Search results for: External Reinforcement
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 911

Search results for: External Reinforcement

851 The Effect of Confinement Shapes on Over-Reinforced HSC Beams

Authors: Ross Jeffry, Muhammad N. S. Hadi

Abstract:

High strength concrete (HSC) provides high strength but lower ductility than normal strength concrete. This low ductility limits the benefit of using HSC in building safe structures. On the other hand, when designing reinforced concrete beams, designers have to limit the amount of tensile reinforcement to prevent the brittle failure of concrete. Therefore the full potential of the use of steel reinforcement can not be achieved. This paper presents the idea of confining concrete in the compression zone so that the HSC will be in a state of triaxial compression, which leads to improvements in strength and ductility. Five beams made of HSC were cast and tested. The cross section of the beams was 200×300 mm, with a length of 4 m and a clear span of 3.6 m subjected to four-point loading, with emphasis placed on the midspan deflection. The first beam served as a reference beam. The remaining beams had different tensile reinforcement and the confinement shapes were changed to gauge their effectiveness in improving the strength and ductility of the beams. The compressive strength of the concrete was 85 MPa and the tensile strength of the steel was 500 MPa and for the stirrups and helixes was 250 MPa. Results of testing the five beams proved that placing helixes with different diameters as a variable parameter in the compression zone of reinforced concrete beams improve their strength and ductility.

Keywords: Confinement, ductility, high strength concrete, reinforced concrete beam.

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850 Experimental Study of Eccentrically Loaded Columns Strengthened Using a Steel Jacketing Technique

Authors: Mohamed K. Elsamny, Adel A. Hussein, Amr M. Nafie, Mohamed K. Abd-Elhamed

Abstract:

An experimental study of Reinforced Concrete, RC, columns strengthened using a steel jacketing technique was conducted. The jacketing technique consisted of four steel vertical angles installed at the corners of the column joined by horizontal steel straps confining the column externally. The effectiveness of the technique was evaluated by testing the RC column specimens under eccentric monotonic loading until failure occurred. Strain gauges were installed to monitor the strains in the internal reinforcement as well as the external jacketing system. The effectiveness of the jacketing technique was demonstrated, and the parameters affecting the technique were studied.

Keywords: Reinforced Concrete Columns, Steel Jacketing, Strengthening, Eccentric Load.

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849 Adaptive PID Controller based on Reinforcement Learning for Wind Turbine Control

Authors: M. Sedighizadeh, A. Rezazadeh

Abstract:

A self tuning PID control strategy using reinforcement learning is proposed in this paper to deal with the control of wind energy conversion systems (WECS). Actor-Critic learning is used to tune PID parameters in an adaptive way by taking advantage of the model-free and on-line learning properties of reinforcement learning effectively. In order to reduce the demand of storage space and to improve the learning efficiency, a single RBF neural network is used to approximate the policy function of Actor and the value function of Critic simultaneously. The inputs of RBF network are the system error, as well as the first and the second-order differences of error. The Actor can realize the mapping from the system state to PID parameters, while the Critic evaluates the outputs of the Actor and produces TD error. Based on TD error performance index and gradient descent method, the updating rules of RBF kernel function and network weights were given. Simulation results show that the proposed controller is efficient for WECS and it is perfectly adaptable and strongly robust, which is better than that of a conventional PID controller.

Keywords: Wind energy conversion systems, reinforcementlearning; Actor-Critic learning; adaptive PID control; RBF network.

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848 New Ways for Designing External Fixators Applied in Treatment of Open and Unstable Fractures

Authors: Karel Frydrýšek, Pavel Koštial, Karla Barabaszová, Jana Kukutschová

Abstract:

This paper deals with a new way for designing external fixators applied in traumatology and orthopaedics. These fixators can be applied in the treatment of open and unstable fractures or for lengthening human or animal bones etc. The new design is based on the development of Ilizarov and other techniques (i.e. shape and weight optimalization based on composite materials, application of smart materials, nanotechnology, low x-ray absorption, antibacterial protection, patient's comfort, reduction in the duration of the surgical treatment, and cost).

Keywords: biomechanics, design, external fixators, newmaterials, traumatology

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847 Statistical Analysis and Predictive Learning of Mechanical Parameters for TiO2 Filled GFRP Composite

Authors: S. Srinivasa Moorthy, K. Manonmani

Abstract:

The new, polymer composites consisting of e-glass fiber reinforcement with titanium oxide filler in the double bonded unsaturated polyester resin matrix were made. The glass fiber and titanium oxide reinforcement composites were made in three different fiber lengths (3cm, 5cm, and 7cm), filler content (2 wt%, 4 wt%, and 6 wt%) and fiber content (20 wt%, 40 wt%, and 60 wt%). 27 different compositions were fabricated and a sequence of experiments were carried out to determine tensile strength and impact strength. The vital influencing factors fiber length, fiber content and filler content were chosen as 3 factors in 3 levels of Taguchi’s L9 orthogonal array. The influences of parameters were determined for tensile strength and impact strength by Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and S/N ratio. Using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) an expert system was devised to predict the properties of hybrid reinforcement GFRP composites. The predict models were experimentally proved with the maximum coincidence.

Keywords: Analysis of variance (ANOVA), Artificial neural network (ANN), Polymer composites, Taguchi’s orthogonal array.

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846 Mass Transfer Modeling of Nitrate in an Ion Exchange Selective Resin

Authors: A. A. Hekmatzadeh, A. Karimi-Jashani, N. Talebbeydokhti

Abstract:

The rate of nitrate adsorption by a nitrate selective ion exchange resin was investigated in a well-stirred batch experiments. The kinetic experimental data were simulated with diffusion models including external mass transfer, particle diffusion and chemical adsorption. Particle pore volume diffusion and particle surface diffusion were taken into consideration separately and simultaneously in the modeling. The model equations were solved numerically using the Crank-Nicholson scheme. An optimization technique was employed to optimize the model parameters. All nitrate concentration decay data were well described with the all diffusion models. The results indicated that the kinetic process is initially controlled by external mass transfer and then by particle diffusion. The external mass transfer coefficient and the coefficients of pore volume diffusion and surface diffusion in all experiments were close to each other with the average value of 8.3×10-3 cm/S for external mass transfer coefficient. In addition, the models are more sensitive to the mass transfer coefficient in comparison with particle diffusion. Moreover, it seems that surface diffusion is the dominant particle diffusion in comparison with pore volume diffusion.

Keywords: External mass transfer, pore volume diffusion, surface diffusion, mass action law isotherm.

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845 Query Reformulation Guided by External Resource for Information Retrieval

Authors: Mohammed El Amine Abderrahim

Abstract:

Reformulating the user query is a technique that aims to improve the performance of an Information Retrieval System (IRS) in terms of precision and recall. This paper tries to evaluate the technique of query reformulation guided by an external resource for Arabic texts. To do this, various precision and recall measures were conducted and two corpora with different external resources like Arabic WordNet (AWN) and the Arabic Dictionary (thesaurus) of Meaning (ADM) were used. Examination of the obtained results will allow us to measure the real contribution of this reformulation technique in improving the IRS performance.

Keywords: Arabic NLP, Arabic Information Retrieval, Arabic WordNet, Query Expansion.

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844 Experimental Behavior of Composite Shear Walls Having L Shape Steel Sections in Boundary Regions

Authors: S. Bahadır Yüksel, Alptuğ Ünal

Abstract:

The Composite Shear Walls (CSW) with steel encased profiles can be used as lateral-load resisting systems for buildings that require considerable large lateral-load capacity. The aim of this work is to propose the experimental work conducted on CSW having L section folded plate (L shape steel made-up sections) as longitudinal reinforcement in boundary regions. The study in this paper present the experimental test conducted on CSW having L section folded plate as longitudinal reinforcement in boundary regions. The tested 1/3 geometric scaled CSW has aspect ratio of 3.2. L-shape structural steel materials with 2L-19x57x7mm dimensions were placed in shear wall boundary zones. The seismic behavior of CSW test specimen was investigated by evaluating and interpreting the hysteresis curves, envelope curves, rigidity and consumed energy graphs of this tested element. In addition to this, the experimental results, deformation and cracking patterns were evaluated, interpreted and suggestions of the design recommendations were proposed.

Keywords: Shear wall, composite shear wall, boundary reinforcement, earthquake resistant structural design, L section.

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843 Synergy in Vertical Transformations of Expert Designers

Authors: G. Haupt

Abstract:

Existing literature ondesign reasoning seems to give either one sided accounts on expert design behaviour based on internal processing. In the same way ecological theoriesseem to focus one sidedly on external elementsthat result in a lack of unifying design cognition theory. Although current extended design cognition studies acknowledge the intellectual interaction between internal and external resources, there still seems to be insufficient understanding of the complexities involved in such interactive processes. As such,this paper proposes a novelmulti-directional model for design researchers tomap the complex and dynamic conduct controlling behaviour in which both the computational and ecological perspectives are integrated in a vertical manner. A clear distinction between identified intentional and emerging physical drivers, and relationships between them during the early phases of experts- design process, is demonstrated by presenting a case study in which the model was employed.

Keywords: External representation, early phases, extended design cognition, internal processes and external drivers, conduct controlling behaviour.

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842 The Influence of the Geogrid Layers on the Bearing Capacity of Layered Soils

Authors: S. A. Naeini, H. R. Rahmani, M. Hossein Zade

Abstract:

Many classical bearing capacity theories assume that the natural soil's layers are homogenous for determining the bearing capacity of the soil. But, in many practical projects, we encounter multi-layer soils. Geosynthetic as reinforcement materials have been extensively used in the construction of various structures. In this paper, numerical analysis of the Plate Load Test (PLT) using of ABAQUS software in double-layered soils with different thicknesses of sandy and gravelly layers reinforced with geogrid was considered. The PLT is one of the common filed methods to calculate parameters such as soil bearing capacity, the evaluation of the compressibility and the determination of the Subgrade Reaction module. In fact, the influence of the geogrid layers on the bearing capacity of the layered soils is investigated. Finally, the most appropriate mode for the distance and number of reinforcement layers is determined. Results show that using three layers of geogrid with a distance of 0.3 times the width of the loading plate has the highest efficiency in bearing capacity of double-layer (sand and gravel) soils. Also, the significant increase in bearing capacity between unreinforced and reinforced soil with three layers of geogrid is caused by the condition that the upper layer (gravel) thickness is equal to the loading plate width.

Keywords: Bearing capacity, reinforcement, geogrid, plate load test, layered soils.

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841 Application of Strong Optical Feedback to Enhance the Modulation Bandwidth of Semiconductor Lasers to the Millimeter-Wave Band

Authors: Moustafa Ahmed, Ahmed Bakry, Fumio Koyama

Abstract:

We report on the use of strong external optical feedback to enhance the modulation response of semiconductor lasers over a frequency passband around modulation frequencies higher than 60 GHz. We show that this modulation enhancement is a type of photon-photon resonance (PPR) of oscillating modes in the external cavity formed between the laser and the external reflector. The study is based on a time-delay rate equation model that takes into account both the strong feedback and multiple reflections in the external cavity. We examine the harmonic and intermodulation distortions associated with single and two-tone modulations in the mm-wave band of the resonant modulation. We show that compared with solitary lasers modulated around the carrier-photon resonance frequency, the present mm-wave modulated signal has lower distortions.

Keywords: Distortion, intensity modulation, optical feedback, semiconductor laser.

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840 Evaluation of External Costs of Traffic Accident in Slovak Republic

Authors: Anna Dolinayova, Jozef Danis, Juraj Camaj

Abstract:

The report deals with comparison of traffic accidents in Slovak republic in road and rail transport since 2009 until 2014, with evaluation of external costs and consequently with the possibilities of their internalization. The results of road traffic accidents analysis are realized in line with after-effects they have caused; in line with main cause, place of origin (within or out of town) and in accordance to age of accident´s victims and kind of injuries (easy, hard or fatal). Evaluation of individual after-effects is carried in terms of probability of traffic accidents occurrence.

Keywords: External costs, traffic accident, rail transport, road transport.

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839 Acquiring Contour Following Behaviour in Robotics through Q-Learning and Image-based States

Authors: Carlos V. Regueiro, Jose E. Domenech, Roberto Iglesias, Jose L. Correa

Abstract:

In this work a visual and reactive contour following behaviour is learned by reinforcement. With artificial vision the environment is perceived in 3D, and it is possible to avoid obstacles that are invisible to other sensors that are more common in mobile robotics. Reinforcement learning reduces the need for intervention in behaviour design, and simplifies its adjustment to the environment, the robot and the task. In order to facilitate its generalisation to other behaviours and to reduce the role of the designer, we propose a regular image-based codification of states. Even though this is much more difficult, our implementation converges and is robust. Results are presented with a Pioneer 2 AT on a Gazebo 3D simulator.

Keywords: Image-based State Codification, Mobile Robotics, ReinforcementLearning, Visual Behaviour.

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838 Shear Strength of Reinforced Web Openings in Steel Beams

Authors: K. S. Sivakumaran, Bo Chen

Abstract:

The floor beams of steel buildings, cold-formed steel floor joists in particular, often require large web openings, which may affect their shear capacities. A cost effective way to mitigate the detrimental effects of such openings is to weld/fasten reinforcements. A difficulty associated with an experimental investigation to establish suitable reinforcement schemes for openings in shear zone is that moment always coexists with the shear, and thus, it is impossible to create pure shear state in experiments, resulting in moment influenced results. However, Finite Element Method (FEM) based analysis can be conveniently used to investigate the pure shear behaviour of webs including webs with reinforced openings. This paper presents the details associated with the finite element analysis of thick/thin-plates (representing the web of hot-rolled steel beam, and the web of a cold-formed steel member) having a large reinforced opening. The study considered simply-supported rectangular plates subjected to in-plane shear loadings until failure (including post-buckling behaviour). The plate was modelled using geometrically non-linear quadrilateral shell elements, and non-linear stress-strain relationship based on experiments. Total Langrangian with large displacement/small strain formulation was used for such analyses. The model also considered the initial geometric imperfections. This study considered three reinforcement schemes, namely, flat, lip, and angle reinforcements. This paper discusses the modelling considerations and presents the results associated with the various reinforcement schemes under consideration.

Keywords: Cold-formed steel, finite element analysis, opening, reinforcement, shear resistance.

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837 The Influence of Internal and External Damping on Turbocharger Stability

Authors: Zdeňka Rendlová

Abstract:

This paper presents the mathematical description of the high-speed rotating system taking into account the influence of internal and external damping. The mathematical model is obtained by using the finite element method. The analyzed system is an automotive turbocharger understood as a rotor-bearing system. The circular cross-section shaft is equipped with one compressor wheel, one turbine wheel and is supported by two floating ring bearings. Based on the model, the dynamical analysis of a turbocharger is performed and stability conditions are evaluated.

Keywords: External damping, internal damping, journal bearing, stability, turbocharger.

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836 Behavior of Composite Timber-Concrete Beam with CFRP Reinforcement

Authors: O. Vlcek

Abstract:

The paper deals with current issues in research of advanced methods to increase reliability of traditional timber structural elements. It analyses the issue of strengthening of bent timber beams, such as ceiling beams in old (historical) buildings with additional concrete slab in combination with externally bonded fiber - reinforced polymer. The study evaluates deflection of a selected group of timber beams with concrete slab and additional CFRP reinforcement using different calculating methods and observes differences in results from different calculating methods. An elastic (EN 1995) calculation method and evaluation with FEM analysis software were used.

Keywords: Timber-concrete composite, strengthening, fibre-reinforced polymer, theoretical analysis.

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835 Detection of Concrete Reinforcement Damage Using Piezoelectric Materials - Analytical and Experimental Study

Authors: C. P. Providakis, G. M. Angeli, M. J. Favvata, N. A. Papadopoulos, C. E. Chalioris, C. G. Karayannis

Abstract:

An effort for the detection of damages in the  reinforcement bars of reinforced concrete members using PZTs is  presented. The damage can be the result of excessive elongation of  the steel bar due to steel yielding or due to local steel corrosion. In  both cases the damage is simulated by considering reduced diameter  of the rebar along the damaged part of its length. An integration  approach based on both electromechanical admittance methodology  and guided wave propagation technique is used to evaluate the  artificial damage on the examined longitudinal steel bar. Two  actuator PZTs and a sensor PZT are considered to be bonded on the  examined steel bar. The admittance of the Sensor PZT is calculated  using COMSOL 3.4a. Fast Furrier Transformation for a better  evaluation of the results is employed. An effort for the quantification  of the damage detection using the root mean square deviation  (RMSD) between the healthy condition and damage state of the  sensor PZT is attempted. The numerical value of the RSMD yields a  level for the difference between the healthy and the damaged  admittance computation indicating this way the presence of damage  in the structure. Experimental measurements are also presented.

 

Keywords: Concrete reinforcement, damage detection, electromechanical admittance, experimental measurements, finite element method, guided waves, PZT.

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834 Reinforcement Learning-Based Coexistence Interference Management in Wireless Body Area Networks

Authors: Izaz Ahmad, Farhatullah, Shahbaz Ali, Farhad Ali, Faiza, Hazrat Junaid, Farhan Zaid

Abstract:

Current trends in remote health monitoring to monetize on the Internet of Things applications have been raised in efficient and interference free communications in Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) scenario. Co-existence interference in WBANs have aggravates the over-congested radio bands, thereby requiring efficient Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) strategies and improve interference management. Existing solutions utilize simplistic heuristics to approach interference problems. The scope of this research article is to investigate reinforcement learning for efficient interference management under co-existing scenarios with an emphasis on homogenous interferences. The aim of this paper is to suggest a smart CSMA/CA mechanism based on reinforcement learning called QIM-MAC that effectively uses sense slots with minimal interference. Simulation results are analyzed based on scenarios which show that the proposed approach maximized Average Network Throughput and Packet Delivery Ratio and minimized Packet Loss Ratio, Energy Consumption and Average Delay.

Keywords: WBAN, IEEE 802.15.4 Standard, CAP Super-frame, Q-Learning.

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833 Gaits Stability Analysis for a Pneumatic Quadruped Robot Using Reinforcement Learning

Authors: Soofiyan Atar, Adil Shaikh, Sahil Rajpurkar, Pragnesh Bhalala, Aniket Desai, Irfan Siddavatam

Abstract:

Deep reinforcement learning (deep RL) algorithms leverage the symbolic power of complex controllers by automating it by mapping sensory inputs to low-level actions. Deep RL eliminates the complex robot dynamics with minimal engineering. Deep RL provides high-risk involvement by directly implementing it in real-world scenarios and also high sensitivity towards hyperparameters. Tuning of hyperparameters on a pneumatic quadruped robot becomes very expensive through trial-and-error learning. This paper presents an automated learning control for a pneumatic quadruped robot using sample efficient deep Q learning, enabling minimal tuning and very few trials to learn the neural network. Long training hours may degrade the pneumatic cylinder due to jerk actions originated through stochastic weights. We applied this method to the pneumatic quadruped robot, which resulted in a hopping gait. In our process, we eliminated the use of a simulator and acquired a stable gait. This approach evolves so that the resultant gait matures more sturdy towards any stochastic changes in the environment. We further show that our algorithm performed very well as compared to programmed gait using robot dynamics.

Keywords: model-based reinforcement learning, gait stability, supervised learning, pneumatic quadruped

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832 A Design for Customer Preferences Model by Cluster Analysis of Geometric Features and Customer Preferences

Authors: Yuan-Jye Tseng, Ching-Yen Chen

Abstract:

In the design cycle, a main design task is to determine the external shape of the product. The external shape of a product is one of the key factors that can affect the customers’ preferences linking to the motivation to buy the product, especially in the case of a consumer electronic product such as a mobile phone. The relationship between the external shape and the customer preferences needs to be studied to enhance the customer’s purchase desire and action. In this research, a design for customer preferences model is developed for investigating the relationships between the external shape and the customer preferences of a product. In the first stage, the names of the geometric features are collected and evaluated from the data of the specified internet web pages using the developed text miner. The key geometric features can be determined if the number of occurrence on the web pages is relatively high. For each key geometric feature, the numerical values are explored using the text miner to collect the internet data from the web pages. In the second stage, a cluster analysis model is developed to evaluate the numerical values of the key geometric features to divide the external shapes into several groups. Several design suggestion cases can be proposed, for example, large model, mid-size model, and mini model, for designing a mobile phone. A customer preference index is developed by evaluating the numerical data of each of the key geometric features of the design suggestion cases. The design suggestion case with the top ranking of the customer preference index can be selected as the final design of the product. In this paper, an example product of a notebook computer is illustrated. It shows that the external shape of a product can be used to drive customer preferences. The presented design for customer preferences model is useful for determining a suitable external shape of the product to increase customer preferences.

Keywords: Cluster analysis, customer preferences, design evaluation, design for customer preferences, product design.

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831 Investigation of the Effect of Number of Story on Different Structural Components of RC Building

Authors: Zasiah Tafheem, Mahadee Hasan Shourav, Zahidul Islam, Saima Islam Tumpa

Abstract:

The paper aims at investigating the effect of number of story on different structural components of reinforced concrete building due to gravity and lateral loading. For the study, three building models having same building plan of three, six and nine stories are analyzed and designed using software package. All the buildings are residential and are located in Dhaka city of Bangladesh. Lateral load including wind and earthquake loading are applied to the building along both longitudinal and transverse direction as per Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC, 2006). Equivalent static force method is followed for the applied seismic loading. The present study investigates as well as compares mainly total steel requirement in different structural components for those buildings. It has been found that total longitudinal steel requirement for beams at each floor is 48.57% for three storied building, 61.36% for six storied building when the total percentage is taken as 100% in case of nine storied building. For an exterior column, the steel ratio is 2.1%, 3.06%, 4.55% for three, six and nine storied building respectively for the first three floors. In addition, it has been noted that total weight of longitudinal reinforcement of an interior column is 14.02 % for threestoried building and 43.12% for six storied building when the total reinforcement is considered 100% for nine storied building for the first three floors.

Keywords: Equivalent Static Force Method, longitudinal reinforcement, seismic loading, steel ratio.

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830 Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis of Composite Cantilever Beam with External Prestressing

Authors: R. I. Liban, N. Tayşi

Abstract:

This paper deals with a nonlinear finite element analysis to examine the behavior up to failure of cantilever composite steel-concrete beams which are prestressed externally. 'Pre-' means stressing the high strength external tendons in the steel beam section before the concrete slab is added. The composite beam contains a concrete slab which is connected together with steel I-beam by means of perfect shear connectors between the concrete slab and the steel beam which is subjected to static loading. A finite element analysis will be done to study the effects of external prestressed tendons on the composite steel-concrete beams by locating the tendons in different locations (profiles). ANSYS version 12.1 computer program is being used to analyze the represented three-dimensional model of the cantilever composite beam. This model gives all these outputs, mainly load-displacement behavior of the cantilever end and in the middle span of the simple support part.

Keywords: Composite steel-concrete beams, external prestressing, finite element analysis, ANSYS.

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829 Study on Seismic Performance of Reinforced Soil Walls to Modify the Pseudo Static Method

Authors: Majid Yazdandoust

Abstract:

This study, tries to suggest a design method based on displacement using finite difference numerical modeling in reinforcing soil retaining wall with steel strip. In this case, dynamic loading characteristics such as duration, frequency, peak ground acceleration, geometrical characteristics of reinforced soil structure and type of the site are considered to correct the pseudo static method and finally introduce the pseudo static coefficient as a function of seismic performance level and peak ground acceleration. For this purpose, the influence of dynamic loading characteristics, reinforcement length, height of reinforced system and type of the site are investigated on seismic behavior of reinforcing soil retaining wall with steel strip. Numerical results illustrate that the seismic response of this type of wall is highly dependent to cumulative absolute velocity, maximum acceleration, and height and reinforcement length so that the reinforcement length can be introduced as the main factor in shape of failure. Considering the loading parameters, geometric parameters of the wall and type of the site showed that the used method in this study leads to efficient designs in comparison with other methods, which are usually based on limit-equilibrium concept. The outputs show the over-estimation of equilibrium design methods in comparison with proposed displacement based methods here.

Keywords: Pseudo static coefficient, seismic performance design, numerical modeling, steel strip reinforcement, retaining walls, cumulative absolute velocity, failure shape.

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828 Stress Analysis of Hexagonal Element for Precast Concrete Pavements

Authors: J. Novak, A. Kohoutkova, V. Kristek, J. Vodicka, M. Sramek

Abstract:

While the use of cast-in-place concrete for an airfield and highway pavement overlay is very common, the application of precast concrete elements is very limited today. The main reasons consist of high production costs and complex structural behavior. Despite that, several precast concrete systems have been developed and tested with the aim to provide a system with rapid construction. The contribution deals with the reinforcement design of a hexagonal element developed for a proposed airfield pavement system. The sub-base course of the system is composed of compacted recycled concrete aggregates and fiber reinforced concrete with recycled aggregates place on top of it. The selected element belongs to a group of precast concrete elements which are being considered for the construction of a surface course. Both high costs of full-scale experiments and the need to investigate various elements force to simulate their behavior in a numerical analysis software by using finite element method instead of performing expensive experiments. The simulation of the selected element was conducted on a nonlinear model in order to obtain such results which could fully compensate results from experiments. The main objective was to design reinforcement of the precast concrete element subject to quasi-static loading from airplanes with respect to geometrical imperfections, manufacturing imperfections, tensile stress in reinforcement, compressive stress in concrete and crack width. The obtained findings demonstrate that the position and the presence of imperfection in a pavement highly affect the stress distribution in the precast concrete element. The precast concrete element should be heavily reinforced to fulfill all the demands. Using under-reinforced concrete elements would lead to the formation of wide cracks and cracks permanently open.

Keywords: Imperfection, numerical simulation, pavement, precast concrete element, reinforcement design, stress analysis.

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827 Micro Particles Effect on Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Ceramic Composites - A Review

Authors: S. I. Durowaye, O. P. Gbenebor, B. O. Bolasodun, I. O. Rufai, V. O. Durowaye

Abstract:

Particles are the most common and cheapest reinforcement producing discontinuous reinforced composites with isotropic properties. Conventional fabrication methods can be used to produce a wide range of product forms, making them relatively inexpensive. Optimising composite development must include consideration of all the fundamental aspect of particles including their size, shape, volume fraction, distribution and mechanical properties. Research has shown that the challenges of low fracture toughness, poor crack growth resistance and low thermal stability can be overcome by reinforcement with particles. The unique properties exhibited by micro particles reinforced ceramic composites have made them to be highly attractive in a vast array of applications.

Keywords: Ceramic composites, Mechanical properties, Microparticles, Thermal stability.

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826 Numerical Study on the Response of Reinforced Concrete Wall Resisting the Impact Loading

Authors: DucKien Thai, Seung EockKim

Abstract:

A numerical analysis of a reinforced concrete (RC) wall under missile impact loading is presented in this study. The model created by Technical Research Center of Finland was used. The commercial finite element code, LS-DYNA was used to analyze. The structural components of the reinforced concrete wall, missile and their contacts are fully modeled. The material nonlinearity with strain rate effects considering damage and failure is included in the analysis. The results of analysis were verified with other research results. The case-studies with different reinforcement ratios were conducted to investigate the influence of reinforcement on the punching behavior of walls under missile impact.

Keywords: Missile Impact, Reinforced Concrete Walls, LSDYNA, Dynamic Analysis, Punching Behavior.

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825 A Probabilistic Reinforcement-Based Approach to Conceptualization

Authors: Hadi Firouzi, Majid Nili Ahmadabadi, Babak N. Araabi

Abstract:

Conceptualization strengthens intelligent systems in generalization skill, effective knowledge representation, real-time inference, and managing uncertain and indefinite situations in addition to facilitating knowledge communication for learning agents situated in real world. Concept learning introduces a way of abstraction by which the continuous state is formed as entities called concepts which are connected to the action space and thus, they illustrate somehow the complex action space. Of computational concept learning approaches, action-based conceptualization is favored because of its simplicity and mirror neuron foundations in neuroscience. In this paper, a new biologically inspired concept learning approach based on the probabilistic framework is proposed. This approach exploits and extends the mirror neuron-s role in conceptualization for a reinforcement learning agent in nondeterministic environments. In the proposed method, instead of building a huge numerical knowledge, the concepts are learnt gradually from rewards through interaction with the environment. Moreover the probabilistic formation of the concepts is employed to deal with uncertain and dynamic nature of real problems in addition to the ability of generalization. These characteristics as a whole distinguish the proposed learning algorithm from both a pure classification algorithm and typical reinforcement learning. Simulation results show advantages of the proposed framework in terms of convergence speed as well as generalization and asymptotic behavior because of utilizing both success and failures attempts through received rewards. Experimental results, on the other hand, show the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed method in continuous and noisy environments for a real robotic task such as maze as well as the benefits of implementing an incremental learning scenario in artificial agents.

Keywords: Concept learning, probabilistic decision making, reinforcement learning.

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824 Learning Classifier Systems Approach for Automated Discovery of Crisp and Fuzzy Hierarchical Production Rules

Authors: Suraiya Jabin, Kamal K. Bharadwaj

Abstract:

This research presents a system for post processing of data that takes mined flat rules as input and discovers crisp as well as fuzzy hierarchical structures using Learning Classifier System approach. Learning Classifier System (LCS) is basically a machine learning technique that combines evolutionary computing, reinforcement learning, supervised or unsupervised learning and heuristics to produce adaptive systems. A LCS learns by interacting with an environment from which it receives feedback in the form of numerical reward. Learning is achieved by trying to maximize the amount of reward received. Crisp description for a concept usually cannot represent human knowledge completely and practically. In the proposed Learning Classifier System initial population is constructed as a random collection of HPR–trees (related production rules) and crisp / fuzzy hierarchies are evolved. A fuzzy subsumption relation is suggested for the proposed system and based on Subsumption Matrix (SM), a suitable fitness function is proposed. Suitable genetic operators are proposed for the chosen chromosome representation method. For implementing reinforcement a suitable reward and punishment scheme is also proposed. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed system.

Keywords: Hierarchical Production Rule, Data Mining, Learning Classifier System, Fuzzy Subsumption Relation, Subsumption matrix, Reinforcement Learning.

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823 Study Punching Shear of Steel Fiber Reinforced Self Compacting Concrete Slabs by Nonlinear Analysis

Authors: Khaled S. Ragab

Abstract:

This paper deals with behavior and capacity of punching shear force for flat slabs produced from steel fiber reinforced self compacting concrete (SFRSCC) by application nonlinear finite element method. Nonlinear finite element analysis on nine slab specimens was achieved by using ANSYS software. A general description of the finite element method, theoretical modeling of concrete and reinforcement are presented. The nonlinear finite element analysis program ANSYS is utilized owing to its capabilities to predict either the response of reinforced concrete slabs in the post elastic range or the ultimate strength of a flat slabs produced from steel fiber reinforced self compacting concrete (SFRSCC). In order to verify the analytical model used in this research using test results of the experimental data, the finite element analysis were performed then a parametric study of the effect ratio of flexural reinforcement, ratio of the upper reinforcement, and volume fraction of steel fibers were investigated. A comparison between the experimental results and those predicted by the existing models are presented. Results and conclusions may be useful for designers, have been raised, and represented.

Keywords: Nonlinear FEM, Punching shear behavior, Flat slabs and Steel fiber reinforced self compacting concrete (SFRSCC).

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822 On Dialogue Systems Based on Deep Learning

Authors: Yifan Fan, Xudong Luo, Pingping Lin

Abstract:

Nowadays, dialogue systems increasingly become the way for humans to access many computer systems. So, humans can interact with computers in natural language. A dialogue system consists of three parts: understanding what humans say in natural language, managing dialogue, and generating responses in natural language. In this paper, we survey deep learning based methods for dialogue management, response generation and dialogue evaluation. Specifically, these methods are based on neural network, long short-term memory network, deep reinforcement learning, pre-training and generative adversarial network. We compare these methods and point out the further research directions.

Keywords: Dialogue management, response generation, reinforcement learning, deep learning, evaluation.

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