Reliability Based Optimal Design of Laterally Loaded Pile with Limited Residual Strain Energy Capacity
Abstract—In this study, a general approach to the reliability based limit analysis of laterally loaded piles is presented. In engineering practice the uncertainties play a very important role. The aim of this study is to evaluate the lateral load capacity of free-head and fixed-head long pile when plastic limit analysis is considered. In addition to the plastic limit analysis to control the plastic behaviour of the structure, uncertain bound on the complementary strain energy of the residual forces is also applied. This bound has significant effect for the load parameter. The solution to reliability-based problems is obtained by a computer program which is governed by the reliability index calculation.
Laterally loaded rigid piles with rotational constraints
Elastic–plastic, closed-form solutions were developed recently by the author, to capture the nonlinear response of laterally loaded rigid piles. Presented in compact form, the solutions are convenient to use, and sufficiently accurate despite using only two input parameters of the net limiting force per unit length pu along the pile, and a subgrade modulus k. Nevertheless, piles may be subjected to limited caprestraints or loading below ground surface, which alter the response remarkably. This paper provides explicit expressions for estimating loading capacity of anchored piles and develops new solutions for lateral piles with cap-rotation by stipulating a constant pu or a linear increasing pu (Gibson pu) with depth. Lateral loading capacity Ho (at the tip-yield state and yield at rotation point state) and maximum bending moment Mm (at the tip-yield state) are presented against loading locations, and in
Numerical tools applied to power reactor noise analysis
In order to be able to calculate the space- and frequency-dependent neutron noise in real inhomogeneous systems in two-group theory, a code was developed for the calculation of the Green's function (dynamic transfer function) of such systems. This paper reports on the development as well as the test and application of the numerical tools employed. The code that was developed yields the space-dependence of the fluctuations of the neutron flux induced by fluctuating properties of the medium in the two-group diffusion approximation and in a two-dimensional representation of heterogeneous systems, for both critical systems and non-critical systems with an external source. Some applications of these tools to power reactor noise analysis are then described, including the unfolding of the parameters of the noise source from the induced neutron noise, measured at a few discrete locations throughout the core. Other concrete applications concern the study of the space-dependence of the Decay Ratio in Boiling Water Reactors, the noise-based estimation of the Moderator Temperature Coefficient of reactivity in Pressurized Water Reactors, the modeling of the beam- and shell-mode core-barrel vibrations in Pressurized Water Reactors, and the investigation of the validity of the point-kinetic approximation in subcritical systems driven by an external source. In most of these applications, calculations performed using the code are compared with at-power plant measurements. Power reactor noise analysis applications of the above type, i.e. core monitoring without disturbing plant operation, is of particular interest in the framework of the extensive program of power uprates worldwide.