In this paper, the effects of elevated temperatures on the strength and compressive stress-strain curve (SSC) of recycled coarse aggregate concrete with different replacement percentages are presented. 90 recycled coarse aggregate concrete prisms are heated up to 20, 200, 400, 600, $800^{\circ}C$. The results show that the compressive strength, split tensile strength, elastic modulus of recycled aggregate concrete specimens decline significantly as the temperature rise. While the peak strain increase of recycled aggregate concrete specimens as the temperature rise. Compared to the experimental curves, the proposed stress-strain relations for recycled aggregate concrete after exposure elevated temperatures can be used in practical engineering applications.

This work is conducted with the aim of using waste material to reserve the natural resources. The objective is accomplished by conducting experimentation and verify by modeling based on fuzzy logic. In experimentation, concrete is casted by using natural/river sand as fine aggregate and termed as control specimen. Natural sand is conserved by replacing it with used foundry sand (UFS) by an amount of 10, 20 and 30% by weight. Fresh and hardened properties of concrete are investigated at different ages. It is observed that compressive strength and modulus of elasticity reduced with the increase in amount of UFS. Furthermore, concrete compressive strength is predicted by using fuzzy logic model and verified at different replacement ratio and age with experimental observations.

In this paper, 54 pull-out specimens and 36 cubic specimens with different replacement ratios of fly ash in the concrete (i.e., 0%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%) were fabricated to evaluate the bond at the interface between fly ash concrete and steel rebar. The results showed that the general shape of the bond-slip curve between fly ash concrete and steel rebar was similar to that for the normal concrete and steel rebar. The bond strength between fly ash concrete and the steel rebar was closer to each other at the same rebar diameter, irrespective of the fly ash replacement percentage. On the basis of a regression analysis of the experimental data, a revised bond strength mode and bond-slip relationship model were proposed to predict the bond-slip behaviour of high volume fly ash concrete and steel rebar.

This study experimentally investigated the flexural capacity of a concrete beam reinforced with a newly developed GFRP bar that overcomes the lower modulus of elasticity and bond strength compared to a steel bar. The GFRP bar was fabricated by thermosetting a braided pultrusion process to form the outer fiber ribs. The mechanical properties of the modulus of elasticity and bond strength were enhanced compared with those of commercial GFRP bars. In the four-point bending test results, all specimens failed according to the intended failure mode due to flexural design in compliance with ACI 440.1R-15. The effects of the reinforcement ratio and concrete compressive strength were investigated. Equations from the code were used to predict the deflection, and they overestimated the deflection compared with the experimental results. A modified model using two coefficients was developed to provide much better predictive ability, even when the effective moment of inertia was less than the theoretical $I_{cr}$. The deformability of the test beams satisfied the specified value of 4.0 in compliance with CSA S6-10. A modified effective moment of inertia with two correction factors was proposed and it could provide much better predictability in prediction even at the effective moment of inertia less than that of theoretical cracked moment of inertia.

The discovery of the Interfacial Transition Zone (ITZ) by Farran in 1956 initiated a new era in the study of the behaviour of concrete. Acknowledged as the weak link, this ITZ was studied extensively, numerically as well as experimentally. While the complementary experimental tests illustrated the visual behaviour of this specimen under increasing monotonic compression loading, a perfect bond within the ITZ has also been studied by using finite element analysis for comparison purposes. Finite element analysis was used to evaluate the degree of correctness and precision of the proposed ITZ model. This paper discusses the use of the cutoff bar in finite element modeling, representing the ITZ of a single aggregate (inclusion) in a mortar matrix. Experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of the ITZ model on the single inclusion specimen's strength. The model was tested for some inclusions that varied in dimension and shape. The effect of inclusion shape on the stress concentrations of the specimens was examined. The aim of this research work is to propose a simple yet accurate ITZ model to be used in the commercially available finite element software packages.

High-performance concrete, besides aggregate, cement, and water, incorporates supplementary cementitious materials, such as fly ash and blast furnace slag, and chemical admixture, such as superplasticizer. Hence, it is a highly complex material and modeling its behavior represents a difficult task. This paper presents an evolutionary system for the prediction of high performance concrete strength. The proposed framework blends a recently developed version of genetic programming with a local search method. The resulting system enables us to build a model that produces an accurate estimation of the considered parameter. Experimental results show the suitability of the proposed system for the prediction of concrete strength. The proposed method produces a lower error with respect to the state-of-the art technique. The paper provides two contributions: from the point of view of the high performance concrete strength prediction, a system able to outperform existing state-of-the-art techniques is defined; from the machine learning perspective, this case study shows that including a local searcher in the geometric semantic genetic programming system can speed up the convergence of the search process.

Based on the Arrhenius equations, several hydration exothermic models that precisely calculate the influence of concrete's self-temperature duration on its hydration exothermic rate have been presented. However, the models' convergence is difficult to achieve when applied to engineering projects, especially when the activation energy of the Arrhenius equation is precisely considered. Thus, the models' convergence performance should be improved. To solve this problem and apply the model to engineering projects, the relationship between fast iteration and proper expression forms of the adiabatic temperature rise, the coupling relationship between the pipe-cooling and hydration exothermic models, and the influence of concrete's self-temperature duration on its mechanical properties were studied. Based on these results, the rapid convergence of the hydration exothermic model and its coupling with pipe-cooling models were achieved. The calculation results for a particular engineering project show that the improved concrete hydration exothermic model and the corresponding mechanical model can be suitably applied to engineering projects.

One of the main disadvantages of Ultra High Performance Concrete exists in the large suggested value of UHPC ingredients. The purpose of this study was to find the models mechanical properties which included a 7, 14 and 28-day compressive strength test, a 28-day splitting tensile and modulus of rupture test for Ultra High Performance Concrete, as well as, a study on the interaction and correlation of five variables that includes silica fume amount (SF), cement 42.5 amount, steel fiber amount, superplasticizer amount (SP), and w/c mechanical properties of UHPC. The response surface methodology was analyzed between the variables and responses. The relationships and mathematical models in terms of coded variables were established by ANOVA. The validity of models were checked by experimental values. The offered models are valid for mixes with the fraction proportion of fine aggregate as; 0.70-1.30 cement amount, 0.15-0.30 silica fume, 0.04-0.08 superplasticizer, 0.10-0.20 steel fiber, and 0.18-0.32 water binder ratio.

The nonlinear buckling response of nano composite anti-symmetric functionally graded polymeric microplate reinforced by single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) rested on orthotropic elastomeric foundation with temperature dependent properties is investigated. For the carbon-nanotube reinforced composite (CNTRC) microplate, a uniform distribution (UD) and four types of functionally graded (FG) distribution are considered. Based on orthotropic Mindlin plate theory, von Karman geometric nonlinearity and Hamilton's principle, the governing equations are derived. Generalized differential quadrature method (GDQM) is employed to calculate the non-linear buckling response of the plate. Effects of FG distribution type, elastomeric foundation, aspect ratio (thickness to width ratio), boundary condition, orientation of foundation orthotropy and temperature are considered. The results are validated. It is found that the critical buckling load without elastic medium is significantly lower than considering Winkler and Pasternak medium.

An energy-based approach for determining earthquake safety of reinforced concrete frame structures is presented. The developed approach is based on comparison of plastic energy capacities of the structures with plastic energy demands obtained for selected earthquake records. Plastic energy capacities of the selected reinforced concrete frames are determined graphically by analyzing plastic hinge regions with the developed equations. Seven earthquake records are chosen to perform the nonlinear time history analyses. Earthquake plastic energy demands are determined from nonlinear time history analyses and hysteretic behavior of earthquakes is converted to monotonic behavior by using nonlinear moment-rotation relations of plastic hinges and plastic axial deformations in columns. Earthquake safety of selected reinforced concrete frames is assessed by using plastic energy capacity graphs and earthquake plastic energy demands. The plastic energy dissipation capacities of the frame structures are examined whether these capacities can withstand the plastic energy demands for selected earthquakes or not. The displacements correspond to the mean plastic energy demands are obtained quite close to the displacements determined by using the procedures given in different seismic design codes.

In this study, the thermoelastic beam in modified couple stress theory due to laser source and heat flux is investigated. The beam are heated by a non-Guassian laser pulse and heat flux. The Euler Bernoulli beam theory and the Laplace transform technique are applied to solve the basic equations for coupled thermoelasticity. The simply-supported and isothermal boundary conditions are assumed for both ends of the beam. A general algorithm of the inverse Laplace transform is developed. The analytical results have been numerically analyzed with the help of MATLAB software. The numerically computed results for lateral deflection, thermal moment and axial stress due to laser source and heat flux have been presented graphically. Some comparisons have been shown in figures to estimate the effects of couple stress on the physical quantities. A particular case of interest is also derived. The study of laser-pulse find many applications in the field of biomedical, imaging processing, material processing and medicine with regard to diagnostics and therapy.

This paper presents a method using artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict the residual moment capacity of thermally insulated reinforced concrete (RC) beams exposed to fire. The use of heat resistant insulation material protects concrete beams against the harmful effects of fire. If it is desired to calculate the residual moment capacity of the beams in this state, the determination of the moment capacity of thermally insulated beams exposed to fire involves several consecutive calculations, which is significantly easier when ANNs are used. Beam width, beam effective depth, fire duration, concrete compressive and steel tensile strength, steel area, thermal conductivity of insulation material can influence behavior of RC beams exposed to high temperatures. In this study, a finite difference method was used to calculate the temperature distribution in a cross section of the beam, and temperature distribution, reduction mechanical properties of concrete and reinforcing steel and moment capacity were calculated using existing relations in literature. Data was generated for 336 beams with different beam width ($b_w$), beam account height (h), fire duration (t), mechanical properties of concrete ($f_{cd}$) and reinforcing steel ($f_{yd}$), steel area ($A_s$), insulation material thermal conductivity (kinsulation). Five input parameters ($b_w$, h, $f_{cd}$, $f_{yd}$, $A_s$ and $k_{insulation}$) were used in the ANN to estimate the moment capacity ($M_r$). The trained model allowed the investigation of the effects on the moment capacity of the insulation material and the results indicated that the use of insulation materials with the smallest value of the thermal conductivities used in calculations is effective in protecting the RC beam against fire.

In this paper, four formulas are proposed via gene expression programming (GEP)-based models and regression analysis (RA) to predict the flexural strength ($f_s$) values of mortars containing different mineral admixtures that are ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS), silica fume (SF) and fly ash (FA) at different ages. Three formulas obtained from the GEP-I, GEP-II and GEP-III models are constituted to predict the $f_s$ values from the age of specimen, water-binder ratio and compressive strength. Besides, one formula obtained from the RA is constituted to predict the $f_s$ values from the compressive strength. To achieve these formulas in the GEP and RA models, 972 data of the experimental studies presented with mortar mixtures were gathered from the literatures. 734 data of the experimental studies are divided without pre-planned for these formulas achieved from the training and testing sets of GEP and RA models. Beside, these formulas are validated with 238 data of experimental studies un-employed in training and testing sets. The $f_s$ results obtained from the training, testing and validation sets of these formulas are compared with the results obtained from the experimental studies and the formulas given in the literature for concrete. These comparisons show that the results of the formulas obtained from the GEP and RA models appear to well compatible with the experimental results and find to be very credible according to the results of other formulas.

This paper presents the two-, three-, and four-lane transverse reduction factor based on FEA method, probability theory, and the recently actual traffic flow data. A total of 72 composite girder bridges with various spans, number of lanes, loading mode, and bridge type are analyzed with time-varying static load FEA method by ANSYS, and the probability models of vehicle load effects at arbitrary-time point are developed. Based on these probability models, in accordance to the principle of the same exceeding probability, the multi-lane transverse reduction factor of these composite girder bridges and the relationship between the multi-lane transverse reduction factor and the span of bridge are determined. Finally, the multi-lane transverse reduction factor obtained is compared with those from AASHTO LRFD, BS5400, JTG D60 or Eurocode. The results show that the vehicle load effect at arbitrary-time point follows lognormal distribution. The two-, three-, and four-lane transverse reduction factors calculated by using FEA method and probability respectively range between 0.781 and 1.027, 0.616 and 0.795, 0.468 and 0.645. Furthermore, a correlation between the FEA and AASHTO LRFD, BS5400, JTG D60 or Eurocode transverse reduction factors is made for composite girder bridges. For the two-, three-, and four-lane bridge cases, the Eurocode code underestimated the FEA transverse reduction factors by 27%, 25% and 13%, respectively. This underestimation is more pronounced in short-span bridges. The AASHTO LRFD, BS5400 and JTG D60 codes overestimated the FEA transverse reduction factors. The FEA results highlight the importance of considering span length in determining the multi-lane transverse reduction factors when designing two-lane or more composite girder bridges. This paper will assist bridge engineers in quantifying the adjustment factors used in analyzing and designing multi-lane composite girder bridges.

Geopolymer Concrete is typically proportioned with activator solution leading to moderately high material cost. Such cost can be enduring in high value added applications especially when cost savings can be recognized in terms of reduction in size of the members. Proper material selection and mix proportioning can diminish the material cost. In the present investigation, a total of 27 mixes were arrived considering the mix parameters as liquid-binder ratio, slag content and sodium hydroxide concentration to study the mechanical properties of geopolymer concrete (GPC) mixes such as compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength. The derived statistical Response Surface Methodology is beleaguered to develop cost effective GPC mixes. The estimated responses are not likely to contrast in linear mode with selected variables; a plan was selected to enable the model of any response in a quadratic manner. The results reveals that a fair correlation between the experimental and the predicted strengths.

Dynamic analysis of a concrete pipes armed with Silica ($SiO_2$) nanoparticles subjected to earthquake load is presented. The structure is modeled with first order shear deformation theory (FSDT) of cylindrical shells. Mori-Tanaka approach is applied for obtaining the equivalent material properties of the structure considering agglomeration effects. Based on energy method and Hamilton's principle, the motion equations are derived. Utilizing the harmonic differential quadrature method (HDQM) and Newmark method, the dynamic displacement of the structure is calculated for the Kobe earthquake. The effects of different parameters such as geometrical parameters of pipe, boundary conditions, $SiO_2$ volume percent and agglomeration are shown on the dynamic response of the structure. The results indicate that reinforcing the concrete pipes by $SiO_2$ nanoparticles leads to a reduction in the displacement of the structure during an earthquake.