• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.8 no.6
• /
• pp.1435-1452
• /
• 2015

The performance of masonry infilled frames during the past earthquakes shows that the infill panels play a major role as earthquake-resistant elements. Experimental observations regarding the influence of infill panels on increasing stiffness and strength of reinforced concrete structures reveal that such panels can be used in order to strengthen reinforced concrete frames. The present study examines the influence of infill panels on seismic behavior of RC frame structures. For this purpose, several low- and mid-rise RC frames (two-, four-, seven-, and ten story) were numerically investigated. Reinforced masonry infill panels were then placed within the frames and the models were subjected to several nonlinear incremental static and dynamic analyses. In order to determine the acceptance criteria and modeling parameters for frames as well as reinforced masonry panels, the Iranian Guideline for Seismic Rehabilitation of Existing Masonry Buildings (Issue No. 376), the Iranian Guideline for Seismic Rehabilitation of Existing Structures (Issue No. 360) and FEMA Guidelines (FEMA 273 and 356) were used. The results of analyses showed that the use of reinforced masonry infill panels in RC frame structures can have beneficial effects on structural performance. It was confirmed that the use of masonry infill panels results in an increment in strength and stiffness of the framed buildings, followed by a reduction in displacement demand for the structural systems.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.26 no.6
• /
• pp.31-44
• /
• 2011

This paper has presented a finite element analysis of structural behaviour of box culvert during and after fires. The fire tests were carried out in a furnace on RC slabs using the ISO 834 standard fire curve. The load capacity after cooling of the RC slab that was not loaded during the fire tests was evaluated by means of additional 3 points bending tests. In the past, stress-strain models of concrete under fire loading have been proposed by several researchers. Comparisons are made with the load-displacement relations of RC slabs after fire loading using the existing stress-strain models with temperature, such as Schneider, EUROCODE 2, Lie, Shi and Nan model. By comparing the load-displacement relations, Lie model was found to result in a maximum load about 2.0% higher than that of test. Based on the fire test results of RC slabs, this paper presents an extensive analytical study on the fire response of box culvert during and after fires.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.42 no.6
• /
• pp.799-813
• /
• 2012

Five two-span reinforced concrete (RC) slabs and seven two-span RC beams were tested under the ISO 834 standard fire with different durations. CFRP strengthening was then applied to some of the specimens after the damaged concrete was removed from the specimens and replaced with polymer mortar. All the specimens were loaded to failure to investigate the influence of fire-damage and the effectiveness of strengthening methods. Test results indicated that the flexural capacities of specimens decrease with the fire duration increases. Moreover, fire exposure had more significant effect on the flexural rigidity than on the bearing capacity of the specimens. After rehabilitation, the bearing capacities of specimens reached or even exceeded that of the reference RC specimen, and the strengthening methods seemed to have limited effect on flexural rigidity recovery. From the analysis of moment redistribution of tested beams, elevated temperature is found having different impacts on sagging moment region and hogging moment region. The damage of RC continuous member is definitely a comprehensive response of different regions.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.6 no.5
• /
• pp.515-537
• /
• 2014

Current seismic codes (e.g. the NTC08 Italian code and the EC8 European code) adopt a performance-based approach for both the design of new buildings and the assessment of existing ones. Different limit states are considered by verifying structural members as well as non structural elements and facilities which have generally been neglected in practice. The key role of non structural elements on building performance has been shown by recent earthquakes (e.g. L'Aquila 2009) where, due to the extensive damage suffered by infills, partitions and ceilings, a lot of private and public buildings became unusable with consequent significant socio-economic effects. Furthermore, the collapse of infill panels, particularly in the case of out-of-plane failure, represented a serious source of risk to life safety. This paper puts forward an infill model capable of accounting for the effects arising from prior in-plane damage on the out-of-plane capacity of infill panels. It permits an assessment of the seismic performance of existing RC buildings with reference to both structural and non structural elements, as well as of their mutual interaction. The model is applied to a building type with RC framed structure designed only to vertical loads and representative of typical Italian buildings. The influence of infill on building performance and the role of the out-of-plane response on structural response are also discussed.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.561-570
• /
• 2019

Understanding the realistic behavior of concrete up to failure under different loading conditions within the framework of damage mechanics and plasticity would lead to an enhanced design of concrete structures. In the present investigation, QR (Quick Response) code based random speckle pattern is used as a non-contact sensor, which is an innovative approach in the field of digital image correlation (DIC). A four-point bending test was performed on RC beams of size 1800 mm × 150 mm × 200 mm. Image processing was done using an open source Ncorr algorithm for the results obtained using random speckle pattern and QR code based random speckle pattern. Load-deflection curves of RC beams were plotted for the results obtained using both contact and non-contact (DIC) sensors, and further, Moment (M)-Curvature (κ) relationship of RC beams was developed. The loading curves obtained were used as input data for material model parameters in finite element analysis. In finite element method (FEM) based software, concrete damage plasticity (CDP) constitutive model is used to predict the realistic nonlinear quasi-static flexural behavior of RC beams for monotonic loading condition. The results obtained using QR code based DIC are observed to be on par with conventional results and FEM results.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.201-211
• /
• 2011

Many reinforced concrete structures have been constructed at the offshore in Korea and those are exposed in environments for long period. Due to that, the reinforcement of the structure faces possibility of corrosion by the salt damage. Such corrosions are effects on the bond performance between concrete and reinforcing bar as well as the performance of the structure. In this study, the performance of RC structure has been investigated when the reinforcing bars are totally bonded and unbonded in the structure. Through the experimental tests and finite element analyses of beam-column joint with bond and unbonded reinforcing bar, the energy dissipation capacity, strength, and crack distribution are compared and discussed.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.18 no.6
• /
• pp.1670-1682
• /
• 2018

The further improvement of submarine propulsion is associated with the modularity of accumulator-fed inverters, such as cascaded inverters (CIs). CI technology guarantees smooth output voltages with reduced switch frequencies under linear loads. However, the output voltages of CIs are distorted under rectifier loads. This distortion requires harmonic suppression technology. One such technology is the repetitive controller (RC), which is commonly applied but suffers from poor performance in propulsion systems. In this study, the FFT spectrum of a CI under rectifier load is analyzed, and the harmonic contents are uneven in magnitude. For the purpose of harmonic suppression, the control gains at each harmonic frequency should be seriously considered. A RC with a specific harmonic gain compensation (SHGC) for CIs is proposed. This method provides additional control gains at low-order harmonic frequencies, which are difficult to achieve with conventional RCs. This SHGC consists of a band-pass filter (BPF) and proportional element and is easy to implement. These features make the proposed method suitable for submarine propulsion. Experimental results verify the feasibility of the improved RC.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.41 no.6
• /
• pp.691-710
• /
• 2012

One of the most popular and commonly used strengthening techniques to protect against earthquakes is to infill the holes in reinforced concrete (RC) frames with fully reinforced concrete infills. In some cases, windows and door openings are left inside infill walls for architectural or functional reasons during the strengthening of reinforced concrete-framed buildings. However, the seismic performance of multistory, multibay, reinforced concrete frames that are strengthened by reinforced concrete wing walls is not well known. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the experimental behavior of vulnerable multistory, multibay, reinforced concrete frames that were strengthened by introducing wing walls under a lateral load. For this purpose, three 2-story, 2-bay, 1/3-scale test specimens were constructed and tested under reversed cyclic lateral loading. The total shear wall (including the column and wing walls) length and the location of the bent beam bars were the main parameters of the experimental study. According to the test results, the addition of wing walls to reinforced concrete frames provided significantly higher ultimate lateral load strength and higher initial stiffness than the bare frames did. While the total shear wall length was increased, the lateral load carrying capacity and stiffness increased significantly.

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

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.70 no.6
• /
• pp.781-791
• /
• 2019

Earthquakes most often induce damage to structures, resulting in the degradation or deterioration of integrity. In this paper, based on the experimental study on 5 RC frames with different span length and different layout of buckling-restrained braces, the seismic damage evaluation law of RC frame with buckling-restrained braces was analyzed, and then the seismic damage for different specimens was calculated using different damage models to study the damage evolution. By analyzing and comparing the observation in test and the calculated results, it could be found that, damage evolution models including Gosain model, Hwang model as well as Ou model could better simulate the development of damage during cyclic loading. Therefore, these 3 models were utilized to analyze the development of damage to better demonstrate the evolution law for structures with different layout of braces and under different axial compression ratios. The results showed that from all layouts of braces studied, the eccentrically braced frame behaved better under larger deformation with the damage growing slowly. It could be deduced that the link beam benefited the seismic performance of structure and alleviated the damage by absorbing high values of energy.