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Abstract In this paper, using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Finite Element Method (FEM), health monitoring of damaged cantilever beams having longitudinal cracks is discussed. The main focus is devoted to the nonlinear behavior (breathing) of crack, which, to our knowledge, is taken into account in the crack detection of structures using ANNs, for the first time. Thus nonlinear behavior of crack is modeled using FEM.The changes in the natural frequencies (due to crack) of various vibration modes were implemented as input for training and testing of ANNs. By producing various scenarios for sound and damaged beams (with different damage location and severity), two specific classes of ANNs were trained to predict the location and length of longitudinal cracks. The Results showed a promising prediction for the length of cracks by the proposed methodology. Also a considerable approximation observed in the prediction of cracks location.

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Sensible vibration of steel beams in long spans is undesirable issue in the buildings. These beams may be vibrated during people passage, although the strength calculations of this beams to be performed, accurately and drift control index based on buildings codes to be considered. Iranian Steel Buildings Code has offered a formula for controlling of vibration of beams in building frames with pin connections in serviceability phase. However, this code has not presented criteria for beams include fixed connections. Since these beams have the considerable portion of building frames, their vibration control needs special attentions. The presented equations for determination of beams frequency are complicated and have been not used for control of buildings floor vibration. In this paper, the mentioned formula in forenamed codes has been discussed. The dynamic analysis, finite element method (FEM) and artificial neural networks (ANN) techniques have been adopted to constitute the frequency equations of the fix ends and cantilever steel beams. Comparison of resulted frequency from presented equations and ANN showed that the error is low. Furthermore, it is suggested that use proposed equations for determination of frequency of moment connection beams.

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In this research, initiation and propagation of delamination are investigated using finite element analysis and existing theories for isotropic and composite double cantilever beam (DCB) specimens. These theories work based on the well-known traction-separation laws such as linear, bilinear and exponential laws. In addition, the effects of cohesive zone parameters, i.e., critical strain energy release rate and maximum interfacial stress, transverse shear deformations and fiber bridging law are studied. The results show that the introduced theories and finite element analysis based on bilinear cohesive law are not capable to predict initiation and propagation of delamination in unidirectional composite specimen with fiber bridging effect and neglecting this region in CZM cause significant error in prediction of delamination growth. For this purpose, bilinear CZM considering bridging law is modified and implemented in 3D finite element analysis. Comparing numerical results with available experimental data in the literature shows that finite element models based on modified CZM can predict initiation of delamination as well as propagation accurately.

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When the cantilever beam thickness is scaled down to micron, the dimension of material and the intrinsic length scale affect the mechanical behavior of the beam. The purpose of this paper is analyzing the bending of cantilever micro-beam and presenting an exact relation for the beam deflection using Chen-Wang gradient plasticity theory. To this end, the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory is utilized to model a micro-beam and three cases including elastic, rigid-plastic and elasto-plastic beams are considered. Clear relations for elastic and plastic strains are given. For all mentioned cases, the beam deflection is determined for different intrinsic lengths and the obtained results are compared with each other and the data obtained from experimental tests and some explanations are presented. The results obtained from classical theory are also shown in the results section to prove that classical theories don’t have the capability to predict behavior of micron-size structures precisely. Numerical results clarify the dependence of responses to the range of dimensions and intrinsic lengths. The comparison between present results and those observed from experimental tests authenticate the reliability of utilized gradient theory.

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The unidirectional composite DCB specimen is considered as two finite length Timoshenko beams, attached together along a common edge except at the initial delamination length. Because of symmetry, only one half of the specimen is considered, which is partly free and partly resting on an elastic foundation. The problem is analytically solved by considering Timoshenko beam resting on Winkler and Pasternak elastic foundations and fracture toughness is generally derived. In the prior researches on this specimen using Timoshenko beam theory, the effect of the ligament length on the energy release rate was ignored. This research presents the solution for finite ligament length. Besides, the effect of ligament length on energy release rate and its minimum value that makes the energy release rate independent of the ligament length, is presented. For the special case when the ligament is large compared with the beam thickness, a closed form solution is derived for Timoshenko beam resting on Winkler elastic foundation. The analytical results are compared to prior researches on this subject and a good agreement is observed. The fracture toughness and compliance obtained by Timoshenko beam resting on Winkler elastic foundation predicts more accurate results with respect to experimental results.

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In this article the vibration analysis of a viscoelastic cantilever beam with piezoelectric layers under aeroelastic force and base excitation is investigated. The beam viscoelastic material is assumed to obey the Kelvin-Voight model. Also the piezoelectric layers are located at the top and bottom beam surfaces with series connections. The aeroelastic force based on piston theory is considered to act as an external force on the beam and also the base excitation is assumed to be random. In this research the cantilever beam with two piezoelectric layers are considered as a mechanism to harvest the bending vibration energy. First, the Galerkin method is used to convert the governing partial differential equation into a set of ordinary differential equations. Then the resulted nonlinear ordinary differential equation coupled with electrical circuit equation of piezoelectric layer are solved numerically by Rung-Kutta method. Finally, by analyzing the response of the governing equations, the influence of the system parameters on the vibration behavior of beam and output voltage are discussed. Results show that the increase of fluid velocity increases vibrational energy system which leads to increase of both vibration amplitude and output voltage. In addition, it was shown that structural damping has a significant impact on the output voltage.

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Dual laminate pipes made of thermoset polymer composite structure and thermoplastic liner are the only alternative in pipelines conveying high temperature corrosive fluids. Investigating the bonding between thermoset composite and thermoplastic liner is very important in these pipelines. Calculating the strain energy release rate of first mode of failure is very important criteria in bonding strength and failure of doulas pips. ASTM-D5528 is the standard for experimental test procedure of strain energy release rate of symmetric double cantilever beam. In this study, using the classical laminates theory, the general equation for determination the laminates thicknesses in unlike double cantilever beam is presented, for the first time. To study the validity of the equation, in unlike double cantilever beam samples consists of laminates with different thicknesses are manufactured for the experimental tests. Upper, lower and bonding regions consist of composite made of unidirectional fiberglass/Vinylester resin, PVCU and epoxy or Vinylester primers, respectively. The samples of this study are manufactured base on the practical case studies of chemical fluid pipelines with chlor-alkali process like Arvand Petrochemical units. The main aim of this work is to help manufacturers of these unites equipment to have practical guideline. To qualify the efficiency of the proposed equation, finite element simulation base on the virtual crack closure technique is presented. Good agreement is achieved in comparing the numerical and experimental results that shows the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed equation.

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In this study, the effect of delamination interface fiber angle orientation on the initiation and propagation fracture toughness of plain woven composites with stacking sequences of [012//012], [011/30//0/011] and [011/45//0/011] under mode I loading were investigated. These stacking sequences are chosen in order to eliminate the effect of the remote ply orientation on the delamination behavior of the double cantilever beam (DCB) specimens. Samples were manufactured by the wet hand lay-up method and fracture tests were conducted on specimens using the universal testing machine (SANTAM STM-150) according to ASTM standard. The experimental results showed that the interface ply orientation had a negligible effect on magnitudes of the initiation and propagation fracture toughness of plain woven composites due to delamination propagation in the resin-fiber interface of delamination interface. Experimental investigations of the fracture surface have shown the effect of different mechanisms on the delamination propagation, which crack propagation in the resin-fiber interface is one of the main mechanisms for increasing the fracture toughness in these specimens. In addition, the experimental evidence revealed that the fiber bridging was not the main mechanism of increasing fracture toughness during the delamination propagation, unlike the unidirectional DCB specimens.

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One of the applications of composite materials in the oil and gas industry is to repair worn metal pipelines. Calculating the strain energy release rate of the first failure mode is an important criterion for testing the bond strength and predicting the failure of these types of structures. In this paper, the rate of strain energy release during crack growth in bonding a composite patch to a steel substrate is investigated. In this regard, using the theory of elastic beam first, a new method is proposed to calculate the thickness of the metal and composite for Unlike Double Cantilever Beam (UDCB). This is due to the fact that the standard for experimental test procedure of strain energy release rate (ASTM-D5528) is for symmetric double cantilever beams. In this study, samples are fabricated from composite consisting of unidirectional fiberglass/ epoxy resin with harder in the upper and steel in the lower half of the beam. After sample fabrication, the strain energy release rate of UDCB and Asymmetric Unlike Double Cantilever Beam (AUDCB) are calculated experimentally. In addition, for the separation of first and second failure modes in symmetric and asymmetric samples, finite element simulation based on the virtual crack closure technique is presented. This analysis is to qualify the accuracy of the proposed equation for the thickness of unlike beams to achieve the first failure pure mode of symmetric samples. Also, it calculates the contribution of the first and second modes of failure in the strain energy release rate of AUDCB samples.

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The theory of mechanical-vibration energy harvesting from the environment has been studied by researchers in the recent decade. In the present research, the vibration of the viscoelastic cantilever beam was analyzed with two piezoelectric layers including series and parallel connections. The beam was exposed under moving and rotating base excitation and aero-elastic force. The beam viscoelastic material was described using the generalized Kelvin-Voigt mechanical model. The aero-elastic force based on piston theory is considered while the base excitation is selected harmonic and randomly. The stress field coupling among the beam and piezoelectric as well as Gauss equation were utilized to extract the vibration and electrical equations respectively. The vibratory equation was converted into a set of ordinary differential equations using the Galerkin approach. The obtained equations with electrical equation were solved by the Runge-Kutta method numerically. Then, by studying the response of the governing equations, the effect of system parameters on the vibrational behavior of the beam and the output voltage was investigated. The results showed that the system and response frequencies are not affected via circuit connection types (series or parallel). The natural vibratory frequency is increased with enhancing the beam stiffness. The structural damping has a significant effect on the output voltage value. Also, the output voltage is increased by enhancing the environmental pressure.
 

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In the present study, the effect of natural microfibers (cork particles) on the mode I fracture toughness of plain-woven laminated composites has been investigated. For this purpose, double cantilever beam (DCB) specimens manufactured using hand lay-up method with stacking sequence of [0]₂₈. To investigate the effect of cork particles on fracture toughness, samples with two different weight percentages (1% by weight and 3% by weight) were manufactured and the experimental results were compared with one obtained from sample with pure epoxy resin. Experimental results show that as the amount of cork particles increases, the onset of crack growth requires more energy. The amount of improvement in initiation fracture toughness for the DCB sample with 1% and 3% cork weigh has been increased by 67.15% and 71.96%, respectively which is due to the role of the cork in the resin rich area near the crack tip that arrested the delamination growth. Unlike the initiation fracture toughness, the propagation value is reduced by adding cork particles to the resin.   During delamination growth, due to the agglomeration of micro fiber at delamination interface and role of stress concentration of these particles, hence, micro-cork fibers have not been able to increase the propagation fracture toughness and in some cases have slightly reduced the propagation fracture toughness of the delamination. Also, in order to investigate the mechanisms of damage, the fracture surfaces of the samples were scanned using scanning electron microscopy.

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The proper method for jointing Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) to aluminum, which causes uniform stress distribution, more suitable fatigue performance and weight reduction, is adhesive bonded joint. In adhesive bonding, the interface of adhesives and adherent are sensitive areas for the initiation and propagation of failure. In order to eliminate surface contamination, adherents must be surface treated. In this research, the effect of the functional pattern of laser surface treatment on the strength of aluminum/composite adhesive bonded joint in the mode I fracture has been investigated. At first, laser surface treatments were performed throughout the specimen in order to find the parameters of the laser device that increase the strength of the adhesive bonding by creating a suitable surface quality. After that, the functional pattern of laser surface treatment with the appropriate parameters for ablation and cleaning of the adhesive surface is done. The results show a 15.5% increase in the critical strain energy release rate of the mode I for the all-over laser surface treatment specimen compared to the sanding method. Meanwhile, with the functional pattern of laser surface treatment, the critical strain energy release rate of the mode I has increased by 5.9% and 22.4% compared to all-over laser surface treatment and sanding, respectively. Examining the fracture surface of the specimen shows the delay in crack growth in the specimen of the functional pattern with changes from the adhesive failure to the fiber tearing, which has improved the strength of the adhesive bonding.