In recent years, dielectric elastomer (DE) structures have received great attention in various fields of engineering, such as artificial muscle, soft robot, resonator, and structural vibration control, due to its prominent advantages. In the present paper, the theoretical and experimental research into the dynamical behavior of DE structures and their application for vibration control is reviewed. In the theoretical research into dynamical behavior, from a mechanics viewpoint, DE structures are usually categorized into four types, i.e., spherical, rectangular, tubular, and circular. For each type of DE structure, the mathematical description is given and the dynamical behavior, such as the resonant property, jump, and bifurcation, is summarized. Moreover, the work on dynamical experiments is briefly outlined. In the application for vibration control, stack-type and tubular-type DE structures usually used as actuators are surveyed. The established control algorithms for the controlled systems using DE actuators are described. The challenges for the research into the dynamics of DE structure and its application for vibration control and some promising theories which may be applied for the research are pointed out.

Determining a bucket wheel excavator (BWE)’s slewing superstructure weight and its center of gravity (COG) is of extreme importance not only in the design phase, but also after the completion of the erection process and during the operation of the machine. This paper presents a critical comparative analysis of the basic parameters of the static stability of a BWE 1600 superstructure, with the parameters being obtained by both analytical and experimental procedures. The analysis shows that a relatively small difference in superstructure mass, obtained by calculation, leads to a relatively large unfavorable shifting of its COG, necessitating a significant increase in counterweight mass for balancing. A procedure for superstructure 3D model mass correction is presented based on results obtained by weighing after the completion of the erection process. The developed model provides enough accuracy to determine the superstructure’s COG in the entire domain of the bucket wheel boom inclination angle, and enables accurate load analysis of the superstructure’s vital parts. The importance of this analysis is reinforced by the finding that the procedure prescribed by standard DIN 22261-2 gives results which are not on the side of safety, as shown by an example of strength analysis of a bucket wheel boom stays’ end eyes.

In this study, the effect of steel fibers coated with chemically reactive enamel (CRE) on the system response of concrete structures with reinforcing bars has been investigated for the first time. In particular, the ultimate strength, ductility, and failure mechanism of 24 reinforced concrete slabs were experimentally characterized under static and blast loads. CRE coating applied on steel bars reduced the crater area of slabs under blast loads by up to 20%; it slightly increased the strength of slabs and significantly reduced the strength degradation of slabs when increasingly deflected under static loads, making the slabs more ductile. CRE coating applied on steel fibers increased the strength of slabs by up to 16% under static loads. The influence of CRE coating applied on both steel fibers and bars may be taken into account by introducing a coating factor in the range of 0.57<β<1.0 in the American Concrete Institute (ACI) development length equation.

The construction of a building may change the microclimate in the vicinity, and planning indicators in a master plan may directly affect the outdoor physical environmental quality in residential areas. An inappropriate plan for a site may accelerate wind and intensify vortexes over places on the pedestrian levels, which leads to an adverse outdoor environment. Therefore, the design of a cluster of buildings should not focus only on the buildings but also provide a good outdoor environment around the buildings. To tackle the problem of inadequate wind environment, the relationship between the building’s floor area ratio and height was identified in this study as the main planning indicator to be examined on its effects on the outdoor wind environment. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was hence developed to simulate the wind conditions generated by some typical site layouts with different values for planning indicators under relevant weather conditions, which were typical of those in Hangzhou, China. The simulated wind conditions are assessed using the wind speed ratio over the whole area of the building cluster at the pedestrian level. The effects on the local wind condition due to the varying of the planning indicators are discussed whilst considering the potential construction costs. The indicators resulting in better external conditions are highlighted in the conclusion as the recommendation which could be used as a rule of thumb by architects and planners at the master planning stage. The study disproves the common belief in the practice that a lower floor area ratio means fewer buildings and therefore greater external comfort. In fact, the higher the building, the greater the outdoor comfort wind zone for pedestrians. However, the increment in comfort area is limited to buildings extending from 25 to 30 levels.

Saline soil stabilization is being increasingly applied in foundation treatment engineering. Chloride saline soil obtained from sites and laboratory-made chloride soil (ZS) with various NaCl concentrations prepared artificially were stabilized using alkali-activated slag (AS). A series of unconfined compressive strength (UCS) tests, X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA), thermal gravity–differential thermal gravity (TG–DTG), and ion concentration tests were conducted to investigate the strength variation and mechanism of the AS-stabilized chloride saline soils. The results showed that NaCl has a significant influence on the strength of AS-stabilized chloride saline soil and the strength of AS-stabilized ZS (GZS) increases with increase of chloride content in soil samples. Friedel’s salt (Fs) and NaOH are generated by the reaction of NaCl and CaO·Al₂O₃ (CA) in the slag in the GZS. Fs can fill the pores in stabilized soil, and NaOH can promote calcium silicate hydrate (CSH) generation. These two effects combine to enhance the strength of GZS. The relationship between the rate of increase of 28-d UCS of AS-stabilized chloride saline soil and the chloride content in soil was obtained through regression analysis of the increase of UCS of GZS.

Reduction of roll and pitch motions is critical in improving the safety and operability of a ship. In this paper, a predictive controller for a ship equipped with two pairs of active fins is proposed for joint pitch-roll stabilization. The proposed controller is developed on the basis of ship motion and hydrodynamic force prediction (SMHFP). The SMHFP controller consists of a short-term predictor, a force estimator, and a fin angle allocator. The short-term predictor adopts an autoregressive (AR) approach and serves to forecast ship motions. Then, predicted ship motions are used in an external hydrodynamic force estimator to evaluate the expected stabilizing forces. Finally, the optimal attack angles for active fins are allocated based on external hydrodynamic forces forecasts. The control system of the stabilizing fins and SMHFP controller is integrated into the sea-keeping program. The program was developed based on a weakly nonlinear 2.5D method, which shows better efficiency and accuracy compared with conventional 2D and 3D methods. To evaluate the performance of the proposed controller, numerical simulations of the joint pitch-roll stabilization under various sea states were investigated on a ship model. The results suggest that the SMHFP controller shows satisfactory performance in reducing pitch and roll motions simultaneously.

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. In p.275, the sentence “The theoretical travel time of interflow is larger than that measured in all conditions.” should be “The theoretical travel time of interflow is smaller than that measured in all conditions.” Meanwhile, the correct version of Fig. 13 is given below.