• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.553-570
• /
• 2016

A series of three-dimensional (3D) parametric finite element analyses have been performed to study the influence of the relative locations of pile tips with regards to the tunnel position on the behaviour of single piles and pile groups to adjacent tunnelling in weathered soil. When the pile tips are inside the influence zone, which considers the relative pile tip location with respect to the tunnel position, tunnelling-induced pile head settlements are larger than those computed from the Greenfield condition. However, when the pile tips are outside the influence zone, a reverse trend is obtained. When the pile tips are inside the influence zone, the tunnelling-induced tensile pile forces mobilised, but when the pile tips are outside the influence zone, compressive pile forces are induced because of tunnelling, depending on the shear stress transfer mechanism at the pile-soil interface. For piles connected to a cap, tensile and compressive forces are mobilised at the top of the centre and side piles, respectively. It has been shown that the increases in the tunnelling-induced pile head settlements have resulted in reductions of the apparent factor of safety up to approximately 43% when the pile tips are inside the influence zone, therefore severely affecting the serviceability of the piles. The pile behaviour, when considering the location of the pile tips with regards to the tunnel, has been analysed in great detail by taking the tunnelling-induced pile head settlements, axial pile forces, apparent factor of safety of the piles and shear transfer mechanism into account.

• Advances in concrete construction
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.117-143
• /
• 2017

The attack of environmental aggressive agents progressively reduces the structural reliability of buildings and infrastructures and, in the worst exposition conditions, may even lead to their collapse in the long period. A change in the material and sectional characteristics of a structural element, due to the environmental damaging effects, changes its mechanical behaviour and varies both the internal stress redistribution and the kinematics through which it reaches its ultimate state. To identify such a behaviour, the evolution of both the damaging process and its mechanical consequences have to be taken into account. This paper presents a computational approach for the analysis of reinforced and prestressed concrete elements under sustained loading conditions and subjected to given damaging scenarios. The effects of the diffusion of aggressive agents, of the onset and development of the corrosion state in the reinforcement and the corresponding mechanical response are studied. As known, the corrosion on the reinforcing bars influences the damaging rate in the cracking pattern evolution; hence, the damage development and the mechanical behaviours are considered as coupled phenomena. The reliability of such an approach is validated in modelling the diffusion of the aggressive agents and the changes in the mechanical response of simple structural elements whose experimental behaviour is reported in Literature. A second set of analyses studies the effects of the corrosion of the tendons of a P.C. beam and explores potentially unexpected structural responses caused by corrosion under different aggressive exposition. The role of the different types and of the different positions of the damaging agents is discussed. In particular, it is shown how the collapse mode of the beam may switch from flexural to shear type, in case corrosion is caused by a localized chloride attack in the shear span.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.69-77
• /
• 2015

Ultra High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) has a outstanding tensile hardening behaviour after a crack develops, which gives ductility to structures. Existing shear strength model for fiber reinforced concrete is entirely based on crack opening behavior(mode I) which comes from flexural-shear failure, not considering shear-slip behavior(mode II). To find out the mode I and mode II behavior on a crack in UHPFRC simultaneously, maximum shear strength of cracked UHPFRC is investigated from twenty-four push-off test results. The shear stress on a crack is derived as variable of initial crack width and fiber volume ratio. Test results show that shear slippage is proportional to crack opening, which leads to relationship between shear transfer strength and crack width. Based on the test results a hypothesis is proposed for the physical mechanics of shear transfer in UHPFRC by tensile hardening behavior in stead of aggregate interlocking in reinforced concrete. Shear transfer strength based on tensile hardening behavior in UHPFRC is suggested and this suggestion was verified by comparing direct tensile test results and push-off test results.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.41-54
• /
• 2019

Reinforced Concrete (RC) shear walls are widely used in Nuclear power plants as effective lateral force resisting elements of the structure and these may experience nonlinear behavior for higher earthquake demand. Short shear walls of aspect ratio less than 1.5 generally experience combined shear flexure interaction. This paper presents the results of the displacement-controlled experiments performed on six RC short shear walls with varying aspect ratios (1, 1.25 and 1.5) for monotonic and reversed quasi-static cyclic loading. Simulation of the shear walls is then carried out by Finite element modeling and also by macro modeling considering the coupled shear and flexure behaviour. The shear response is estimated by softened truss theory using the concrete model given by Vecchio and Collins (1994) with a modification in softening part of the model and flexure response is estimated using moment curvature relationship. The accuracy of modeling is validated by comparing the simulated response with experimental one. Moreover, based on the experimental work a multi-linear hysteretic model is proposed for short shear walls. Finally ultimate load, drift, ductility, stiffness reduction and failure pattern of the shear walls are studied in details and hysteretic energy dissipation along with damage index are evaluated.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.239-258
• /
• 2012

In this paper, experimental investigations on high strength steel (HSS) stud connected steel-concrete composite (SCC) girders to understand the effect of shear connector density on their flexural behaviour is presented. SCC girder specimens were designed for three different shear capacities (100%, 85%, and 70%), by varying the number of stud connectors in the shear span. Three SCC girder specimens were tested under monotonic/quasi-static loading, while three similar girder specimens were subjected to non-reversal cyclic loading under simply supported end conditions. Details of casting the specimens, experimental set-up, and method of testing, instrumentation for the measurement of deflection, interface-slip and strain are discussed. It is found that SCC girder specimen designed for full shear capacity exhibits interface slip for loads beyond 25% of the ultimate load capacity. Specimens with lesser degree of shear connection show lower values of load at initiation of slip. Very good ductility is exhibited by all the HSS stud connected SCC girder specimens. It is observed that the ultimate moment of resistance as well as ductility gets reduced for HSS stud connected SCC girder with reduction in stud shear connector density. Efficiency factor indicating the effectiveness of high strength stud connectors in resisting interface forces is estimated to be 0.8 from the analysis. Failure mode is primarily flexure with fracturing of stud connectors and characterised by flexural cracking and crushing of concrete at top in the pure bending region. Local buckling in the top flange of steel beam was also observed at the loads near to failure, which is influenced by spacing of studs and top flange thickness of rolled steel section. One of the recommendations is that the ultimate load capacity can be limited to 1.5 times the plastic moment capacity of the section such that the post peak load reduction is kept within limits. Load-deflection behaviour for monotonic tests compared well with the envelope of load-deflection curves for cyclic tests. It is concluded from the experimental investigations that use of HSS studs will reduce their numbers for given loading, which is advantageous in case of long spans. Buckling of top flange of rolled section is observed at failure stage. Provision of lips in the top flange is suggested to avoid this buckling. This is possible in case of longer spans, where normally built-up sections are used.

• Korea-Australia Rheology Journal
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2005

Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS), polycarbonate (PC) and their alloys are an important class of engineering thermoplastics that are widely used for automotive industry, computer and equipment housings. For the process of recycling mixtures of ABS and PC, it is desirable to know how sensitive the blend properties are to changes in compositions. It was for this reason that blends of virgin ABS and virgin PC at five different compositions, namely, $15\%,\;30\%,\;50\%,\;70%$ and $85\%$ by weight of ABS were prepared and characterised by rheological and mechanical measurements. Rheological properties of these blends in steady, oscillatory and transient step shear and mechanical properties, namely, tensile strength, elongation-at-break and Izod impact strength are reported. The results show that PC behaves in a relatively Newtonian manner, but ABS exhibits significant shear thinning. The ABS-rich blends show a trend that is similar to that of ABS, while PC-rich blends, namely $0\%$ and $15\%$, exhibit a nearly Newtonian behaviour. However, at a fixed shear rate or frequency, the steady shear or the dynamic viscosity varied respectively in a non-mono-tonic manner with composition. Except for $15\%$ blend, the viscosities of other blends fall into a narrow band indicating a wide-operation window of varying blend ratio. The blends exhibited a lower viscosity than either of the two pure components. The other noticeable feature was that the blends at $70\%$ and $85\%$ ABS content had a higher G' than pure ABS, indicating an enhancement of elastic effect. The tensile yield strength of the blends followed the 'rule of mixtures' showing a decreasing value with the increase of ABS content in PC. However, the elongation-at-break and the impact strength did not appear to obey this 'rule of mixtures,' which suggests that morphology of the blends also plays a significant role in determining the properties. Indeed, scanning electron micrographs of the fracture surfaces of the different blends validate this hypothesis, and the $15\%$ blend is seen to have the most distinct morphology and correspondingly different behaviour and properties.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.5-12
• /
• 2004

The purpose of this paper is to make an understanding of fundamental mechanism of shear behaviour between rock and concrete interfaces in the pile socketed into granite. The interface of pile socketed in rock can be modeled in laboratory tests by resolving the axi-symmetric pile situation into the two dimensional situation under CNS(constant normal stiffness) direct shear condition. In this paper, the granite core samples were used to simulate the interface condition of piles socketed in granite in our country. The samples were prepared in the laboratory to simulate field condition, roughness(angle and height), stress boundary condition, and then tested by CNS direct shear tests. This paper describes shearing behaviour of socket piles into domestic granite through the analysis of CNS test results. It was found out that the peak shear strength increases with the angle of asperity and CNS value, and also the dilation increases with the angle of asperity but decreases with the CNS value.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.12 no.8
• /
• pp.13-24
• /
• 2011

In the part of geotechnical engineering, soils are classified as either the coarse grained soil or the fine-grained soil following the fine content($F_c$=50%) according to the granularity, and appropriate design codes are used respectively to represent their mechanical behaviour. However, sand-clay mixtures, which are typically referred to as intermediate soils, cannot be easily categorized as either sand or clay. In this study, several monotonic undrained shear tests were carried out on Silica sand fine mixtures with various proportions, and a wide range of soil structures, ranging from one with sand dominating the soil structure to one with fines controlling the behaviour, were prepared using compaction method or pre-consoldation methods in prescribed energy. The shear strength of mixtures below the threshold fines content is observed that as the fines content increases, maximum deviator stress ratio decrease for dense samples while an increase is noted for loose samples. Then, by using the concept of fines content and granular void ratio, the monotonic shear strength of the mixtures was estimated. It was found that the shear behavior of mixtures is greatly dependent on the skeleton structure of sand particles.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.2 no.5
• /
• pp.315-330
• /
• 2002

This paper proposes a model for analysing the non-linear behaviour of steel concrete composite beams prestressed by external slipping cables, taking into account the deformability of the interface shear connection. By assuming a suitable admissible displacement field for the composite beam, the balance condition is obtained by the virtual work principle. The solution is numerically achieved by approximating the unknown displacement functions as series of shape functions according to the Ritz method. The model is applied to real cases by showing the consequences of different connection levels between the concrete slab and the steel beam. Particular attention is focused on the limited ductility of the shear connection that may be the cause of premature failure of the composite girder.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.687-694
• /
• 2018

To investigate the crushing behaviour of coarse granular materials, a specifically designed, large-scale simple shear apparatus with eight-staged shearing rings was developed. A series of monotonic simple shear tests were conducted on two kinds of coarse granular materials under different vertical stresses and large shear strains. The evolution of the particle breakage during the compression and simple shearing processes was investigated. The results show that the amount of particle breakage is related to the particle hardness and the state of the stresses. The amount of particle breakage is greater for softer granular materials and increases with increasing vertical stresses. Particle breakage may tend towards a critical value during both the compression and the shearing processes. Particle breakage mainly occurs during the processes of confined compression and contraction.