fragility curves represent the probabilities that structural damages, under various levels of seismic excitation, will exceed the specified damage states by means of earthquake intensity damage relations. conceptual aspects related to seismic vulnerability, damage and risk evaluation are discussed first, together with a short review of the most widely used possibilities for the seismic evaluati...

In this paper, an approach for conducting a Reliability-Based Design Optimization (RBDO) of truss structures with linked-discrete design variables is proposed. The sections of the truss members are selected from the AISC standard tables and thus the design variables that represent the properties of each section are linked. Latin hypercube sampling is used in the evaluation of the structural rel...

Tensegrity structures are a special class of lightweight truss structures, where all truss elements are axially loaded and tensile truss elements are made of strings. This paper presents the dynamic analysis of a tensegrity structure by comparing a finite element model with an identified model obtained from experimental data. Experimental data is obtained by placing a three stage tensegrity str...

This work deals with a structural damage detection problem using displacement measurements as experimental data to be used by two different methodologies: the conjugate gradient method with the adjoint equation and an artificial neural network. Both techniques have been employed in order to place and quantify the time-variable damage in a simple truss structure. Numerical experiments have been ...

This paper presents an interactive framework for the design of truss structures with incorporation of the subjective influence of user feedback in the design process. In the devised framework, the truss chords are described using Non-Uniform Rational Basis Splines (NURBS), a representation typically used in computer aided design (CAD) for describing free-form geometry. This allows for a conveni...

Structural system design is the process of giving form to a set of interconnected components 1 subjected to loads and design constraints while navigating a complex design space. While safe 2 designs are relatively easy to develop, optimal designs are not. Modern computational optimization 3 approaches employ population based metaheuristic algorithms to overcome challenges with the 4 system desi...

truss is considered as equivalent to a beam with shear flexibility. the web thickness of the equivalent beam is calculated for various truss forms. the basic relations utilized in the analysis of structural systems composed of beams with shear flexibility, by means of the force method and the slope - deflection method, are presented. finally, the tables to be used in the analysis of contineous ...

Introductory engineering courses within large universities often have annual enrollments which can reach up to a thousand students. It is very challenging to achieve differentiated instruction in classrooms with class sizes and student diversity of such great magnitude. Professors can only assess whether students have mastered a concept by using multiple choice questions, while detailed homewor...