Knowledge Acquisition in Civil Engineering
Expert systems are an intriguing approach for transferring valuable problem-solving skills from the minds of human experts to the logic of computer programs. For the past several years,...
Setting a National Research Agenda for the Civil Engineering Profession
Final Report
research...
Man and Huge System Interaction
In many cases of disaster, the causes of failure of huge systems are frequently attributed to human error. However human is liable to error. To exclude human factor from a huge system...
Identification of Critical Load Distributions for Wind Loading
For practical application as well as for sophisticated investigations, the time dependent stochastic wind process has to be simplified in terms of input data to the calculation. Usually,...
Optimal Distribution of Tuned Mass Dampers in Wind-Sensitive Structures
Modern high-rise buildings are susceptible to excessive accelerations at the upper floors in wind storms due to flexibility and low damping. In order to keep acceleration levels below...
Reliability of Bridges in Turbulent Wind
The present study investigates the stability of bridge motion by means of almost sure or sample stability criteria. An asymptotically exact approximation for the top Lyapunov exponent...
Wind Loads on Large Broadcasting Antennas: Records and Elaborations
Alternative estimations of the 50-year gust winds from the data available in typical Italian sites of broadcasting antennas are summarized and compared with the design winds suggested...
Minimum Lifetime Cost Design of Coastal Structures?A Proposal of Design Method for Rubble Sloping Breakwaters
The authors propose herein a rational design method for coastal structures with consideration for their repairs. The special characteristics of the proposal are that a certain extent of...
Autocorrelation Functions for Offshore Geotechnical Data
Autocorrelation functions are described. Data from several North Sea sites are analyzed with respect to the vertical and horizontal autocorrelation of a number of soil properties. Based...
Earthquake Clustering in the Kanto District
Earthquakes in the Kanto district (Japan) between January 1983 and March 1987 are analysed for the identification of independent main shocks and for the hierarchical clustering of secondary...
Examples of System Optimization and Reliability in Bridge Design
The objective of this paper is to present examples of system optimization and reliability in bridge inelastic design. The optimum solution is defined as the bridge of least weight, subject...
Some Insight in Autoregressive (AR) Spectral Modeling
The difficulties associated with the determination of reliable autoregressive (AR) approximations of the Pierson-Moskowitz and Davenport spectra are examined from the standpoint of developing...
A Comparison of Different Mathematical Models for the Spatial Correlation of Distributed Excitation Forces
This paper contains an investigation of the transverse vibrations of EULER-BERNOULLI beams under longitudinal tension and random space-time loading. Using GREEN's function...
Two Principles for Data Based Probabilistic System Analysis
A major problem in probabilistic system analysis is to find a self-consistent method of inference about probabilities based on a random sample of system state variables. Such a method...
Structural Safety and Satisfaction
The mathematical program of a cost extremum constrained by safety, functional and other statements is a comfortable image of design. In this paper the various components of this program...
Probability Based Bridge Safety Analysis
Traditional methods of quantifying safety of highway bridges have been associated with deterministic analysis. However, ascertaining the true measure of safety, or reliability, should...
Vibration Tests and Damage Detection of P/C Bridges
A three-span countryside P/C bridge has been found to have excessive deflections in two of the three spans. It is reported that the prestresses in tendons of two girders of different spans...
Advanced Reliability Methods for Probabilistic
The probabilistic methods employed in the NASA/SWRI probabilistic structural analysis program (PSAM) are summarized. An advanced reliability method capable of treating correlated non-normal...
The Nessus Software System for Probabilistic Structural Analysis
The Probabilistic Structural Analysis Methods (PSAM) project developed at SwRI integrates state-of-the-art structural analysis techniques with probability theory for the design and analysis...
Incremental Assembly Stage Concepts for Space Station Freedom: Structural Design and Verification
The design and development of the U.S./International Space Station Freedom poses extreme technical and management challenges to the NASA/industry team. A comprehensive system engineering...
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