This article introduces and evaluates the piecewise polynomial truncated singular value decomposition algorithm toward an effective use for moving force identification. Suffering from numerical non-uniqueness and noise disturbance, the moving force identification is known to be associated with ill-posedness. An important method for solving this problem is the truncated singular value decomposition algorithm, but the truncated small singular values removed by truncated singular value decomposition may contain some useful information. The piecewise polynomial truncated singular value decomposition algorithm extracts the useful responses from truncated small singular values and superposes it into the solution of truncated singular value decomposition, which can be useful in moving force identification. In this article, a comprehensive numerical simulation is set up to evaluate piecewise polynomial truncated singular value decomposition, and compare this technique against truncated singular value decomposition and singular value decomposition. Numerically simulated data are processed to validate the novel method, which show that regularization matrix $\mathbf{L}$ and truncating point $k$ are the two most important governing factors affecting identification accuracy and ill-posedness immunity of piecewise polynomial truncated singular value decomposition.

Autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) self-insulation block masonry is often used for the infill walls in steel and concrete frame structures. To work together with the frame under earthquake action, it is essential to understand the seismic behavior of AAC self-insulation block masonry walls. In this paper, six AAC self-insulation block masonry walls were experimentally studied under the pseudo static test. The load-displacement hysteretic curves were drawn with the test data. The failure characteristics, loading capacity, stiffness degeneration, energy dissipation capacity and hysteretic behavior are analyzed. The results indicate that the blocks underwent internal failure due to the lower strength with a larger size, but the walls had good energy dissipation capacity with a rational bearing capacity. Accompanied by the influence of vertical compressive stress on the top surface of the walls, the cracking resistance, ultimate bearing capacity, deformability and energy dissipation capacity of the walls were affected by the masonry mortar joints. Comparatively, the walls with thin-layer mortar joints had better seismic performance than those with insulation mortar joints or with vertical joints filled by mineral wool plates. Finally, the shear capacity of the walls under seismic load is evaluated referring to the formulas of current design codes for masonry walls.

In this study, a modified truncated singular value decomposition (MTSVD) method is proposed for the identification of dynamic moving forces on simply-supported beams. By regularizing the truncated singular value decomposition (TSVD) method, the MTSVD method focuses on overcoming the ill-posed problems that intrinsically exist in moving force identification. Two regularization parameters, namely, regularization matrix and truncating point are the most important regularization parameters affecting the performance of the MTSVD method. The accuracy and efficiency of the MTSVD method is shown by comparing the results with the conventional counterpart SVD and TSVD methods. In addition, the proposed method is also compared with a similar method recently proposed by the author, that is, the piecewise polynomial truncated singular value decomposition (PP-TSVD) method. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the performance of the MTSVD method is significantly improved compared with the PP-TSVD method in high noise level cases.

The studies on inverse problems exist extensively in aerospace, mechanical, identification, detection, scanning imaging and other fields. Its ill-posed characteristics often lead to large oscillations in the solution of the inverse problem. In this study, the truncated generalized singular value decomposition (TGSVD) method is introduced to identify two kinds of moving forces, single and multi-axial forces. The truncating point is the most influential regularization parameter of TGSVD, which is initially selected by two classic regularization parameter selection criteria, namely, the L-curve criterion and the generalized cross-validation (GCV) criterion. Due to numerical non-uniqueness and noise disturbance in moving force identification (MFI), numerical simulation results show that neither of the two criteria can effectively help select the optimal truncating point of TGSVD. Hence, a relative percentage error (RPE) criterion is proposed for selecting the truncating point of TGSVD. Comparative studies show that the RPE criterion can be used to select the optimal truncating point of TGSVD more accurately against the GCV criterion and L-curve criterion. Moreover, the RPE criterion can be used to reflect the connections between certain properties and the ill-posedness problem existing in MFI, which should be adopted priority for the optimal truncating point selection of TGSVD.

Reliable bond of steel fiber in concrete is a key problem relating to the reinforcing effect of steel fiber on concrete matrix and for the guide in significance for the optimal design of the geometry and mechanical properties of steel fiber. In this paper, on the basis of multi-indices of evaluation for the bond properties of single hooked-end steel fiber, the indices for the evaluation of synergistic bond properties of different deformed steel fibers are proposed. The pull-out tests were carried out for different deformed steel fibers embedded in mortar wet-sieved from self-compacting SFRC with manufactured sand. Fourteen types of steel fibers were used, including six hooked-end, two crimped, four indentation, one milling, and one large-end. The bond strength, bond energy, and bond toughness of single and per unit weight steel fiber were evaluated with the correspondence to the loading status of cracking resistance, normal serviceability, and ultimate bearing capacity of concrete. Results show that the deformed steel fibers presented different bond behaviors, hooked-end, and crimped steel fibers with circular cross-sections and a tensile strength of higher than 1150 MPa have excellent effects of strengthening, energy dissipation, and toughening capacity on self-compacting concrete with a cubic compressive strength of 60 MPa at normal serviceability and ultimate bearing capacity. Indentation, milling, and large-end steel fibers are more suitable for reinforcing the concrete strength due to the rigid bond before concrete cracking. The synergistic working of steel fibers with concrete matrix should be concerned to realize the effects of only or simultaneously reinforcing the strength and toughness of concrete.