with each other and with those obtained in the literature. Then, the best model in accuracy and stability, i.e. multi-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann method, is applied to simulate the micro channel flow in different Knudsen numbers. Results show that the proposed method on non-uniform meshes is capable of simulating micro flows problems in the slip and the transition regimes.

In this paper, a numerical model was first verified against dynamic centrifuge tests results performed on an underground subway tunnel and then, the effect of underground structure on peak ground acceleration (PGA) at the ground surface investigated considering linear and nonlinear behavior for the soil. The results show that in the range of natural frequency of the system, nonlinear model shows deamplification of PGA with respected to the freefield. Whereas, linear model shows opposite trend. Out of the range of natural frequency of the system, linear and nonlinear models predict same results and for both model, underground tunnel resulted in amplification of low frequencies and deamplification of high frequencies with respected to the freefield.

In this paper a new vibration-based damage detection method for damage localization in shear frames is presented. For this purpose, a new damage index is proposed by means of static displacements estimated using only the first several modes data and Grey Relation Theory. The efficiency of the presented method has been demonstrated through studying several damage scenarios on three examples of shear frames with different number of stories and the effects of various situations such as the existence random noises in the recorded data, number of available modes, different damage scenarios and irregularity in the structural characteristics have been studied on the applicability of the presented method. The obtained results show the robustness and good performance of the presented method in the damage diagnosis of shear frames. Some of the most important advantages of the suggested method can be summarized as its ability in damage localization by means of only the first mode data, low sensitivity to the random noises and high speed and accuracy in estimating damage locations.

Buckling under compression is a common phenomenon for thin-walled structures. Under certain conditions, they can also buckle locally under tensile loads. In this paper, the buckling of cracked panels is investigated. Effects of some parameters such as the length and orientation of crack, length, width and thickness of the panel and boundary conditions on the compressive and tensile buckling loads are determined. The results show that the dimensions of panels have the least and characteristics of crack have the most effect on the buckling.