• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.23-36
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• 2013

PURPOSES: The problem under this circumstance is that the erosion not only drops strength of the steel dowel bar but also comes with volume expansion of the steel dowel bar which can reduce load transferring efficiency of the steel dowel bar. To avoid this erosion problem, alternative dowers bars are developed. METHODS: In this study, the bearing stresses between the FRP tube dowel bar and concrete slab are calculated and compared with its allowable bearing stress to check its structural stability in the concrete pavement. These comparisons are conducted with several cross-sections of FRP tube dowel bars. Comprehensive laboratory tests including the shear load-deflection test on a full-scale specimen and the full-scale accelerated joint concrete pavement test are conducted and the results were compared with those from the steel dowel bar. RESULTS: In all cross-sections of FRP tube dowel bars, computed bearing stresses between the FRP tube dowel bar and concrete slab are less than their allowable stress levels. The pultrusion FRP-tube dowel bar show better performance on direct shear tests on full-scale specimen and static compression tests at full-scale concrete pavement joints than prepreg and filament-winding FRP-tube dowel bar. CONCLUSIONS: The FRP tube dowel bars as alternative dowel bar are invulnerable to erosion that may be caused by moisture from masonry joint or bottom of the pavement system. Also, the pultrusion FRP-tube dowel bar performed very well on the laboratory evaluation.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.21-34
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• 2023

In order to analyze the effect of the cyclic lateral loading on the response of a pile-soil system, a full-scale single steel pile was subjected to one-way cyclic loading. The test pile was driven into a bi-layered soil consisting of a normally consolidated saturated clay overlying a silty sandy layer, the site being submerged by water up to one meter above the mudline in order to reproduce the conditions of an offshore pile foundation. The aim of this paper is to present the main results of interpretation of the cyclic lateral tests in terms of pile deflections, bending moment, and cyclic P-Y curves. From these latter an absolute secant reaction modulus E_AS,N was derived and a simple calculation model of the test single pile is proposed based on this modulus. Two applications of the proposed model are carried out, one with a 2D finite element modelling, and the second with a load transfer curves-based method.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.301-319
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• 2011

The full-scale measurements are compared with the wind tunnel test results for the long-span roof latticed spatial structure of Shenzhen Citizen Center. A direct comparison of model testing results to full-scale measurements is always desirable, not only in validating the experimental data and methods but also in providing better understanding of the physics such as Reynolds numbers and scale effects. Since the quantity and location of full-scale measurements points are different from those of the wind tunnel tests taps, the weighted proper orthogonal decomposition technique is applied to the wind pressure data obtained from the wind tunnel tests to generate a time history of wind load vector, then loads acted on all the internal nodes are obtained by interpolation technique. The nodal mean wind pressure coefficients, root-mean-square of wind pressure coefficients and wind pressure power spectrum are also calculated. The time and frequency domain characteristics of full-scale measurements wind load are analyzed based on filtered data-acquisitions. In the analysis, special attention is paid to the distributions of the mean wind pressure coefficients of center part of Shenzhen Citizen Center long-span roof spatial latticed structure. Furthermore, a brief discussion about difference between the wind pressure power spectrum from the wind tunnel experiments and that from the full-scale in-site measurements is compared. The result is important fundament of wind-induced dynamic response of long-span spatial latticed structures.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.463-473
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• 2015

Three full-scale instrumented test slabs were constructed and tested using a heavy vehicle simulator (HVS) to evaluate the structural behavior of internally cured concrete (ICC) for use in pavements under Florida condition. Three mix designs selected from a previous laboratory testing program include the standard mixture with 0.40 water-cement ratio, the ICC with 0.32 water-cement ratio, and the ICC mixture with 0.40 water-cement ratio. Concrete samples were prepared and laboratory tests were performed to measure strength, elastic modulus, coefficient of thermal expansion and shrinkage properties. The environmental responses were measured using strain gages, thermocouples, and linear variable differential transformers instrumented in full-scale concrete slabs. A 3-D finite element model was developed and calibrated using strain data measured from the full-scale tests using the HVS. The results indicate that the ICC slabs were less susceptible to the change of environmental conditions and appear to have better potential performance based on the critical stress analysis.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.21-36
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• 2010

A new full scale testing apparatus generically named the Wall of Wind (WoW) has been built by the researchers at the International Hurricane Research Center (IHRC) at Florida International University (FIU). WoW is capable of testing single story building models subjected up to category 3 hurricane wind speeds. Depending on the relative model and WoW wind field sizes, testing may entail blockage issues. In addition, the proximity of the test building to the wind simulator may also affect the aerodynamic data. This study focuses on the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) assessment of the effects on the quality of the aerodynamic data of (i) blockage due to model buildings of various sizes and (ii) wind simulator proximity for various distances between the wind simulator and the test building. The test buildings were assumed to have simple parallelepiped shapes. The computer simulations were performed under both finite WoW wind-field conditions and in an extended Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) wind flow. Mean pressure coefficients for the roof and the windward and leeward walls served as measures of the blockage and wind simulator proximity effects. The study uses the commercial software FLUENT with Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes equations and a Renormalization Group (RNG) k-${\varepsilon}$ turbulence model. The results indicated that for larger size test specimens (i.e. for cases where the height of test specimen is larger than one third of the wind field height) blockage correction may become necessary. The test specimen should also be placed at a distance greater than twice the height of the test specimen from the fans to reduce proximity effect.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.119-144
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• 2017

The traditional method for the simulation of high Reynolds number (Re) effects on wind loads on cooling tower models in wind tunnels focuses only on the mean wind pressure distribution. Based on observed effects of some key factors on static/dynamic flow characteristics around cooling towers, the study reported in this paper describes a comprehensive simulation method using both mean and fluctuating wind pressure distributions at high Re as simulation targets, which is indispensable for obtaining the complete full-scale wind effects in wind tunnels. After being presented in this paper using a case study, the proposed method is examined by comparing the full covariance matrices and the cross-spectral densities of the simulated cases with those of the full-scale case. Besides, the cooling tower's dynamic structural responses obtained using the simulated wind pressure fields are compared with those obtained by using the full-scale one. Through these works, the applicability and superiority of the proposed method is validated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.655-665
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• 2024

The objective of the present experimental study is to investigate the effect of inlet throttling on the thermohydraulic stability of a large scale water-based Reactor Cavity Cooling System (RCCS). The test was performed using the water-based Natural convection Shutdown heat removal Test Facility (NSTF) at Argonne, which represented a ½ axial scale and 12.5° sector slice of the full scale Framatome 625 MW_t SC-HTGR RCCS concept. A two-phase steady state was first established through direct condensate refill, followed by increased inlet throttling over 10 stages, corresponding to a loss coefficient K over the range of 0.05-653. With the inlet throttling gradually increased, the system experienced a unique transition process between stabilization and destabilization. Through a stability analysis, three instability mechanisms were identified in the present test, including a compound mechanism due to both natural circulation oscillations (NCOs) and density wave oscillations (DWOs), Type-II DWOs, and geysering.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.1
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• pp.49-57
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• 2020

This paper presents a full-scale experimental test to investigate the flexural behavior of an innovative dovetail ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) joint designed for the 5^th Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge. The test specimen had a dimension of 3600 × 1600 × 170 mm, in accordance with the real bridge. The failure mode, crack pattern and structural response were presented. The ductility and stiffness degradation of the tested specimens were explicitly discussed. Test results indicated that different from conventional reinforced concrete slabs, well-distributed cracks with small spacing were observed for UHPC joint slabs at failure. The average nominal flexural cracking strength of the test specimens was 7.7 MPa, signifying good crack resistance of the proposed dovetail UHPC joint. It is recommended that high grade reinforcement be cooperatively used to take full advantage of the superior mechanical property of UHPC. A new ductility index, expressed by dividing the ultimate deflection by flexural cracking deflection, was introduced to evaluate the post-cracking ductility capacity. Finally, a strut-and-tie (STM) model was developed to predict the ultimate strength of the proposed UHPC joint.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 1997.11a
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• pp.542-549
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• 1997

HFC-227ea and HCFC Blend A were evaluated using full-scale fire tests to obtain information on their fire suppression performance, drop-in capability, thermal decomposition products and physical behaviour of the agent such as its flow characteristics in the piping system. Also, full-scale tests were conducted with Halon 1301 to provide a basis for comparison. Halon 1301, at concentrations of 5% to 7.5%, showed effective total-flooding fire- extinguishing performance for all test scenarios. HFC-227ea, at a design concentration of 7.6% or higher, and HCFC Blend A, at a design concentration of 12%, extinguished all fires in the test facility, however, these agents produced higher concentrations of acid gases than Halon 1301. The quantity of the acid gases generated during fire suppression was dependent on agent concentration, agent discharge time, fire type and size as well as extinguishment time.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.10
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• pp.1217-1224
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• 2014

This paper provides a practical scaling method to solve an old problem for scaling and developing the speed and resistance of a model to full-scale submarine in fully submerged underwater test. In every experimental test in towing tank, water tunnel and wind tunnel, in the first step, the speed of a model should be scaled to the full-scale vessel (ship or submarine). In the second step, the obtained resistance of the model should be developed. For submarine, there are two modes of movement: surface and submerged mode. There is no matter in surface mode because, according to Froude's law, the ratio of speed of the model to the full-scale vessel is proportional to the square root of lengths (length of the model on the length of the vessel). This leads to a reasonable speed and is not so much for the model that is applicable in the laboratory. The main problem is in submerged mode (fully submerged) that there isn't surface wave effect and therefore, Froude's law couldn't be used. Reynold's similarity is actually impossible to implement because it leads to very high speeds of the model that is impossible in a laboratory and inside the water. According to Reynold's similarity, the ratio of speed of the model to the full-scale vessel is proportional to the ratio of the full-scale length to the model length that leads to a too high speed. This paper proves that there is no need for exact Reynold's similarity because after a special Reynolds, resistance coefficient remains constant. Therefore, there is not compulsion for high speeds of the model. For proving this finding, three groups of results are presented: two cases are based on CFD method, and one case is based on the model test in towing tank. All these three results are presented for three different shapes that can show; this finding is independent of the shapes and geometries. For CFD method, Flow Vision software has been used.