In this paper, the behavior of interior steel fiber reinforced concrete beam - column joints (BCJs) under cyclic loading is investigated. An experimental program including tests on twelve reinforced concrete (BCJs) specimens under cyclic loading was carried out. The test specimens are divided into two groups having different geometry: group (G1) (symmetrical BCJs specimens) and group (G2) (nonsymmetrical BCJs specimens). The parameters considered in this study are the steel fibers (SFs) content by volume of concrete (V_f), the spacing of shear reinforcement at the joint region, and the area of longitudinal flexural reinforcement. Test results show that the addition of 0.5% SFs with stirrups spacing S=S_max has effectively enhanced the overall performance of BCJs with respect to energy dissipation, ductility ratio, spreading and width of cracks. The failure of specimens is governed mainly by the formation of a plastic hinge at the face column and outside the beam-column junction. Secondary shear cracks were also observed in the beam-column junctions.

In this paper an extension to the method for the identification of mechanical parameters of nonlinear systems proposed in Breccolotti and Materazzi (2007) for MDoF systems is presented. It can be used for damage identification purposes when damage modifies the linear characteristics of the investigated structure. It is based on the following two main features: the solution of the Fokker-Planck equation that describes the response probabilistic properties of the system when it is excited by external Gaussian loads; and a model updating technique that minimizes the differences between the response of the actual system and that of a parametric system used to identify the unknown parameters. Numerical analysis, that simulate virtual experimental tests, are used in the paper to show the capabilities of the method and to analyse the conditions required for its application.

In a reinforced concrete building different shapes of column are adopted depending on the structural orientation and the architectural aspect. When there is an increase in loading due to changes in usage or revision in the design codes these columns need to be strengthened for enhanced performance during their service life. Strengthening materials such as carbon fiber and glass fiber polymer has been successfully used however, due to high cost application other alternative materials need to be explore. Galvanized steel wire mesh (GSWM) is one of the suitable materials locally available. High tensile strength, low weight, corrosion resistance, easy installation, minimum change in dimensions of the sections and cost effectives are the advantages of GSWM. Therefore, in this paper, four different shapes of column such as circular, square, rectangular and L were wrapped with different layers GSWM and jacketed with mortar. All the specimens were tested under axial compression. The objective of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of GSWM as a confining material for strengthening of column having varying shape. Test results shows that the axial strength enhanced with wrapping of GSWM jacket and a circular column presented the highest load carrying capacity and ductility as compared to the others. From the study of 22 column specimens, it is found that axial load is increased upto 20% and 19% when circular and square column are strengthened with one wrap of GSWM respectively, while a rectangular and L column required a wraps of two and three layers respectively in order to achieved the same load capacity as that of a circular column. Based on the present study, it is concluded that GSWM can be effectively used for strengthening of different shapes of concrete columns economically.

Using bonded fiber-reinforced polymer laminates for strengthening wooden structural members has been shown to be an effective and economical method. In this research, properties of suitable composite materials (sika wrap), adhesives and two ways of strengthening beams exposed to bending moment are presented. Passive or slack reinforcement is one way of strengthening. The most effective way of such a strengthening was to place reinforcement laminates in the stretched part of the wooden beam (lower part in our case), in order to investigate the effectiveness of externally bonding FRP to their soffits. The model is based on equilibrium and deformations compatibility requirements in and all parts of the strengthened beam, i.e., the wooden beam, the sika wrap composite plate and the adhesive layer. The theoretical predictions are compared with other existing solutions. This research is helpful for the understanding on mechanical behaviour of the interface and design of the composite-wooden hybrid structures. The results showed that the use of the new strengthening system enhances the performance of the wooden beam when compared with the traditional strengthening system.

Civil structures may experience progressive deterioration and damage under environmental and operational conditions over their service life. Finite element (FE) model updating method is one of the most important approaches for damage identification in structures due to its capabilities in structural health monitoring. Although various damage detection approaches have been investigated on structures, there are limited studies on large-sized space structures. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the applicability and efficiency of sensitivity-based FE model updating framework for damage identification in large space structures from a distinct point of view. This framework facilitates modeling and model updating in large and geometric complicated space structures. Considering sensitivity-based FE model updating and vibration measurements, the discrepancy between acceleration response data in real damaged structure and hypothetical damaged structure have been minimized through adjusting the updating parameters. The feasibility and efficiency of the above-mentioned approach for damage identification has finally been demonstrated with two numerical examples: a flat double layer grid and a double layer diamatic dome. According to the results, this method can detect, localize, and quantify damages in large-scaled space structures very accurately which is robust to noisy data. Also, requiring a remarkably small number of iterations to converge, typically less than four, demonstrates the computational efficiency of this method.