• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.68 no.4
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• pp.385-398
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• 2018

In the present paper, we offer a new flat shell finite element. It is the result of the combination of a membrane element and a bending element, both based on the strain-based formulation. It is known that $C^{\circ}$ plane membrane elements provide poor deflection and stress for problems where bending is dominant. In addition, they encounter continuity and compliance problems when they connect to C1 class plate elements. The reach of the present work is to surmount these problems when a membrane element is coupled with a thin plate element in order to construct a shell element. The membrane element used is a triangular element with four nodes, three nodes at the vertices of the triangle and the fourth one at its barycenter. Each node has three degrees of freedom, two translations and one rotation around the normal. The coefficients related to the degrees of freedom at the internal node are subsequently removed from the element stiffness matrix by using the static condensation technique. The interpolation functions of strain, displacements and stresses fields are developed from equilibrium conditions. The plate element used for the construction of the present shell element is a triangular four-node thin plate element based on Kirchhoff plate theory, the strain approach, the four fictitious node, the static condensation and the analytic integration. The shell element result of this combination is robust, competitive and efficient.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.179-193
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• 2017

Dynamic response analysis of offshore triceratops with stiffened buoyant legs under impact and non-impact waves is presented. Triceratops is relatively new-generation complaint platform being explored in the recent past for its suitability in ultra-deep waters. Buoyant legs support the deck through ball joints, which partially isolate the deck by not transferring rotation from legs to the deck. Buoyant legs are interconnected using equally spaced stiffeners, inducing more integral action in dispersing the encountered wave loads. Two typical nonlinear waves under very high sea state are used to simulate impact and non-impact waves. Parameters of JONSWAP spectrum are chosen to produce waves with high vertical and horizontal asymmetries. Impact waves are simulated by steep, front asymmetric waves while non-impact waves are simulated using Stokes nonlinear irregular waves. Based on the numerical analyses presented, it is seen that the platform experiences both steady state (springing) and transient response (ringing) of high amplitudes. Response of the deck shows significant reduction in rotational degrees-of-freedom due to isolation offered by ball joints. Weak-asymmetric waves, resulting in non-impact waves cause steady state response. Beat phenomenon is noticed in almost all degrees-of-freedom but values in sway, roll and yaw are considerably low as angle of incidence is zero degrees. Impact waves cause response in higher frequencies; bursting nature of pitch response is a clear manifestation of the effect of impact waves on buoyant legs. Non-impact waves cause response similar to that of a beating phenomenon in all active degrees-of-freedom, which otherwise would not be present under normal loading. Power spectral density plots show energy content of response for a wide bandwidth of frequencies, indicating an alarming behaviour apart from being highly nonlinear. Heave, being one of the stiff degrees-of-freedom is triggered under non-impact waves, which resulted in tether tension variation under non-impact waves as well. Reduced deck response aids functional requirements of triceratops even under impact and non-impact waves. Stiffened group of buoyant legs enable a monolithic behaviour, enhancing stiffness in vertical plane.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.304-311
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• 2002

This study reports the influence of vocid geometry on fracture closure and permeability from numerical experiments. As the aperture distributions of rock fractures are characterized by statistical methods, synthetic fractures have successfully been simulated in this way. Based on the generated fracture models, models for fracture closure and flow calculation have been developed. A fracture closure model has been developed by considering the asperity compression and half-space deformation, and flow calculations have been performed using a finite difference method adopting a local cubic law. The results of numerical experiments have shown that the increase in the aperture spatial correlation leads the fracture closure and the decrease in fracture permeability to increase. Also, it has been indicated that there is an implicit relation between fracture normal stiffness and permeability. The importance of this study is to enhance the understanding the hydro-mechanical behavior of fractured rock massed due to engineering projects.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.289-292
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• 2008

This paper studied experimentally on the structural performance and serviceability of RC beams with high-strength reinforcing bars. Following to the previous research, high-strength reinforcing bars have an negative effect on the deflection and crack depth. But, there are advantages about reducing amount of reinforcement than normal-strength reinforcing bars. So, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of flexural performance on the beams with high-strength reinforcing bars. Three specimens were tested, and the main variable was the yield strength of the reinforcements; SD400, SD600 and SD700. Experimental results shows that the stiffness of members reduced when apply to high-strength reinforcement and equal reinforcement ratio. But the flexural strength of members increased to proportion to the strength and amount of reinforcement. Also, when high-strength reinforcement used, serviceability aspect do not appear to be affected because there is no change for crack number and maximum crack width.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.19-25
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• 2009

In this study, field pull-out tests were performed for steel pipe nailing installed foldable wedge and non-wedge type steel pipe nailing under the same test conditions. This is to evaluate pull-out resistance improvement effect of steel pipe nailing installed foldable wedge. Evaluating for field pull-out characteristics of steel pipe nailing installed foldable wedge was performed through analysis of ultimate pull-out resistance ($T_L$), ultimate unit skin friction ($q_s$, $u_{max}$), tensile normal stiffness ($K_{\beta}$), tension of nail. As a result, the steel pipe nailing installed foldable wedge have an effect of pull-out resistance increased about 30% in comparison with non-wedge type steel pipe nailing.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.17 no.3 s.87
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• pp.445-454
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• 2005

Cracks due to low tensile strength in prestressed concrete (PC) beams may decrease rigidity and structural performance, resulting in excessive deflection. In an effort to solve this problem, in this research, prestressed dual concrete (PDC) has been proposed, consisting of normal strength concrete in compression zone, and high performance steel fiber reinforced concrete(HPSFRC) with a partial depth in tensile zone. Three PDC beams with different depths of HPSFRC and two PC beams were cast for experiments. Analytical models at each stage, i.e., precracking, postcracking, and ultimate, were proposed for analysis of flexural behavior in PDC beams. The experimental results agree well to the analytical ones. Crack formation and its propagation are controlled by the HPSFRC in PDC beams. The initial cracking and service limit loads are increased along with the load carrying capacity and flexural stiffness.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 2011

It is well known that stiffness of composites depends on layup sequence of CFRP(carbon fiber reinforced plastics) laminates because the layup of composite laminates influences their properties. Ultrasonic NDE of composite laminates is often based on the backwall echoes of the sample. A pair of such transducers was mounted in a holder in a nose-to-nose fashion to be used as a scanning probe on composites. Miniature potted angle beam transducers were used (Rayleigh waves in steel) on solid laminates of composites. Experiments were performed to understand the behavior of the transducers and the nature of the waves generated in the composite (mode, wave speed, angle of refraction). C-scan images of flaws and impact damage were then produced by combining the pitch-catch probe with a portable manual scanner known as the Generic Scanner ("GenScan"). The pitch-catch signal was found to be more sensitive than normal incidence backwall echo of longitudinal wave to fiber orientation of the CFRP composites, including low level porosity, ply waviness, and cracks. Therefore, it is found that the experimentally Rayleigh wave variation of pitch-catch ultrasonic signal was consistent with numerical results and one-side ultrasonic measurement might be very useful to detect the defects.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.181-194
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• 2012

Chile is characterized by the largest seismicity in the world which produces strong earthquakes every $83{\pm}9years$ in the Central part of Chile, where it is located Santiago, the capital of Chile. The short interval between large earthquakes magnitude 8.5 has conditioned the Chilean seismic design practice to achieve almost operational performance level, despite the fact that the Chilean Code declares a scope of life safe performance level. Several Indexes have been widely used throughout the years in Chile to evaluate the structural characteristics of concrete buildings, with the intent to find a correlation between general structural conception and successful seismic performance. The Indexes presented are related only to global response of buildings under earthquake loads and not to the behavior or design of individual elements. A correlation between displacement demand and seismic structural damage is presented, using the index $H_o/T$ and the concrete compressive strain ${\varepsilon}_c$. Also the Chilean seismic design codes pre and post 2010 Maule earthquake are reviewed and the practice in seismic design vs Performance Based Design is presented. Performance Based Design procedures are not included in the Chilean seismic design code for buildings, nevertheless the earthquake experience has shown that the response of the Chilean buildings has been close to operational. This can be attributed to the fact that the drift of most engineered buildings designed in accordance with the Chilean practice falls below 0.5%. It is also known by experience that for frequent and even occasional earthquakes, buildings responded elastically and thus with "fully operational" performance. Taking the above into account, it can be said that, although the "basic objective" of the Chilean code is similar to the SEAOC VISION2000 criteria, the actual performance for normal buildings is closer to the "Essential/Hazardous objective".

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.515-524
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• 2006

Cross-sectional distortions take place when steel box girders a re subjected to torsional moment, as a consequence of which distortional warping stresses are necessarily developed. Additional normal stresses due to the distortion are should be included at the design stage. The relative magnitude with respect to the maximum bending stress are kept less than the specific values, i.e., at 5~10%, by properly spaced intermediate diaphragms that could prevent the distortional deformation of the box girder. However, current design equations for the stiffness of intermediate diaphragms were derived based on BEF. In this study, the area required by the intermediate diaphragm members are investigated through three-dimensional finite element analyses. The results of the analyses indicate that the current equations give to conservative values for the intermediate diaphragm of box girder bridges. Finally, an improved equation for the area of the intermediate diaphragm is derived from a regression analysis from the finite element analysis results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.937-974
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• 2016

While extensive efforts have been made in the past to develop finite element models (FEMs) for concrete-filled steel tubular columns (CFSTCs), these models may not be suitable to be used in some cases, especially in view of the utilisation of high strength steel and high strength concrete. A method is presented herein to predict the complete stress-strain curve of concrete subjected to tri-axial compressive stresses caused by axial load coupled with lateral pressure due to the confinement action in square and rectangular CFSTCs with normal and high strength materials. To evaluate the lateral pressure exerted on the concrete in square and rectangular shaped columns, an accurately developed FEM which incorporates the effects of initial local imperfections and residual stresses using the commercial program ABAQUS is adopted. Subsequently, an extensive parametric study is conducted herein to propose an empirical equation for the maximum average lateral pressure, which depends on the material and geometric properties of the columns. The analysis parameters include the concrete compressive strength ($f^{\prime}_c=20-110N/mm^2$), steel yield strength ($f_y=220-850N/mm^2$), width-to-thickness (B/t) ratios in the range of 15-52, as well as the length-to-width (L/B) ratios in the range of 2-4. The predictions of the behaviour, ultimate axial strengths, and failure modes are compared with the available experimental results to verify the accuracy of the models developed. Furthermore, a design model is proposed for short square and rectangular CFSTCs. Additionally, comparisons with the prediction of axial load capacity by using the proposed design model, Australian Standard and Eurocode 4 code provisions for box composite columns are carried out.