Mechanical analysis of moste dam on river Sava

In this paper safety of Moste dam is presented. Three fundamental load cases are taken into account, basic, flood and seismic. Provided with data avaliable, mechanical models are created, using CADAM and TNO Diana. Safety standards for large dams, and different loading types, used to determine a structural safety are presented. Based on output in CADAM and TNO Diana, for this specific case, a deviaton betweeen the two has been evaluated. Based on data gathered during the analysis, functionality (advantages and disadvantages) of both programmes is determined

Fire analysis of timber composite beams with interlayer slip

The purpose of this paper is to model the behaviour of timber composite beams with interlayer slip, when simultaneously exposed to static loading and fire. A transient moisture-thermal state of a timber beam is analysed by the Luikov equations, and mechanical behaviour of timber composite beam is modelled by Reissner's kinematic equations. The model can handle layers of different materials. Material properties are functions of temperature. The thermal model is validated against the experimental data presented in the literature. Generally, the model provides excellent agreement with the experimental data. It is shown that the material properties of timber play an important role in the fire resistance analysis of timber structures when exposed to fire

Exact slip-buckling analysis of two-layer composite columns

A mathematical model for slip-buckling has been proposed and its analytical solution has been found for the analysis of layered and geometrically perfect composite columns with inter-layer slip between the layers. The analytical study has been carried out to evaluate exact critical forces and to compare them to those in the literature. Particular emphasis has been placed on the influence of interface compliance on decreasing the bifurcation loads. For this purpose, a preliminary parametric study has been performed by which the influence of various material and geometric parameters on buckling forces have been investigated. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Modelling of radionuclide migration through the geosphere with radial basis function method and geostatistics

The modelling of radionuclide transport through the geosphere is necessary in the safety assessment of repositories for radioactive waste. A number of key geosphere processes need to be considered when predicting the movement of radionuclides through the geosphere. The most important input data are obtained from field measurements, which are not available for all regions of interest. For example, the hydraulic conductivity, as input parameter, varies from place to place. In such cases geostatistical science offers a variety of spatial estimation procedures. To assess the a long term safety of a radioactive waste disposal system, mathematical models are used to describe the complicated groundwater flow, chemistry and potential radionuclide migration through geological formations. The numerical solution of partial differential equations (PDEs) has usually been obtained by finite difference methods (FDM), finite element methods (FEM), or finite volume methods (FVM). Kansa introduced the concept of solving PDEs using radial basis functions (RBFs) for hyperbolic, parabolic and elliptic PDEs. The aim of this study was to present a relatively new approach to the modelling of radionuclide migration through the geosphere using radial basis functions methods and to determine the average and sample variance of radionuclide concentration with regard to spatial variability of hydraulic conductivity modelled by a geostatistical approach. We will also explore residual errors and their influence on optimal shape parameters

Energy conserving time integration scheme for geometrically exact beam

An energy conserving finite-element formulation for the dynamic analysis of geometrically non-linear beam-like structures undergoing large overall motions has been developed. The formulation uses classical displacement-based planar beam finite elements described in an inertial frame. It takes into account finite axial, bending and shear strains. A theoretically consistent approach is used to derive a novel and simple energy conserving scheme, using the unconventional incremental strain update rather than the standard strong form. Numerical examples demonstrate perfect energy and momenta conservation, stability and robustness of the scheme, and good convergence properties in terms of both the Newton-Raphson method and time step size. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

The wavelet-based theory of spatial naturally curved and twisted linear beams

The paper presents the wavelet-based discretization of the linearized finite-strain beam theory which assumes small displacements, rotations and strains but is capable of considering an arbitrary initial geometry and material behaviour. In the numerical solution algorithm, we base our derivations on the vector of strain measures as the only unknown functions in a finite element. In such a way the determination of the beam quantities does not require the differentiation. This is an important advantage which allows a wider range of shape functions. In the present paper, the classical polynomial interpolation is compared to scaling and wavelet function interpolations. The computational efficiency of the method is demonstrated by analyzing initially curved and twisted beams

Numerical modelling of behaviour of reinforced concrete columns in fire and comparison with Eurocode 2

The paper describes a two-step finite element formulation for the thermo-mechanical non-linear analysis of the behaviour of the reinforced concrete columns in fire. In the first step, the distributions of the temperature over the cross-section during fire are determined. In the next step, the mechanical analysis is made in which these distributions are used as the temperature loads. The analysis employs our new strain-based planar geometrically exact and materially non-linear beam finite elements to model the column. The results are compared with the measurements of the full-scale test on columns in fire and with the results of the European building code EC 2. The resistance times of the present method and the test were close. It is also noted that the building code EC 2 might be non-conservative in the estimation of the resistance time. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Assessment of hydrological and seasonal controls over the nitrate flushing from a forested watershed using a data mining technique

A data mining, regression tree algorithm M5 was used to review the role of mutual hydrological and seasonal settings which control the streamwater nitrate flushing during hydrological events within a forested watershed in the southwestern part of Slovenia, characterized by distinctive flushing, almost torrential hydrological regime. The basis for the research was an extensive dataset of continuous, high frequency measurements of seasonal meteorological conditions, watershed hydrological responses and streamwater nitrate concentrations. The dataset contained 16 recorded hydrographs occurring in different seasonal and hydrological conditions. Based on predefined regression tree pruning criteria, a comprehensible regression tree model was obtained in the sense of the domain knowledge, which was able to adequately describe most of the streamwater nitrate concentration variations (RMSE=1.02mg/l-N; r=0.91). The attributes which were found to be the most descriptive in the sense of streamwater nitrate concentrations were the antecedent precipitation index (API) and air temperatures in the preceding periods. The model was most successful in describing streamwater concentrations in the range 1-4 mg/l-N, covering large proportion of the dataset. The model performance was little worse in the periods of high streamwater nitrate concentration peaks during the summer hydrographs (up to 7 mg/l-N) but poor during the autumn hydrograph (up to 14 mg/l-N) related to highly variable hydrological conditions, which would require a less robust regression tree model based on the extended dataset

Statistical testing of directions observations independence

Independence of observations is often assumed when adjusting geodetic network. Unlike the\ud distance observations, no dependence of environmental conditions is known for horizontal\ud direction observations. In order to determine the dependence of horizontal direction observations,\ud we established test geodetic network of a station and four observation points. Measurements of\ud the highest possible accuracy were carried out using Leica TS30 total station along with precise\ud prisms GPH1P. Two series of hundred sets of angles were measured, with the first one in bad\ud observation conditions. Using different methods, i.e. variance–covariance matrices, x2 test and analyses of time series, the independence of measured directions, reduced directions and horizontal angles were tested. The results show that the independence of horizontal direction\ud observations is not obvious and certainly not in poor conditions. In this case, it would be appropriate for geodetic network adjustments to use variance–covariance matrix calculated from measurements instead of diagonal variance–covariance matrix

Reliability analysis of a glulam beam

The present case study is an example of the use of reliability analysis to asses the failure probability of a tapered glulam beam. This beam is part of a true structure built for a super market in the town of Kokemaki in Finland. The reliability analysis is carried out using the snow load statistics available from the site and on material strength information available from previous experiments. The Eurocode 5 and the Finnish building code are used as the deterministic methods to which the probabilistic method is compared to. The calculations show that the effect of the strength variation is not significant, when the coefficient of variation of the strength is around 15% as usually assumed for glulam. The probability of failure resulting from a deterministic design based on Eurocode 5 is low compared to the target values and lower sections are possible if applying a probabilistic design method. In fire design, if a 60 min resistance is required, this is not the case according to Eurocode 5 design procedures, a higher section would be required. However, a probabilistic based fire analysis results in bounds for the yearly probability of failure which are comparable to the target value and to the values obtained from the normal probabilistic based design. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved