• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.263-276
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• 2007

Steel frame structures have been widely used in multi-storey and high-rise buildings and the connections in these structures are critical. In the Northridge and Kobe Earthquake, beam-column connections suffered damage due to brittle fracture. According to seismic design codes, ductility of the beam to column connection is also necessary. A study on the behavior of a beam to column connection with the aim of improving ductility as well as preventing brittle failure was carried out. In order to control the position of a plastic hinge on the beam, a connection with a hole in the beam web was developed. Five specimens with different parameters under cyclic load were assessed. The results are presented in terms of the stress distribution of the beam, hysteretic behavior, and ultimate capacity. Furthermore, the finite element method was also used to analyze the model, and the results were compared with those obtained from the experiment. It is shown from the analysis and experimental results that this type of connection is effective in terms of improving ductility for a beam to column connection in low-rise buildings.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.111-126
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• 2021

Concrete cracking due to brittle tension strength significantly prevents fully utilization of the materials for "flexural-shear failure" type shear walls. Theoretical and experimental studies applying fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) have achieved fruitful results in improving the seismic performance of "flexural-shear failure" reinforced concrete shear walls. To come to an understanding of an optimal design strategy and find common performance prediction method for design methodology in terms to FRC shear walls, seismic performance on shear walls with PVA and steel FRC at edge columns and plastic region are compared in this study. The seismic behavior including damage mode, lateral bearing capacity, deformation capacity, and energy dissipation capacity are analyzed on different fiber reinforcing strategies. The experimental comparison realized that the lateral strength and deformation capacity are significantly improved for the shear walls with PVA and steel FRC in the plastic region and PVA FRC in the edge columns; PVA FRC improves both in tensile crack prevention and shear tolerance while steel FRC shows enhancement mainly in shear resistance. Moreover, the tensile strength of the FRC are suggested to be considered, and the steel bars in the tension edge reaches the ultimate strength for the confinement of the FRC in the yield and maximum lateral bearing capacity prediction comparing with the model specified in provisions.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.337-350
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• 2019

The objective of this paper is to investigate the confinement coefficient of concrete-filled square stainless steel tubular (CFSSST) stub columns under axial loading. A fine finite 3D solid element model was established, which utilized a constitutive model of stainless steel considering the strain-hardening characteristics and a triaxial plastic-damage constitutive model of concrete with features of the parameter certainty under axial compression. The finite element analysis results revealed that the increased ultimate bearing capacity of CFSSST stub columns compared with their carbon steel counterparts was mainly due to that the composite action of CFSSST stub columns is stronger than that of carbon steel counterparts. A further parametric study was carried out based on the verified model, and it was found that the stress contribution of the stainless steel tube is higher than the carbon steel tube. The stress nephogram was simplified reasonably in accordance with the limit state of core concrete and a theoretical formula was proposed to estimate the ultimate bearing capacity of square CFSSST stub columns using superposition method. The predicted results showed satisfactory agreement with both the experimental and FE results. Finally, the comparisons of the experimental and predicted results using the proposed formula and the existing codes were illustrated.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.177-190
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• 1993

When soft soils are effected by unsymmetrical surcharge due to embankement and abutements of a bridge, large plastic sheraring deformations such as settlements, lateral displacements, upheavals and sliding shearing failure in the soils occurred and they have often damaged considerabily to the soils and structure. This study examines the existing theoretical background for the behavior of the displacement of soils by unsymmetrical surcharge on the soft soils and compares the analytical results to the actual measurements performed through the model test. The procedures of model test are that a model stock device is made and soft soils are filled in a container which fixes the soils. Then the displacements observed when surcharge load increa ses by regular interval at undrainage condition. It analyzes the relation of soil characteristics to displacement, critical surcharge and ultimate bearing capadty, condition of plastic flow and lateral flow pressure, comparing them with the existing theories. Understanding the causes of lateral displacement in soft soils due to unsymmetrical surchages will prevent a damage in advance.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.241-250
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• 1997

The strain localization of concrete is a phenomenon such that the deformation of concrete is localized in finite region along with softening behavior. The objective of this paper is to develop a plasticity and damage algorithm for the finite element analysis of the strain-localization in concrete. In this paper, concrete member under strain localization is modeled with localized zone and non-localized zone. For modeling of the localized zone in concrete under strain localization, a general Drucker-Prager failure criterion by which the nonlinear strain softening behavior of concrete after peak-stress can be considered is introduced in a thermodynamic formulation of the classical plasticity model. The return-mapping algorithm is used for the integration of the elasto-plastic rate equation and the consistent tangent modulus is also derived. For the modeling of non-localized zone in concrete under strain localization, a consistent nonlinear elastic-damage algorithm is developed by modifying the free energy in thermodynamics. Using finite element program implemented with the developed algorithm, strain localization behaviors for concrete specimens under compression are simulated.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.59-66
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• 2010

Aerospace structures need high stability and long life because many personal injuries can result from an accident and securing structural integrity for various external environments is more important than any other thing. So first of all we must prove the destruction properties for operating environment, have prediction technology about damage evolution and life, and develop an economical non-destructive technology capable of detecting structure damage. Acoustic emission (AE) have no need of artificial environment like ultrasonic inspection or radio fluoroscopy to emit a certain energy, is a testing technique using seismic signal resulting from interior changes of solids, and enables to observe if any fault is appeared and it grows seriously or not while running. In this study we suggest the method of structural integrity evaluation for aerospace structures through the acoustic emission technique, for which a model plane was manufactured and an actual operation test was conducted.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.326-342
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• 2022

Comparative analyses of a shield building subjected to a large commercial aircraft impact between decoupling method and coupling method are performed in this paper. The decoupling method is applying impact force time-history curves on impact area of the shield building to study impact damage effects on structure. The coupling method is using a model including aircraft and shield building to perform simulation of the entire impact process. Impact force time-history curves of the fuselage, wing and engine and their total impact force time-history curve are obtained by the entire aircraft normally impacting the rigid wall. Taking aircraft structure and impact progress into account some loading areas are determined to perform some comparative analyses between decoupling method and coupling method, the calculation results including displacement, plastic strain of concrete and stress of steel plate in impact area are given. If the loading area is determined unreasonably, it will be difficult to assess impact damage of impact area even though the accurate impact force of each part of aircraft obtained already. The coupling method presented at last in this paper can more reasonably evaluate the dynamic response of the shield building than the decoupling methods used in the current nuclear engineering design.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.91 no.4
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• pp.369-382
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• 2024

The earthquake loss assessment framework of ductile reinforced concrete (or RC) frame using component-performance -based methodology was studied in this paper. The elasto-plastic rotation angle was used as the damage indicator of structural component, and the damage-to-loss model was proposed on the basis of the deformation indicator of structural component. Dynamic instability during incremental dynamic analysis was taken as collapse criterion, and column failure was taken as criterion that structure has to be demolished. Expected earthquake losses of low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise RC frames were discussed. The expected earthquake loss encompassed collapse loss, demolition loss and repair loss. Furthermore, component groups of RC frame were divided into structural components, nonstructural components and rugged components. The results indicate that ductile RC frame is more likely to be demolished than collapse, especially in low-rise and mid-rise RC frames. Furthermore, the less collapse margin ratio the structure has, the more demolition probability the structure will suffer under rare earthquake. The demolition share of total earthquake loss might be more prominent than repair share and collapse share in ductile RC frame.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2003

W-beam guardrail system has been the most popular roadside safety device around the world. Through large plastic deformation and corresponding energy dissipation, a W-beam guardrail system contains and re-directs out-of-control vehicles so as to reduce the impact damage on the vehicle occupants and the vehicles themselves. In this paper, our recent experiments on 1 : 3.75 downscaled W-beam and the beam-post system are reported. The static and impact test results on the load characteristics, the global response and the local cross-sectional distortion are reveled. The effects of three different end-boundary conditions for the beam-only testing are examined. It is found that the load characteristics are much dependent on the combined contribution of the local cross-sectional distortion and the end-supporting conditions. The energy Partitioning between the beam and the supporting Posts in the beam-Post-system testing were also examined. The results showed that the energy dissipation partitioning changed with the input impact energy. Finally, a simple mass-spring model is developed to assess the dynamic response of a W-beam guardrail system in response to an impact loading. The model's prediction agrees well with the experimental results.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.85 no.1
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• pp.89-104
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• 2023

This work presents a proposal for employing reduced numerical integration in the formulation of the 4-node quadrilateral solid finite element. The use of these low-order integration rules leads to numerical instabilities such as those producing the hourglass effect. The proposed procedure allows evaluating a given constitutive model only in one integration point, achieving an attractive computational cost reduction and, also, successfully controls the hourglass effect. A validation of the proposal is included and discussed throughout the paper. To show the efficiency of the proposal, several application examples of masonry structures are studied and discussed. To represent the non-linear mechanical behaviour of masonry a plastic-damage model is implemented within the application of this sub-integration scheme. Also, in order to have a full and computationally efficient strategy to determine the behaviour of masonry structures, involving its evolution to collapse, a homogenization technique with a macro-modeling approach is used. The methodology discussed throughout this paper demonstrates a substantial computational cost reduction and an improved approximation of the non-linear problem evidenced by a reduction of up to 85% of the computational time for some cases.