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A set of finite element investigations are performed to examine the maximum bearing strength of strip footings positioned on the crest of a cohesive-frictional marginal soil hillslope. In this regard, the influence of contributing geometrical and geotechnical parameters on the maximum bearing strength of the footing are illustrated. It is revealed that the nearness of slope face has negligible influence on the bearing strength of footing if it is located at a setback distance beyond six times the footing width. Further, using multi-gene genetic programming technique, a predictive relationship between the maximum bearing strength and the contributory factors is established and validated through relevant experimental findings. The hyper-parameters of the MGGP model are suitably optimized, as indicated by the coefficient of correlation attaining high magnitudes. A sensitivity analysis based on local perturbation is conducted to recognize the importance ranking of the contributory parameters. It is revealed that the friction angle of slope material predominantly influences the evaluation of maximum bearing strength for strip footing on slopes, followed by other contributing factors.

The dowel-bearing properties of a newly laminated flattened-bamboo (LFB) composite for engineering use was studied in this research by using the 5% bolt diameter offset method. The effects of specimen dimensions, bolt diameter, density, and bolt placed direction were included. Computed tomography (CT) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were used to identify the failure type. The test results indicate that the parallel-to-grain dowel-bearing strength of LFB generally increased with an increasing density. When the bolt was placed along the LFB’s radial direction, the parallel-to-grain dowel-bearing strength approximately remained a constant (52 MPa) with the change of specimen dimensions and bolt diameter, while when the bolt was along the tangential direction, the dowel-bearing strength increased with the raising ratio of specimen thickness and bolt diameter. The first failure type was a crushing failure of bamboo fiber underneath the bolt, it happened when bolt diameter was small (12 mm and 14 mm) and placed along LFB’s radial direction. The second type was a splitting failure due to the lateral force generated by the bolt embedded into specimen, bamboo fiber splitting failure dominated for specimens with bolt along radial direction, while when bolt along tangential direction, glue layer splitting happened. The measured dowel-bearing strength was compared to the predictions obtained from equations in current wood specifications and articles. The results indicated that, except for the predicted values from the NDS equation (max error = 36%), which showed relatively reasonable agreement with the test values, the remaining predicted values exhibited discrepancies with the test values. To obtain proper predicted values, equations include density and ratio of specimen thickness and bolt diameter were proposed for calculation of LFB’s parallel-to-grain dowel-bearing strength.

Timber connections were prepared using glulam from tropical plantation species, focusing on key properties for dowel-type joints with half threaded bolts without nuts: Bolt bearing strength and bolt withdrawal capacity. Tests were performed according to ASTM standards. Three half-threaded bolt diameters (12 mm, 16 mm, and 20 mm) were tested in two loading directions, parallel and perpendicular to the grain, with 12 replicates for each configuration. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) using Design Expert Software was applied to optimize bolt diameter for both loading directions. Results showed that bolt bearing strength was higher in perpendicular loading, with the 12 mm bolt achieving 16.6 N/mm², compared to 6.01 N/mm² in parallel loading. Withdrawal capacities varied, with the 16 mm bolt showing the highest capacity in perpendicular loading at 54.2 kN. The study demonstrates that the 16 mm bolt exhibited the optimal diameter-to-embedment length ratio compared to 12 mm and 20 mm bolts, resulting in the highest withdrawal capacity. Consequently, the 16 mm bolt represented the best balance for achieving maximum withdrawal capacity. The optimization suggests using a 16 mm bolt for parallel loading to the grain and a 14 mm bolt for perpendicular loading.

The dowel bearing capacity is a fundamental metric for assessing the performance of bolted connections. In this research, we examined the dowel bearing strength of bamboo scrimber across various load-to-face grain angles. Seven groups of specimens, each comprising 10 units, were subjected to testing. Yield strength was determined using the ASTM-D5764 5%D offset method, revealing a pattern where strength initially decreases with increasing grain angle, reaching a nadir at 60°, before rising again. This indicates that grain angle significantly affects both strength and stiffness. Analyzing the failure modes, load–displacement curves, and key mechanical properties of the specimens, comparing the dowel bearing strength trends across grain angles in different bamboo and wood materials. Discrepancies between theoretical predictions and experimental results were also evaluated. Based on these findings, we proposed a calculation formula for dowel bearing strength at various grain angles, tailored to bamboo scrimber.

Given automated order systems, detailed characteristics of items and vehicles enable the detailed planning of deliveries including more efficient and safer loading of distribution vehicles. Many vehicle routing approaches ignore complex loading constraints. This paper focuses on the comprehensive evaluation of loading constraints in the context of combined Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem and 3D Loading (3L-CVRP) and its extension with time windows (3L-VRPTW). To the best of our knowledge, this paper considers the currently largest number of loading constraints meeting real-world requirements and reducing unnecessary loading efforts for both problem variants. We introduce an approach for the load bearing strength of items ensuring a realistic load distribution between items. Moreover, we provide a new variant for the robust stability constraint enabling better performance and higher stability. In addition, we consider axle weights of vehicles to prevent overloaded axles for the first time for the 3L-VRPTW. Additionally, the reachability of items, balanced loading and manual unloading of items are taken into account. All loading constraints are implemented in a deepest-bottom-left-fill algorithm, which is embedded in an outer adaptive large neighbourhood search tackling the Vehicle Routing Problem. A new set of 600 instances is created, published and used to evaluate all loading constraints in terms of solution quality and performance. The efficiency of the hybrid algorithm is evaluated by three well-known instance sets. We outperform the benchmarks for most instance sets from the literature. Detailed results and the implementation of loading constraints are published online.

Recent studies have shown the advantage of wood impregnation on increasing the dowel-bearing strength of black spruce wood by almost 50%. The aim of the present study was to improve the mechanical performance of a dowel-type connection through an impregnation method for black spruce wood. The results showed that wood treatments improved the mechanical performance of dowel-type connections. The dowel-bearing strength increased up to 25%, while the stiffness increased up to 52%. The increase obtained was lower in comparison with the previous studies, however. A lower polymer quantity, resulted in a shorter vacuum time, and a lower temperature polymerization used in wood treatment brought the process closer to an industrial application.

The problem of estimating the bearing capacity of massive caisson foundations in frictional soil under combined vertical ( N ), horizontal ( Q ) and moment ( M ) loading is examined numerically by means of three-dimensional finite element analyses. The analysis is performed with due consideration to the foundation’s depth-to-width ratio ( D / B ), the magnitude of the vertical load and the caisson-soil contact interface conditions. The constitutive law for soil behavior is appropriately validated against experimental results from 1-g small-scale tests, available in the literature. The ultimate limit states are presented in the form of a bearing strength surface in dimensionless and normalized form, while detailed discussion is provided on the physical and geometrical interpretation of the kinematic mechanisms that accompany failure. A generalized closed-form expression for the failure envelope in M – Q – N space is then fitted to the numerical results with use of an appropriately trained artificial neural network. An upper-bound limit equilibrium solution for a certain failure mechanism (designated as the “sliding” mechanism) associated with maximum horizontal bearing capacity is also developed for verification purposes. One of the originalities of the paper lies with respect to the post-failure response of the caissons, where it is shown that the incremental displacement vector is accurately reproduced by assuming normality on the bearing strength surface irrespective of the considered plastic flow rule (associative or non-associative) at the microscale (soil element).

In this work, the application of the digital image correlation (DIC) technique to experimentally study progressive damage of single-lap composite bolted joints is explored. This technique is also used to provide surface strain fields and to analyse outof-plane phenomena of the joints due to the effect of laminate pattern, laminate thickness, fastener size, fastener type and bushing. The specimens were manufactured from plain weave carbon/epoxy composites. The bearing test was conducted in accordance with ASTM D5961/D5961M-13. The digital image correlation was performed using the commercial Vic-3D digital image correlation system. It was found that strain concentrations observed in the specimens can be used to identify full-field damage onset and to monitor damage progression during loading. Moreover, there is interaction between laminate pattern, laminate thickness, fastener size, fastener type and bushing on bearing strengths (ultimate and 2% offset bearing strengths), surface strain concentrations and out-of-plane displacement. The DIC results can potentially be used to develop and accurately validate numerical models.

The complexity of the internal structure of rolling bearings and the harshness of their operating environment result in strong non-stationarity and nonlinearity of the vibration signals. It remains a challenging and attractive task to accomplish more accurate classification through signal processing techniques and pattern recognition methods. To realize this aim, a novel one-dimensional improved self-attention-enhanced convolutional neural network (1D-ISACNN) with empirical wavelet transform (EWT) is proposed for rolling bearing fault classification. Firstly, the EWT algorithm is employed to decompose the raw signal into three frequency components, allowing for further extraction of multi-frequency components to enhance signal characteristics. Subsequently, a creative1D-ISACNN leverages the merits of a newly developed attention mechanism and an optimized meta-activation concatenation function in feature learning to better capture and map crucial information within the signal. Furthermore, label smoothing regularization is designed as the loss function of the 1D-ISACNN, which takes into account not only the loss of correctly labeled positions in the training samples but also the loss of other mislabeled positions. Finally, the adaptive moment projection estimation is designed to ensure a more robust gradient update strategy for updating the parameters of the proposed model. The developed model tested on three different sets of bearing data, has achieved a classification accuracy of 100%. In ablative experiments and other comparative experiments, the proposed method demonstrates higher recognition accuracy and more robust generalization capabilities compared to other excellent approaches.

This study inspects the viability of engaging the discarded paper wastes in concrete by varying the volume proportions from 0%–20% with each 5% increment in replacement of the weight of cement. A physiomechanical study was conducted, and the results were presented. A glass fiber reinforced rectangular slab with a longer span (ly) to shorter span (lx) ratio of (ly: lx) 1.16 was cast with optimum replacement of waste-paper mass and compared the force-deformation characteristics with the conventional concrete slab without waste paper. The optimum percentage of discarded papers for the replacement of cement is 5%. Also, the results imply that the compressive strength at the age of 28 days is 30% improved for the optimum replacement. Based on the outcomes of the investigation, it can be inferred that the compressive strength gets progressively reduced if the volume of the discarded paper gets increases. The incorporation of glass fibers improves the split and flexural strength of the concrete specimens considerably. The ultimate load-carrying capacity of the glass fiber reinforced waste paper incorporated concrete slab measured 42% lower than that of the conventional slab. However, development of the new type of concrete incorporating waste papers is the new trend in ensuring the sustainability of construction materials.