Civil and Environmental Engineering
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
2021
Citation
Kim, S.; Kim, S.; Zhang, J.; Druszkowski, E.; Sweidan, A. Experimental and Numerical Studies on Thermally-Induced Slip Ratcheting on a Slope. Infrastructures 2021, 6, 5. https://doi.org/10.3390/in- frastructures6010005
Abstract
Mild temperature fluctuation of a material sitting on a slope may only cause a small slip, but a large number of the repeated temperature changes can amplify the magnitude of the overall slip and eventually bring an issue of structural instability. The slip accumulation starts from the minor magnitude and reaches the extensive level called “slip ratcheting”. Experimental evidence for such thermally-induced slip ratcheting is first provided in this work. It is implemented with an acryl sheet placed on an inclined wood with a mild angle; it is found that the temperature fluctuation of the acryl sheet causes the sheet to slide down gradually without any additional loading. The numerical model is then attempted to emulate the major findings of the experiments. From the simulation work, the location of a neutral point is found when the acrylplate is heated, and another neutral point is observed when cooled down. The shift of the neutral point appears to be a major reason for the unrecovered slip after a temperature increase and decrease cycle. Finally, a parametric study using the numerical model is carried out to examine which parameters play a major role in the development of residual slips.
Comments
2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.