Editorial.
Mang, Herbert A. ; Kaklauskas, Gintaris
This Special Issue of the Journal of Civil Engineering and
Management (JCEM) contains expanded versions of selected papers
presented at the 9-th International Conference on Modern Building
Materials, Structures and Techniques, in Vilnius, May 16-18, 2007. The
first conference was held in 1991, just a year after the independence of
Lithuania was restored. A continuously increasing number of participants
reflected the growing prestige of the conferences. At the last
conference, with a participation of 458 researchers from 25 countries,
193 oral presentations (including key-note lectures) were given and 58
posters were shown. The conference series provides an excellent
international forum for discussion and debate, highlighting advances in
theoretical, numerical and experimental research, aimed at solving
challenging problems of Civil Engineering.
The conferences have been organised jointly by the Civil
Engineering Faculty of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) and
the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. The International Association for
Bridge and Structural Engineering as well as the Board of the
Association of European Civil Engineering Faculties are the official
sponsors of the Conference. A special tribute should be paid to the Dean
of the Civil Engineering Faculty of VGTU, who has successfully organised
all the Conferences held so far.
The authors of selected papers were invited to submit extended
versions to this Special Issue. The submitted papers underwent a
rigorous international peer review procedure. The sole criterion for
publication was quality. This Special Issue is devoted to research
problems in the field of structural engineering and mechanics.
The paper at the beginning of this Issue (Mazzolani et al.) is
aimed at improving seismic response of RC structures equipped with
dissipative bracing systems such as eccentric braces and buckling
restrained braces. Results of experimental tests carried out on two
similar two-storey one-bay RC structures equipped with the above bracing
systems were reported.
The second paper, authored by A. Kuranovas et al., presents results
from an investigation on the load-bearing capacity of concrete-filled
steel columns. Experimental data from 1303 columns of various sections
tested under different loading conditions were compared with analytical
results obtained using the EC4 code.
The paper by H. Mang et al. investigates hilltop buckling in
sensitivity analysis of the initial postbuckling behaviour of elastic
structures. It is shown that hilltop buckling is imperfection sensitive.
The results from the numerical investigation corroborate the theoretical
findings. Two classes of sensitivity analyses are identified by means of
the so-called consistently linearized eigenproblem.
B. Faggiano et al. deals with an innovative connection system for
composite timber-steel-concrete floors. In this paper, results from
push-out monotonic tests on several rectangular shaped configurations of
the connection system are presented. The mechanical behaviour is
described by means of a load-slip relationship.
The fifth paper, authored by P. Aliawdin and S. Kasabutski, deals
with limit and shakedown analysis of RC bar sections under quasistatic
low-cyclic loading. Plasticity conditions for the materials were
formulated either in the stress or the strain space. Simple solutions
for both direct and inverse problems of nonlinear optimization were
obtained.
Y. Zhuk and I. Senchenkov presented an approximate formulation to a
dynamic coupled thermomechanical problem for physically non-linear,
inelastic, thin-walled elements. Simplifications are the consequence of
using the geometrically linear theory and the Kirchhoff--Love
hypotheses. The model is used to describe vibrations and dissipative
heating of inhomogeneous physically non-linear bodies under harmonic
loading.
R. Lewandowski and J. Grzymislawska were investigating a
possibility of reducing the vibrations of frame building structures
using multiple tuned mass dampers. Structures exposed to strong winds
were considered. Based on the results of the analysis, recommendations
regarding the effectiveness of multiple tuned mass dampers were made.
In the eighth paper, A. Grigorenko and S. Yaremchenko investigated
the static and dynamic behaviour of anisotropic inhomogeneous shallow
shells. The authors have proposed an efficient approach for solving
problems of stress-strain and free vibrations. The initial system of
partial differential equations is reduced to one-dimensional problems
using an approximation of the solution in terms of basic splines in one
coordinate direction.
In the last paper, E. R. Vaidogas and V. Juocevicius discussed the
application of fragility functions to the assessment of potential damage
of structures resulting from accidental actions. The assessment
represents an estimation of the probability of a foreseeable damage
event. A potential field of application of this approach is risk studies
of hazardous industrial facilities.
We wish to thank the authors of the papers for their efforts
concerning preparation and revision of the manuscripts. The critical
comments of the reviewers are highly appreciated. This Special Issue
would not have been possible without the enthusiastic support of Prof.
E. K. Zavadskas in his capacity as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal.
Let us also express our gratitude to Assoc. Prof. D. Bacinskas, Managing
Editor of JCEM, who was involved in administrating the review process.
We hope that this Issue will provide the readers with new insights into
problems of structural engineering and structural mechanics.
Herbert A. Mang (1), Gintaris Kaklauskas (2)
Guest Editors
(1) Institute for Mechanics of Materials and Structures, Vienna
University of Technology, Karlsplatz 13/202, 1040 Vienna, Austria
(2) Dept of Bridges and Special Structures, Vilnius Gediminas
Technical University, Sauletekio al. 11, LT-10223 Vilnius, Lithuania
E-mail: (1) Herbert.Mang@tuwien.ac.at; (2)
Gintaris.Kaklauskas@st.vgtu.lt
