• Computers and Concrete
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• 제21권3호
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• pp.231-237
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• 2018

A strain-hardening highly ductile composite based on an alkali-activated slag binder and synthetic fibers is a promising construction material due to its excellent tensile behavior and owing to the ecofriendly characteristics of its binder. This study investigated the effect of different types of synthetic fibers and water-to-binder ratios on the compressive strength and tensile behavior of slag-based cementless composites. Alkali-activated slag was used as a binder and water-to-binder ratios of 0.35, 0.45, and 0.55 were considered. Three types of fibers, polypropylene fiber, polyethylene (PE) fiber, and polyparaphenylene-benzobisethiazole (PBO) fiber, were used as reinforcing fibers, and compression and uniaxial tension tests were performed. The test results showed that the PE fiber series composites exhibited superior tensile behavior in terms of the tensile strain capacity and crack patterns while PBO fiber series composites had high tensile strength levels and tight crack widths and spacing distances.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제53권4호
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• pp.745-765
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• 2015

A nonlinear Finite Element (FE) algorithm is proposed to analyze the Reinforced Concrete (RC) columns subjected to Cyclic Loading (CL), Cyclic Oriented Lateral Force and Axial Loading (COLFAL), Monotonic Loading (ML) or Oriented Pushover Force and Axial Loading (OPFAL) in any direction. In the proposed algorithm, the following parameters are considered: uniaxial behavior of concrete and steel elements, the pseudo-plastic hinge produced in the critical sections, and global behavior of RC columns. In the proposed numerical simulation, the column is discretized into two Macro-Elements (ME) located between the pseudo-plastic hinges at critical sections and the inflection point. The critical sections are discretized into Fixed Rectangular Finite Elements (FRFE) in general cases of CL, COLFAL or ML and are discretized into Variable Oblique Finite Elements (VOFE) in the particular cases of ML or OPFAL. For pushover particular case, a fairly fast converging and properly accurate nonlinear simulation method is proposed to assess the behavior of RC columns. The proposed algorithm has been validated by the results of tests carried out on full-scale RC columns.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• 제2권1호
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• pp.1-13
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• 2017

This paper presents a variant of the Harmony Search Algorithm (HS) and its application to discrete optimization. The main proposed modifications regarding original HS are related to stopping criterion and reinitialization of population, called Harmony Memory. In order to investigate the efficiency of the algorithm, it was applied for obtaining optimal sections of reinforced concrete columns subjected to uniaxial flexural compression. To minimize the cost of the section, the amount and diameters of the reinforcement bars and the dimensions of the columns cross sections were considered as design variables. The obtained results were compared to those generated by other optimization methods. Since, to the examples, Harmony Search reached the same results achieved by Simulated Annealing, some additional analysis are presented in order to compare these methods regarding success rate and number of iterations to reach the optimum.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제13권3호
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• pp.343-359
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• 2014

In this work a numerical method to simulate the response of reinforced concrete structures subject to cyclically imposed displacements is proposed. The method consists of a combination of a displacement and load controlled version of the Newton-Raphson iterative technique, used for the loading and the unloading part of the cycles respectively. The whole procedure is combined with a relatively simple concrete model whose only material parameter is its uniaxial compressive strength. The proposed methodology may realistically simulate, in an easy way, the physical process of any experimentally tested RC structure under imposed displacements cycles. The efficiency of the approach is demonstrated through a series of analyses of experimentally tested specimens reported in the literature.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제52권6호
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• pp.1273-1287
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• 2014

Plates are most widely used in the hulls of floating concrete structures, bridge decks, walls of off-shore structures and liquid storage tanks. A method of analysis is presented for the determination of load-deflection response and ultimate strength of high-strength steel fiber reinforced concrete (HSSFRC) plates simply supported on all four edges and subjected to combined action of external compressive in-plane and transverse loads. The behavior of HSSFRC plate specimens subjected to combined uniaxial in-plane and transverse loads was investigated. The proposed analytical method is compared to the physical test results, and shows good agreement. To predict the constitutive behavior of HSSFRC in compression, a non-dimensional characteristic equation was proposed and found to give reasonable accuracy.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제63권4호
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• pp.439-446
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• 2017

This work proposes an original single variable shear deformation theory to study the buckling analysis of thick isotropic plates subjected to uniaxial and biaxial in-plane loads. This theory is built upon the classical plate theory (CPT) including the exponential function in terms of thickness coordinate to represent shear deformation effect and it involves only one governing differential equation. Efficacy of the present theory is confirmed through illustrative numerical examples. The obtained results are compared with those of other higher-order shear deformation plate theory results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제29권1호
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• pp.39-51
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• 2018

Position of a circular or elliptical cutout within an orthotropic plate has great influence on its buckling behavior. This paper aims at finding the optimal position (both location and orientation) of a single circular/elliptical cutout, within an orthotropic rectangular plate, that maximizes the critical buckling load. We consider linear buckling of simply supported orthotropic plates under uniaxial edge loads. To obtain the optimal positions of the cutouts, we have employed a MATLAB optimization routine coupled with buckling computation in ANSYS. Our results show that the position of the cutout that maximizes the buckling load has great dependence on the material properties, laminate configurations, and the geometrical parameters of the plate. These optimal results, for a number of plate geometries and cutout sizes, are reported in this paper. These results will be useful in the design of perforated orthotropic plates against buckling failure.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• 제5권6호
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• pp.615-632
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• 2018

Mechanical buckling of a rectangular functionally graded plate is obtained in the current paper using a refined higher-order shear and normal deformation theory. The impact of transverse normal strain is considered. The material properties are microscopically inhomogeneous and vary continuously based on a power law form in spatial direction. Navier's procedure is applied to examine the mechanical buckling behavior of a simply supported FG plate. The mechanical critical buckling subjected to uniaxial and biaxial compression loads are determined. The numerical investigation are compared with the numerical results in the literature. The influences of geometric parameters, power law index and different loading conditions on the critical buckling are studied.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제34권3호
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• pp.377-390
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• 2010

This paper studies fracture initiation direction of two parallel non-coplanar cracks of equal length. Using the dislocation pile-up modelling, singular integral equations for two parallel cracks subjected to mixed-mode loading are derived and the crack-tip field including singular and non-singular terms is obtained. The kinking angle is determined by using the maximum hoop stress criterion, or the ${\sigma}_{\theta}$-criterion. Results are presented for simple uniaxial tension and biaxial loading. The biaxiality ratio has a noticeable influence on crack growth direction. For the case of biaxial tension, when neglecting the T-stress the crack branching angle is overestimated for small crack inclination angles relative to the largest applied principal stress direction, and underestimated for large crack inclination angles.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제20권3호
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• pp.351-360
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• 2017

This paper presents an efficient membrane finite element for the cyclic inelastic response analysis of RC structures under complex plane stress states including shear. The model strikes a balance between accuracy and numerical efficiency to meet the challenge of shear wall simulations in earthquake engineering practice. The concrete material model at the integration points of the finite element is based on damage plasticity with two damage parameters. All reinforcing bars with the same orientation are represented by an embedded orthotropic steel layer based on uniaxial stress-strain relation, so that the dowel and bond-slip effect of the reinforcing steel are presently neglected in the interest of computational efficiency. The model is validated with significant experimental results of the cyclic response of RC panels with uniform stress states.