Numerical modeling of infill RC walls in seismic retrofit of RC frames

Columns designed and built according to older standards may be subject to damage due to seismic loading during earthquakes as a result of the lack of shear reinforcement and/or insufficient lap-splice length. An experimental program on the use of ifill RC walls in seismic retrofit of RC frames under cyclic loading was conducted in 2002. The output of this experimental work formed the basis for the validation of a numerical finite element model, in predicting forces and displacements. Subsequently the finite element model was used to perform a parametric analysis on the effects of the thickness, overall reinforcement and concrete strength of the infill wall on the seismic strength of the overall system. There was no evidence that the percentage of steel reinforcement in the infill wall had a measurable effect on its seismic behavior. The minimum thickness of the wall to achieve the desired seismic strength of the frame-wall system was determined and illustrated by an empirical formula. The effect of the amount of the steel in the columns on the seismic strength of the system is significant but its effect on the cracking patterns in the wall has been proven to be small. The strength of concrete of the wall had a varying effect on the overall seismic strength of the wall which has also been illustrated in an empirical formula. The developed finite element model has been proven successful in modeling the major characteristics of the wall-frame system, and therefore, can be applied as a tool for an effective design of such a seismic strengthening system

Quantum Inspired Genetic Programming Model to Predict Toxicity Degree for Chemical Compounds

Cheminformatics plays a vital role to maintain a large amount of chemical data. A reliable prediction of toxic effects of chemicals in living systems is highly desirable in domains such as cosmetics, drug design, food safety, and manufacturing chemical compounds. Toxicity prediction topic requires several new approaches for knowledge discovery from data to paradigm composite associations between the modules of the chemical compound; such techniques need more computational cost as the number of chemical compounds increases. State-of-the-art prediction methods such as neural network and multi-layer regression that requires either tuning parameters or complex transformations of predictor or outcome variables are not achieving high accuracy results.  This paper proposes a Quantum Inspired Genetic Programming “QIGP” model to improve the prediction accuracy. Genetic Programming is utilized to give a linear equation for calculating toxicity degree more accurately. Quantum computing is employed to improve the selection of the best-of-run individuals and handles parsimony pressure to reduce the complexity of the solutions. The results of the internal validation analysis indicated that the QIGP model has the better goodness of fit statistics and significantly outperforms the Neural Network model

Utilizing Adobe Illustrator's Blend and Transform in Designing Op-Art Items

Op-Art can strengthen the product image and can combine culture elements which satisfies consumers’ visual requirement. Some applications of op-art are in security prints, fashion design, packaging design, architecture, interior design, publishing media, and printing designs. The problem is the few softwares specialized in Op-Art production. These softwares are based on geometric shapes in creating visual art items. Concerning the wide facilities of blend and transform options and effects in Adobe Illustrator software, many op-art items can be investigated. The goal is to highlight the importance of these tools options and effects and its ease, efficiency, and functionality in designing countless variety of op-art items. The availability, prevalence, and ease of use of the Adobe softwares are very important advantages that encourage designers to use in most of their works. The research aims to design Op-Art items by using Illustrator's blend and transform and utilizing these items in various designs. Keywords: Op-Art, Adobe Illustrator, Blend, Transform, packaging design, Guilloche.

CHARACTERISTICS AND DESIGN OF DOWNBURST LOADED TRANSMISSION LINES

During the past years, many electrical transmission lines have failed during downbursts. This thesis is part of a research program aimed to understand the behaviour of transmission lines under localized winds. The first part of the thesis assesses the dynamic behaviour of the conductors under downburst loading. A non-linear numerical model is utilized to predict the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the conductors at various loading stages. A turbulence signal is added to the mean component of the downburst wind field previously evaluated from a CFD analysis. Dynamic analysis is performed using various downburst configurations. The second part of the thesis focuses on evaluating the sensitivity of the forces in the members of guyed towers to changes in the downburst configuration, tower height, guys’ configuration, turbulence, and the conductors’ pretensioning force. The axial forces in the members are compared to those resulting from normal wind loading and the broken wire load case. The third part of the thesis focuses on developing simplified loads, equivalent to the critical downburst loads causing the guyed transmission tower to fail. Different options are considered in terms of the location and nature of the design velocity associated to different critical cases. The profile of the horizontal velocity is developed. The equivalent load corresponding to each of the critical cases is developed. Detailed steps of the conductors’ reactions calculations are provided. A loading procedure is developed for designing downburst loaded guyed transmission towers. m The fourth part of the thesis involves studying the behaviour of self supported transmission line towers under downburst loading. A parametric study is performed to determine the critical downburst configurations causing maximum axial forces for various members of the tower. The sensitivity of the internal forces developing in the tower’s members to changes in the downburst size and location is studied. The structural behaviour associated with the critical downburst configurations is described and compared to the behaviour under normal wind loads

Existence and Asymptotic Stability of Solutions of a Perturbed Quadratic Fractional Integral Equation

Mathematics Subject Classification: 45G10, 45M99, 47H09We study the solvability of a perturbed quadratic integral equation of fractional order with linear modification of the argument. This equation is considered in the Banach space of real functions which are defined, bounded and continuous on an unbounded interval. Moreover, we will obtain some asymptotic characterization of solutions. Finally, we give an example to illustrate our abstract results

Influence of Information System Factors to Operational Performance Sustainability of UAE Manufacturing Sector

This paper presents an assessment of information system factors that influence the operational performance sustainability of UAE manufacturing sector. The study was conducted using quantitative approach where data was collected through the questionnaire survey and analysed statistically. A total of 41 factors of information system extracted from literature review and clustered into 4 domains namely transaction processing system; operation information system; decision support system and financial manager's workbench. The survey distributed 250 questionnaires among operations staff of UAE manufacturing industries. However, only 200 datasets were considered valid for further analysis. Ranking of factors were conducted using mean score and standard deviation. The results found that the most influential domain is decision support system having mean value of 4.19. The findings from this study give an indicator on the importance of information system toward the sustainable operational performance of   the UAE manufacturing secto

Framework for engineering design systems architectures evaluation and selection: case study

Engineering companies face the challenge of developing complex Engineering Design Systems. These systems involve huge financial, people, and time investments within an environment that is characterised by continuously changing technologies and processes. Systems architecture provides the strategies and modelling approaches to ensure that adequate resources are spent in developing the possible To Be states for a target system. Architecture selection and evaluation involves evaluating different architectural alternatives with respect to multiple criteria, hence an Architecture Evaluation Framework which evaluates and down selects the appropriate architectures solutions is crucial to assess how these systems will deliver value over their lifetime, and where to channel the financial and human investments to maximize benefit delivered to the business’ bottom line. In this paper, an evaluation and selection architecture framework is proposed, which targets to maximise the alignment of Engineering Design Systems with business goals based on a quality centric architecture evaluation approach. The framework utilised software Quality Attributes as well as SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) and PEST (Political, Economic, Social, Technological) analyses to capture different viewpoints related to technical, political and business context. The framework proposed employing AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) to quantitatively elicit relationships between Quality Attributes trade-offs and architectural characteristics. The framework was applied to a real case study considering five Engineering Design Systems alternative architectures, where workshops with subject matter experts and stakeholders were held to reach an informative decision, that maximise architectural quality, whilst maintaining business alignment