• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.751-764
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• 2020

Real-time monitoring of stiffness and strength in cement based system has received significant attention in past few decades owing to the development of advanced techniques. Also, use of environment friendly supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) in cement, though gaining huge interest, severely affect the strength gain especially in early ages. Continuous monitoring of strength- and stiffness- gain using an efficient technique will systematically facilitate to choose the suitable time of removal of formwork for structures made with SCM incorporated concrete. This paper presents a technique for monitoring the strength and stiffness evolution in hydrating fly ash blended cement systems using electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) based technique. It is important to observe that the slower pozzolanic reactivity of fly ash blended cement systems could be effectively tracked using the evolution of equivalent local stiffness of the hydrating medium. Strength prediction models are proposed for estimating the strength and stiffness of the fly ash cement system, where curing age (in terms of hours/days) and the percentage replacement of cement by fly ash are the parameters. Evaluation of strength as obtained from EMI characteristics is validated with the results from destructive compression test and also compared with the same obtained from commonly used ultrasonic wave velocity (UPV). Statistical error indices indicate that the EMI technique is capable of predicting the strength of fly ash blended cement system more accurate than that from UPV. Further, the correlations between stiffness- and strength- gain over the time of hydration are also established. From the study, it is found that EMI based method can be effectively used for monitoring of strength gain in the fly ash incorporated cement system during hardening.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.6
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• pp.677-691
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• 2019

In recent years, interest is growing in the engineering community on the experimental assessment and the theoretical prediction of the out-of-plane (OOP) seismic response of unreinforced masonry (URM) infills, which are widespread in Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings in Europe and in the Mediterranean area. In the literature, some mechanical-based models for the prediction of the entire OOP force-displacement response have been formulated and proposed. However, the small number of experimental tests currently available has not allowed, up to current times, a robust and reliable evaluation of the predictive capacity of such response models. To enrich the currently available experimental database, six pure OOP tests on URM infills in RC frames were carried out at the Department of Structures for Engineering and Architecture of the University of Naples Federico II. Test specimens were built with the same materials and were different only for the thickness of the infill walls and for the number of their edges mortared to the confining elements of the RC frames. In this paper, the results of these experimental tests are briefly recalled. The main aim of this study is comparing the experimental response of test specimens with the prediction of mechanical models presented in the literature, in order to assess their effectiveness and contribute to the definition of a robust and reliable model for the evaluation of the OOP seismic response of URM infill walls.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.75-81
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• 2016

Tendon corrosion reliability in KICT-ultra high performance concrete (K-UHPC) bridges is assessed and predicted considering uncertainties in flexural bending capacity and corrosion occurrence. In post-tensioning bridge systems, corrosion is a one of most critical failure mechanisms due to strength reduction by it. During the entire service life, those bridges may experience lifetime corrosion deterioration initiated and propagated in tendons which are embedded not only in normal concrete but also in K-UHPC. For this reason, the time-variant corrosion performance has to be assessed. In the absence of in-depth researches associated with K-UHPC tendon corrosion, a reliability-based prediction model is developed to evaluate lifetime corrosion performance of tendon in K-UHPC bridges. In 2015, KICT built a K-UHPC pilot bridge at 168/5~168/6 milestone on Yangon-Mandalay Expressway in Myanmar, by using locally produced tendons which post-tensioned in longitudinal and lateral ways of K-UHPC girders. For an illustrative purpose, this K-UHPC bridge is used to identify the time-variant corrosion performance.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.127-134
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• 2022

In this study, RCPTs (Rapid Chloride Penetration Test) were performed for fly ash concrete with curing age of 4 ~ 6 years. The concrete mixtures were prepared with 3 levels of water to binder ratio (0.37, 0.42, and 0.47) and 2 levels of substitution ratio of fly ash (0 and 30%), and the improved passed charges of chloride ion behavior were quantitatively analyzed. Additionally, the results were trained through the univariate time series models consisted of GRU (Gated Recurrent Unit) algorithm and those from the models were evaluated. As the result of the RCPT, fly ash concrete showed the reduced passed charges with period and an more improved resistance to chloride penetration than OPC concrete. At the final evaluation period (6 years), fly ash concrete showed 'Very low' grade in all W/B (water to binder) ratio, however OPC concrete showed 'Moderate' grade in the condition with the highest W/B ratio (0.47). The adopted algorithm of GRU for this study can analyze time series data and has the advantage like operation efficiency. The deep learning model with 4 hidden layers was designed, and it provided a reasonable prediction results of passed charge. The deep learning model from this study has a limitation of single consideration of a univariate time series characteristic, but it is in the developing process of providing various characteristics of concrete like strength and diffusion coefficient through additional studies.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.201-213
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• 2021

Currently, there is a lack of research in the design approach to avoid column wall failure in the concrete filled double skin steel tubular (CFDST) column-beam connections. In this paper, a finite element model has been developed and verified by available experimental data to analyze the failure mechanism of CFDST column-beam connections. Various finite element models with different column hollow ratios (χ) were established. The simulation result revealed that with increasing χ the failure mode gradually changed from yielding of end plate, to local failure of the column wall. Detailed parametric analyses were performed to study the failure mechanism of column wall for the CFDST column-beam connection, in which the strength of sandwiched concrete and steel tube and thickness of steel tube were incorporated. An analytical model was proposed to predict the moment resistance of the assembled connection considering the failure of column wall. The simulation results indicate that the proposed analytical model can provided a conservative prediction of the moment resistance. Finally, an upper bound value of χ was recommend to avoid column wall failure for CFDST column-beam connections.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.315-329
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• 2020

Through bolt connections in Concrete Filled Steel Tubes (CFSTs) has been proved to be good in terms of seismic performance and constructability. Stiffened extended end plate connection with full through type bolt helps to avoid field weld altogether, and hence to improve the quality of joints. An experimental study was conducted on the hysteretic performance of square interior beam-column connections using flat extended end plates with through bolt. The study focuses on the effect of the bond between the tie rod and the core concrete on the cyclic performance of the joint. The study also quantifies how much the interior joint is getting strengthened due to the confinement effect induced by bi-directional bolting, which is widely used in 3D moment resisting frames. For a better understanding of the mechanism and for the prediction of shear capacity of the panel zone, a mathematical model was generated. The various parameters included in the model are the influence of axial load, amount of prestress induced by bolt tightening, anchorage, and the concrete strut action. The study investigates the strength, stiffness, ductility, and energy dissipation characteristics. The results indicate that the seismic resistance is at par with American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) seismic recommendations. The bidirectional bolting and bond effect have got remarkable influence on the performance of joints.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.13-18
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• 2018

In this research, regarding the type three blast furnace slag (BS) regulated by KS F 2563 and supplied to actual ready mixed concrete plant, the fineness on specification and actually measured fineness by Blain test were compared, and by applying the hydrometer method used for early prediction of concrete strength, the feasibility of the hydrometer method for acquisition inspection of BS was analyzed. Additionally, the influence of various fineness of BS on properties of cement mortar was also assessed. According to the experimental results of this research, correlation of fineness values between specification and actually measured data were not matched. In the case of the rapid evaluation method using hydrometer, a good relation was shown between the fineness data obtained from hydrometer and Blain test. furthermore, from the cement mortar properties test, there was a good relation was obtained between fineness data from rapid evaluation method by hydrometer and cement mortar properties, while there was no clear relation between fineness data from specification and cement mortar properties. Hence, as a qulity controlling method of BS fineness, a rapid evaluation method using hydrometer is suggested as a new method.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.503-514
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• 2015

Fibre-added concretes are frequently used in large site applications such as slab and airports as well as in bearing system elements or prefabricated elements. It is very difficult to determine the mechanical properties of the fibre-added concretes by experimental methods in situ. The purpose of this study is to develop an artificial neural network (ANN) model in order to predict the compressive and bending strengths of hybrid fibre-added and non-added concretes. The strengths have been predicted by means of the data that has been obtained from destructive (DT) and non-destructive tests (NDT) on the samples. NDTs are ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) and Rebound Hammer Tests (RH). 105 pieces of cylinder samples with a dimension of $150{\times}300mm$, 105 pieces of bending samples with a dimension of $100{\times}100{\times}400mm$ have been manufactured. The first set has been manufactured without fibre addition, the second set with the addition of %0.5 polypropylene and %0.5 steel fibre in terms of volume, and the third set with the addition of %0.5 polypropylene, %1 steel fibre. The water/cement (w/c) ratio of samples parametrically varies between 0.3-0.9. The experimentally measured compressive and bending strengths have been compared with predicted results by use of ANN method.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2019

GGBFS(Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag), one of the representative concrete mineral admixtures, improves the long-term durability and engineering performance of concrete by latent hydraulic activity. In this study, considering 3 levels of W/B(0.37, 0.42, 0.47) and GGBFS replacement ratio(0 %, 30 %, 50 %), durability performances for chloride attack are evaluated, and equations which predict behavior of accelerated chloride diffusion are proposed. Also, the relationship between accelerated chloride diffusion coefficient and passed charge is evaluated. In target curing day, accelerated chloride diffusion tests(Tang's method, ASTM C 1202) and compressive strength(KS F 2405) are performed. In the 730 day's results of accelerated chloride diffusion coefficient, GGBFS concrete has up to 28 % of decreasing ratio compared to OPC concrete, and in those of passed charge, GGBFS concrete has up to 29 % of decreasing ratio compared to OPC concrete. Also, it is deemed that the impact of variation of W/B is less in GGBFS concrete than in OPC concrete. The equations which predict accelerated chloride diffusion coefficient and passed charge are drawn, based on the characteristics of mixture and test results. The equation which predicts passed charge shows slightly higher coefficient of determination than that which predicts accelerated chloride diffusion coefficient.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.167-182
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• 2018

The modeling of loss of bond between reinforcing bars (rebars) and concrete due to corrosion is useful in studying the behavior and prediction of residual load bearing capacity of corroded reinforced concrete (RC) members. In the present work, first the possibility of using different methods to simulate the rebars-concrete bonding, which is used in three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) modeling of corroded RC beams, was explored. The cohesive surface interaction method was found to be most suitable for simulating the bond between rebars and concrete. Secondly, using the cohesive surface interaction approach, the 3D FE modeling of the behavior of non-corroded and corroded RC beams was carried out in an ABAQUS environment. Experimental data, reported in literature, were used to validate the models. Then using the developed models, a parametric study was conducted to examine the effects of some parameters, such as degree and location of the corrosion, on the behavior and residual capacity of the corroded beams. The results obtained from the parametric analysis using the developed model showed that corrosion in top compression rebars has very small effect on the flexural behaviors of beams with small flexural reinforcement ratio that is less than the maximum ratio specified in ACI-318-14 (singly RC beam). In addition, the reduction of steel yield strength in tension reinforcement due to corrosion is the main source of reducing the load bearing capacity of corroded RC beams. The most critical corrosion-induced damage is the complete loss of bond between rebars and the concrete as it causes sudden failure and the beam acts as un-reinforced beam.