Tianjian Ji

Improving FE models of a long-span flat concrete floor using natural frequency measurements

The paper identifies an appropriate FE model for determining the dynamic characteristics of a long-span flat concrete floor using natural frequency measurements. The Cardington concrete building was selected for the study because it represents a popular form of concrete construction. The natural frequencies of the floors were measured. Several FE models of the floor are considered and the models are refined based on the comparison between numerical predictions and the frequency measurements. It is concluded that a floor-column model provides the most appropriate representation of the actual structure. � 2002 Civil-Comp Ltd. and Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Seismic protection technology for nuclear power plants: a systematic review

Seismic protection systems (SPS) have been developed and used successfully in conventional structures, but their applications in nuclear power plants (NPPs) are scarce. However, valuable research has been conducted worldwide to include SPS in nuclear engineering design. This study aims to provide a state-of-the-art review of SPS in nuclear engineering and to answer four significant research questions: (1) why are SPS not adopted in the nuclear industry and what issues have prevented their deployment? (2) what types of SPS are being considered in nuclear engineering research? (3) what are the strategies for location of SPS within NPPs? and (4) how may SPS provide improved structural performance and safety of NPPs under seismic actions? This review is conducted following the procedures of systematic reviews, where possible. The issues concerning the use of SPS in NPPs are identified: cost, safety, licensing and scarcity of applications. NPPs demand full structural integrity and reactors safe shutdown during earthquake actions. Therefore, horizontal isolation may be insufficient in active seismic zones and isolation in the vertical direction may be required. Based on the results in this review, it is likely that next generation reactors in seismic zones will include state-of-the-art SPS to achieve full standardised design.

Estimation of dynamic characteristics of a spring-mass-beam system,

This paper presents an approximate solution for the analysis of the dynamic characteristics of a spring-mass-beam system. The spring-mass can be distributed or concentrated on a beam, which can represent a crowd or an individual on a beam. The analysis is based on the fact that a spring-mass-beam system can be modeled approximately as a series of two degree-of-freedom (TDOF) systems and the frequency coupling occurs mainly at the first TDOF system. The Galerkin method is used to derive the frequency equation of the TDOF system. Static beam functions of a beam with distributed and concentrated spring-masses are developed for the solutions, in which the effect of the magnitude and position of the mass of the spring-mass on the beam is considered. Using a set of simple formulae, the first pair of coupled frequencies and the corresponding mode can be obtained. The mass and stiffness factors in the TDOF system are tabled for engineering applications. For verification and use of the proposed method, a case of human-structure interaction is analysed using the proposed method and FE method. Parametric studies show that using the proposed functions, not only the first pair of natural frequencies but also the mode and internal forces of the coupled system can be obtained with high accuracy.

Presence of Resonance Frequencies in a Heavily Damped Two-Degree-of-Freedom System

AbstractIt has been experimentally identified that a stationary crowd or an individual acts like a mass-spring-damper in structural vibration. However, experiments have shown that only one resonance frequency or damped natural frequency of human–structure systems are observed on structures, such as grandstands or floors with crowds. This paper studies the presence of the two resonance frequencies in a heavily damped, two-degree-of-freedom (TDOF) system in theory and in experiment. The invisibility, or nonpresence, of a resonance frequency is defined by investigating a heavily damped single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system subjected to a harmonic load. By using frequency response functions (FRFs) for acceleration, it is demonstrated that the observable presence of the two resonance frequencies of the TDOF system depends on the mass ratio and frequency ratio of the upper SDOF model to the lower SDOF model and the damping ratio of the upper SDOF model. The conditions for the presence of the two resonance freq...

Mechanical Parameters of Standing Body and applications in Human-Structure Interaction

In this paper, the dynamic interaction of human body and structure is studied The shaking table experiment with a person standing on a rigid table supported by springs is firstly carried out to determine the dynamic characteristics of the coupled system. It is shown that the body mainly contributes only one degree of freedom to the human-structure coupled system. Then, the two-degree-of-freedom (TDOF) coupled model of the human-structure system is developed through the energy variation by considering the standing human body as an elastic bar of two segments with distributed mass, stiffness and damping. Based on the experiment data, the dynamic parameters of the TDOF coupled system are determined by using the least square method (LSM). The mechanical parameters such as the damping ratio and the distributions of mass and stiffness of the human body model of two segments are identified by adopting the inversing technique Finally, the determined body model is applied to analyze the free vibration of beams and plates occupied by standing persons. The governing differential equations of the human-beam system and the human-plate system are, respectively, derived out. The dynamic characteristics of the human-structure interaction are obtained by the use of the complex mode theory. The results are compared with the experimental ones and those from the finite element simulations. Good agreement is observed for all cases.

Free vibration of rectangular plates with attached discrete sprung masses

A direct approach is used to derive the exact solution for the free vibration of thin rectangular plates with discrete sprung masses attached. The plate is simply supported along two opposite edges and elastically supported along the two other edges. The elastic support can represent a range of boundary conditions from free to clamped supports. Considering only the compatibility of the internal forces between the plate and the sprung masses, the equations of the coupled vibration of the plate-spring-mass system are derived. The exact expressions for mode and frequency equations of the coupled vibration of the plate and sprung masses are determined. The solutions converge steadily and monotonically to exact values. The correctness and accuracy of the solutions are demonstrated through comparison with published results. A parametric study is undertaken focusing on the plate with one or two sprung masses. The results can be used as a benchmark for further investigation. The solution provided in the paper is general and includes several special cases, such as the plate with classical boundary conditions, the plate attached with discrete rigid masses, the plate supported by discrete springs and the plate restricted by rigid vertical point-supports.