• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제53권5호
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• pp.921-938
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• 2015

Realistic prediction of concrete creep is of crucial importance for durability and long-term serviceability of concrete structures. To date, research about the behaviour of self-compacting concrete (SCC) members, especially concerning the long-term performance, is rather limited. SCC is quite different from conventional concrete (CC) in mixture proportions and applied materials, particularly in the presence of aggregate which is limited. Hence, the realistic prediction of creep strains in SCC is an important requirement for the design process of this type of concrete structures. This study reviews the accuracy of the conventional concrete (CC) creep prediction models proposed by the international codes of practice, including: CEB-FIP (1990), ACI 209R (1997), Eurocode 2 (2001), JSCE (2002), AASHTO (2004), AASHTO (2007), AS 3600 (2009). Also, SCC creep prediction models proposed by Poppe and De Schutter (2005), Larson (2007) and Cordoba (2007) are reviewed. Further, new creep prediction model based on the comprehensive analysis on both of the available models i.e. the CC and the SCC is proposed. The predicted creep strains are compared with the actual measured creep strains in 55 mixtures of SCC and 16 mixtures of CC.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제14권3호
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• pp.205-227
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• 2013

Current design standards do not provide adequate guidelines for the fire design of cold-formed steel compression members subject to flexural-torsional buckling. Eurocode 3 Part 1.2 (2005) recommends the same fire design guidelines for both hot-rolled and cold-formed steel compression members subject to flexural-torsional buckling although considerable behavioural differences exist between cold-formed and hot-rolled steel members. Past research has recommended the use of ambient temperature cold-formed steel design rules for the fire design of cold-formed steel compression members provided appropriately reduced mechanical properties are used at elevated temperatures. To assess the accuracy of flexural-torsional buckling design rules in both ambient temperature cold-formed steel design and fire design standards, an experimental study of slender cold-formed steel compression members was undertaken at both ambient and elevated temperatures. This paper presents the details of this experimental study, its results, and their comparison with the predictions from the current design rules. It was found that the current ambient temperature design rules are conservative while the fire design rules are overly conservative. Suitable recommendations have been made in relation to the currently available design rules for flexural-torsional buckling including methods of improvement. Most importantly, this paper has addressed the lack of experimental results for slender cold-formed steel columns at elevated temperatures.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제14권2호
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• pp.173-190
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• 2013

The major objective of this paper is to evaluate the behavior and ultimate resisting capacity of circular CFT columns. To consider the confinement effect, proper material models with respect to the confinement pressure are selected. A fiber section approach is adopted to simulate the nonlinear stress distribution along the section depth. Material nonlinearity due to the cracking of concrete and the yielding of the surrounding steel tube, as well as geometric nonlinearity due to the P-${\Delta}$ effect, are taken into account. The validity of the proposed numerical analysis model is established by comparing the analytical predictions with the results from previous experimental studies about pure bending and eccentric axial loading. Numerical predictions using an unconfined material model were also compared to investigate the confinement effects on various loading combinations. The ultimate resisting capacities predicted by the proposed numerical model and the design guidelines in Eurocode 4 are compared to evaluate the existing design recommendation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제63권1호
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• pp.55-64
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• 2017

The paper concerns concrete carbonation, the phenomena that occurs in every type of climate, especially in urban-industrial areas. In European Standards, including Eurocode (EC) for concrete structures the demanded durability of construction located in the conditions of the carbonation threat is mainly assured by the selection of suitable thickness of reinforcement cover. According to EC0 and EC2, the thickness of the cover in the particular class of exposure depends on the structural class/category and concrete compressive strength class which is determined by cement content and water-cement ratio (thus the quantitative composition) but it is not differentiated for various cements, nor additives (i.e., qualitative composition), nor technological types of concrete. As a consequence the selected thickness of concrete cover is in fact a far estimation - sometimes too exaggerated (too safe or too risky). The paper presents the elaborated "self-terminated carbonation model" that includes abovementioned factors and enables to indicate the maximal possible depth of carbonation. This is possible because presented model is a hyperbolic function of carbonation depth in time (the other models published in the literature use the parabolic function that theoretically assume the infinite increase of carbonation depth value). The paper discusses the presented model in comparison to other models published in the literature, moreover it contains the algorithm of concrete cover design with use of the model as well as an example of calculation of the cover thickness.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제21권6호
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• pp.597-607
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• 2015

With an increasing demand of a renewable energy, new offshore wind turbine farms are being planned in some parts of the world. Foundation installation asks a significant cost of the total budget of offshore wind turbine (OWT) projects. Hence, a cost reduction from foundation parts is a key element when a cost-efficient designing of OWT budget. Mono-piles have been largely used, accounting about 78% of existing OWT foundations, because they are considered as a most economical alternative with a relatively shallow-water, less than 30 m of seawater depth. OWT design standards such as IEC, GL, DNV, API, and Eurocode are being developed in a form of reliability based limit state design method. In this paper, reliability analysis using the response surface method (RSM) and numerical simulation technique for an OWT mono-pile foundation were performed to investigate the sensitivities of mono-pile design parameters, and to find practical implications of RSM reliability analysis.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제11권3호
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• pp.505-516
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• 2016

This paper evaluates the scaling of ground motions recorded from nine intermediate-depth earthquakes produced in the Vrancea seismic zone in Romania. The considered ground motion database consists of 363 horizontal recordings obtained on soil classes B and C (according to Eurocode 8). An analysis of the inter- and intra-event spectral accelerations is performed in order to gain information regarding the magnitude and distance scaling of the Vrancea ground motions. The analyses reveal a significant influence of the earthquake magnitude and focal depth on the distance scaling and different magnitude and distance scaling for the two soil classes. A linear magnitude and distance scaling is inferred from the results for the range of magnitudes $5.2{\leq}M_W{\leq}7.1$. The results obtained are checked through stochastic simulations and the influence of the stress drop and kappa values on the ground motion levels is assessed. In addition, five ground motion models which were tested in other studies using recordings from Vrancea earthquakes are analyzed in order to evaluate their corresponding host stress drop and kappa. The results show generally a direct connection between the host kappa values and the host stress drop values. Moreover, all the ground motion models depict magnitude dependent host kappa and stress drop levels.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제13권5호
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• pp.489-500
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• 2012

Cold-formed steel profile sheets acting as decks have been popularly used in composite slab systems in steel structural works, since it acts as a working platform as well as formwork for concreting during construction stage and also as tension reinforcement for the concrete slab during service. In developing countries like India, this system of flooring is being increasingly used due to the innate advantage of these systems. Three modes of failure have been identified in composite slab such as flexural, vertical shear and longitudinal shear failure. Longitudinal shear failure is the one which is difficult to predict theoretically and therefore experimental methods suggested by Eurocode 4 (EC 4) of four point bending test is in practice throughout world. This paper presents such an experimental investigation on embossed profile sheet acting as a composite deck where in the longitudinal shear bond characteristics values are evaluated. Two stages, brittle and ductile phases were observed during the tests. The cyclic load appears to less effect on the ultimate shear strength of the composite slab.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제10권5호
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• pp.385-414
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• 2010

In current European Standard EN 1993, the moment-rotation characteristics of beam-to-column joints made from steel with a yield stress > 460MPa are obtained from elastic design procedures. The strength of the joint basic components, such as the column web subject to local transverse compression, is thus limited to the yield resistance rather than the plastic resistance. With the recent developments of higher strength steel grades, the need for these restrictions should be revisited. However, as the strength of the steel is increased, the buckling characteristics become more significant and thus instability phenomena may govern the design. This paper summarizes a comprehensive set of finite element parametric studies pertaining to the strength behaviour of high-strength steel unstiffened I-columns in transverse compression. The paper outlines the implementation and validation of a three-dimensional finite element model and presents the relevant numerical test results. The finite element predictions are evaluated against the strength values anticipated by the EN 1993 for conventional steel columns and recommendations are made for revising the specifications.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제64권1호
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• pp.59-69
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• 2017

The field of fracture mechanics has gained significance because of its ability to address the behaviour of cracks. Predicting the fracture properties of concrete based on experimental investigations is a challenge considering the quasi-brittle nature of concrete. So, there is a need for developing a standard numerical tool which predicts the fracture energy of concrete which is at par with experimental results. The present study is an attempt to evaluate the fracture energy and characteristic length for different grades of concrete using Concrete Damage Plasticity (CDP) model. Indian Standard and EUROCODE are used for the basic input parameters of concrete. Numerical evaluation is done using Finite Element Analysis Software ABAQUS/CAE. Hsu & Hsu and Saenz stress-strain models are adopted for the current study. Mesh sensitivity analysis is also carried to study the influence of type and size of elements on the overall accuracy of the solution. Different input parameters like dilatation angle, eccentricity are varied and their effect on fracture properties is addressed. The results indicated that the fracture properties of concrete for various grades can be accurately predicted without laboratory tests using CDP model.

• 국제초고층학회논문집
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• 제3권3호
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• pp.215-221
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• 2014

Ultra-high strength concrete and high tensile steel are becoming very attractive materials for high-rise buildings because of the need to reduce member size and structural self-weight. However, limited test data and design guidelines are available to support the applications of high strength materials for building constructions. This paper presents significant findings from comprehensive experimental investigations on the behaviour of tubular columns in-filled with ultra-high strength concrete at ambient and elevated temperatures. A series of tests was conducted to investigate the basic mechanical properties of the high strength materials, and structural behaviour of stub columns under concentric compression, beams under moment and slender beam-columns under concentric and eccentric compression. High tensile steel with yield strength up to 780 MPa and ultra-high strength concrete with compressive cylinder strength up to 180 MPa were used to construct the test specimens. The test results were compared with the predictions using a modified Eurocode 4 approach. In addition, more than 2000 test data samples collected from literature on concrete filled steel tubes with normal and high strength materials were also analysed to formulate the design guide for implementation in practice.