Determining the location of buried plastic water pipes from measurements of ground surface vibration

‘Mapping the Underworld’ is a UK-based project, which aims to create a multi-sensor device that combines complementary technologies for remote buried utility service detection and location. One of the technologies to be incorporated in the device is low-frequency vibro-acoustics, and techniques for detecting buried infrastructure, in particular plastic water pipes, are being investigated. One of the proposed techniques involves excitation of the pipe at some known location with concurrent vibrational mapping of the ground surface in order to infer the location of the remainder of the pipe. In this paper, measurements made on a dedicated pipe rig are reported. Frequency response measurements relating vibrational velocity on the ground to the input excitation were acquired. Contour plots of the unwrapped phase revealed the location of the pipe to within 0.1-0.2 m. Magnitude contour plots revealed the excitation point and also the location of the pipe end. By examining the unwrapped phase gradients along a line above the pipe, it was possible to identify the wave-type within the pipe responsible for the ground surface vibration. Furthermore, changes in the ground surface phase speed computed using this method enabled the location of the end of the pipe to be confirmed.     

Using an inerter‐based device for structural vibration suppression

This paper proposes the use of a novel type of passive vibration control system to reduce vibrations in civil engineering structures subject to base excitation. The new system is based on the inerter, a device that was initially developed for high‐performance suspensions in Formula 1 racing cars. The principal advantage of the inerter is that a high level of vibration isolation can be achieved with low amounts of added mass. This feature makes it an attractive potential alternative to traditional tuned mass dampers (TMDs). In this paper, the inerter system is modelled inside a multi‐storey building and is located on braces between adjacent storeys. Numerical results show that an excellent level of vibration reduction is achieved, potentially offering improvement over TMDs. The inerter‐based system is compared to a TMD system by using a range of base excitation inputs, including an earthquake signal, to demonstrate how the performance could potentially be improved by using an inerter instead of a TMD. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seismic Response Control of Offshore Platform Structures with Shape Memory Alloy Dampers

In this study, the seismic response control of offshore platform structures with Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) dampers is investigated. A new SMA damper and its restoring force medel are introduced for the calculation of seismic response reduction. Based on an actual platform structure and its mechanical medel, the parameters which may affect the rate of shock absorption are analyzed, such as the number, position and characteristics of the SMA dampers and the condition of the site where the platform is located. The results show that the SMA damper is an effective control device for offshore platforms and satisfactory control can be achieved by proper selection of the parameters.     

Efficiency analysis of open trench for impact pile driving through a single-variable method

Abstract

The ground vibrations during pile driving operation have a drastic potential to undermine the surrounding structures both in land and reclaimed land. Particularly, reclaimed land necessitates ample application of pile driving due to the weak land condition. To prevent the structural damage, attenuation of the ground vibrations to an allowable level through active isolation of circular open trench is the scope of this study. In this research, finite element simulations of continuous impact pile driving process from the ground surface was executed with particular attention to the pile-soil interaction, and thereby, the efficiency of open trench application in attenuation of the unsafe distance of different structures was surveyed using the vibration sensitivity degree. Regarding the crucial parameters of an open trench (depth, width, and location), it was concluded that a sufficient high depth can attenuate the unsafe distance up to 68%, the trench width variations are less effective, and an average pile-trench distance is the most efficient option. The excavation volume was also concluded as another crucial parameter in open trench design which takes all three parameters into account. The trench depth equal to the pile’s maximum critical depth of vibration was inferred for an optimum design.     

海底管道管跨段在内外流体作用下的竖向动力特性研究

根据在复杂的海洋环境条件下,管道的动力特性受到内外流体的综合作用影响,呈现与陆地管道不同的特点。研究了结构受到外界流体所产生的涡激作用,同时考虑管内恒定流的影响,利用有限元方法对海底管道管跨段竖向振动的微分方程进行求解。在此基础上得出了管跨段在不同外流流速情况下,内流流速与结构动力响应幅值的关系及其对管跨段振动频率的影响,并进一步探讨了管跨失稳时的极限管内流速与跨长的关系,这些结论对于海底管道设计具有一定实际指导意义。     

均匀流场中并列圆柱涡激振动的现状与预测

并列圆柱体在均匀流场中的涡激振动十分复杂，但又广泛存在于实际工程之中。当两柱在流体激励作用下产生振动时，由于同时存在着流固耦合作用和柱间干扰作用，而使周围流场变得更加复杂。本文对并列刚性和弹性圆柱的流场分类，Ｓｔｒｏｕｈａｌ数及流体载荷等问题进行了综述，在此基础上提出了进一步研究的建议。     

Parametric vibration of submerged floating tunnel tether under random excitation

For the study of the parametric vibration response of submerged floating tunnel tether under random excitation,a nonlinear random parametric vibration equation of coupled tether and tube of submerged floating tunnel is set up.Subsequently,vibration response of tether in the tether-tube system is analyzed by Monte Carlo method.It may be concluded that when the tube is subjected to zero-mean Gaussian white noise random excitation,the displacement and velocity root mean square responses of tether reach the peak if the circular frequency of tube doubles that of tether;the displacement and velocity root mean square responses of tether increase as the random excitation root mean square increases;owing to the damping force of water,the displacement and velocity root mean square responses of tether decrease rapidly compared with tether in air;increasing the damping of the tether or tube reduces the displacement and velocity root mean square responses of tether;the large-amplitude vibration of tether may be avoided by locating dampers on the tether or tube.     

A new model for the vibration isolation via pile rows consisting of infinite number of piles

In this study, on the basis of the Floquet transform method, a numerical model for the simulation of the vibration isolation via multiple periodic pile rows with infinite number of piles is established. By means of the fictitious pile method due to Muki and Sternberg, the second kind of Fredholm integral equations for the pile rows are developed by using the fundamental solutions for the half‐space and the compatibility conditions between the piles and half‐space. Employing the Floquet transform method, integral equations for the pile rows in the wavenumber domain are then derived. Solution of the integral equations yields the wavenumber domain solution for the pile rows. The space domain solution can then be retrieved by inversion of the Floquet transform. Numerical results show that the proposed model with the Floquet transform method is in a good agreement with those of the conventional direct superposition method. On the basis of the new model, influences of the spacing between neighboring piles, the Young's modulus of the piles, and the pile length on the vibration isolation effect of the pile rows are investigated. Numerical simulations conducted in this study show that compared with the direct superposition method, the efficiency of the proposed model for simulation of the vibration isolation via pile rows is very high. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimum design and experimental study of multiple tuned mass dampers with limited stroke

This paper develops a two‐stage optimum design procedure for multiple tuned mass dampers (MTMD) to reduce structural dynamic responses with the limitation of MTMD's stroke. A new performance index, which is a linear combination of structural response ratio and MTMD stroke ratio by a weighting factor α, is proposed; α is in the range from 0 to 1.0. The larger the α, the more important the stroke. The case of α=1.0 indicates that MTMD is locked. The analytical results show that the MTMD's stroke can be significantly suppressed with little sacrifice of structural control effectiveness when an appropriate α is selected. To verify the design algorithm, a 360 kg‐MTMD composed of five TMD units arranged in parallel was fabricated. Shaking table tests of a large‐scale three‐story building with and without the MTMD under earthquake excitations were conducted at the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) in Taiwan. The experimental results show that MTMD is not only effective in mitigating the building responses but also is successful in suppressing its stroke. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Statistical diagnosis and gross error test for semiparametric linear model

This paper systematically studies the statistical diagnosis and hypothesis testing for the semiparametric linear regression model according to the theories and methods of the statistical diagnosis and hypothesis testing for parametric regression model. Several diagnostic measures and the methods for gross error testing are derived. Especially, the global and local influence analysis of the gross error on the parameter X and the nonparameter s are discussed in detail; at the same time, the paper proves that the data point deletion model is equivalent to the mean shift model for the semiparametric regression model. Finally, with one simulative computing example, some helpful conclusions are drawn.