Ziru Xiang

Prestress force dominates the carrying capacity of concrete girders, and is vital for bridge health monitoring. Many vibrational-based methods have been proposed to determine prestress using bridge responses induced by known excitations, which means that they can barely use the normal traffic of in-service bridges as excitation to achieve long-term monitoring. Moreover, most studies are based on beam theory, which may not be precise for plate-like bridges. Hence, this paper establishes a motion equation for a prestressed slab via Kirchhoff’s plate theory and proposes a two-step procedure to assess the prestress and general excitation simultaneously through only bridge responses. The excitation is determined in the first step via the Load Shape function method and used as input for the prestress identification via state-space formulation in the second step. A numerical study on a prestressed plate subjected to a moving load is conducted. Considering different levels of measurement noise and load speed, the proposed method can determine the prestress and moving load with 7.33% and 10.18% error, respectively. A laboratory test on a prestressed box girder subjected to a fixed cyclic load is performed, the prestress and cyclic load are both determined to have good stability, and the errors are under 11.32%.

Complex bedding properties and in situ stress conditions of shale formation lead to complex hydraulic fracturing morphologies. However, due to the limitations of traditional numerical methods, the simulation of hydraulic fracturing in shale formation still needs further development. Based on this, the liquid–solid interaction modes and the SPH governing equations considering liquid–solid interaction force have been introduced. The smoothing kernel function in the traditional SPH method is improved by introducing the fracture mark ξ, which can realize the simulation of rock hydraulic fracturing processes. The stress boundary of the SPH method is applied by stress mapping of “stress particles”, and the feasibility and correctness of the method are verified by two numerical examples. Then, the simulation of hydraulic fracturing processes of bedding shale formations are carried out. With the increase of horizontal stress ratio, the total number of damaged particles decreases, but the initiation and extension pressure increase gradually. The initiation stress of small bedding dip angles (θ < 45°) is larger than that of big bedding dip angles (θ > 45°). The hydraulic fracture propagation range at low horizontal stress ratio is wider and the fracture is along the direction of maximum principal stress, while the hydraulic fracture propagation range at high horizontal stress ratio is limited to the perforation. The hydraulic fracture will propagate through the bedding with small dip angles. However, when the bedding dip angle is larger, the hydraulic fracture will propagate along the bedding direction.

To overcome limitations inherent in existing mechanical performance prediction models for pervious concrete, including material constraints, limited applicability, and inadequate accuracy, this study employs a deep learning approach to construct a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model with three convolutional modules. The primary objective of the model is to precisely predict the 28-day compressive strength of pervious concrete. Eight input variables, encompassing coarse and fine aggregate content, water content, admixture content, cement content, fly ash content, and silica fume content, were selected for the model. The dataset utilized for both model training and testing consists of 111 sample sets. To ensure the model’s coverage within the practical range of pervious concrete strength and to enhance its robustness in real-world applications, an additional 12 sets of experimental data were incorporated for training and testing. The research findings indicate that, in comparison to the conventional machine learning method of Backpropagation (BP) neural networks, the developed CNN prediction model in this paper demonstrates a higher coefficient of determination, reaching 0.938, on the test dataset. The mean absolute percentage error is 9.13%, signifying that the proposed prediction model exhibits notable accuracy and universality in predicting the 28-day compressive strength of pervious concrete, regardless of the materials used in its preparation.

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.

Moving load and structural damage assessment has always been a crucial topic in bridge health monitoring, as it helps analyze the daily operating status of bridges and provides fundamental information for bridge safety evaluation. However, most studies and research consider these issues as two separate problems. In practice, unknown moving loads and damage usually coexist and influence the bridge vibration synergically. This paper proposes an innovative synchronized assessment method that determines structural damages and moving forces simultaneously. The method firstly improves the virtual distortion method, which shifts the structural damage into external virtual forces and hence transforms the damage assessment as well as the moving force identification to a multi-force reconstruction problem. Secondly, a truncated load shape function (TLSF) technique is developed to solve the forces in the time domain. As the technique smoothens the pulse function via a limited number of TLSF, the singularity and dimension of the system matrix in the force reconstruction is largely reduced. A continuous beam and a three-dimensional truss bridge are simulated as examples. Case studies show that the method can effectively identify various speeds and numbers of moving loads, as well as different levels of structural damages. The calculation efficiency and robustness to white noise are also impressive.

A high damping rubber bearing (HDRB) is widely utilized in base-isolation structures due to its good energy dissipation capacity and environmentally friendly properties; however, it is incapable of isolating the vertical vibration caused by earthquakes and subways effectively. Thick rubber bearings with a low shape factor have become one of the important vertical isolation forms. This paper provides an experimental comparative study on high damping rubber bearings with low shape factor (HDRB-LSF), thick lead–rubber bearings (TLRB), and lead–rubber bearings (LRB). The abilities of the bearing and energy dissipation of the above bearings are analyzed contrastively considering the influence of vertical pressure, loading frequency, shear strain, and pre-pressure. Firstly, the HDRB-LSF, TLRB, and LRB are designed according to the Chinese Code for seismic design of buildings. Secondly, cyclic vertical compression tests and horizontal shear tests, as well as their correlation tests, are conducted, respectively. The vibrational characteristics and hysteresis feature of these three bearings are critically compared. Thirdly, a corrected calculation of vertical stiffness for the thick rubber bearings is proposed based on the experimental data to provide a more accurate and realistic tool measuring the vertical mechanical properties of rubber bearings. The test results proved that the HDRB-LSF has the most advanced performance of the three bearings. For the fatigue property, the hysteresis curves of the HDRB-LSF along with TLRB are plump both horizontally and vertically, thus providing a good energy dissipation effect. Regarding vertical stiffness, results from different loading cases show that the designed HDRB-LSF possesses a better vertical isolation effect and preferable environmental protection than LRB, a larger bearing capacity, and, similarly, a more environmentally friendly property than TLRB. Hence, it can avoid the unfavorable resonance effect caused by vertical periodic coupling within the structure. All the experimental data find that the proposed corrected equation can calculate the vertical stiffness of bearings with a higher accuracy. This paper presents the results of an analytical, parametric study that aimed to further explore the low shape factor concepts of rubber bearings applied in three-dimensional isolation for building structures.

The world has witnessed an alarmingly increasing number of serious natural hazards. In the aftermath of a hazard, relevant authorities/agencies face, among others, the challenging tasks of rapidly evaluating and assessing the damages to infrastructures and restoring their essential functionality and operation. The availability of reliable, high-quality structural and operational/maintenance data of a structure and its health, before and after a natural hazard, can be instrumental in the rapid assessment of a damaged structure. We collectively refer, in this paper, to the existing as-built and facility operational information about a structure or an infrastructure asset represented respectively in Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Infrastructure Asset Management (IAM) systems as Product Lifecycle Data (PLD). Arguably, PLD combined with other post-hazard condition assessment data can provide a more reliable and integrated solution for a rapid damage assessment of buildings and other critical infrastructures. Unfortunately, the application of PLD in this critical area has been unexplored in the literature, and the mapping between PLD and damage assessment methods is loosely investigated. In an effort to address this research gap, this paper provides a critical analysis of the most common structural damage assessment methods and explores the potential of combining them with PLD to provide more reliable, comprehensive, and integrated solution for damage assessment. Findings from this study could be useful for practitioners in selecting the most appropriate and effective methods to conduct damage and safety assessments of critical infrastructures. The study will also assist the further theoretical developments in the integration of PLD with different damage assessment methods.

The detection effect of the transient electromagnetic method is ambiguous in engineering applications due to the existence of interference sources, so explaining the influence of these fixed interference sources on is crucial. In this paper, the response characterisation of transient electromagnetic signals of fixed interference sources are thoroughly investigated. First, the secondary field generated by these interference sources is analyzed, and a typical fixed interference source is calculated. Then, a sensitivity analysis of the transient electromagnetic response curve is carried out. Finally, the mathematical superposition method for multiple field sources is proposed and verified. The results illustrate that the transient electromagnetic response curve of uniform full-space surrounding rock with a single fixed interference source has an apparent lifting phenomenon in the middle stage and presents an approximate horizontal change rule at the late stage. The transient electromagnetic response curves of multiple field sources separately illustrate the response characterisation of different field sources at different time stages. These research results can provide a valuable reference for the on-site interpretation of detection signals.