Journal of Engineering Mechanics

The accumulation of permanent deformations in asphalt concrete under repeated loading, a phenomenon of great practical importance, is studied in detail and a new multidimensional nonlinear hyperelastic-nonassociative plastic model is proposed. The equations of the model are solved by using the predictor–corrector algorithm. The model’s results are compared to actual experimental data and the comparison is very favorable. A remarkable result is that the model parameters obtained from one stress level predict correctly the results for another stress level.

Asphalt paving layers, particularly the surface course, exhibit vertically graded material properties. This grading is caused primarily by temperature gradients and aging related stiffness gradients. Most conventional existing analysis models do not directly account for the continuous grading of properties in flexible pavement layers. As a result, conventional analysis methods may lead to inaccurate prediction of pavement responses and distress under traffic and environmental loading. In this paper, a theoretical formulation for the graded finite element method is provided followed by an implementation using the user material subroutine (UMAT) capability of the finite element software ABAQUS. Numerical examples using the UMAT are provided to illustrate the benefits of using graded elements in pavement analysis.

Standard displacement-based finite element formulations show a tendency to lock in the modeling of nearly incompressible materials. This overly stiff response often leads to an overestimation of the collapse load for the system. In this paper we present a stabilized mixed displacement-pressure finite element method that can effectively model the nearly incompressible materials in their elastic and inelastic range. The stabilized formulation is free of volumetric locking effects and allows equal low-order interpolation for both the displacement and the pressure fields. The formulation is integrated with a three-surface elastoplastic cap model for the simulation and analysis of granular materials. The good performance of the method is demonstrated via numerical examples of the hydrostatic compression test for concrete and the bearing capacity and limit load analyses of flexible footings.

This paper numerically investigates the dynamic instability of different elastic-plastic beams subjected to transverse pulse load. Two types of beam dynamic instability, i.e., symmetrical and asymmetrical instabilities, are studied. The unstable responses of the elastic-plastic beams are illustrated by investigating the modal participation factors of the lowest nine vibration modes, which are determined by inverse derivation of the numerically simulated beam deflection response. The critical pulse loads for the beam symmetrical and asymmetrical instabilities are obtained with respect to different load durations. Characteristic diagrams for beams with different boundary conditions and subjected to different type pulse loads are given. The present study conforms that not only axial compressive load induces instability of slender members, but also transverse pulse load results in instability of elastic-plastic beams.

Stay cables, such as are used in cable-stayed bridges, are prone to vibration due to their low inherent damping characteristics. Transversely attached passive viscous dampers have been implemented in many bridges to dampen such vibration. However, only minimal damping can be added if the attachment point is close to the bridge deck. For longer bridge cables, the relative attachment point becomes increasingly smaller, and passive damping may become insufficient. A recent analytical study by the authors demonstrated that “smart” semiactive damping can provide increased supplemental damping. This paper experimentally verifies a smart damping control strategy employing ${\mathrm{H}}_2∕\mathrm{linear\; quadratic\; Gaussian\; (LQG)}$ clipped optimal control using only force and displacement measurements at the damper for an inclined flat-sag cable. A shear mode magnetorheological fluid damper is attached to a $12.65\mathrm{m}$ inclined flat-sag steel cable to reduce cable vibration. Cable response is seen to be substantially reduced by the smart damper.

Auto-parametric vibration of a cable-stayed-beam structure under a random excitation is first studied numerically with emphasis on cable local vibration. A simplified 3-degree-of-freedom model that includes linear as well as nonlinear coupling terms between the cable and beam is employed. The general equivalent linearization method is applied to obtain the random response of the nonlinear system. Results show that when the vertical random excitation to the beam exceeds a critical value, the horizontal motions of the cable and beam are excited due to the auto-parametric nonlinear coupling. In this motion, the structural response possesses a nonstationary characteristic, even though the loading is a stationary random process. The Lyaponov exponent technique is applied to investigate the stability property of the auto-parametric vibration, under harmonic, random, and combined excitations. Effects of the natural frequency ratio and damping on the stability are also investigated.

A suitable filter response is defined that allows studies of the effects of excitation bandwidth on the responses of geometrically nonlinear dynamic systems. For such a random excitation, as the bandwidth approaches zero, the mean square displacement response of a linear single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system approaches the mean square response to harmonic excitation. Studies of mean square responses of a nonlinear SDOF model of a cable system are presented. The set of nonlinear equations for the response moments are truncated using Gaussian closure and solved using continuation techniques as implemented in the program AUTO. Surfaces of turning point loci are computed in the parameter space of excitation bandwidth, excitation central frequency, and system damping. These surfaces provide values of the three parameters that separate regions with multiple mean square responses from regions with unique mean square responses. Response time histories are computed by simulation to illustrate system behavior in regions with multiple stable mean square responses.

The present paper addresses the so-called microplane formulation which became recently more and more popular for the description of quasi-brittle materials. The essential feature of this material formulation is a split of the local microplane strains and stresses allowing one to resort to simplified or in certain cases even unidirectional constitutive laws. The main attraction of the microplane concept is that an initial or evolving anisotropic material behavior can be described in a natural and simple way. Motivated from a macroscopic viewpoint, it is advocated to restrict the microplane concept to the pure volumetric-deviatoric split, as a constraint subset of the most often applied volumetric-deviatoric-tangential split. This variant has the particular advantage that typical macroscopic responses are directly reflected on the mesoscale. It will be shown that in certain cases the present version of a microplane formulation is closely related to well-known macroscopic models although being much more general than those macroscopic formulations. This close relation is exploited to derive physically sound microplane constitutive laws. Therefore the characteristic damage mechanisms of materials at two levels of observation, (1) at the macroscale in the sense of classical continuum damage mechanics, and (2) at the mesoscale utilizing the so-called microplane concept, are examined. The comparison of the microplane formulation to a well-known macroscopic one-parameter damage model enables the identification and interpretation of the microplane constitutive laws. The constitutive formulations are embedded in a thermodynamically consistent framework. Finally, the performance of the attained microplane formulation is analyzed in a mixed-mode fracture simulation of concrete.

Based on a novel split bi-layer shear deformable beam model capable of capturing the local deformation at the crack tip, the explicit closed-form solutions of bi-material interface fracture are presented in this paper. A recently developed novel shear deformable bi-layer beam theory is briefly reviewed, from which the deformation at the crack tip is explicitly derived. A new expression for the energy release rate is then obtained using the $J$ integral, in which several new terms associated with the transverse shear force are present; this represents an improved solution compared to the one from the classical beam model. By exploiting the two concentrated crack tip forces, the general loadings acting at the crack tip are decomposed into two groups which produce only the mode I and mode II energy release rates, respectively; the total energy release rate is thus decomposed into the mode I and II components in a global sense. The stress intensity factor referred to as local decomposition is also obtained including the transverse shear effect. The difference between the global and local mode decompositions is clarified, and a simple relationship between them is provided. The effect of the existence of a thin layer of adhesive on the stress intensity factor is further studied by an asymptotic analysis. A simple and improved expression for the $T$ stress, the nonsingular term of stress at the crack tip, is also given. The fracture parameters of several commonly used interface fracture specimens are summarized. The present fracture analysis including the transverse shear effect is in better agreement with finite element analyses and shows advantages and improved accuracy over the available classical solutions.

The main purpose of the present paper is to provide practical and numerical implementations of the method of fundamental solutions for three-dimensional exterior Stokes problems with quiet far-field condition and discuss the issues therein. The solutions of the steady Stokes problems are obtained by utilizing the boundary collocation method as well as the expansion of Stokeslets, which are the fundamental solutions of the steady Stokes equations. To validate the proposed model, numerical results of a lid-driven cavity flow, uniform flow passing a sphere, and a rotating dumbbell-shaped body show good agreement with the numerical and analytical solutions available in the literature. Also, a hypothetical problem with both vorticity and velocity boundary conditions is solved and compared with the analytical solution. The proposed model is then properly exploited to obtain the flow results of uniform flow passing a pair of vertical spheres in tandem and uniform flow passing a pair of horizontal spheres in tandem. Furthermore, the accuracy of the present numerical scheme is addressed and the detail flow characteristics, such as pressure distribution, streamline contour, velocity field, and vorticity fields are sketched.

Flow past a square cylinder at a Reynolds number of 21,400 has been studied numerically using the large-eddy simulation technique. A dynamic subgrid-scale stress model has been used for the small scales of turbulence. The time- and span-averaged axial and transverse velocities in the downstream of the cylinder are in good agreement with the experimental results. The distribution of turbulent normal and shear stresses is also well predicted. The coherent and incoherent components of turbulent fluctuations at some specified phases have been separated and their relative magnitudes downstream of the cylinder have been compared. The comparison shows more coherence in the near wake than the far wake, while the coherent and incoherent components are of comparable magnitude in the far wake. The far wake shows irregular phase-averaged structures.