Zhong Zhang

The investigation of the earthquake response of water conveyance structures is crucial for the seismic design of the infrastructure. This study analytically evaluates the dynamic response of a vertically baffled rectangular cantilever aqueduct exposed to lateral excitation and supported by flexible soil. By employing linear potential theory and the subdomain method, the liquid–structure interaction is analyzed. The soil–structure interaction (SSI) effect is characterized by a lumped parameter model (LPM) employing Chebyshev complex polynomials fitted to horizontal impedance functions. The substructure method is employed to construct the soil–aqueduct–liquid–baffle (SALB) coupling system. According to the Newmark-[Formula: see text] method, the dynamic response of the coupling system is acquired. The present analytical results show excellent agreement with those from available literature. Finally, a parametric study is conducted to examine the influence of baffle parameters, soil properties and liquid height on the dynamic response of the SALB coupling system under harmonic and seismic lateral excitations. The primary innovation of this study lies in the development of an equivalent analytical model of the coupling system undergoing earthquake excitation. This study can offer an effective tool to analyze the sloshing response and optimize seismic design of hydraulic structures.

Rectangular aqueducts are critical building structures in large-scale water conveyance systems used worldwide. Liquid sloshing can produce hydrodynamic forces that threaten structural safety and long-term performance. This study analytically investigates the vibration characteristics of two-dimensional rectangular cantilever aqueduct systems while accounting for soil–structure interaction (SSI). To reduce sloshing and enhance the performance of the mechanical system, a bottom-mounted vertical baffle is proposed as a hydrodynamic damping solution. Through subdomain analysis, mathematical expressions for liquid potential fields are derived. The continuous liquid is represented through discrete mass–spring elements for dynamic analysis. Horizontal soil impedance is characterized by using Chebyshev orthogonal polynomial approximations with optimized least squares fitting techniques. A dynamic mechanical model for the soil–aqueduct–liquid–baffle coupling system is developed by using the substructure method. Convergence and comparative studies are conducted to validate the reliability of the proposed method. Between the current results and those reported previously, the variation in the first-order sloshing frequency is less than 1.10%. Parametric analyses evaluate how baffle size, baffle position, and soil properties influence sloshing behavior. The presentation of an equivalent analytical model is the novelty of this research. The results can provide the theoretical basis for optimizing anti-sloshing designs in hydraulic building structures, thereby supporting safer and more sustainable engineering practices.

Static analysis is conducted for functionally graded material (FGM) spherical shells under thermo-mechanical loads, based on the three-dimensional thermo-elasticity theory. The material properties, which vary with both the radial coordinate and temperature, introduce nonlinearity to the problem. To address this, a layer model is proposed, wherein the shell is discretized into numerous concentric spherical layers, each possessing uniform material properties. Within this framework, the nonlinear heat conduction equations are first solved iteratively. The resulting temperature field is then applied to the thermo-elastic equations, which are subsequently solved using a combined state space and transfer matrix method to obtain displacement and stress solutions. Comparison with existing literature results demonstrates good agreement. Finally, a parametric study is presented to investigate the effects of material temperature dependence and gradient index on the thermo-mechanical behaviors of the FGM spherical shells.

This paper studies the flexural behavior of CFRP/aluminum hybrid laminate (FML-fiber metal laminate) among various temperature environments ranged from 25°C to 150°C through experimental, predicted, and numerical methods. Firstly, a series of three-point bending tests of FMLs (FMLs-A: orthogonal direction 0 ^° /90 ^° , FMLs-B: cross direction 45 ^° /-45 ^° ) are conducted, bending load-displacement curves and failure morphologies of FMLs among various temperatures are recorded and compared. Then, considering the discreteness experimental data, the Weibull statistics model with two-parameter is developed to evaluate the ultimate bending strength of FMLs under different temperatures for better engineering application. Finally, the bending numerical models are established to characterize the effect of layer direction on damage modes and progressive damage evolution process of FMLs. The results indicate that the flexural strength of FMLs has a nonlinear downward trend with the increase of temperature. The similar delamination damage under different temperatures can be observed, especially for the higher temperatures. The comprehensive understanding of flexural behavior of FMLs can be beneficial to better design and manufacture the corresponding FML structures among various temperature environments.

The dynamic behavior of liquid storage tanks is one of the research issues about fluid–structure interaction problems. The analysis errors of the dynamics of multiple adjacent tanks can exist if neglecting soil–tank interaction since tanks are typically supported on flexible soil. In the present paper, the dynamics of a group of baffled cylindrical storage tanks supported on a circular surface foundation and undergoing horizontal excitation are analytically examined. For upper multiple tank–liquid–baffle subsystems, accurate solutions to the velocity potential for liquid sloshing are acquired according to the subdomain partition technique. A theoretical model is utilized to portray the continuous sloshing of each tank. For the soil–foundation subsystem, a lumped-parameter model is used to characterize the impacts of soil on upper-tank structures using Chebyshev complex polynomials that present the fitting results of horizontal, rocking, and coupling impedance functions. Then, a model of the soil–foundation–tank–liquid–baffle system is constructed on the basis of the substructure approach. The present sloshing frequencies, sloshing height, and hydrodynamic shear as well as the moment under rigid/soft soil foundations are compared to the available exact results and the numerical results to prove the validity of the present model. The error of the maximum sloshing height between the present and the numerical solutions is within 5.27%; the solution efficiency of system dynamics from the present model is 40–50 times faster than that from the ADINA model. A detailed parameter analysis of the dynamic characteristics and earthquake responses of the coupling system is presented. The research novelty is that an equivalent analytical model is presented, and it allows for investigating the dynamics of soil-supported multiple cylindrical tanks with a baffle, providing acceptable accuracy and high calculation efficiency.

This work presents analytical solutions for thermoelastic behaviors of multilayer arches with temperature-dependent (TD) thermomechanical properties under thermomechanical loadings. The temperature is varied across the thickness of the arch. Firstly, an arched-slice model is developed, which divides every layer of the arch into numerous hypothetical arched slices with uniform thermomechanical properties. Based on the model, the nonlinear heat conduction equations across the thickness of the arch are solved using the iteration approach, and then the thermoelastic equations obtained from the two-dimensional thermoelasticity theory are solved using the state-space approach and transfer-matrix approach. The present solutions are compared with those obtained using the finite element method and the Euler–Bernoulli theory (EBT). It is found that the error of the EBT increases when the angle of the arch increases or the length-to-thickness ratio decreases. Finally, numerical examples are conducted to analyze the effects of surface temperature and TD thermomechanical properties on the temperature, displacement, and stress distributions of a sandwich arch. The results show that the temperature dependency of thermomechanical properties is a key parameter in predicting the thermoelastic behaviors of the arch in a high-temperature environment.

Approximate analytical solutions are presented for the transient thermoelastic problem of rectangular plates with time-dependent convection and radiation boundaries. To include the nonlinear radiation boundary, the whole heating process is divided into several time steps, and a linearized approximation is used to simplify the radiation term for each step. The one-dimensional transient temperature along the thickness direction is solved using the technique of the separation of variables. The displacement and stress solutions are obtained by applying the state-space method to the three-dimensional thermoelasticity equations. The accuracy of the present solutions is demonstrated by comparison with the reported results in the open literature and the finite element solutions. In the numerical examples, two kinds of thermal boundaries, namely, time-independent convection boundaries and time-dependent convection and radiation boundaries, are considered to show the availability of the present solutions.