Mortar is a masonry product which is matrix of concrete. It consists of binder and fine aggregate and moreover, it is an essential associate in any reinforced structural construction. The strength of mortar is a special concern to the engineer because mortar is responsible to give protection in the outer part of the structure as well as at a brick joint in masonry wall system. The purpose of this research is to investigate the compressive strength and tensile strength of mortar, which are important mechanical properties, by replacing the cement and sand by stone dust. Moreover, to minimize the increasing demand of cement and sand, checking of appropriateness of stone dust as a construction material is necessary to ensure both solid waste minimization and recovery by exchanging stone dust with cement and sand. Stone dust passing by No. 200 sieve, is used as cement replacing material and retained by No. 100 sieve is used for sand replacement. Sand was replaced by stone dust of 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, 35%, 40%, 45% and 50% by weight of sand while cement was replaced by stone dust of 3%, 5%, and 7% by weight of cement. Test result indicates that, compressive strength of specimen mix with 35% of sand replacing stone dust and 3% of cement replacing stone dust increases 21.33% and 22.76% respectively than the normal mortar specimen at 7 and 28 days while for tensile it increases up to 13.47%. At the end, optimum dose was selected and crack analysis as well as discussion also included.

In many parts of the world, reinforced concrete (RC) buildings, designed and built in accordance with older codes, have suffered severe damage or even collapse as a result of recent near-fault earthquakes. This is particularly due to the deficiencies of most of the older (and even some of the recent) codes in dealing with near fault events. In this study, a tested three-storey frame designed for gravity loads only was selected to represent those deficient buildings. Nonlinear time history analyses were performed, followed by damage assessment procedures. The results were compared with experimental observation of the same frame showing a good match. Damage and fragility analyses of the frame subjected to 204 pulse-type motions were then performed using a selected damage model and inter-storey drifts. The results showed that the frame located in near-fault regions is extremely vulnerable to ground motions. The results also showed that the damage model better captures the damage distribution in the frame than inter-storey drifts. The first storey was identified as the most fragile and the inner columns of the first storey suffered most damage as indicated by the damage index. The findings would be helpful in the decision making process prior to the strengthening of buildings in near-fault regions.

This study presents the experimental results of twenty three reinforced concrete beams with rectangular web openings externally strengthened with Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRP) composites bonded around openings. All tested beams had the same geometry and reinforcement details. At openings locations, the stirrups intercepted the openings were cut during fabrication of reinforcement cage to simulate the condition of inclusion of an opening in an existing beam. Several design parameters are considered including the opening dimensions and location in the shear zone, the wrapping configurations, and the amount and the type of the FRP composites in the vicinity of the openings. The wrapping configurations of FRP included: sheets, strips, U-shape strips, and U-shape strips with bundles of FRP strands placed at the top and sides of the beam forming a fan under the strips to achieve closed wrapping. The effect of these parameters on the failure modes, the ultimate load, and the beam stiffness were investigated. The shear contribution of FRP on the shear capacity of tested beams with web openings was estimated according to ACI Committee 440-08, Canadian Standards S6-06, and Khalifa et al. model and examined against the test results. A modification factor to account for the dimensions of opening chords was applied to the predicted gain in the shear capacity according to ACI 440-08 and CSA S6-06 for bonded Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymers (GFRP) around openings. The analytical results after incorporating the modification factor into the codes guidelines showed good agreement with the test results.

The present research work is on the effect of sawdust ash (SDA) on the mechanical strengths of self compacting concrete (SCC) using naphthalene sulfonate (NS) as a plasticizer. Experiments on compressive, flexural and splitting tensile strengths are conducted and the data analyzed using the Minitab 15 software. The results showed that SDA can defer the reaction of cement hydration and prolong the setting times of cement paste. This was very much pronounced on the flexural and splitting tensile strengths at 90 days of curing which are 36 % and 33 % higher than the control strengths, respectively. The study has proposed strength relations of mortar compressive strength with the flexural and splitting tensile strengths and these are, 5 and 7 times respectively. The flexural strength is 1.5 times that of the splitting tensile. Finally, linear models were developed on these relationships.

In the design of reinforced concrete structural walls, in order to ensure adequate inelastic displacement behaviour and to sustain deformation demands imposed by strong ground motions, special reinforcement is considered while designing. However, these would lead to severe reinforcement congestion and difficulties during construction. Addition of randomly distributed discrete fibres in concrete improves the flexural behaviour of structural elements because of its enhanced tensile properties and this leads to reduction in congestion. This paper deals with effect of addition of steel fibres on the behavior of high performance fibre reinforced cement concrete (HPFRCC) slender structural walls with the different volume fractions of steel fibres. The specimens were subjected to quasi static lateral reverse cyclic loading until failure. The high performance concrete (HPC) used was obtained based on the guidelines given in ACI 211.1 which was further modified by prof.Aitcin (1998). The volume fraction of the fibres used in this study varied from 0 to 1% with an increment of 0.5%. The results were analysed critically and appraised. The study indicates that the addition of steel fibres in the HPC structural walls enhances the first crack load, strength, initial stiffness and energy dissipation capacity.