Fatigue criteria for integrity assessment of long-span steel bridge with health monitoring

A structural health assessment (SHA) methodology is developed using data acquired from structural health monitoring (SHM) system installed on long-span bridges. A set of fatigue criteria has been proposed for pre-determining the global state of the bridge structure failure due to fatigue. This involves finding the threshold of fatigue initiation, below which the rate of fatigue damage may be undetectable under current technology or it is economically unfeasible. The state-of-art for large structures corresponds to the initiation of macro-cracks caused by the accumulation of damage generated by actual service loads for the case of bridges. In what follows, consideration is given to developing fatigue crack growth criterion based on the concept of the continuum damage mechanics (CDM). Fatigue accumulative is included in the model where a fatigue limit for multi-axial stress state is considered. The proposed criterion advocates the evolution of micro-crack growth up to the stage of macro-crack formulation. Considered are the loading histories that correspond to normal traffic loading for highways and railways, incidental or accident loadings such as those caused by typhoons and effective environmental loadings. The potential sites of damage are determined are discussed. The proposed criterion is applied to analyze the fatigue damage of the Tsing Ma Bridge with online strain history data acquired by the SHM system that is permanently installed in the bridge.     

Bifurcation and stability analysis of a neural network model with distributed delays

In this paper, the dynamics of a generalized two-neuron model with self-connections and distributed delays are investigated, together with the stability of the equilibrium. In particular, the conditions under which the Hopf bifurcation occurs at the equilibrium are obtained for the weak kernel. This means that a family of periodic solutions bifurcates from the equilibrium when the bifurcation parameter exceeds a critical value. Explicit algorithms for determining the stability of the bifurcating periodic solutions and the direction of the Hopf bifurcation are derived by using the theory of normal form and center manifold [20]. Some numerical simulations are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the results found. The obtained results are new and they complement previously known results.This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 60574043 and 60373067, the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China under Grants BK2003053.     

Consumer memory and price fluctuations in commodity markets: An integrodifferential model

A model for the dynamics of price adjustment in a single commodity market is developed. Nonlinearities in both supply and demand functions are considered explicitly, as are delays due to production lags and storage policies, to yield a nonlinear integrodifferential equation. Conditions for the local stability of the equilibrium price are derived in terms of the elasticities of supply and demand, the supply and demand relaxation times, and the equilibrium production-storage delay. The destabilizing effect of consumer memory on the equilibrium price is analyzed, and the ensuing Hopf bifurcations are described.     

Using the gradients of temperature and internal parameters in Continuum ThermodynamicsIntroduction des gradients de température et de paramètres internes en Thermodynamique des Milieux Continus

In this paper, the possibility of using the gradients of the temperature and of the internal parameters as additional state variables in Continuum Thermodynamics is considered. The expressions of the two principles are discussed and Clausius–Duhem inequality is derived under an appropriate statement of the internal entropy production. Several formulations are proposed and compared to existing results in the literature. To cite this article: P. Ireman, Q.S. Nguyen, C. R. Mecanique 332 (2004).     

Detonation properties of dense methane-oxygen-diluent gaseous mixtures: application to ram accelerators

Using a 90mm-bore, 3.15 m long detonation tube, experimental detonation characteristics (detonability limits, detonation velocities and peak pressures) of stoichiometric methane-oxygen-diluent mixtures at an initial pressure up to 3.5 MPa have been experimentally investigated. A parametric study has been carried out as a function of both amount and nature of diluent, namely carbon dioxide, nitrogen and helium. The experimental results allowed the adjustment and validation of computations of the Chapman-Jouguet characteristics by means of a thermochemical code. These experimental data associated with validated computations provide a valuable tool, among others, for the choice of the most appropriate mixture composition in the superdetonative combustion mode for ram accelerator (ramac) experiments. The investigations were organized to determine the upper detonable areas of dense ternary mixtures, and to provide detonation velocity data in order to adjust a series of intermolecular parameters involved in the thermochemical code. Received 8 May 1997 / Accepted 15 December 1997     

非线性时滞动力系统的研究进展

具有时滞的动力系统广泛存在于各工程领域．本文从动力学角度对时滞动力系统的研究进展作一综述,内容包括时滞动力系统的特点、研究方法、动力学热点问题的研究进展等．由于时滞动力系统的演化趋势不仅依赖于系统的当前状态,还依赖于系统过去某一时刻或若干时刻的状态,其运动方程要用泛国微分方程来描述,解空间是无穷维的．即使系统中的时滞非常小,在许多情况下也不能忽略不计．对于非线性时滞常微分方程,目前的研究思路基本上与常微分方程系统理论相平行．主要研究方法可分为时域法和频域法,前者包括Ｔａｙｌｏｒ级数法,中心流形法,Ｐｏｉｎｃａｒｅ映射法等,后者包括Ｎｙｑｕｉｓｔ法等．目前对这类系统的动力学研究主要集中在稳定性、Ｈｏｐｆ分岔、混沌等方面．研究表明：时滞动力系统具有非常丰富和复杂的动力学行为,如单变量的一维非线性时滞动力系统可发生混沌现象,与用常微分方程描述的系统有本质性差别．另一方面,人们可巧妙地利用时滞来控制动力系统的行为,如时滞反馈控制是控制混饨的主要方法之一．最后,本文展望了存在的一些问题以及近期值得关注的研究．     

New insights on free energies and Saint-Venant’s principle in viscoelasticity

Explicit expressions for the minimum free energy of a linear viscoelastic material and Noll’s definition of state are used here to explore spatial energy decay estimates for viscoelastic bodies, in the full dynamical case and in the quasi-static approximation.In the inertial case, Chirita et al. obtained a certain spatial decay inequality for a space–time integral over a portion of the body and over a finite time interval of the total mechanical energy. This involves the work done on histories, which is not a function of state in general. Here it is shown that for free energies which are functions of state and obey a certain reasonable property, the spatial decay of the corresponding space–time integral is stronger than the one involving the work done on the past history. It turns out that the bound obtained is optimal for the minimal free energy.Two cases are discussed for the quasi-static approximation. The first case deals with general states, so that general histories belonging to the equivalence class of any given state can be considered. The continuity of the stress functional with respect to the norm based on the minimal free energy is proved, and the energy measure based on the minimal free energy turns out to obey the decay inequality derived Chirita et al. for the quasi-static case.The second case explores a crucial point for viscoelastic materials, namely that the response is influenced by the rate of application of loads. Quite surprisingly, the analysis of this phenomenon in the context of Saint-Venant principles has never been carried out explicitly before, even in the linear case. This effect is explored by considering states, the related histories of which are sinusoidal. The spatial decay parameter is shown to be frequency-dependent, i.e. it depends on the rate of load application, and it is proved that of those considered, the most conservative estimate of the frequency-dependent decay is associated with the minimal free energy. A comparison is made of the results for sinusoidal histories at low frequencies and general histories.     

State diagrams of arabinoxylan-water binaries

Since Arabinoxylans are natural polysaccharides that seem promising candidates as cryostabilizers, the state diagram (i.e. the representation in the temperature-composition plan of the macroscopic phases) of their aqueous solutions seemed worth determining.

Two lots of purified water extractable arabinoxylans (WEA) of different molecular mass (56 and 410 kDa labeled as LMW-AX and HMW-AX, respectively) were used to prepare aqueous solutions of various composition. These were cooled below their freezing point and annealed for 2 h at a suitable temperature before a DSC 5°C min⁻¹ heating run aimed at determining their primary glass transition temperature, T_g′, and the onset of ice fusion. Once the corresponding composition, C_g′, was assessed, the main curves of the corresponding state diagram were drawn.

As expected, the T_g′ value drawn for HMW-AX was higher (−17°C) than for LMW-AX (−35°C). The C_g′ was instead found close to 75% w/w for both HMW-AX and LMW-AX. The fictitiousness of this coincidence could be easily recognized by expressing the solute concentration in molar fraction, X: it was then possible to verify that, as expected, X_g′ for LMW-AX was one order of magnitude larger than for HLW-AX.     

Theory of fractional order in generalized thermoelectric MHD

A new mathematical model of thermoelectric MHD theory has been constructed in the context of a new consideration of heat conduction with fractional orders. This model is applied to Stokes’ first problem for a conducting fluid with heat sources. Laplace transforms and state-space techniques [1] will be used to obtain the general solution for any set of boundary conditions. According to the numerical results and its graphs, conclusion about the new theory has been constructed. Some comparisons have been shown in figures to estimate the effects of the fractional order parameters on all the studied fields.     

Stability of MgAl 2 O 4 Under High-Pressure Conditions

A theoretical investigation of the MgAl 2 O 4 crystal response to high-pressure conditions has been carried out to determine its stability against decomposition towards MgO and f -Al 2 O 3 , and towards recently observed orthorhombic phases. We have evaluated total energy versus volume curves using the density functional formalism under the non-local B3LYP approximation, as implemented in the CRYSTAL package. Numerical and analytical fittings have been carried out to determine the equilibrium unit cell geometry and equation of state parameters for all the structures and compounds involved in the phase diagram. The macroscopic compressibility of the spinel phase is interpreted considering the compressibility of its elementary MgO 4 and AlO 6 coordination polyhedra, and implications to understand the phase stability are suggested.