• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.761-778
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• 2015

The objective of this paper is to report the result of an experimental program conducted on the strengthening of nonductile RC frames by using external mesh reinforcement and plaster application. The main objective was to test an alternative strengthening technique for reinforced concrete buildings, which could be applied with minimum disturbance to the occupants. Generic specimen is two floors and one bay RC frame in 1/2 scales. The basic aim of tested strengthening techniques is to upgrade strength, ductility and stiffness of the member and/or the structural system. Six specimens, two of which were reference specimens and the remaining four of which had deficient steel detailing and poor concrete quality were strengthened and tested in an experimental program under cyclic loading. The parameters of the experimental study are mesh reinforcement ratio and plaster thickness of the infilled wall. The effects of the mesh reinforced plaster application for strengthening on behavior, strength, stiffness, failure mode and ductility of the specimens were investigated. Premature and unexpected failure mode has been observed at first and second specimens failed due to inadequate plaster thickness. Also third strengthened specimen failed due to inadequate lap splice of the external mesh reinforcement. The last modified specimen behaved satisfactorily with higher ultimate load carrying capacity. Externally reinforced infill wall composites improve seismic behavior by increasing lateral strength, lateral stiffness, and energy dissipation capacity of reinforced concrete buildings, and limit both structural and nonstructural damages caused by earthquakes.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.104-111
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to investigate the flexural behavior and plastic hinge of reinforced concrete-ECC composite beams. Ordinary portland cement was used as a binder, and high volume fly ash was also used to improve the properties of ECC. An ECC designed in this study showed high tensile strain capacity of 3.0%. Three types of beams were manufactured according to the replacement length of concrete with ECC. From the bending tests, it was found that load-bearing capacity as well as ductility of beam increased with an increase in the replacement length of concrete with ECC. Curvature ductility and plastic hinge length of beam were also increased.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.453-464
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• 2017

The square tubed-reinforced concrete (TRC) column is a kind of special concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) columns, in which the outer thin-walled steel tube does not pass through the beam-column joint, so that the longitudinal steel reinforcing bars in the RC beam are continuous through the connection zone. However, there is a possible decrease of the axial bearing capacity at the TRC column to RC beam connection due to the discontinuity of the column tube, which is a concern to engineers. 24 connections and 7 square TRC columns were tested under axial compression. The primary parameters considered in the tests are: (1) connection location (corner, exterior and interior); (2) dimensions of RC beam cross section; (3) RC beam type (with or without horizontal haunches); (4) tube type (with or without stiffening ribs). The test results show that all specimens have relatively high load-carrying capacity and satisfactory ductility. With a proper design, the connections exhibit higher axial resistance and better ductility performance than the TRC column. The feasibility of this type of connections is verified.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.269-282
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• 2015

Civil structures should be designed with the lowest cost and longest lifetime possible and without service failure. The efficient and sustainable use of materials in building design and construction has always been at the forefront for civil engineers and environmentalists. Timber is one of the best contenders for these purposes particularly in terms of aesthetics; fire protection; strength-to-weight ratio; acoustic properties and seismic resistance. In recent years, timber has been used in commercial and taller buildings due to these significant advantages. It should be noted that, since the launch of the modern building standards and codes, a number of different structural systems have been developed to stabilise steel or concrete multistorey buildings, however, structural analysis of high-rise and multi-storey timber frame buildings subjected to lateral loads has not yet been fully understood. Additionally, timber degradation can occur as a result of biological decay of the elements and overloading that can result in structural damage. In such structures, the deficient members and joints require strengthening in order to satisfy new code requirements; determine acceptable level of safety; and avoid brittle failure following earthquake actions. This paper investigates performance assessment and damage assessment of older multi-storey timber buildings. One approach is to retrofit the beams in order to increase the ductility of the frame. Experimental studies indicate that Sprayed Fibre Reinforced Polymer (SFRP) repairing/retrofitting not only updates the integrity of the joint, but also increases its strength; stiffness; and ductility in such a way that the joint remains elastic. Non-linear finite element analysis ('pushover') is carried out to study the behaviour of the structure subjected to simulated gravity and lateral loads. A new global index is re-assessed for damage assessment of the plain and SFRP-retrofitted frames using capacity curves obtained from pushover analysis. This study shows that the proposed method is suitable for structural damage assessment of aged timber buildings. Also SFRP retrofitting can potentially improve the performance and load carrying capacity of the structure.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.1139-1155
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• 2015

In this study, a new retrofitting method for improving the seismic performance of reinforced concrete column was presented, in which prestressed steel strips were utilized as retrofitting stuff to confine the reinforced concrete column transversely. In order to figure out the seismic performance of concrete column specimen retrofitted by such prestressed steel strips methods, a series of quasi-static tests of five retrofitted specimens and two unconfined column specimen which acted as control specimens were conducted. Based on the test results, the seismic performance including the failure modes, hysteresis performance, ductility performance, energy dissipation and stiffness degradation of all these specimens were fully investigated and analyzed. And furthermore the influences of some key parameters such as the axial force ratios, shear span ratios and steel strips spacing on seismic performance of those retrofitted reinforced concrete column specimens were also studied. It was shown that the prestressed steel strips provided large transverse confining effect on reinforced concrete column specimens, which resulted in improving the shearing bearing capacity, ductility performance, deformation capacity and energy dissipation performance of retrofitted specimens effectively. In comparison to the specimen which was retrofitted by the carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) strips method, the seismic performance of the specimens retrofitted by the prestressed steel strips was a bit better, and with much less cost both in material and labor. From this research results, it can be concluded that this new retrofitting method is really useful and has significant advantages both in saving money and time over some other retrofitting methods.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.365-382
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• 2019

In steel frame-tube structures (SFTSs) the application of flexural beam is not suitable for the beam with span-to-depth ratio lower than five because the plastic hinges at beam-ends can not be developed properly. This can lead to lower ductility and energy dissipation capacity of the SFTS. To address this problem, a replaceable shear link, acting as a ductile fuse at the mid length of deep beams, is proposed. SFTS with replaceable shear links (SFTS-RSLs) dissipate seismic energy through shear deformation of the link. In order to evaluate this proposal, buildings were designed to compare the seismic performance of SFTS-RSLs and SFTSs. Several sub-structures were selected from the design buildings and finite element models (FEMs) were established to study their hysteretic behavior. Static pushover and dynamic analyses were undertaken in comparing seismic performance of the FEMs for each building. The results indicated that the SFTS-RSL and SFTS had similar initial lateral stiffness. Compared with SFTS, SFTS-RSL had lower yield strength and maximum strength, but higher ductility and energy dissipation capacity. During earthquakes, SFTS-RSL had lower interstory drift, maximum base shear force and story shear force compared with the SFTS. Placing a shear link at the beam mid-span did not increase shear lag effects for the structure. The SFTS-RSL concentrates plasticity on the shear link. Other structural components remain elastic during seismic loading. It is expected that the SFTS-RSL will be a reliable dual resistant system. It offers the benefit of being able to repair the structure by replacing damaged shear links after earthquakes.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.375-391
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• 2022

This paper examined the impact of the cross-sectional structure on the structural results under different loading conditions of reinforced concrete (RC) members' management limited in Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP). The mechanical properties of CFRC was investigated, then, totally 32 samples were examined. Test parameters included the cross-sectional shape as square, rectangular and circular with two various aspect rates and loading statues. The loading involved concentrated loading, eccentric loading with a ratio of 0.46 to 0.6 and pure bending. The results of the test revealed that the CFRP increased ductility and load during concentrated processing. A cross sectional shape from 23 to 44 percent was increased in load capacity and from 250 to 350 percent increase in axial deformation in rectangular and circular sections respectively, affecting greatly the accomplishment of load capacity and ductility of the concentrated members. Two Artificial Intelligence Models as Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) were used to estimating the tensile and flexural strength of specimen. On the basis of the performance from RMSE and RSQR, C-Shape CFRC was greater tensile and flexural strength than any other FRP composite design. Because of the mechanical anchorage into the matrix, C-shaped CFRCC was noted to have greater fiber-matrix interfacial adhesive strength. However, with the increase of the aspect ratio and fiber volume fraction, the compressive strength of CFRCC was reduced. This possibly was due to the fact that during the blending of each fiber, the volume of air input was increased. In addition, by adding silica fumed to composites, the tensile and flexural strength of CFRCC is greatly improved.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.3
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• pp.345-360
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• 2022

In this paper, the impact on seismic performance of an economical effective technique for retrofitting reinforced concrete (RC) columns using high-strength steel strips under high axial compression ratios was presented. The experimental program included a series of cyclic loading tests on one nonretrofitted control specimen and three retrofitted specimens. The effects of the axial compression ratio and spacing of the steel strips on the cyclic behavior of the specimens were studied. Based on the test results, the failure modes, hysteretic characteristics, strength and stiffness degradation, displacement ductility, and energy dissipation capacity of the specimens were analyzed in-depth. The analysis showed that the transverse confinement provided by the high-strength steel strips could effectively delay and restrain diagonal crack development and improve the failure mode, which was flexural-shear failure controlled by flexural failure with better ductility. The specimens retrofitted using high-strength steel strips showed more satisfactory seismic performance than the control specimen. The seismic performance and deformation capacity of the retrofitted RC columns increased with decreasing axial compression ratio and steel strip spacing. Based on the test results, a hysteretic model for RC columns that considers the transverse confinement of high-strength steel strips was then established. The hysteretic model showed good agreement with the experimental results, which verified the effectiveness of the proposed hysteretic model. Therefore, the aforementioned analysis can be used for the design of retrofitted RC columns.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.60 no.6
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• pp.1021-1038
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• 2016

Considerable part of reinforced concrete building has suffered from destructive earthquakes in Turkey. This situation makes necessary to determine nonlinear behavior and seismic performance of existing RC buildings. Inelastic response of buildings to static and dynamic actions should be determined by considering both flexural plastic hinges and brittle shear hinges. However, shear capacities of members are generally neglected due to time saving issues and convergence problems and only flexural response of buildings are considered in performance assessment studies. On the other hand, recent earthquakes showed that the performance of older buildings is mostly controlled by shear capacities of members rather than flexure. Demand estimation is as important as capacity estimation for the reliable performance prediction in existing RC buildings. Demand estimation methods based on strength reduction factor (R), ductility (${\mu}$), and period (T) parameters ($R-{\mu}-T$) and damping dependent demand formulations are widely discussed and studied by various researchers. Adopted form of $R-{\mu}-T$ based demand estimation method presented in Eurocode 8 and Turkish Earthquake Code-2007 and damping based Capacity Spectrum Method presented in ATC-40 document are the typical examples of these two different approaches. In this study, eight different existing RC buildings, constructed before and after Turkish Earthquake Code-1998, are selected. Capacity curves of selected buildings are obtained with and without considering the brittle shear capacities of members. Seismic drift demands occurred in buildings are determined by using both $R-{\mu}-T$ and damping based estimation methods. Results have shown that not only capacity estimation methods but also demand estimation approaches affect the performance of buildings notably. It is concluded that including or excluding the shear capacity of members in nonlinear modeling of existing buildings significantly affects the strength and deformation capacities and hence the performance of buildings.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.57-66
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• 2011

For the lateral load resistance of a RC frame in a medium risk seismic zone, the strength of lower story beams and columns should be larger than those of the upper stories. However, the lateral loads can be accommodated by redistributing design beam moments vertically as well as horizontally so all beams end up with identical strengths. This paper looks at the impact of the vertical redistribution of beam moments to provide identical beam strength over as many floors as possible. Two-bay six-story RC frame was designed with and without vertical beam moment redistribution and its seismic performance were evaluated by using push-over limit analysis and by non-linear time history dynamic analysis. Analytical results show that with the use of vertical beam moment redistribution the increase in the ductility demand is similar to the proportion of moment redistribution applied, but this additional demand is below the ductility capacity of well detailed RC members.