Finite Strip Method in a Parallel Computing Environment
The finite strip method has been used to model many systems in structural mechanics. The orthogonality of appropriately selected shape functions allows a continuous system to be effectively...
Laboratory Study of Geogrid Reinforced Soil Walls
The paper describes the construction and testing of three (3) large-scale geogrid reinforced soil retaining wall models. The models were 3 m high and were built in the RMC Retaining Wall...
Controlled Yielding of the Lateral Boundaries of Soil Retaining Structures
Lateral expansion of conventional or reinforced soil backfills is necessary to establish and maintain the minimum lateral stresses on soil retaining structures. Laboratory studies are...
Coal Mine Subsidence and Structures
Underground coal mining has occurred beneath 32 multiplied by 10**9m**2 (8 million acres) of land in the United States and will eventually extend beneath 162 multiplied by 10**9m**2 (40...
Mining Subsidence Effects on Transportation Facilities
This paper presents case history information about mining subsidence effects on transportation facilities, including bridges, pavements, and culverts. Most of the field observations pertain...
Mechanisms of Subsidence Induced Damage and Techniques for Analysis
Structural damage due to mining induced subsidence is a function of the nature of the structure and its position on the subsidence profile. A point on the profile may be in the tensile...
Probabilistic Prediction of Pile Group Capacity
A reliability analysis of a group of free standing piles in clay is carried out using Monte Carlo simulation. The pile material strength, soil capacity, and the load on the pile group...
Load Combinations for Codified Design
Loading requirements used in current standards for structural design are not consistent in their conceptual basis, appearance or use. Unified limit states design procedures for structures...
Load-Sharing and Reliability of Wood Systems
A methodology for the study of reliability of light-frame wood structural systems is presented. Reliability levels associated with the bending strength limit state of such systems are...
Development of Bridge Design Code
Load and resistance parameters for bridges involve uncertainties due to natural randomness, imperfect models or human errors. Because of these uncertainties, absolute reliability is not...
Probabilistic Load Combinations in Nuclear Structures
A variety of loads affect a nuclear power facility during its lifetime. The magnitudes or intensities of these loads are uncertain, and for some of them, their time of occurrence is also...
A Reassessment of Codified Limit States Design
This paper examines the nature of design codes and their relation to engineering practice. It suggests that codes impose unjustifiable and, in the long term, destructive constraints on...
Application of Bayesian Methods to a Geotechnical Site Investigation in Mississippi
In 1981, the Army Corps of Engineers constructed an ammunition storage area at Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. This storage area is part of the Mississippi Army Ammunition Plant (MSAAP). Prior...
Probabilistic Prediction of Mixed Mode Fracture Initiation and Trajectory Under Random Stresses
Methods are developed for estimating crack trajectory and the probability of crack initiation in mixed mode fracture. The analysis is based on a computer program for deterministic fracture...
Dependence of Fatigue Damage on Loading Amplitude Variability
Welded steel specimens have been tested under variable amplitude loadings to determine the extent to which fatigue life is affected by the rate of amplitude variability of the loading...
Fracture Control for Arctic Vessels and Structures
Materials used for construction of Arctic structures and vessels are exposed to low ambient temperatures, high local ice loads and intermediate to high loading rates. All these factors...
Fracture Mechanics Fatigue Reliability Assessment Employing the Most Probable Point Locus Method
The statistical distribution of cycle life, N, could be easily constructed if N were an explicit function of the design factors. A simple strategy for constructing the distribution of...
Polyhedral Substitute Yield Conditions in Plastic Reliability Analysis
The method of invariant linear combinations of linearly associated lower bound safety margins is used for constructing upper bound approximations of the generalized reliability index with...
Methods to Estimate Parametric Sensitivity in Structural Reliability Analysis
Many different approaches are used in structural system reliability to estimate the probability of failure. In this paper, methods to obtain the sensitivity to the distribution parameters...
On the Evaluation of System Reliability Through Automatic Generation of Failure Modes
This paper proposes a method for the evaluation of structural failure probability taking into account all the potential failure modes. At first, the failure paths to produce failure modes...
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