In this paper a new ribbed bracing system (RBS) is proposed capable of performing as a Variable stiffness system that can be used for controlling structural deformations and frequency shifting to compensate seismic energy. RBS has two important advantages. Because of ribbed system, the compressive member is rigidly moved like a piston and a cylinder and therefore it is a buckling prevented system. Also it is possible to use this system as a semi-active system by considering the story drifts and global structural damage and control the system if it is necessary to be open or closed based on the operational criteria assigned in the system. RBS has no need to any actuator and large power supply, but just a battery-size power supply to switch the ribbed mechanism to be on or off. RBS is composed of a ribbed supplemental part and a normal wind-bracing on each floor. Considering an appropriate criterion based on the storey drift, minimum number of bracing systems will be active on the height of structure during earthquake. In contrast with completely closed RBS (CC-RBS) by on-off bracing system arranged along the height of the building cause period shifting of the structure to the larger value. Three stages are considered in the numerical studies: conventional bracing frame (CBF), CC-RBS and semi-active RBS (SA-RBS). Damage indices and Fourier transforms are calculated in order to discuss on the efficiency of the proposed system. Nonlinear dynamic analysis of system has been carried out and structural behaviour has been investigated.Numerical results show the efficiency of CC-RBS in reducing structural damage and improving seismic energy. Also base shear is reduced when SA-RBS is used and structural damage is more uniform in this case.

The dynamic stability is studied for thin-walled structural elements with Variable stiffness subjected to periodically alternating axial force in this paper. Here, the variation stiffness means that it changes with periodically alternating axial force as for nonlinear geometry stiffness matrix of thin-walled member. Damping is considered and the governing equations are expressed in terms of a system of two second-order differential equations of the Mathieu type, with periodic coefficients.MATLAB package is used to determine the stability boundary. Numerical example is presented for the dynamic stability boundary of a simply supported beam with I-shaped cross section. Comparison is made with finite element analysis. Considered damping, some conclusions are drawn out: Excited zone of thin-walled member is continuous, the dynamic instability is highly dominant in the first region while the second and third instability regions are of much less practical importance, The larger the ratio of damp, the less the dynamic instability region, The larger the ratio of damp, the more time dependent components of the load wanted, absorption of damping is commonly of no effect to prevent parametrically excited vibration from dynamic instability, Parametrically excited vibration considering damping is much more different from damped forced vibration in nature.

In this paper, designing Variable stiffness semi-active tuned mass damper (SATMD) for mitigating the responses of nonlinear structures under earthquake excitation has been studied. Two semi-active control algorithms based on instantaneous optimal control and clipping control concept as well as modified balance control have been developed to determine the optimal stiffness of SATMD for nonlinear structures in each time step. For determining optimal parameters of semi-active control system including the weighting matrices in performance index of control algorithm as well as the maximum and minimum values of SATMD stiffness, an optimization problem for minimization of structure maximum response has been defined where genetic algorithm (GA) has been used for optimization. For numerical simulations, an eight-story nonlinear shear building with bilinear hysteresis behavior has been subjected to a white noise excitation and optimal SATMDs have been designed. The results showed that optimal Variable stiffness SATMD using both control algorithms has been effective in suppressing the seismic responses of nonlinear structure. Also, Variable stiffness SATMD shows better performance than TMD and Variable damping SATMD in structural response controlling. Comparing the performance of the Variable stiffness SATMD under testing earthquakes which were different from design record, showed that the efficiency of SATMD depends on the characteristics of excitation, hence design record needs to be chosen properly.

The dynamic stability is studied for thin-walled structural elements with Variable stiffness subjected to periodically alternating axial force in this paper. Here, the variation stiffuess means that it changes with periodically alternating axial force as for nonlinear geometry stiffuess matrix of thin-walled member. Damping is considered and the governing equations are expressed in terms of a system of two second-order differential equations of the Mathieu type, with periodic coefficients. MATLAB package is used to determine the stability boundary. Numerical example is presented for the dynamic stability boundary of a simply supported beam with I-shaped cross section. Comparison is made with finite element analysis. Considered damping, some conclusions are drawn out: Excited zone of thin-walled member is continuous, the dynamic instability is highly dominant in the first region while the second and third instability regions are of much less practical importance; The larger the ratio of damp, the less the dynamic instability region; The larger the ratio of damp, the more time dependent components of the load wanted, absorption of damping is commonly of no effect to prevent parametrically excited vibration from dynamic instability; Parametrically excited vibration considering damping is much more different from damped forced vibration in nature.

The dynamic stability is studied for thin-walled structural elements with Variable stiffness subjected to periodically alternating axial force in this paper. Here, the variation stiffness means that it changes with periodically alternating axial force as for nonlinear geometry stiffness matrix of thin-walled member. Damping is considered and the governing equations are expressed in terms of a system of two second-order differential equations of the Mathieu type, with periodic coefficients. MATLAB package is used to determine the stability boundary. Numerical example is presented for the dynamic stability boundary of a simply supported beam with I-shaped cross section. Comparison is made with finite element analysis. Considered damping, some conclusions are drawn out: Excited zone of thin-walled member is continuous, the dynamic instability is highly dominant in the first region while the second and third instability regions are of much less practical importance, The larger the ratio of damp, the less the dynamic instability region, The larger the ratio of damp, the more time dependent components of the load wanted, absorption of damping is commonly of no effect to prevent parametrically excited vibration from dynamic instability, Parametrically excited vibration considering damping is much more different from damped forced vibration in nature.

In this article, free vibration analysis of Variable stiffness composite laminate (VSCL) plates with flat and folded shapes is studied. In order to consider the concept of Variable stiffness, in each layer of these composite laminated plates, the curvilinear fibers are used instead of straight fibers. The analysis is based on a semi-analytical finite strip method which follows classical laminated plate theory (CLPT). Natural frequencies obtained through this analysis for the flat plates are in good agreement with the results obtained through other methods. Finally, the effect of the fiber orientation angle, the folding order, crank angles and boundary conditions on the Natural frequencies is demonstrated.

Semi-active control devices, also called “Intelligent” control devices, constitute the positive aspects of both passive and active control devices. A semi-active control strategy is similar to the active control strategy, but this control device has been shown to be more energy-efficient than active devices. A particular type of semi-active control device, the Variable stiffness Device (VSD), consists of a hydraulic cylinder with a normally closed solenoid control valve inserted in the tube connecting the two cylinder chambers. This paper emphasizes on the application of Semi-active Fuzzy Logic Controller (SFLC) of this system for getting the best results in the reduction of the building responses under earthquake excitations.For the numerical example, a 12-story building, located in the city of Rasht, Iran, is modeled as 3-D frame and the problem is solved in state space. The results obtained from the proposed control scheme (SFLC) are compared with those obtained from the ON-OFF control method. It is found that the SFLC is highly effective in reducing the responses of the example building than the ON-OFF algorithm. In this study, the optimal values of the fuzzy rule bases, membership functions, and the location of the control device are determined.

A NURBS-based isogeometric finite element formulation is developed and adopted to the free vibration analysis of finite square and skew laminated plates. Variable stiffness plies are assumed due to implementation of curvilinear fiber reinforcements. It is assumed due to employment of tow placement technology, in each ply of Variable stiffness composite laminated plate the fiber reinforcement orientation angle is changed linearly with respect to longitudinal geometry coordinate. The classic plate theory is utilized for structural model description. The cubic NURBS basis functions are employed to approximate the geometry of the plate while simultaneously serve as the shape functions for solution field approximation in the analysis. To show the effectiveness and accuracy of the developed formulation, some representative results are extracted and compared to similar items available in the literature. The effects of curvilinear fiber angles, different geometries and various end constraints are evaluated on the Variable stiffness composite laminated skew panel behavior.

As a key component of reciprocating pump, the valve has a significant influence on its performance. However, it is difficult for the existing valve to simultaneously solve the problems such as fatigue, erosion and cavitation in engineering application. In this paper, a solution to these problems of using Variable stiffness spring is proposed. And three new structures of the valve are designed. Furthermore, based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method, a three-dimensional dynamic simulation model considering fluid-structure interaction in the suction stroke of reciprocating pump is established by using dynamic grid technique and User-Defined Functions (UDF). The performance of these new valves are compared with that of conventional valve respectively. The result shows that the new valves have significant influence on the motion characteristics of the valve disc, flow field distribution and cavitation. Besides, the simulation and experimental results of the maximum lift are compared, and it is found that they are basically in agreement. The new structures provide a new research direction for improving the performance of reciprocating pump. Simultaneously, the above simulation method can also provide guidance for valve design, structural optimization and service life improvement.