A new plastic-damage constitutive model for concrete is proposed in this paper. A tensile and a shear damage variable are adopted to describe the degradation of the macromechanical properties of concrete. Within the framework of continuum damage mechanics, the elastic Helmholtz free energy is defined to establish the plastic-damage constitutive relation with the internal variables. Regarding the specific format for the effective stress space plasticity, the evolution law for the plastic strains and the explicit expression for the elastoplastic Helmholtz free energy are determined and the damage energy release rates that are conjugated to the damage variables are derived. Thus, damage energy release ratebased damage criteria can be established in conformity to thermodynamical principles. In accordance with the normality rule, evolution laws for the damage variables are obtained to complete the proposed plastic-damage model. Some computational aspects concerning the numerical algorithm implementation are discussed as well. Several numerical simulations are presented at the end of the paper, whose results allow for validating the capability of the proposed model for reproducing the typical nonlinear performances of concrete structures under different monotonic and cyclic load conditions.

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a b s t r a c tStarting with the framework of conventional elastoplastic damage mechanics, a class of stochastic damage constitutive model is derived based on the concept of energy equivalent strain. The stochastic damage model derived from the parallel element model is adopted to develop the uniaxial damage evolution function. Based on the expressions of damage energy release rates (DERRs) conjugated to the damage variables thermodynamically, the concept and its tensor formulations of energy equivalent strain is proposed to bridge the gap between the uniaxial and the multiaxial constitutive models. Furthermore, a simplified coupling model is proposed to consider the evolution of plastic strain. And the analytical expressions of the constitutive model in 2-D are established from the abstract tensor expression. Several numerical simulations are presented against the biaxial loading test results of concrete, demonstrating that the proposed models can reflect the salient features for concrete under uniaxial and biaxial loading conditions.

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Probability density evolution method is proposed for dynamic response analysis of structures with random parameters. In the present paper, a probability density evolution equation (PDEE) is derived according to the principle of preservation of probability. With the state equation expression, the PDEE is further reduced to a onedimensional partial differential equation. The numerical algorithm is studied through combining the precise time integration method and the finite difference method with TVD schemes. The proposed method can provide the probability density function (PDF) and its evolution, rather than the second-order statistical quantities, of the stochastic responses. Numerical examples, including a SDOF system and an 8-story frame, are investigated. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is of high accuracy and efficiency. Some characteristics of the PDF and its evolution of the stochastic responses are observed. The PDFs evidence heavy variance against time. Usually, they are much irregular and far from well-known regular distribution types. Additionally, the coefficients of variation of the random parameters have significant influence on PDF and second-order statistical quantities of responses of the stochastic structure.

Integration of brain-computer interface (BCI) technique and assistive device is one of chief and promising applications of BCI system. With BCI technique, people with disabilities do not have to communicate with external environment through traditional and natural pathways like peripheral nerves and muscles, and could achieve it only by their brain activities. In this paper, we designed an electroencephalogram (EEG)-based wheelchair which can be steered by users' own thoughts without any other involvements. We evaluated the feasibility of BCI-based wheelchair in terms of accuracies and real-world testing. The results demonstrate that our BCI wheelchair is of good performance not only in accuracy, but also in practical running testing in a real environment. This fact implies that people can steer wheelchair only by their thoughts, and may have a potential perspective in daily application for disabled people.

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