Special Issues
Table of Content

Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Structural Safety and Disaster Mitigation

Submission Deadline: 30 November 2019 (closed) View: 160

Guest Editors

Professor Xiaodan Ren, Tongji University, China
Dr. Tiancan Huang, Guangzhou University, China

Summary

Natural disasters including earthquake, hurricane, tsunami, flood and wildfire, cause enormous loss of lives and properties for human society every year. The structures and infra-structures are built to protect the mankind from natural disasters, but their damage and failure sometimes become part of the disasters. Therefore, the structural safety and disaster mitigation have become timely research topics for safeguarding our society. On the other hand, with the rapid developments of computer facilities and computational methods, modern researchers and engineers are well equipped. With the help of numerical modelling and simulation tools, the structures could be analyzed with the consideration of more realistic situations and designed in more reliable approaches. Furthermore, more and more innovative numerical methods are developed to meet the demands of better investigation and understanding for the nonlinear behaviors of structures subjected to the attacks of disasters. Those who have been working on in the related fields are cordially invited to submit their works to this special issue.

Potential topics include but are not limited to: 

1. Numerical modeling methods for structures
2. Advanced simulation methods for structural failure
3. Constitutive modeling of material damage and failure
4. Simulation of complex structural behaviors subjected to attacks of disaster events
5. Multiscale disaster simulation
6. Multi-hazard simulation
7. Numerical algorithm implementation and simulation software development
8. Structural reliability analysis and simulation
9. Data-driven modeling for structural behaviors
10. AI-based methods for disaster mitigation


Keywords

Numerical methods; structural safety; disaster mitigation; failure simulation; damage modeling; dynamic behavior; multi-scale methods

Published Papers


  • Open Access

    EDITORIAL

    Introduction to the Special Issue Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Structural Safety and Disaster Mitigation

    Xiaodan Ren, Tiancan Huang
    CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.124, No.2, pp. 411-413, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2020.012603
    (This article belongs to the Special Issue: Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Structural Safety and Disaster Mitigation)
    Abstract This article has no abstract. More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Improving the Seismic Performance of Staircases in Building Structures with a Novel Isolator

    Yafei Zhang, Ping Tan, Haitao Ma, Marco Donà
    CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.124, No.2, pp. 415-431, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2020.09054
    (This article belongs to the Special Issue: Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Structural Safety and Disaster Mitigation)
    Abstract A staircase provides the main escape way from a building in an emergency. Unfortunately, it may suffer severe damages or even collapse during an earthquake. For improving the seismic performance of staircases, this paper proposes an innovative staircase isolator with the features of lightweight, costeffective and ease of construction and replacement, which is formed by suitable engineering plastic shims between rubber layers. A connection construction scheme is also proposed for the isolated staircase. Systematic performance tests have been carried out to characterize the isolator in terms of mechanic behavior and ultimate states. The test results… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Scour Effect on Dynamic Characteristics and Responses of Offshore Wind Turbines

    Dongyue Tang, Ming Zhao
    CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.124, No.2, pp. 433-457, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2020.09268
    (This article belongs to the Special Issue: Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Structural Safety and Disaster Mitigation)
    Abstract The monopile foundation is the main form of offshore wind turbine foundation, and its surrounding scouring pit will reduce the constraints of the soil on the piles, which makes wind turbine foundation instability a key issue affecting the structural safety of offshore wind turbines. In previous studies, the rotating rotor and control system are neglected when studying the influence of scour on the offshore wind turbine structure. In this paper, the numerical model of the blade-tower-monopile integrated offshore wind turbine is established, and the influence of scour on the dynamic characteristics of wind turbine is More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    A Statistical Model for Phase Difference Spectrum of Ground-Motion and Its Application in Generating Non-Stationary Seismic Waves

    Dongsheng Du, Sheng Shi, Weizhi Xu, Chen Kong, Shuguang Wang, Weiwei Li
    CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.124, No.1, pp. 265-285, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2020.09151
    (This article belongs to the Special Issue: Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Structural Safety and Disaster Mitigation)
    Abstract The intensity non-stationarity is one of the most important features of earthquake records. Modeling of this feature is significant to the generation of arti- ficial earthquake waves. Based on the theory of phase difference spectrum, an intensity non-stationary envelope function with log-normal form is proposed. Through a tremendous amount of earthquake records downloaded on Kik-net, a parameter fitting procedure using the genetic algorithm is conducted to obtain the value of model parameters under different magnitudes, epicenter distances and site conditions. A numerical example is presented to describe the procedure of generating fully non-stationary ground motions More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Analysis of the Quasi-Static Buffeting Responses of Transmission Lines to Moving Downburst

    Qigang Sun, Jian Wu, Dahai Wang, Yue Xiang, Haitao Liu, Xiaobin Sun
    CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.124, No.1, pp. 287-302, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2020.09118
    (This article belongs to the Special Issue: Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Structural Safety and Disaster Mitigation)
    Abstract Downburst event is identified as a major cause to failure of transmission lines in non-coastal regions. In this paper, a novel nonlinear analytical frame for quasi-static buffeting responses of hinged and multi-span insulator-line systems are derived based on the theory of cable structure. The closed-form solutions are presented and applied to predict nonlinear response including displacements and other reactions of the system subjected to a moving downburst wind in a case study. Accuracy and efficiency of the derived analytical frame are validated via comparisons with results from finite element method. More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Comparative Investigation of Two Random Medium Models for Concrete Mesostructure

    Shixue Liang, Zhongshu Xie, Tiancan Huang
    CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.123, No.3, pp. 1079-1103, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2020.09200
    (This article belongs to the Special Issue: Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Structural Safety and Disaster Mitigation)
    Abstract Concrete is intrinsically endowed with randomness on meso-scale due to the random distribution of aggregates, mortar, etc. In this paper, two random medium models of concrete mesostructure are developed and comparative studies are provided based on random field representation approach. In the first place, concrete is considered as a kind of one-phase random field, where stochastic harmonic function is adopted as the approach to simulate the random field. Secondly, in order to represent the stochastic distribution of the multi-phase of concrete such as aggregates and mortar, two-phase random field based on the Nataf transformation and More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Safety Performance of a Precast Concrete Barrier: Numerical Study

    Zishen Li, Xiangling Gao, Zicheng Tang
    CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.123, No.3, pp. 1105-1129, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2020.09047
    (This article belongs to the Special Issue: Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Structural Safety and Disaster Mitigation)
    Abstract The numerical simulation for a new type of precast concrete barrier for viaducts is carried out systematically. To obtain an accurate representation of the damage state of the concrete barrier under the impact of a vehicle, a stochastic damage-plasticity model of the concrete is adopted in the finite element model. Meanwhile, a simplified mathematical model of the impact between vehicles and the concrete barrier was established and the input energy was converted to the impact load to facilitate the investigation of the safety performance of the concrete barriers. On this basis, a refined finite element More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Comparison between the Seismic Performance of Buried Pipes and Pipes in a Utility Tunnel

    Wei Liu, Qianxiang Wu
    CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.123, No.2, pp. 661-690, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2020.07764
    (This article belongs to the Special Issue: Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Structural Safety and Disaster Mitigation)
    Abstract A utility tunnel system consists of pipes and ancillary facilities. In this paper, a finite element model of a concrete utility tunnel with pipes inside is established. Several tunnel segments were built to simulate a real utility tunnel, while the pipe was fixed by springs on the brackets in the utility tunnel. Using the discrete soil spring element to simulate the soil-structure interaction, actual earthquake records were adopted as excitation to analyze the seismic responses of pipes in a utility tunnel. Moreover, the influences of different parameters, including soil type, earthquake records, and field apparent More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Collapse Simulation and Response Assessment of a Large Cooling Tower Subjected to Strong Earthquake Ground Motions

    Tiancan Huang, Hao Zhou, Hamid Beiraghi
    CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.123, No.2, pp. 691-715, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2020.09046
    (This article belongs to the Special Issue: Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Structural Safety and Disaster Mitigation)
    Abstract Large cooling towers in thermal power plants and nuclear power plants are likely to suffer from strong earthquakes during service periods. The resulting destructions of the cooling towers would endanger the power plants and threaten the security of the related areas. It is important to use effective means to evaluate the safety status of the cooling towers and guide further precautions as well as retrofitting efforts. This paper is therefore focused on an elaborate numerical investigation to the earthquake-induced collapses of a large cooling tower structure. A complete numerical work for simulation of material failure,… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Identification of the Discrete Element Model Parameters for Rock-Like Brittle Materials

    Rui Chen, Yong Wang, Ruitao Peng, Shengqiang Jiang, Congfang Hu, Ziheng Zhao
    CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.123, No.2, pp. 717-737, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2020.07438
    (This article belongs to the Special Issue: Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Structural Safety and Disaster Mitigation)
    Abstract An inverse method for parameters identification of discrete element model combined with experiment is proposed. The inverse problem of parameter identification is transmitted to solve an optimization problem by minimizing the distance between the numerical calculations and experiment responses. In this method, the discrete element method is employed as numerical calculator for the forward problem. Then, the orthogonal experiment design with range analysis was used to carry out parameters sensitivity analysis. In addition, to improve the computational efficiency, the approximate model technique is used to replace the actual computational model. The intergeneration projection genetic algorithm More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Seismic Analysis of the Connections of Buried Segmented Pipes

    Wei Liu, Zhaoyang Song, Yunchang Wang
    CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.123, No.1, pp. 257-282, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2020.07220
    (This article belongs to the Special Issue: Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Structural Safety and Disaster Mitigation)
    Abstract Seismic analysis of buried pipes has been one study focus during the last decades, but the systematic seismic research of pipe connections, especially its relationship with the connected straight pipe, is nearly blank. On the basis, the influence of pipe connections on the joint deformations (JDs) of buried segmented pipes is analyzed in detail by considering different parameters, namely, connection shapes, ground conditions, pipe diameters, branch angles, seismic incident angles, and input ground motions. Moreover, an influence coefficient, which measures the influence of pipe connections on pipe JDs, is calculated. Results show that pipe connections More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Experimental and Numerical Investigation on the Tensile Fracture of Compacted Clay

    Chengbao Hu, Liang Wang, Daosheng Ling, Wujun Cai, Zhijie Huang, Shilin Gong
    CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.123, No.1, pp. 283-307, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2020.07842
    (This article belongs to the Special Issue: Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Structural Safety and Disaster Mitigation)
    Abstract This paper performed flexural test and numerical simulation of clay-beams with different water contents to study the tensile fracture of clay soil and the relevant mechanisms. The crack initiation and propagation process and the accompanied strain localization behaviors were all clearly observed and analyzed. The exponential cohesive zone model was proposed to simulate the crack interface behavior of the cohesivefrictional materials. The experimental results show that the bending capacity of claybeams decrease with the water content, while those of the crack mouth opening displacement, crack-tip strain and the strain localization range increase. The numerical predictions More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    A Comprehensive Model for Structural Non-Probabilistic Reliability and the Key Algorithms

    Wencai Sun, Zichun Yang
    CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.123, No.1, pp. 309-332, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2020.08386
    (This article belongs to the Special Issue: Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Structural Safety and Disaster Mitigation)
    Abstract It is very difficult to know the exact boundaries of the variable domain for problems with small sample size, and the traditional convex set model is no longer applicable. In view of this, a novel reliability model was proposed on the basis of the fuzzy convex set (FCS) model. This new reliability model can account for different relations between the structural failure region and variable domain. Key computational algorithms were studied in detail. First, the optimization strategy for robust reliability is improved. Second, Monte Carlo algorithms (i.e., uniform sampling method) for hyper-ellipsoidal convex sets were More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Analysis of Naval Ship Evacuation Using Stochastic Simulation Models and Experimental Data Sets

    Roberto Bellas, Javier Martínez, Ignacio Rivera, Ramón Touza, Miguel Gómez, Rafael Carreño
    CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.122, No.3, pp. 971-995, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2020.07530
    (This article belongs to the Special Issue: Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Structural Safety and Disaster Mitigation)
    Abstract The study of emergency evacuation in public spaces, buildings and large ships may present parallel characteristic in terms of complexity of the layout but there are also significant differences that can hindering passengers to reach muster stations or the lifeboats. There are many hazards on a ship that can cause an emergency evacuation, the most severe result in loss of lives. Providing safe and effective evacuation of passengers from ships in an emergency situation becomes critical. Recently, computer simulation has become an indispensable technology in various fields, among them, the evacuation models that recently evolved… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Multi-Scale Damage Model for Quasi-Brittle Composite Materials

    Decheng Feng
    CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.122, No.3, pp. 997-1014, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2020.07265
    (This article belongs to the Special Issue: Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Structural Safety and Disaster Mitigation)
    Abstract In the present paper, a hierarchical multi-scale method is developed for the nonlinear analysis of composite materials undergoing heterogeneity and damage. Starting from the homogenization theory, the energy equivalence between scales is developed. Then accompanied with the energy based damage model, the multi-scale damage evolutions are resolved by homogenizing the energy scalar over the meso-cell. The macroscopic behaviors described by the multi-scale damage evolutions represent the mesoscopic heterogeneity and damage of the composites. A rather simple structure made from particle reinforced composite materials is developed as a numerical example. The agreement between the fullscale simulating More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    An Equivalent Strain Based Multi-Scale Damage Model of Concrete

    Shixue Liang, Hankun Liu
    CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.122, No.3, pp. 1015-1038, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2020.07799
    (This article belongs to the Special Issue: Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Structural Safety and Disaster Mitigation)
    Abstract A multi-scale damage model of concrete is proposed based on the concept of energy equivalent strain for generic two- or three-dimensional applications. Continuum damage mechanics serves as the framework to describe the basic damage variables, namely the tensile and compressive damage. The homogenized Helmholtz free energy is introduced as the bridge to link the micro-cell and macroscopic material. The crack propagation in micro-cells is modeled, and the Helmholtz free energy in the cracked micro-structure is calculated and employed to extract the damage evolution functions in the macroscopic material. Based on the damage energy release rates More >

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