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Estimation of stresses in a massive granite using laser ultra-sonic testing and stress memory effect
This paper addresses in-situ stress-estimation methods based on the Kaiser effect. The physical and mechanical properties of granite, diorite, and granodiorite samples selected at different depth intervals of the core obtained from a wellbore were examined. The ultimate uniaxial compressive strength, modulus of elasticity, and Poisson’s ratio of the rock samples were determined using presses and strain gauges. Also, local longitudinal and shear wave velocities were measured using a high-accuracy laser-ultrasonic system with a view to assessing the structure of the samples. Based on the resulting elastic wave velocity maps, samples with no obvious discontinuities were chosen. These undisturbed samples were subjected to uniaxial compression and their acoustic emission was simultaneously measured. In-situ stresses were estimated from the results of the interpretation of acoustic emission measurements. The experimental in-situ stresses were compared with the results of a numerical simulation. The ratio of the estimated in-situ stresses to the calculated ones is within the range from 0.81 to 1.11. This means that the laser ultrasonic and acoustic emission methods make it possible to effectively estimate in-situ stresses in a rock mass and assess the degree of rock mass damage
Multidimensional mobile mapping and integrated approach for the digitalisation of underground transport infrastructure
The tunnel industry has started focusing on the maintenance and management challenges of an existing infrastructure. It is an urgent matter in industrialised countries, where the stakeholders’ attention is increasing at a fast pace considering the incidents and the disruptions caused by improper monitoring and maintenance. This paper presents an innovative methodology to survey and inspect existing railway tunnels through multi-dimensional mobile mapping systems. The proposed approach belongs to the digital strategies for infrastructure maintenance. An integrated multidimensional survey system (ARCHITA) allows for collecting information necessary for the diagnostics of a structure with non-destructive tests. Linear cameras, thermographic cameras, and ground-penetrating radars acquire data to be digitalised and manipulated in different IT environments. The results, in terms of the collected data on structural defects, allow for a new approach for the Management and Identification of the Risk for Existing Tunnels (MIRET). The innovative approach aims at a smart integration of information and models for the Facility Management of the transport system. The workflow for the digitalisation and diagnosis from mobile mapping data has been implemented on two 40km-long metro tunnels
FRICTION TEST AND PARAMETER ANALYSIS OF PRESTRESSED CONCRETE CONTINUOUS BEAM BRIDGE
The prestressed ducts of prestressed concrete continuous girder bridges are usually three-dimensionally distributed and long in length. The control of prestress loss during construction is very important. In order to ensure the effect of prestress tensioning, the test and analysis of friction parameters of prestressed ducts are particularly important. Based on the tension process of a prestressed concrete continuous beam bridge, the initial tension stress, loading time and channel friction parameters of the prestressed concrete continuous beam bridge are tested by field tests. Combined with the measured friction parameters, the finite element software Midas / Civil is used to analyse the influence of friction parameters on the mechanical properties of prestressed concrete continuous beam bridge. The results show that when the prestressed steel with bending angle not more than 40° and length not more than 70 m is stretched, the initial tension stress is suggested to be set as 20 % of the tension control force and the loading time is 5 min. The measured tunnel friction parameters are larger than the standard value, and the tension control force should be adjusted during the formal tension construction;The deflection of the key section of the main beam increases with the increase of the friction parameters, and the roof stress decreases with the increase of the friction parameters. The change of channel deviation coefficient has a greater impact on the deflection and roof stress than the change of friction coefficient
Bar-supported and unsupported dental implants: a QCT-FEA study in human maxilla
Two variants of implant-supported overdentures (IODs) were investigated by quantitative computed tomography-assisted finite element method (QCT-FEA) on a patient-specific CTreconstructed model of human maxilla. The analyzed variants are bar-supported (splinted) and unsupported (unsplinted) implant assemblies. The loading was done by a 800 N force slanted by 30° in the buccolingual direction. The results of the analyses show favorable stress distributions for the bar-supported variant
STUDY ON EARTHQUAKE DESTRUCTION MODE OF THE LARGEST CANAL CROSSING HIGHWAY BRIDGE BASED ON IEM BOUNDARY IN SOUTH-TO-NORTH WATER DIVERSION
To study the dynamic failure mechanism and damage development law of highway bridge structure under the boundary effect in the process of seismic dynamic duration, the Wenchang Highway Bridge with the largest canal crossing in the South-to-North Water Diversion is taken as an example for seismic design analysis. Based on the finite element and infinite element coupling theory, the infinite element method boundary is introduced, the concrete damage plasticity is introduced, and the half-space free field model is established to study the energy dispersion phenomenon of waves in the boundary and the absorption effect of the infinite element method boundary on wave energy is verified. Under different peak acceleration intensities, the seismic response analysis of the bridge structure was carried out. The results show that: Under the action of selected artificial waves, the damage location of the bridge mainly concentrated in the junction of the box girder supported by the pier, the bottom of the pier and the junction of the pier and beam. The damage tends to develop downward near the bottom of the box girder. The damage at both ends of the beam extends from both ends to the middle. And the bottom and top of the pier have penetrating damage. These are weak points in seismic design. At a horizontal peak acceleration of 0.6g, in addition to damage to the pier column, damage also occurred to the bottom of the box girder. Therefore, when the horizontal peak acceleration of the seismic wave is greater than 0.6g, the failure of the bottom of the box girder is paid attention to. Moreover, the IEM boundary has a good control effect on the far-field energy dissipation of the wave, which is simpler and more efficient than the viscous–spring boundary
Plasma Arc Cutting - Reversed Swirl Ring, Electrode Thread and Cut Direction Effects on Kerf Geometry
Plasma arc cutting is used to cut any conductive material. It consists in blowing pressurized gas and feed current to an arc, leading to a thin plasma dart able to melt down the material and blow it away, creating a kerf. Its quality depends on its shape. This paper shows, through experimental measurements, how the inner geometry of the torch can affect the cut quality. It appears that one side of the kerf is much more oblique and sensitive to factors variation than the other. A theory based on a computational fluid dynamics model is proposed to investigate the causes of these phenomena
RESEARCH ON UNBALANCED WEIGHING EXPERIMENT OF MULTI-POINT BRACED SWIVEL CABLE-STAYED BRIDGE
To guarantee the safety of the swivel process, the weighing experiment before the swivel is especially important. Based on this, this paper takes a twin-tower, double-cable prestressed concrete swivel cable-stayed bridge as the background and suggests a multi-point braced swivel weighing experiment involving the joint force of the arm-brace and the spherical hinge to solve problems such as a particular obstacle in the relying project\u27s swivelling process. Firstly, the relevant weighing experiment formulas for various circumstances were theoretically derived. The field test results were then used to calculate the jacking force at the limit state during the jacking process, which was then substituted into the relevant formulae, and the relevant parameters of the weighing experiment were calculated. Finally, the counterweight is adjusted based on the weighing results to carry out the structural rotation. The angular velocity was stable during the swivelling process, and the structure was successfully swivelled. The successful practice of a multi-point braced swivel weighing experiment involving the joint force of the arm-brace, and the spherical hinge can provide a reference for the design and construction of similar bridges
EMPIRICAL VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS OF RAILWAY BRIDGE SEISMIC DAMAGE BASED ON 2022 MENYUAN EARTHQUAKE
A 6.9 magnitude earthquake at a depth of 10 km struck Menyuan County, Haibei Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China, on January 8, 2022. This earthquake damaged some railway bridges on the Lanzhou-Xinjiang Passenger Dedicated Line. This study combines relevant historical earthquake damage experience, considers the effects of earthquake intensity, site soil classification, superstructure type, foundation failure factor, number of spans, and total bridge length, and develops empirical formulas for seismic damage prediction of railway bridges using ordinal logistic regression model in SPSS software. The seismic damage matrix, as were the anticipated multi-intensity mean damage index and the empirical vulnerability curve based on the two-parameter lognormal distribution function, were generated on this basis. According to the conclusions, although the suggested particular equations and vulnerability curves do not apply to the remainder of the region owing to geographical uniqueness, the technical approach is valid. It may be used as a reference for seismic damage prediction and vulnerability evaluation in other regions. The empirical vulnerability analysis based on the earthquake damage prediction matrix derived from the regression analysis can provide reasonable and fast forecasts before the next earthquake
PM2.5 Estimation in the Czech Republic using Extremely Randomized Trees: A Comprehensive Data Analysis
The accuracy of artificial intelligence techniques in estimating air quality is contingent upon a multitude of influencing factors. Unlike our previous study that examined PM2.5 over whole Europe using unbalanced spatial-temporal data, the focus of this study was on estimating PM2.5 specifically over the Czech Republic using more balanced dataset to train and evaluate the model. Moreover, the spatial autocorrelation between the ground-based station was taken into consideration while building the model. The feature importance while developing the Extra Trees model revealed that spatial autocorrelation had greater significance in comparison to commonly used inputs such as elevation and NDVI. We found that R2 of the 10-CV for the new model was 16% higher than the previous one. R2 reached 0.85 when predicting unseen data in new locations. The developed spatiotemporal model was employed to generate comprehensive daily maps covering the entire study area throughout the 2018–2020 years. The temporal analysis showed that the levels of PM2.5 exceeded recommended limits of 20 µg/m3 during the year 2018 in many regions. The eastern part of the country suffered from the highest concentrations especially over Zlín and Moravian-Silesian Regions where in the 2018 winter, the values reached risky average concentrations of 30 µg/m3 and 35 µg/m3 respectively. Air quality improved during the next two years in all regions reaching promising levels in 2020 where almost all regions had average concentrations less than 20 µg/m3. The generated dataset will be available for other future air quality studies
3D CFD model for the analysis of the flow field through a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT)
With the world’s growing demand for energy, renewable energy production has become important in providing alternative sources of energy and in reducing the greenhouse effect. This study investigates the aerodynamics and performance of the WG/EV100 micro–Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The complexity of VAWT aerodynamics, which is inherently unsteady and three-dimensional, makes high-fidelity flow models extremely demanding in terms of computational cost, limiting the analysis to mainly 2D Computational Fluid-Dynamics (CFD) approaches. This article explains how to perform a full 3D unsteady CFD simulation of HAWT. All main parts of the WG/EV100 HAWT were designed in SOLIDWORKS. Only the blade design was reverse engineered due to the unavailability of the CAD model and the complexity of its geometric characteristics. The impeller blade is scanned using a Coordi-nate Measuring Machine (CMM), and the obtained 3D scan data are exported from the PC-DMIS software to GEOMAGIC design X to obtain a CAD model of the blade