A Windows based post processor for the design of reinforced concrete space frames is developed. The post processor is capable of designing beams and columns of reinforced concrete space frames in accordance with the ACI specification. The program is developed in C++ using the object oriented programming approach. The objects used in the program represents a one to one analogy with objects in the real world. The computer model of a structure is composed of objects like members, joints, loads, beams and columns. The development of the post processor is discussed and the program architecture is presented. The design results obtained from the post processor are compared with those obtained from several commercial structural design programs to ensure the correctness of the design. It was concluded that the application of object oriented programming techniques results in programs that are easier to develop and maintain and also greatly reduces the effort required for developing applications for graphical user interfaces. / Master of Science

Abstract not available

[Truncated abstract] The Arabian Gulf oil and gas production reserves have made it one of the world's strategic producers since early 1960s, with many of the existing platforms stretched beyond their original design life. Advances in drilling technology and reservoir assessments have extended the requirement for the service life of those existing platforms even further. Extension of the life span of an existing platform requires satisfactory reassessment of its various structural components, including piled foundations. The American Petroleum Institute Recommended Practice 2A (API RP2A) is commonly used in the Arabian Gulf for reassessment of existing platforms. The API guidelines have been developed for conditions in the Gulf of Mexico, the waters off Alaska and the Pacific and Atlantic seaboards of the USA. However, the Arabian Gulf conditions are fundamentally different to those encountered in US waters. Hence, there is a need to develop guidelines for reassessment of existing offshore structures to account for the specific conditions of the Arabian Gulf. This thesis performs statistical analyses on databases collected during this research from existing platforms to calibrate relevant load and resistance factors for the required guidelines. The developed guidelines are based on established approaches used in developing international codes and standards such as API RP2A-LRFD. The outcome of this research revolves around the following three main issues: 1. Calibration of resistance factors for axial capacity of piles driven in the carbonate soils API RP2A (1993, 2000) does not quantify limiting soil parameters for piles driven in carbonate soils and provides a single factor to predict the capacity of piled foundations. This research identifies a set of limiting engineering parameters and calibrates corresponding capacity reduction factors to predict axial capacity of driven piles in the carbonate soils of the Arabian Gulf. ... This contrasts with Section 'R' of API RP2A (1993, 2000), which focuses on extreme environmental conditions when performing reassessment. The probabilities of failure considered in this research do not include errors and omissions (controlled by quality assurance procedures) or material deterioration (controlled by choice of materials, detailing, protective devices, and inspection and repair procedures) or reliability-based maintenance. Addressing operating overload conditions requires attending to two issues, namely the capacity of piles driven in carbonate soils and OALL, which have been addressed in this research. The operational overload situation is likely to occur during shutdown condition or during drilling or work over activities where significant OALL are usually applied to platform decks. Such operational overload can be managed by placing signs at various open areas on the platform nominating the maximum load limits (kPa), introducing procedures that ensure that maximum load limits are not exceeded during operation and management of human behavior by reinforcing the importance of following the procedures. The outcomes of this research are expected to have a profound influence on reassessment of existing platforms in the Arabian Gulf.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:48:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RaulOOD_DISSERT_Capa_ate_pag84.pdf: 4478808 bytes, checksum: 521324acaeff6345df14d7924098c227 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-06-27 / Through this research is detailed the Brazilian seismic code focused on concrete projects design related to seismic engineering. At the beginning of the research is debated the fundaments of the seismic effects, the influence factors to the development of seismic effects and also relates the main data registration happened in Brazil. The second step is study the Brazilian seismic code explaining all the concepts related to it and does a compilation to the most important international seismic code. At this research is developed the designing of a building submitted to horizontal equivalent seismic forces and the modal process based on the answer spectrum based on the brazilin seismic code. It was also developed the design of a commercial building submitted to seismic loads based on the Brazilian code answer spectrum and compared to the same building submitted to wind loads.The research also focus on projects conception and detailing of seismic engineering Project design. At the study of seismic engineering it was concluded that seismic effects require special focus on concrete structures design, proving that is the essential consider the seismic effects / Nesse trabalho s?o apresentados e discutidos diversos crit?rios da norma NBR 15421:2006 para o desenvolvimento de um projeto de estruturas de concreto, considerando a a??o s?smica. Inicialmente fez-se um levantamento dos conceitos fundamentais da engenharia s?smica, das principais ocorr?ncias, globais e regionais, abordando-se a an?lise dos efeitos geradores de sismos, seus conceitos e particularidades. Apresentou-se posteriormente o detalhamento de todos os par?metros s?smicos presentes na NBR 15421:2006 e comparou-se com diversas normas s?smicas internacionais. Foi desenvolvida uma compara??o entre edif?cios modelados atrav?s de espectro de resposta e atrav?s das for?as horizontais s?smicas equivalentes, tamb?m se desenvolveu um estudo comparativo de uma edifica??o comercial submetido ao vento e a solicita??es s?smicas. Destaca-se ainda a apresenta??o das principais recomenda??es e orienta??es t?cnicas em termos de concep??o e detalhamento estrutural que devem servir de condicionantes para projetos atuais. Demonstra-se que os efeitos s?smicos incorrem na necessidade de detalhamentos espec?ficos na estrutura, comprovando-se que a necessidade de uma abordagem diferenciada ? essencial

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Crashworthiness design is gaining more importance in the automotive industry due to high competition and tight safety norms. Further there is a need for light weight structures in the automotive design. Structural optimization in last two decades have been widely explored to improve existing designs or conceive new designs with better crashworthiness and reduced mass. Although many gradient based and heuristic methods for topology and topometry based crashworthiness design are available these days, most of them result in stiff structures that are suitable only for a set of vehicle components in which maximizing the energy absorption or minimizing the intrusion is the main concern. However, there are some other components in a vehicle structure that should have characteristics of both stiffness and flexibility. Moreover, the load paths within the structure and potential buckle modes also play an important role in efficient functioning of such components. For example, the front bumper, side frame rails, steering column, and occupant protection devices like the knee bolster should all exhibit controlled deformation and collapse behavior. This investigation introduces a methodology to design dynamically crushed thin-walled tubular structures for crashworthiness applications. Due to their low cost, high energy absorption efficiency, and capacity to withstand long strokes, thin-walled tubular structures are extensively used in the automotive industry. Tubular structures subjected to impact loading may undergo three modes of deformation: progressive crushing/buckling, dynamic plastic buckling, and global bending or Euler-type buckling. Of these, progressive buckling is the most desirable mode of collapse because it leads to a desirable deformation characteristic, low peak reaction force, and higher energy absorption efficiency. Progressive buckling is generally observed under pure axial loading; however, during an actual crash event, tubular structures are often subjected to oblique impact loads in which Euler-type buckling is the dominating mode of deformation. This undesired behavior severely reduces the energy absorption capability of the tubular structure. The design methodology presented in this paper relies on the ability of a compliant mechanism to transfer displacement and/or force from an input to desired output port locations. The suitable output port locations are utilized to enforce desired buckle zones, mitigating the natural Euler-type buckling effect. The problem addressed in this investigation is to find the thickness distribution of a thin-walled structure and the output port locations that maximizes the energy absorption while maintaining the peak reaction force at a prescribed limit. The underlying design for thickness distribution follows a uniform mutual potential energy density under a dynamic impact event. Nonlinear explicit finite element code LS-DYNA is used to simulate tubular structures under crash loading. Biologically inspired hybrid cellular automaton (HCA) method is used to drive the design process. Results are demonstrated on long straight and S-rail tubes subject to oblique loading, achieving progressive crushing in most cases.

As vigas celulares ocupam um lugar de destaque crescente na construção de pontes em concreto protendido. Dentro desta opção, a tendência moderna é de se construírem pontes unicelulares cada vez mais largas, o que traz como conseqüência um aumento considerável da flexão transversal em seus elementos, especialmente em suas almas, submetendo-as a uma combinação de cisalhamento com flexão transversal que pode atingir valores importantes. Este trabalho tem por finalidade apresentar um novo critério de dimensionamento das almas das vigas de seção celular, incluindo o caso do estado limite último de fadiga. Este critério foi idealizado a partir de uma análise crítica dos modelos vigentes, os quais são analisados e comparados por meio de gráficos de interação relacionando força cortante com flexão transversal, que permitem a escolha da melhor opção para as situações de projeto. Desenvolveu-se uma investigação experimental, a fim de verificar a validade do critério de dimensionamento desenvolvido. Foram analisados os seguintes modos de colapso: esmagamento das bielas comprimidas de concreto, alongamento plástico excessivo dos estribos e ruptura dos estribos por fadiga. Os resultados experimentais mostraram uma boa aproximação do Critério de Dimensionamento Proposto e revelaram novidades nos ensaios de fadiga: a ruptura dos estribos por fadiga se deu por etapas, um estribo de cada vez, num processo gradual. A ruptura por fadiga ocorreu sistematicamente próximo à ligação da alma com a mesa inferior e não no dobramento dos estribos. / Box-girders have received a growing attention in the field of prestressed concrete bridges. The modern trend is to build wider unicellular bridges, which leads to a considerable increase in the transverse bending moment acting mainly in their webs. These are subjected to a combination of shear force and transverse bending moments, which may reach important values. The purpose of this thesis is to introduce a new design approach of box-girder webs, including the Ultimate Limit State due to fatigue. This design approach is derived from a critical analysis of the current criteria. The different criteria for the design of box-girder webs are analyzed and compared by means of shear-bending moment interaction diagrams as an attempt to identify the more realistic one. An experimental investigation has been undertaken with the purpose of verifying the validity of the new developed approach. The following failure modes have been considered: crushing of the compressed struts, excessive plastic deformation of the stirrups and rupture of the stirrups due to fatigue. The experimental results have shown good agreement with those predicted by the proposed approach. Furthermore, the tests have revealed new aspects of the fatigue behavior: the rupture of the stirrups due to fatigue occurred in stages, one at a time in a gradual manner. In all cases the failure took place near the top face of the lower flange and not at the corner of the stirrups.

As vigas celulares ocupam um lugar de destaque crescente na construção de pontes em concreto protendido. Dentro desta opção, a tendência moderna é de se construírem pontes unicelulares cada vez mais largas, o que traz como conseqüência um aumento considerável da flexão transversal em seus elementos, especialmente em suas almas, submetendo-as a uma combinação de cisalhamento com flexão transversal que pode atingir valores importantes. Este trabalho tem por finalidade apresentar um novo critério de dimensionamento das almas das vigas de seção celular, incluindo o caso do estado limite último de fadiga. Este critério foi idealizado a partir de uma análise crítica dos modelos vigentes, os quais são analisados e comparados por meio de gráficos de interação relacionando força cortante com flexão transversal, que permitem a escolha da melhor opção para as situações de projeto. Desenvolveu-se uma investigação experimental, a fim de verificar a validade do critério de dimensionamento desenvolvido. Foram analisados os seguintes modos de colapso: esmagamento das bielas comprimidas de concreto, alongamento plástico excessivo dos estribos e ruptura dos estribos por fadiga. Os resultados experimentais mostraram uma boa aproximação do Critério de Dimensionamento Proposto e revelaram novidades nos ensaios de fadiga: a ruptura dos estribos por fadiga se deu por etapas, um estribo de cada vez, num processo gradual. A ruptura por fadiga ocorreu sistematicamente próximo à ligação da alma com a mesa inferior e não no dobramento dos estribos. / Box-girders have received a growing attention in the field of prestressed concrete bridges. The modern trend is to build wider unicellular bridges, which leads to a considerable increase in the transverse bending moment acting mainly in their webs. These are subjected to a combination of shear force and transverse bending moments, which may reach important values. The purpose of this thesis is to introduce a new design approach of box-girder webs, including the Ultimate Limit State due to fatigue. This design approach is derived from a critical analysis of the current criteria. The different criteria for the design of box-girder webs are analyzed and compared by means of shear-bending moment interaction diagrams as an attempt to identify the more realistic one. An experimental investigation has been undertaken with the purpose of verifying the validity of the new developed approach. The following failure modes have been considered: crushing of the compressed struts, excessive plastic deformation of the stirrups and rupture of the stirrups due to fatigue. The experimental results have shown good agreement with those predicted by the proposed approach. Furthermore, the tests have revealed new aspects of the fatigue behavior: the rupture of the stirrups due to fatigue occurred in stages, one at a time in a gradual manner. In all cases the failure took place near the top face of the lower flange and not at the corner of the stirrups.

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Tato dizertační práce pojednává o více-kriteriálních optimalizačních algoritmech s proměnným počtem dimenzí. Takový algoritmus umožňuje řešit optimalizační úlohy, které jsou jinak řešitelné jen s použitím nepřirozených zjednodušení. Výzkum optimalizačních method s proměnnou dimenzí si vyžádal vytvoření nového optimalizačního frameworku, který obsahuje vedle zmíněných vícekriteriálních metod s proměnnou dimenzí – VND-GDE3 a VND-MOPSO – i další optimalizační metody různých tříd. Optimalizační framework obsahuje také knihovnu rozličných testovacích problémů. Mezi nimi je také sada více-kriteriálních testovacích problémů s proměnnou dimenzí, které byly navrženy pro nastavení a ověření nových metod s proměnnou dimenzí. Nové metody jsou dále použity k optimalizaci několika různorodých optimalizačních úloh z reálného světa.

Design of retaining structures depends upon the load which is transferred from backfill soil as well as external loads and also the resisting capacity of the structure. The traditional safety factor approach of the design of retaining structures does not address the variability of soils and loads. The properties of backfill soil are inherently variable and influence the design decisions considerably. A rational procedure for the design of retaining structures needs to explicitly consider variability, as they may cause significant changes in the performance and stability assessment. Reliability based design enables identification and separation of different variabilities in loading and resistance and recommends reliability indices to ensure the margin of safety based on probability theory. Detailed studies in this area are limited and the work presented in the dissertation on the Optimum design of retaining structures under static and seismic conditions: A reliability based approach is an attempt in this direction. This thesis contains ten chapters including Chapter 1 which provides a general introduction regarding the contents of the thesis and Chapter 2 presents a detailed review of literature regarding static and seismic design of retaining structures and highlights the importance of consideration of variability in the optimum design and leads to scope of the investigation. Targeted stability is formulated as optimization problem in the framework of target reliability based design optimization (TRBDO) and presented in Chapter 3. In Chapter 4, TRBDO approach for cantilever sheet pile walls and anchored cantilever sheet pile walls penetrating sandy and clayey soils is developed. Design penetration depth and section modulus for the various anchor pulls are obtained considering the failure criteria (rotational, sliding, and flexural failure modes) as well as variability in the back fill soil properties, soil-steel pile interface friction angle, depth of the water table, total depth of embedment, yield strength of steel, section modulus of sheet pile and anchor pull. The stability of reinforced concrete gravity, cantilever and L-shaped retaining walls in static conditions is examined in the context of reliability based design optimization and results are presented in Chapter 5 considering failure modes viz. overturning, sliding, eccentricity, bearing, shear and moment failures in the base slab and stem of wall. Optimum wall proportions are proposed for different coefficients of variation of friction angle of the backfill soil and cohesion of the foundation soil corresponding to different values of component as well as lower bounds of system reliability indices. Chapter 6 presents an approach to obtain seismic passive resistance behind gravity walls using composite curved rupture surface considering limit equilibrium method of analysis with the pseudo-dynamic approach. The study is extended to obtain the rotational and sliding displacements of gravity retaining walls under passive condition when subjected to sinusoidal nature of earthquake loading. Chapter 7 focuses on the reliability based design of gravity retaining wall when subjected to passive condition during earthquakes. Reliability analysis is performed for two modes of failure namely rotation of the wall about its heel and sliding of the wall on its base are considering variabilities associated with characteristics of earthquake ground motions, geometric proportions of wall, backfill soil and foundation soil properties. The studies reported in Chapter 8 and Chapter 9 present a method to evaluate reliability for external as well as internal stability of reinforced soil structures (RSS) using reliability based design optimization in the framework of pseudo static and pseudo dynamic methods respectively. The optimum length of reinforcement needed to maintain the stability against four modes of failure (sliding, overturning, eccentricity and bearing) by taking into account the variabilities associated with the properties of reinforced backfill, retained backfill, foundation soil, tensile strength and length of the geosynthetic reinforcement by targeting various component and system reliability indices is computed. Finally, Chapter 10 contains the important conclusions, along with scope for further work in the area. It is hoped that the methodology and conclusions presented in this study will be beneficial to the geotechnical engineering community in particular and society as a whole.