Bartlomiej Blachowski

EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION OF DAMAGE LOCATION TECHNIQUES FOR FRAME STRUCTURES ASSEMBLED USING BOLTED CONNECTIONS

This work is focused on experimental verification of existing techniques for localization of a loosened bolted connection. To this end, a laboratory-scale 2-meter-long steel frame is used. The structure consists of 11 steel beams forming a four-bay frame, which is subjected to impact loads using a modal hammer. The accelerations are measured at 20 different locations on the frame, including joints and beam elements. Two states of the structure are considered: a healthy and a damaged one. The damage is introduced by means of loosening two out of three bolts at one of the frame connections. Experimental modal analysis reveals that the loosened bolts in the connection cause a shift only in some of the frame’s natural frequencies, while the others remain insensitive to the damage.

Discrete structural optimization by removing redundant material

A very simple method for finding the minimum weight of a structure designed from a list of available parameters is presented. The structure can be subjected to multiple loading conditions with constraints imposed on displacements, stresses and eigenfrequency. The method consists of a recursive removal of redundant material, starting from the heaviest structure. The number of analyses required is a factor of 102 less than for most stochastic methods. The knowledge needed for application of the method is limited to the finite-element method.

Axial Strain Accelerations Approach for Damage Localization in Statically Determinate Truss Structures

This work proposes an efficient and reliable method for damage localization in truss structures. The damage is localized on the basis of measured acceleration signals of the structure followed by simple statistical signal processing. It has three main advantages over many existing methods. First, it can be directly applied to real engineering structures without the need of identifying modal parameters or solving any global optimization problem. Second, the proposed method has higher sensitivity to damage than some other frequently used methods and allows to localize damage as small as a few percentages. Third, it is a model-free method, which does not require precise finite element model development or updating. Validation of the method has been conducted on numerical examples and laboratory-scale trusses. Two types of frequently used trusses have been selected for this study, namely, Howe and Bailey trusses. The presented experimental validation of the method shows its efficiency and robustness for damage localization in truss structures.

Modeling and Measurement of a Pedestrian’s Center-of-Mass Trajectory

This paper presents the measurement and model updating of a pedestrian’s center of mass trajectory. A mathematical model proposed by the authors is updated using the actual trajectory of a pedestrian. The mathematical model is based on the principle that a human’s control capability tries to maintain balance with respect to the pedestrian’s center of mass (CoM), independently of the surface type. In this research, the human is considered as a mass point concentrated at CoM. The parameters of the models are updated using experimental identification of the human walking trajectory on a rigid surface. The proposed measurement technique uses a depth sensor, which enable skeletal tracking of the pedestrian walking on rigid or flexible structures. Experiments were performed using a mobile platform with the time-of-flight commercial camera Microsoft Kinect for Windows 2.0. The velocity of the mobile platform is set to maintain a 1 m separation from the pedestrian in order to provide high resolution. The results of the measurement technique allowed the identification of the human’s CoM trajectory. The results of the model updating process present the probability density function of the parameters which could be used for modeling the CoM’s trajectory of the pedestrian.

REDUCED ORDER MODEL OF CIRCULAR FLANGE-BOLTED CONNECTION AND ITS APPLICATION TO DYNAMIC SUBSTRUCTURING OF TELECOMMUNICATION TOWERS

The paper deals with a nonlinear analysis of a tall tower, with Circular Flange Bolted Connections (CFBC), in which friction and contact effects are taken into account. Due to these nonlinearities, a detailed dynamic model of the whole structure would lead to very complex computational problem, unable for practical solutions. To overcome these difficulties a reduced order model of CFBC is proposed. Such a model enables the simulation of the whole tower including nonlinearities in connections. The paper is illustrated with an example of model reduction and dynamic calculations for a contemporary telecommunication tower. The tower is assembled of 4 truss segments, of triangular cross section, interconnected with CFBCs. Finally, the influence of the number of modes, included in the reduced order model, on the accuracy and computational effect, is discussed.