• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.221-240
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• 2017

The modeling of the mechanical behavior of quasi-brittle materials is still a challenge task, mainly in failure processes when fracture and plasticity phenomena become important actors in dissipative processes which occur in materials like concrete, as instance. Many homogenization-based approaches have been proposed to deal with heterogeneous materials in the last years. In this context, a computational homogenization modeling for concrete is presented in this work using the concept of Representative Volume Element (RVE). The material is considered as a three-phase material consisting of interface zone (ITZ), matrix and inclusions-each constituent modeled by an independent constitutive model. The Representative Volume Element (RVE) consists of inclusions idealized as circular shapes symmetrically and nonsymmetrically placed into the specimen. The interface zone is modeled by means of cohesive contact finite elements. The inclusion is modeled as linear elastic and matrix region is considered as elastoplastic material. A set of examples is presented in order to show the potentialities and limitations of the proposed modeling. The consideration of the fracture processes in the ITZ is fundamental to capture complex macroscopic characteristics of the material using simple constitutive models at mesoscopic level.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.239-253
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• 2009

This paper reviews the concept of tensegrity structures and proposes a new type of dismountable steel tensegrity grids for possible deployment as light-weight roof structures. It covers the fabrication of the prototype structures followed by their instrumentation, destructive testing and numerical analysis. First, a single module, measuring $1m{\times}1m$ in size, is fabricated based on half-cuboctahedron configuration using galvanised iron (GI) pipes as struts and high tensile stranded cables as tensile elements. Detailed instrumentation of the structure is carried out right at the fabrication stage. The structure is thereafter subjected to destructive test during which the strain and the displacement responses are carefully monitored. The structure is modelled and analyzed using finite element method (FEM) and the model generated is updated with the experimental results. The investigations are then extended to a $2{\times}2$ grid, measuring $2m{\times}2m$ in size, fabricated uniquely by the cohesive integration of four single tensegrity modules. After updating and validating on the $2{\times}2$ grid, the finite element model is extended to a $8{\times}8$ grid (consisting of 64 units and measuring $8m{\times}8m$) whose behaviour is studied in detail for various load combinations expected to act on the structure. The results demonstrate that the proposed tensegrity grid structures are not only dismountable but also exhibit satisfactory behaviour from strength and serviceability point of view.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.17 no.6 s.90
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• pp.1053-1064
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• 2005

The mechanical damage of concrete is normally attributed to the formation of microcracks and their propagation and coalescence into macroscopic cracks. This physical degradation is caused from progressive and hierarchical damage of the microstructure due to debonding and slip along bimaterial interfaces at the mesoscale. Their growth and coalescence leads to initiation of hairline discrete cracks at the mesoscale. Eventually, single or multiple major discrete cracks develop at the macroscale. In this paper, from this conceptual model of mechanical damage in concrete, the computational efforts were made in order to characterize physical cracks and how to quantify the damage of concrete materials within the laws of thermodynamics with the aid of interface element in traditional finite element methodology. One dimensional effective traction/jump constitutive interface law is introduced in order to accommodate the normal opening and tangential slips on the interfaces between different materials(adhesion) or similar materials(cohesion) in two and three dimensional problems. Mode I failure and mixed mode failure of various geometries and boundary conditions are discussed in the sense of crack propagation and their spent of fracture energy under monotonic displacement control.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2012

The problem of laterally loaded piles is particularly a complex soil-structure interaction problem. The flexural stresses developed due to the combined action of axial load and bending moment must be evaluated in a realistic and rational manner for safe and economical design of pile foundation. The paper reports the finite element analysis of pile groups. For this purpose simplified models along the lines similar to that suggested by Desai et al. (1981) are used for idealizing various elements of the foundation system. The pile is idealized one dimensional beam element, pile cap as two dimensional plate element and the soil as independent closely spaced linearly elastic springs. The analysis takes into consideration the effect of interaction between pile cap and soil underlying it. The pile group is considered to have been embedded in cohesive soil. The parametric study is carried out to examine the effect of pile spacing, pile diameter, number of piles and arrangement of pile on the responses of pile group. The responses considered include the displacement at top of pile group and bending moment in piles. The results obtained using the simplified approach of the F.E. analysis are further compared with the results of the complete 3-D F.E. analysis published earlier and fair agreement is observed in the either result.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.275-291
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• 2015

Adherence between reinforcement and the surrounding concrete is usually ignored in finite element analysis (FEA) of reinforced concrete (RC) members. However, load transition between the reinforcement and surrounding concrete effects RC members' behavior a great deal. In this study, the effects of bond-slip on the FEA of RC members are examined. In the analyses, three types of bond-slip modeling methods (perfect bond, contact elements and spring elements) and three types of reinforcement modeling methods (smeared, one dimensional line and three dimensional solid elements) were used. Bond-slip behavior between the reinforcement and surrounding concrete was simulated with cohesive zone materials (CZM) for the first time. The bond-slip relationship was identified experimentally using a beam bending test as suggested by RILEM. The results obtained from FEA were compared with the results of four RC beams that were tested experimentally. Results showed that, in FE analyses, because of the perfect bond occurrence between the reinforcement and surrounding concrete, unrealistic strains occurred in the longitudinal reinforcement. This situation greatly affected the load deflection relationship because the longitudinal reinforcements dominated the failure mode. In addition to the spring elements, the combination of a bonded contact option with CZM also gave closer results to the experimental models. However, modeling of the bond-slip relationship with a contact element was quite difficult and time consuming. Therefore bond-slip modeling is more suitable with spring elements.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.413-422
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• 2019

In this study, 3D Meso-scale finite-element model is presented to study the mechanical behavior of steel microfiber-reinforced polymer concrete considering the random distribution of fibers in the matrix. The composite comprises two separate parts which are the polymer composite and steel microfibers. The polymer composite is assumed to be homogeneous, which its mechanical properties are measured by performing experimental tests. The steel microfiber-polymer bonding is simulated with the Cohesive Zone Model (CZM) to offer more-realistic assumptions. The CZM parameters are obtained by calibrating the numerical model using the results of the experimental pullout tests on an individual microfiber. The accuracy of the results is validated by comparing the obtained results with the corresponding values attained from testing the steel microfiber-reinforced polymer concrete incorporating 0, 1 and 2% by volume of microfibers, which indicates the excellent accuracy of the current proposed model. The results show that the microfiber aspect ratio has a considerable effect on the mechanical properties of the reinforced polymer concrete. Applying microfibers with a higher aspect ratio improves the mechanical properties of the composite considerably especially when the first crack appears in the polymer concrete specimens.

• Composites Research
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.337-344
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• 2021

In this study, the progressive failure behavior of the composite fan blade dovetail element under tensile loading is numerically investigated through finite element(FE) simulation. The accuracy of prediction by FE simulation is verified through tensile testing. The dovetail element is one of the joints for coupling the fan blade with the disk in a turbofan engine. The dovetail element is usually made of a metal material such as titanium, but the application of composite material is being studied for weight reduction reasons. However, manufacturing defects such as drop-off ply and resin pocket inevitably occur in realizing complex shapes of the fan blade made by composite materials. To investigate the effect of these manufacturing defects on the composite fan blade dovetail element, we performed numerical simulation with FE model to compare the prediction of the FE model and the tensile test results. At this time, the cohesive zone model is used to simulate the delamination behavior. Finally, we found that FE simulation results agree with test results when considering thermal residual stress and through-thickness compression enhancement effect.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.393-405
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• 2022

Lightweight concrete is a superior material due to its light weight and high strength. There however remain significant lacunae in engineering knowledge with regards to shear failure of lightweight fiber reinforced concrete beams. The main aim of the present study is to investigate the optimum usage of steel fibers in lightweight fiber reinforced concrete (LWFRC). Multi-scale finite element model calibrated with experimental results is developed to study the effect of steel fibers on the mechanical properties of LWFRC beams. To decrease the amount of steel fibers, it is preferred to reinforce only the middle section of the LWFRC beams, where the flexural stresses are higher. For numerical simulation, a multi-scale finite element model was developed. The cement matrix was modeled as homogeneous and uniform material and both steel fibers and lightweight coarse aggregates were randomly distributed within the matrix. Considering more realistic assumptions, the bonding between fibers and cement matrix was considered with the Cohesive Zone Model (CZM) and its parameters were determined using the model update method. Furthermore, conformity of Load-Crack Mouth Opening Displacement (CMOD) curves obtained from numerical modeling and experimental test results of notched beams under center-point loading tests were investigated. Validating the finite element model results with experimental tests, the effects of fibers' volume fraction, and the length of the reinforced middle section, on flexural and residual strengths of LWFRC, were studied. Results indicate that using steel fibers in a specified length of the concrete beam with high flexural stresses, and considerable savings can be achieved in using steel fibers. Reducing the length of the reinforced middle section from 50 to 30 cm in specimens containing 10 kg/m3 of steel fibers, resulting in a considerable decrease of the used steel fibers by four times, whereas only a 7% reduction in bearing capacity was observed. Therefore, determining an appropriate length of the reinforced middle section is an essential parameter in reducing fibers, usage leading to more affordable construction costs.

• Interaction and multiscale mechanics
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.57-73
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• 2012

The paper presents the analysis of two groups of piles subjected to lateral loads incorporating the non-linear behaviour of soil. The finite element method is adopted for carrying out the parametric study of the pile groups. The pile is idealized as a one dimensional beam element, the pile cap as two dimensional plate elements and the soil as non-linear elastic springs using the p-y curves developed by Georgiadis et al. (1992). Two groups of piles, embedded in a cohesive soil, involving two and three piles in series and parallel arrangement thereof are considered. The response of the pile groups is found to be significantly affected by the parameters such as the spacing between the piles, the number of piles in a group and the orientation of the lateral load. The non-linear response of the system is, further, compared with the one by Chore et al. (2012) obtained by the analysis of a system to the present one, except that the soil is assumed to be linear elastic. From the comparison, it is observed that the non-linearity of soil is found to increase the top displacement of the pile group in the range of 66.4%-145.6%, while decreasing the fixed moments in the range of 2% to 20% and the positive moments in the range of 54% to 57%.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.41-58
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• 2016

The study deals with physical modeling of a typical building frame resting on pile raft foundation and embedded in cohesive soil mass using finite element based software ETABS. Both- the elements of superstructure and substructure (i.e., foundation) including soil is assumed to remain in elastic state at all the time. The raft is modelled as a thin plate and the pile and soils are treated as interactive springs. Both- the resistance of the piles as well as that of raft base - are incorporated into the model. Interactions between raft-soil-pile are computed. The proposed method makes it possible to solve the problems of uniformly and large non-uniformly arranged piled rafts in a time saving way using finite element based software ETABS. The effect of the various parameters of the pile raft foundation such as thickness of raft and pile diameter is evaluated on the response of superstructure. The response included the displacement at the top of the frame and bending moment in columns. The soil-structure interaction effect is found to increase displacement and increase the absolute maximum positive and negative moments. The effect of the soil- structure interaction is observed to be significant for the type of foundation and soil considered in the present study.