Probabilistic analysis is a rational approach for engineering design because it provides more insight than traditional deterministic analysis. Probabilistic evaluation on seismic stability of three dimensional (3D) slopes is studied in this paper. The slope safety factor is computed by combining the kinematic approach of limit analysis using a three-dimensional rotational failure mechanism with the pseudo-dynamic approach. The variability of input parameters, including six pseudo-dynamic parameters and two soil shear strength parameters, are taken into account by means of Monte-Carlo Simulations (MCS) method. The influences of pseudo-dynamic input variables on the computed failure probabilities are investigated and discussed. It is shown that the obtained failure probabilities increase with the pseudo-dynamic input variables and the pseudo-dynamic approach gives more conservative failure probability estimates compared with the pseudo-static approach.

The nonlinear Baker failure criterion is introduced into the upper-bound limit analysis to examine the face stability of a shallow tunnel. The tunnel face under the ultimate limit state is analyzed from the perspective of energy balance. The work rates of external forces and internal energy dissipation are calculated. An analytical solution of necessary face pressures is derived. The optimal upper-bound solution of the face pressures is obtained by optimization. The results show that the three dimensionless parameters A, T, n of nonlinear Baker failure criterion have different effects on the necessary face pressures and the pattern failure mechanisms ahead of tunnel face. A is the most important one; n takes the second place, and T is the least one. The computed necessary face pressures are nonlinearly increasing when A is reduced. Combined with the actual monitoring data of Taxia tunnel, the calculation results in this paper is verified. It is suggested that the tunnel face supports should be strengthened timely in soft rocks to prevent the occurrence of face collapse.

A new horn failure mechanism was constructed for tunnel faces in the soft rock mass by means of the logarithmic spiral curve. The seismic action was incorporated into the horn failure mechanism using the pseudo-static method. Considering the randomness of rock mass parameters and loads, a three-dimensional (3D) stochastic collapse model was established. Reliability analysis of seismic stability of tunnel faces was presented via the kinematical approach and the response surface method. The results show that, the reliability of tunnel faces is significantly affected by the supporting pressure, geological strength index, uniaxial compressive strength, rock bulk density and seismic forces. It is worth noting that, if the effect of seismic force was not considered, the stability of tunnel faces would be obviously overestimated. However, the correlation between horizontal and vertical seismic forces can be ignored under the condition of low calculation accuracy.

Comparing with the homogeneous slope, the nonhomogeneous slope has more significance in practice. The main purpose of the present study is to provide a preliminary idea that how the nonhomogeneity influences the stability of slopes under four different water drawdown regimes. Two typical categories of nonhomogeneity, identified as layered profile and strength increasing with depth profile, are included in the paper, and a nonhomogeneity coefficient is defined to quantify the degree of soil properties nonhomogeneity. With a modified discretization technique, the safety factors of nonhomogeneous slopes are calculated. On this basis, the variation of safety factor with the nonhomogeneity coefficient of friction angle and the water table level are investigated. In the present example, safety factor correlates linearly with friction angle nonhomogeneity coefficient from a whole view and the influences of the water table level on safety factor is basically similar with that in homogeneous condition.

This paper is devoted to the probabilistic stability analysis of a tunnel face excavated in a two-layer soil. The interface of the soil layers is assumed to be positioned above the tunnel roof. In the framework of limit analysis, a rotational failure mechanism is adopted to describe the face failure considering different shear strength parameters in the two layers. The surrogate Kriging model is introduced to replace the actual performance function to perform a Monte Carlo simulation. An active learning function is used to train the Kriging model which can ensure an efficient tunnel face failure probability prediction without loss of accuracy. The deterministic stability analysis is given to validate the proposed tunnel face failure model. Subsequently, the number of initial sampling points, the correlation coefficient, the distribution type and the coefficient of variability of random variables are discussed to show their influences on the failure probability. The proposed approach is an advisable alternative for the tunnel face stability assessment and can provide guidance for tunnel design.

Reliable prediction of the potential collapse region of rock mass is a key challenge for deep underground cavity excavation, especially if a concealed karst cave is located above the excavated cavity. Because of the effect of the blast vibration, a possible collapse would occur at a certain region between the concealed karst cave and the excavated cavity. This paper aims to study the roof collapse of a deep buried cavity induced by a concealed karst cave base on a two-dimensional failure mechanism by using upper bound theorem. The failure mechanism is constituted by arbitrary curves which is similar to the collapse observed in an actual cavity excavation. The shape and range of the collapse block is determined by virtual work equation in conjunction with variational approach. The results obtained by the presented approach are approximate with the numerical results provided by finite difference code, which indicates that the proposed method in this work is valid.

A procedure of kinematic analysis is presented in this study to assess the reinforcement force of geosynthetics required under seismic loadings, particularly for steep slopes which are hardly able to maintain its stability. Note that curved sloping surfaces widely exist in natural slopes, but existing literatures were mainly focusing on a planar surface in theoretical derivation, due to complicated calculations. Moreover, the non-uniform soil properties cannot be accounted for in conventional upper bound analysis. Pseudo-dynamic approach is used to represent horizontal and vertical accelerations which vary with time and space. In an effort to resolve the above problems, the discretization technique is developed to generate a discretized failure mechanism, decomposing the whole failure block into various components. An elementary analysis permits calculations of rates of work done by external and internal forces. Finally, the upper bound solution of the required reinforcement force is formulated based on the work rate-based balance equation. A parametric study is carried out to give insights on the implication of influential factors on the performance of geosynthetic-reinforced steep slopes.

Soils are actually unsaturated in nature. In the present study, a stability analysis of a geosynthetic-reinforced slope in unsaturated soils subjected to various steady flow conditions is conducted based on limit analysis. Work rate by apparent cohesion due to matric suction is calculated based on the effective stress-based equation. Analytical expression of the required cohesion/stability number of slope is derived from the energy balance equation. An optimization code is programmed to capture the optimized solution of the stability number. Comparison is made to verify the present work and a parametric analysis is conducted to investigate the effects of soil type, infilitration rate, reinforcement strength and soil suction on slope stability afterwards. A set of numerical solutions is presented at the end of the paper for preliminary design purposes.

A stability analysis approach of tunnel face considering a longitudinally inclined tunnel angle and anisotropic purely cohesive soils based on a continuous velocity field (CVF) is investigated in this study. Based on the kinematic approach of limit analysis and the discretization technique, an improved three-dimensional CVF model for longitudinally inclined tunnels driven by pressurized shields is proposed. With the proposed model, the critical support pressure acted on tunnel face is determined by the work-balance equation. A serial of finite element numerical models are conducted to validate the proposed model. Finally, the effects of tunnel inclination angles, several dimensionless parameters as well as soil anisotropy on the critical support pressure are investigated. The numerical results show that the effects of the soil anisotropy and the tunnel inclination angle on tunnel faces should be considered in the actual design of tunneling engineering.

In the framework of upper bound theorem of limit analysis, the progressive collapse of shallow rectangular tunnels with double-layer rock mass has been theoretically analyzed based on the three-dimensional (3D) velocity discontinuity surfaces. According to the virtual work principle, the difference theorem and the variation method, the collapse surface of double-layer rock mass is determined based on the Hoek-Brown failure criterion. The formula can be degenerated to a single-layer rock collapsing problem when the rock mass is homogeneous. To estimate the validity of the result, the numerical simulation software PLAXIS 3D is used to simulate the collapse of shallow tunnels with double-layer rock mass, and the comparative analysis shows that numerical results are in good agreement with upper-bound solutions. According to the results of parametric analysis, the potential range of collapse of a double-layer rock mass above a shallow cavity decreases with a decrease in A₁/A₂, σ_ci1/σ_ci2 and σ_tm1/σ_tm2 and an increase in B₁/B₂, γ₁/γ₂. The range will decrease with a decrease in support pressure q and increase with a decrease in surface overload σ;_s. Therefore, reinforced supporting is beneficial to improve the stability of the cavity during actual construction.

Uniaxial or triaxial compression test of cylindrical rock specimens using rock mechanics testing machine is a basic experimental method to study the strength and deformation characteristics of rock and the development process of rock fracture. Extensive literature review has been conducted on this issue; meanwhile, experimental and numerical studies have been conducted on the stress-drop effect on the brittleness of rock materials. A plastic flow factor of λ is proposed to describe the stress-drop effect. Evaluation methods of the factor λ corresponding to the four yield criteria of rock mass are proposed. Those four yield criteria are Tresca criterion, von-Mises criterion, Mohr-Coulomb criterion and Drucker-Prager criterion. For simplicity purposes, an engineering approximation approach has been proposed to evaluate the stress-drop with a non-zero strain increment. Numerical simulation results validated the effectiveness of the plastic flow factors λ as well as the engineering approximation approach. Based on the results in this study, finite element code can be programmed for brittle materials with stress-drop, which has the potential to be readily incorporated in finite element codes.

To explore the influence of karst cavity pressure on the failure mechanisms of rock layers above water-filled caves, novel blow-out and collapse mechanisms are put forward in this study. The proposed method uses the nonlinear optimization to obtain the failure profiles of surrounding layered rock with water-filled cave at the bottom of the tunnel. By referring to the functional catastrophe theory, stability analysis with different properties in different rock layers is implemented with considering the incorporation of seepage forces since the groundwater cannot be ignored in the catastrophe analysis of deep tunnel bottom. Also the parametric analysis is implemented to discuss the influences of different rock strength factors on the failure profiles. In order to offer a good guide of design for the excavation of deep tunnels above the water-filled caves, the proposed method is applied to design of the minimum effective height for rock layer. The results obtained by this work agree well with the existing published ones.

Nested Newmark model(NNM) is a conceptual framework to assessing post-earthquake movements including dispersed shear movements. The original NNM omits that the tensile stresses would be encountered in slopes induced by earthquakes. The purpose of this study is to introduce the tensile strength cut-off and the relevant failure mechanism into NNM and conduct the limit analysis to determine the seismic displacement. Parametric studies are carried out to further investigate the influence of the tensile strength and input ground motions on permanent displacement. Neglecting the tensile strength can underestimate the permanent displacements of slopes. As the peak acceleration increases, the underestimation becomes more significant. With the reduction of tensile strength, much larger deformation occurs next to the slope crest. Although the present results are limited to an example, the method is of value in practice to predict the post-earthquake profile of slope.

The large scale development of high natural gamma sandstones has been discovered in the Chang 7₃ Submember of the Triassic Yanchang Formation in the Ordos Basin, China. High natural gamma sandstones consist of terrigenous detrital rocks with particle sizes ranging from silt to sand. They represent turbidite deposits characterized by high gamma ray values that are more than 180 American Petroleum Institute (API) units on a natural gamma ray log profile. For a long time, very high natural gamma sandstones had been identified as high-quality source rocks, such as oil shales, from conventional well log profiles, such as natural gamma ray well logs. Therefore, predicting the distribution of high natural gamma sandstones was studied. The sedimentary, lithological, and well log characteristics, as well as the genesis of the high radioactivity of high natural gamma sandstones were analyzed in the Chang 7₃ Submember. Thorium (Th), uranium (U) and other radioactive elements were found, carried by deep hydrothermal activity, and probably resulted in the formation of a relatively high radioactive zone in the cross-section, where high natural gamma sandstones usually develop in large quantities. This caused many turbidite sand bodies, which should have a continuous distribution in the cross-section, to appear to have a discontinuous distribution, when using conventional well log profiles, such as natural gamma ray well logs. From the above mentioned apparent discontinuous distribution of turbidite sand bodies in the cross-section, a continuous distribution can be predicted. It is obvious that the prediction of areas of continuous turbidite sand bodies in the cross-section usually corresponds with areas where high natural gamma sandstones are developed in large quantities. Exploration and development practice demonstrated that the developed method is fast and effective in predicting high natural gamma sandstones in the Chang 7₃ Submember.

A new method is proposed for slope optimization design based on the limit curve method, where the slope is in the limit equilibrium state when the limit slope curve determined by the slip-line field theory and the slope intersect at the toe of the slope. Compared with the strength reduction (SR) method, finite element limit analysis method, and the SR method based on Davis algorithm, the new method is suitable for determining the slope stability and limit slope angle (LSA). The optimal slope shape is determined based on a series of slope heights and LSA values, which increases the LSA by 2.45°–11.14° and reduces an invalid overburden amount of rocks by 9.15%, compared with the space mechanics theory. The proposed method gives the objective quantification index of instability criterion, and results in a significant engineering economy.

A new clay-cement composite grouting material (CCGM) for tunnelling in underwater karst area was developed through the excellent synergistic interactions among cement, clay, meta-aluminate and lignin. The probable formation mechanism of the material was proposed based on a series of experimental tests. The results show that with an optimal mass ratio (2:1:1:0.024) for water, cement, clay and additives, the obtained CCGM displayed an excellent grouting performance for karst in an underwater condition. Compared with neat cement grouts and clay-cement grouts, CCGM has faster gel time, lower bleeding rate and bulk shrinkage rate, greater initial viscosity, and a strong resistance to water dispersion. A successful engineering application indicates that CCGM not only fulfils a better grouting performance for karst in underwater conditions but also reduces the engineering cost and environmental pollution.

This study aims to develop a framework based on the Nadal formula to assess train derailment risk. Monte Carlo simulation was adopted to develop 10000 sets of random parameters to assess train derailment risk subject to the curvature radius of the track, the difference between the flange angle and the equivalent conicity, and accelerations from 250 to 989.22 gal during horizontal earthquake. The results indicated that railway in Taiwan, China has no derailment risk under normal conditions. However, when earthquakes occur, the derailment risk increases with the unloading factor which is caused by seismic force. The results also show that equivalent conicity increases derailment risk; as a result, equivalent conicity should be listed as one of maintenance priorities. In addition, among all train derailment factors, flange angle, equivalent conicity and unload factors are the most significant ones.

This study presents analysis, control and comparison of three hybrid approaches for the direct torque control (DTC) of the dual star induction motor (DSIM) drive. Its objective consists of combining three different heuristic optimization techniques including PID-PSO, Fuzzy-PSO and GA-PSO to improve the DSIM speed controlled loop behavior. The GA and PSO algorithms are developed and implemented into MATLAB. As a result, fuzzy-PSO is the most appropriate scheme. The main performance of fuzzy-PSO is reducing high torque ripples, improving rise time and avoiding disturbances that affect the drive performance.

Since distribution sector is inherent into high amount of failures, distribution companies (DISCOs) are responsible of attaining an acceptable value for the reliability indices and otherwise they will face up to complaints. So they are usually obligated by regulators to invest on reliability improvement of network. But this investment on reliability is usually from the DISCO’s viewpoint and is also irrespective of customer satisfaction level. In other words, customers are not at the same level of sensitivity to interruptions but DISCO improves the reliability of network without considering the differences in importance degree of loads and their level of reliability requirement. On the other hand DISCOs attempt to reduce their investment costs as much as possible. This paper introduces a novel approach in the field of joint switch placement that can reduce the switch cost from the perspective of asset management policies. To this end, two switch placement plannings in different types of strategies are performed to compare their results. Firstly as witch placement is performed based on reducing the total energy not supplied (ENS) of the system. Then by revising the strategy, a fuzzy switch placement is performed from the DISCO’s point of view which just considers the total ENS of load points most sensitive to interruptions known as important or critical loads. Furthermore, by meeting the related constraints, the reliability of low sensitive customers is disregarded. This is a load importance based planning which can result in switch cost reduction relative to the amount achieved in previous strategy and implies the management of risks associated with reliability and respective constraint. Fuzzy method and new switching mechanism in fuzzy environment of network are implemented to modeling and controlling the risks associated to ENS of critical loads and also the ENS of system.

In the early fault period of high-speed train systems, the interested characteristic signals are relatively weak and easily submerged in heavy noise. In order to solve this problem, a state-transition-algorithm (STA)-based adaptive stochastic resonance (SR) method is proposed, which provides an alternative solution to the problem that the traditional SR has fixed parameters or optimizes only a single parameter and ignores the interaction between parameters. To be specific, the frequency-shifted and re-scaling are firstly used to pre-process an actual large signal to meet the requirement of the adiabatic approximate small parameter. And then, the signal-to-noise ratio is used as the optimization target, and the STA-based adaptive SR is used to synchronously optimize the system parameters. Finally, the optimal extraction and frequency recovery of a weak characteristic signal from a broken rotor bar fault are realized. The proposed method is compared with the existing methods by the early broken rotor bar experiments of traction motor. Experiment results show that the proposed method is better than the other methods in extracting weak signals, and the validity of this method is verified.

for a class of linear discrete-time systems that is subject to randomly occurred networked packet loss in industrial cyber physical systems, a novel robust model predictive control method with active compensation mechanism was proposed. The probability distribution of packet loss is described as the Bernoulli distributed white sequences. By using the Lyapunov stability theory, the existing sufficient conditions of the controller are derived from solving a group of linear matrix inequalities. Moreover, dropout-rate with uncertainty and unknown dropout-rate are also considered, which can greatly reduce the conservativeness of the controller. The designed robust model predictive control method not only efficiently eliminates the negative effects of the networked data loss in industrial cyber physical systems but also ensures the stability of closed-loop system. Two examples were provided to illustrate the superiority and effectiveness of the proposed method.

The performance of cutting machines in terms of energy consumption and vibration directly affects the production costs. In this work, our aim was to evaluate the performance of cutting machines using hybrid intelligent models. For this purpose, a systematic experimental work was performed. A database of the carbonate and granite rocks was established, in which the physical and mechanical properties of these rocks (i.e., UCS, elastic modulus, Mohs hardness, and Schmiazek abrasivity factor) and the operational parameters (i.e., depth of cut and feed rate) were considered as the input parameters. The predictive models were developed incorporating a combination of the multi-layered perceptron artificial neural networks and genetic algorithm (GANN-BP) and the support vector regression method and Cuckoo optimization algorithm (COA-SVR). The results obtained indicated that the performance of the developed GANN-BP and COA-SVR models was close to each other and that these models had good agreements with the measured values. These results also showed that these proposed models were suitable tools in evaluating the performance of cutting machines.

Corrugated steel web is folded along the longitudinal direction and has the mechanical properties such as axial compression stiffness corrugation effect, shear modulus corrugation effect, similar to that of an accordion. In order to study the lateral-torsional buckling of box beams with corrugated steel webs (BBCSW) under the action of bending moment load, the neutral equilibrium equation of BBCSW under the action of bending moment load is derived through the stationary value theory of total potential energy and further, along with taking Kollbrunner-Hajdin correction method and the mechanical properties of the corrugated web into consideration. The analytical calculation formula of lateral-torsional buckling critical bending moment of BBCSW is then obtained. The lateral-torsional buckling critical bending moment of 96 BBCSW test specimens with different geometry dimensions are then calculated using both the analytical calculation method and ANSYS finite element method. The results show that the analytical calculation results agree well with the numerical calculation results using ANSYS, thus proving the accuracy of the analytical calculation method and model simplification hypothesis proposed in this paper. Also, compared with the box beams with flat steel webs (BBFSW) with the same geometry dimensions as BBCSW, within the common range of web space-depth ratio and web span-depth ratio, BBCSW’s lateral-torsional buckling critical bending moment is larger than that of BBFSW. Moreover, the advantages of BBCSW’s stability are even more significant with the increase of web space-depth ratio and web depth-thickness ratio.

There have been a great demand for a suitable and convenient method in the field of buckling analysis of stiffened ship structures, which is essential to structural safety assessment and is significantly time-consuming. Modeling, buckling behaviors and ultimate strength prediction of stiffened panels were investigated. The modeling specification including nonlinear finite element model and imperfections generation, and post-buckling analysis procedure of stiffened plates were demonstrated. And a software tool using set-based finite element method was developed and executed in the MSC. Marc environment. Different types of stiffen panels of marine structures have been employed to investigate the buckling behavior and assess the validity in the estimation of ultimate strength. A comparison between results of the generally accepted methods, experiments and the software tool developed was demonstrated. It is shown that the software tool can predict the ultimate capacity of stiffened panels with imperfections with a good accuracy.

In this study, the laminar heat transfer and nanofluid flow between two porous horizontal concentric cylinders was investigated. The problem is investigated in two different geometries and the Re=10, 25, 50, 75, 100 and volume fraction 0, 0.2%, 0.5%, 2% and 5% that related to copper nanoparticles, and porous medium porosity of 0.5 and 0.9. Compared to the first geometry, the convective coefficient in the second geometry increases by 8.3%, 7% and 5.5% at Reynolds numbers of 100, 75 and 50, respectively. Comparison of the outlet temperatures for two heat fluxes of 300 and 1200 W/m² indicates a 2.5% temperature growth by a fourfold increase in the heat fluxes. Also, the higher Nusselt number is associated with the second geometry occurring at porosities of 0.9 and 0.5, respectively. In both geometries, the Nusselt number values at the porosity of 0.9 are higher, which is due to the increased nanofluid convection at higher porosities. The velocity of the nanofluid experiences a two-fold increase at the outlet compared to its inlet velocity in the first geometry and for both porosities. Similarly, a three-fold increase was achieved in the second geometry and for both porosities.

In industrial applications involving metal and polymer sheets, the flow situation is strongly unsteady and the sheet temperature is a mixture of prescribed surface temperature and heat flux. Further, a proper choice of cooling liquid is also an important component of the analysis to achieve better outputs. In this paper, we numerically investigate Darcy-Forchheimer nanoliquid flows past an unsteady stretching surface by incorporating various effects, such as the Brownian and thermophoresis effects, Navier’s slip condition and convective thermal boundary conditions. To solve the governing equations, using suitable similarity transformations, the nonlinear ordinary differential equations are derived and the resulting coupled momentum and energy equations are numerically solved using the spectral relaxation method. Through the systematically numerical investigation, the important physical parameters of the present model are analyzed. We find that the presence of unsteadiness parameter has significant effects on velocity, temperature, concentration fields, the associated heat and mass transport rates. Also, an increase in inertia coefficient and porosity parameter causes an increase in the velocity at the boundary.

Ag/ZnO nanosheet composites were prepared by zinc nitrate, sodium hydroxide and silver nitrate via a simple hydrothermal method. The crystal structure, morphology, optical property and photocatalytic performance were studied by means of XRD, SEM, HRTEM, XPS, and PL methods. It is found that both the pure ZnO and composite Ag/ZnO samples have the same morphology of nanosheet. The interaction of spherical Ag particles with ZnO matrix in the Ag/ZnO sample leads to an increase in photocatalytic efficiency for the possible increase of concentration of surface hydroxyl and the photo-induced electrons and holes. The addition of Ag can reduce the recombination rate of photo-generated carriers and the sample with addition of 3 at% Ag to ZnO exhibits the best photocatalytic activity with the degradation rate up to 95% within 15 min.