Experimental and numerical studies on multi-spherical sliding friction isolation bearing

An innovative multi-spherical sliding friction isolation (MSFI) bearing has recently been developed. The novel isolator has efficient energy dissipation capacity and enough displacement capacity under strong earthquake excitations. The MSFI bearing is completely passive devices, yet shows smart stiffness and smart damping under external excitation. The principles of operation and force-displacement relationship of the novel isolator are presented in this paper. The sliding order of all sliding surfaces and force-displacement hysteretic relationship are verified through a displacement-control testing program, and numerical analysis of the MSFI bearing under low cyclic loading is carried out based on ABAQUS program. The results show the sliding order and force-displacement relationship of the MSFI bearing derived from theoretical analysis results and numerical simulation results are well agree with experimental data which the compression-shear testing of the MSFI bearing specimen with the identical curvature radii and friction coefficients. The adaptive behavior of MSFI bearing permits the isolation system to be separately optimized for multiple levels of seismic intensity and ground motions

Cyclic Load Responses of GFRP-Strengthened Hollow Rectangular Bridge Piers

This study investigated the seismic behavior of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) strengthened hollow rectangular bridge piers. Cyclic testing of reinforced concrete (RC) piers retrofitted with GFRP was carried out under constant axial loading and lateral bending. The failure characteristics, flexural ductility, dissipated energy, and hysteretic behaviors, were analyzed based on experimental results. A simplified GFRP-confined concrete model is developed by considering effective strength coefficient and area distribution ratio of GFRP sheets. The results indicate that the failure modes and damage region would be changed and the ductility and dissipated energy of the GFRP-strengthened hollow rectangular bridge piers were improved greatly but not much improvement for the lateral load capacity. The analytical results of the force-displacement hysteretic loops based on the GFRP-confined concrete model developed in this paper agreed well with the experimental data

A trial of patient-oriented problem-solving system for immunology teaching in China: a comparison with dialectic lectures

BACKGROUND: The most common teaching method used in China is lecturing, but recently, efforts have been widely undertaken to promote the transition from teacher-centered to student-centered education. The patient-oriented problem-solving (POPS) system is an innovative teaching-learning method that permits students to work in small groups to solve clinical problems, promotes self-learning, encourages clinical reasoning and develops long-lasting memory. To our best knowledge, however, POPS has never been applied in teaching immunology in China. The aim of this study was to develop POPS in teaching immunology and assess students’ and teachers’ perception to POPS. METHODS: 321 second-year medical students were divided into two groups: I and II. Group I, comprising 110 students, was taught by POPS, and 16 immunology teachers witnessed the whole teaching process. Group II including the remaining 211 students was taught through traditional lectures. The results of the pre- and post-test of both groups were compared. Group I students and teachers then completed a self-structured feedback questionnaire for analysis before a discussion meeting attended only by the teachers was held. RESULTS: Significant improvement in the mean difference between the pre- and post-test scores of those in Groups I and II was seen, demonstrating the effectiveness of POPS teaching. Most students responded that POPS facilitates self-learning, helps them to understand topics and creates interest, and 88.12% of students favored POPS over simple lectures. Moreover, while they responded that POPS facilitated student learning better than lectures, teachers pointed out that limited teaching resources would make it difficult for wide POPS application in China. CONCLUSIONS: While POPS can break up the monotony of dialectic lectures and serve as a better teaching method, it may not be feasible for the current educational environment in China. The main reason for this is the relative shortage of teaching resources such as space, library facilities and well-trained teachers

Hysteretic behavior simulation of novel rhombic mild steel dampers

Structural vibration control technique is an appropriate and acceptable method to control structural vibration condition and dissipate structural vibration energy during severe earthquakes and violent winds. Metallic dampers are verified to be stable and effective for passive control by many scholars and engineers. Low-yield-point (LYP) steel provides a promising prospect for energy dissipation dampers widely applied in structural engineering practice. Experimental study was conducted on a novel rhombic steel plate damper in former research and numerical simulation of the hysteretic behavior of rhombic dampers was performed in this study. Mechanical performance and implementation of the novel rhombic steel plate damper is briefly introduced in this paper. The hysteretic behavior of the novel rhombic steel plate dampers made of three types of steel was investigated by testing and finite element method. It is concluded that the yield strength enhancement of the rhombic steel damper made of LYP steel is substantial. The numerical simulation results of the hysteretic behavior of the rhombic steel plate damper are similar to the experimental results for these three types of steel. The energy dissipation capability of rhombic LYP steel dampers is excellent and adequate to be used in passive control strategy for civil engineering structures

Design, Implementation and Modeling of Flooding Disaster-Oriented USV

Although there exist some unmanned surface platforms, and parts of them have been applied in flooding disaster relief, the autonomy of these platforms is still so weak that most of them can only work under the control of operators. The primary reason is the difficulty of obtaining a dynamical model that is sufficient rich for model-based control and sufficient simple for model parameters identification. This makes them difficult to be used to achieve some high-performance autonomous control, such as robust control with respect to disturbances and unknown dynamics and trajectory tracking control in complicated and dynamical surroundings. In this chapter, a flooding disaster-oriented unmanned surface vehicle (USV) designed and implemented by Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SIA, CAS) is introduced first, including the hardware and software structures. Then, we propose a quasi-linear parameter varying (qLPV) model to approach the dynamics of the USV system. We first apply this to solve a structured modeling problem and then introduce model error to solve an unstructured modeling problem. Subsequently, the qLPV model identification results are analyzed and the superiority compared to two linear models is demonstrated. At last, extensive application experiments, including rescuing rope throwing using an automatic pneumatic and water sampling in a 2.5 m radius circle, are described in detail to show the performance of course keeping control and GPS point tracking control based on the proposed model