Three-dimensional analysis of reinforced concrete beam-column structures in fire

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Published version copyright @ 2009 ASCE.In this paper a robust nonlinear finite-element procedure is developed for three-dimensional modeling of reinforced concrete beam-column structures in fire conditions. Because of the changes in material properties and the large deflections experienced in fire, both geometric and material nonlinearities are taken into account in this formulation. The cross section of the beam column is divided into a matrix of segments and each segment may have different material, temperature, and mechanical properties. The more complicated aspects of structural behavior in fire conditions, such as thermal expansion, transient state strains in the concrete, cracking or crushing of concrete, yielding of steel, and change in material properties with temperature are modeled. A void segment is developed to effectively model the effect of concrete spalling on the fire resistance of concrete beam-column members. The model developed can be used to quantify the residual strength of spalled reinforced concrete beam-column structures in fire. A series of comprehensive validations have been conducted to validate the model. From this research, it can be concluded that the influence of transient state strains of concrete on the deflection of structures can be very significant. However, there is very little effect on the failure time of a simple structural member. The impact of concrete spalling on both the thermal and structural behaviors of reinforced concrete members is very significant. It is vitally important to consider the prospect of concrete spalling in fire safety design for reinforced concrete buildings

A new design method for industrial portal frames in fire

For single-storey steel portal frames in fire, especially when they are situated close to a site perimeter, it is imperative that the boundary walls stay close to vertical, so that fires which occur are not allowed to spread to adjacent properties. A current UK fire design guide requires either that the whole frame be protected as a single element, or that the rafter may be left unprotected if column bases and foundations are designed to resist the forces and moments generated by rafter collapse, in order to ensure the lateral stability of the boundary walls. This can lead to very uneconomical foundation design and base-plate detailing. In previous studies carried out at the University of Sheffield it was found that a fundamental aspect of the collapse of a portal frame rafter is that it usually loses stability in a “snap-through” mechanism, but is capable of re-stabilising at high deflections, when the roof has inverted but the columns remain close to vertical. Numerical tests performed using the new model show that the strong base connections recommended by the current design method do not always lead to a conservative design. It is also found that initial collapse of the rafter is always caused by a plastic hinge mechanism based on the frame’s initial configuration. If the frame can then re-stabilize when the roof is substantially inverted, a second mechanism relying on the re-stabilized configuration can lead to failure of the whole frame. In this paper, a portal frame with different bases is simulated numerically using Vulcan, investigating the effect of different base strength on the collapse behaviour. The test results are compared with the failure mode assumed by the current design method. A new method for the estimation of re-stabilized positions of single-span frames in fire, using the second failure mechanism, is discussed and calibrated against the numerical test results

Estimation of hominoid ancestral population sizes under Bayesian coalescent models incorporating mutation rate variation and sequencing errors

Estimation of population parameters for the common ancestors of humans and the great apes is important in understanding our evolutionary history. In particular, inference of population size for the human-chimpanzee common ancestor may shed light on the process by which the 2 species separated and on whether the human population experienced a severe size reduction in its early evolutionary history. In this study, the Bayesian method of ancestral inference of Rannala and Yang (2003. Bayes estimation of species divergence times and ancestral population sizes using DNA sequences from multiple loci. Genetics. 164:1645-1656) was extended to accommodate variable mutation rates among loci and random species-specific sequencing errors. The model was applied to analyze a genome-wide data set of similar to 15,000 neutral loci (7.4 Mb) aligned for human, chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan, and macaque. We obtained robust and precise estimates for effective population sizes along the hominoid lineage extending back similar to 30 Myr to the cercopithecoid divergence. The results showed that ancestral populations were 5-10 times larger than modern humans along the entire hominoid lineage. The estimates were robust to the priors used and to model assumptions about recombination. The unusually low X chromosome divergence between human and chimpanzee could not be explained by variation in the male mutation bias or by current models of hybridization and introgression. Instead, our parameter estimates were consistent with a simple instantaneous process for human-chimpanzee speciation but showed a major reduction in X chromosome effective population size peculiar to the human-chimpanzee common ancestor, possibly due to selective sweeps on the X prior to separation of the 2 species

Gauge Boson Exchange in AdSd+1AdS_{d+1}

We study the amplitude for exchange of massless gauge bosons between pairs of massive scalar fields in Anti-de Sitter space. In the AdS/CFT correspondence this amplitude describes the contribution of conserved flavor symmetry currents to 4-point functions of scalar operators in the boundary conformal theory. A concise, covariant (Y2K-compatible) derivation of the gauge boson propagator in \AdS_{d+1} is given. Techniques are developed to calculate the two bulk integrals over AdS space leading to explicit expressions or convenient, simple integral representations for the amplitude. The amplitude contains leading power and sub-leading logarithmic singularities in the gauge boson channel and leading logarithms in the crossed channel. The new methods of this paper are expected to have other applications in the study of the Maldacena conjecture.Comment: Corrections in (3.17) and (4.23); version to be published in Nuclear Physics B; 22 pages, 1 figure, using Plain TeX and BoxedEPS macros; email to [email protected]

Systematics of Moduli Stabilization, Inflationary Dynamics and Power Spectrum

We study the scalar sector of type IIB superstring theory compactified on Calabi-Yau orientifolds as a place to find a mechanism of inflation in the early universe. In the large volume limit, one can stabilize the moduli in stages using perturbative method. We relate the systematics of moduli stabilization with methods to reduce the number of possible inflatons, which in turn lead to a simpler inflation analysis. Calculating the order-of-magnitude of terms in the equation of motion, we show that the methods are in fact valid. We then give the examples where these methods are used in the literature. We also show that there are effects of non-inflaton scalar fields on the scalar power spectrum. For one of the two methods, these effects can be observed with the current precision in experiments, while for the other method, the effects might never be observable.Comment: 20 pages, JHEP style; v.2 and v.3: typos fixed, discussion and references adde

The mechanics of inelastic buckling using a Shanley-like model

This paper presents a study of the mechanics of inelastic buckling using a Shanley-like simplified column model. The model is an extension of the original Shanley model with multiple springs and two dampers. The inclusion of damping enables the dynamic response of the model under constant loading to be captured. The model has been evaluated against the tangent-modulus and reduced-modulus critical buckling loads, and has been found effective in representing the progressive change in the regions of loading and unloading during inelastic buckling. It is also able to simulate the extreme situations of inelastic buckling by varying the ratio of the two damping coefficients. It is seen that high rotational damping, relative to vertical damping, causes the buckling to move towards the reducedmodulus buckling load at much lower deflections than when the relationship is reversed

Regular and Irregular Boundary Conditions in the AdS/CFT Correspondence

We expand on Klebanov and Witten's recent proposal for formulating the AdS/CFT correspondence using irregular boundary conditions. The proposal is shown to be correct to any order in perturbation theory.Comment: 7 pages, typos correcte

AdS/CFT 4-point functions: How to succeed at z-integrals without really trying

A new method is discussed which vastly simplifies one of the two integrals over AdS(d+1) required to compute exchange graphs for 4-point functions of scalars in the AdS/CFT correspondence. The explicit form of the bulk-to-bulk propagator is not required. Previous results for scalar, gauge boson and graviton exchange are reproduced, and new results are given for massive vectors. It is found that precisely for the cases that occur in the AdS(5) X S(5) compactification of Type IIB supergravity, the exchange diagrams reduce to a finite sum of graphs with quartic scalar vertices. The analogous integrals in n-point scalar diagrams for n>4 are also evaluated.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur

Gaugino Condensation in N=1 Supergravity Models with Multiple Dilaton-Like Fields

We study supersymmetry breaking by hidden-sector gaugino condensation in N=1 D=4 supergravity models with multiple dilaton-like moduli fields. Our work is motivated by Type I string theory, in which the low-energy effective Lagrangian can have different dilaton-like fields coupling to different sectors of the theory. We construct the effective Lagrangian for gaugino condensation and use it to compute the visible-sector gaugino masses. We find that the gaugino masses can be of order the gravitino mass, in stark contrast to heterotic string models with a single dilaton field.Comment: LaTeX, 17 pages, 2 eps figure

Classical Nambu-Goldstone fields

It is shown that a Nambu-Goldstone (NG) field may be coherently produced by a large number of particles in spite of the fact that the NG bosons do not couple to flavor conserving scalar densities like $\bar{\psi}\psi$. If a flavor oscillation process takes place the phases of the pseudo-scalar or flavor violating densities of different particles do not necessarily cancel each other. The NG boson gets a macroscopic source whenever the total (spontaneously broken) quantum number carried by the source particles suffers a net increase or decrease in time. If the lepton numbers are spontaneously broken such classical NG (majoron) fields may significantly change the neutrino oscillation processes in stars pushing the observational capabilities of neutrino-majoron couplings down to $m_{\nu}/300$ GeV.Comment: 11 pages, updated, to appear in PR