• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.541-558
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• 2019

In Special Concentrically Braced Frames (SCBFs), vertical and horizontal components of the brace force must be resisted by column and beam, respectively but normal force component existing at the gusset plate-to-column and beam interfaces, creates out-of-plane action making distortion in column and beam faces adjacent to the gusset plate. It is a main concern in Hollow Structural Section (HSS) columns and beams where their webs and gusset plate are not in the same plane. In this paper, a new gusset plate passing through the HSS columns and beams, named as through gusset plate, is proposed to study the force transfer mechanism in such gusset plates of SCBFs compared to the case with conventional gusset plates. For this purpose, twelve SCBFs with diagonal brace and HSS columns and twelve SCBFs with chevron brace and HSS columns and beams are considered. For each frame, two cases are considered, one with through gusset plates and the other with conventional ones. Based on numerical results, using through gusset plates prevents distortion and out-of-plane deformation at HSS column and beam faces adjacent to the gusset plate helping the entire column and beam cross-sections to resist respectively vertical and horizontal components of the brace force. Moreover, its application increases energy dissipation, lateral stiffness and strength around 28%, 40% and 32%, respectively, improving connection behavior and raising the resistance of the normal force components at the gusset plate-to-HSS column and beam interfaces to approximately 4 and 3.5 times, respectively. Finally, using such through gusset plates leads to better structural performance particularly for HSS columns and beams with larger width-to-thickness ratio elements.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.347-359
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• 2020

The objective of this study is to experimentally scrutinize the axial performance of built-up concrete filled steel tube (CFT) columns composed of steel plates. In this case, the main parameters cross section types, compressive strength of filled concrete, and the effect of welding lines. Welded built-up steel box columns are fabricated by connecting two pieces of cold-formed U-shaped or four pieces of L-shaped thin steel plates with continuous penetration groove welding line located at mid-depth of stub column section. Furthermore, traditional square steel box sections with no welding lines are investigated for the comparison of axial behavior between the generic and build-up cross sections. Accordingly, 20 stub columns with thickness and height of 2 and 300 mm have been manufactured. As a result, welding lines in built-up specimens act as stiffeners because have higher strength and thickness in comparison to the plates. Subsequently, by increasing the welding lines, the load bearing capacity of stub columns has been increased in comparison to the traditional series. Furthermore, for specimens with the same confinement steel tubes and concrete core, increment of B/t ratio has reduced the ductility and axial strength.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.51-66
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• 2022

This paper presents the axial compression behavior of partially encased composite (PEC) columns using H-shaped structural steel. In the experimental program, a total of eight PEC columns with H-shaped steel sections of different flange and web slenderness ratios were tested to investigate the interactive mechanism between steel and concrete. The test results showed that the PEC columns could sustain the load well beyond the peak load provided that the flange slenderness ratio was not greater than five. In addition, the previous analytical model was extended to predict the axial load-strain relationships of the PEC columns with H-shaped steel sections. A good agreement between the predicted load-strain relationships and test data was observed. Using the analytical model, the effects of compressive strength of concrete (21 to 69 MPa), yield strength of steel (245 to 525 MPa), slenderness ratio of flange (4 to 10), and slenderness ratio of web (10 to 25) on the interactive mechanism (K_h = confinement factor for highly confined concrete and K_w = reduction factor for steel web) and ductility index (DI = ratio between strain at peak load and strain at proportional load) were assessed. The numerical results showed that the slenderness of steel flange and yield strength of steel significantly influenced the compression behavior of the PEC columns.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.79-86
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• 2016

In this study, the three different meta-heuristics namely the Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO), Stochastic Fractal Search (SFS), and Adaptive Differential Evolution with Optional External Archive (JADE) algorithms are examined. This study considers optimization of the planer frame to minimize its weight subjected to the strength and displacement constraints as per the American Institute of Steel and Construction - Load and Resistance Factor Design (AISC-LRFD). The GWO algorithm is associated with grey wolves' activities in the social hierarchy. The SFS algorithm works on the natural phenomenon of growth. JADE on the other hand is a powerful self-adaptive version of a differential evolution algorithm. A one-bay ten-story planar steel frame problem is examined in the present work to investigate the design ability of the proposed algorithms. The frame design is produced by optimizing the W-shaped cross sections of beam and column members as per AISC-LRFD standard steel sections. The results of the algorithms are compared. In addition, these results are also mapped with other state-of-art algorithms.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.03a
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• pp.377-384
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• 2003

Recently, there are much concerns about new and innovative transverse materials which could be used instead of conventional transverse steel in reinforced concrete bridge piers. FRP materials could be substituted for conventional transverse steel because of their sufficient strength, light weight, easy fabrication, and useful applicability to any shapes of pier sections, such as rectangular or circular sections. The objective of this research is to evaluate the seismic performance of reinforced concrete bridge pier specimens with FRP transverse reinforcement by means of the Quasi-Static test. In the first task, test columns were made using FRP rope, but these specimens appeared to fail at low displacement ductility levels due to insufficient confinement of strand extension itself. Therefore, the second task was to evaluate the seismic performance of test specimens transversely confined with FRP band. Although FRP banded specimens showed lower seismic performance than the specimen with spiral reinforcing steel, it satisfied with the response modification factor, 3, required for the single column of Korea bridge roadway design code. It was concluded that FRP band could be efficiently substituted for conventional reinforcing steel.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.71 no.5
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• pp.503-513
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• 2019

Genetic Algorithms (GAs) have found the best design for reinforced concrete frames. The design of the optimum beam sections by GAs has been unified. The process of the optimum-design sections has satisfied axial, flexural, shear and torsion necessities based on the designing code. The frames' function has contained the function of both concrete and reinforced steel besides the function of the frames' formwork. The results have revealed that limiting the dimension of frame-beam with the dimension of frame-column have increased the optimum function of the structure, thereby reducing the reanalysis requirement for checking the optimum-designed structures through GAs.

• International journal of steel structures
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1560-1576
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• 2018

With the aim to provide an efficient platform for the elastic-plastic analysis of steel structures, reinforced concrete (RC) structures and steel-concrete composite structures, a program iFiberLUT based on the fiber model was developed within the framework of ABAQUS. This program contains an ABAQUS Fiber Generator which can automatically divide the beam and column cross sections into fiber sections, and a material library which includes several concrete and steel uniaxial material models. The range of applications of iFiberLUT is introduced and its feasibility is verified through previously reported test data of individual structural members as well as planar steel frames, RC frames and composite frames subjected to various loadings. The simulation results indicate that the developed program is able to achieve high calculation accuracy and favorable convergence within a wide range of applications.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.515-529
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• 2024

Cold-formed steel (CFS) is a popular choice for construction due to its low cost, durability, sustainability, resistance to high environmental and seismic pressures, and ease of installation. The beam-column connections in residential and medium-rise structures are formed using self-drilling screws that connect two CFS channel sections and a gusset plate. In order to increase the moment capacity of these CFS screwed beam-column connections, stiffeners are often placed on the web area of each single channel. However, there is limited literature on studying the effects of stiffeners on the moment capacity of CFS screwed beam-column connections. Hence, this paper proposes a new test approach for determining the moment capacity of CFS screwed beam-column couplings. This study describes an experimental test programme consisting of eight novel experimental tests. The effect of stiffeners, beam thickness, and gusset plate thickness on the structural behaviour of CFS screwed beam-column connections is investigated. Besides, nonlinear elasto-plastic finite element (FE) models were developed and validated against experimental test data. It found that there was reasonable agreement in terms of moment capacity and failure mode prediction. From the experimental and numerical investigation, it found that the increase in gusset plate or beam thickness and the use of stiffeners have no significant effect on the structural behaviour, moment capacity, or rotational capacity of joints exhibiting the same collapse behaviour; however, the capacity or energy absorption capacities have increased in joints whose failure behaviour varies with increasing thickness or using stiffeners. Besides, the thickness change has little impact on the initial stiffness.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.197-204
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• 2006

Recently, in order to realization of construction and economical saving, various studies are progressing. Also, the study on RCS system which is consisted of reinforced concrete column and steel beam is progressing actively. Actually, however, resisting mechanism of panel zone is influenced by transverse beams when the stress transfers inner panel to outer panel but existing literature didn't reflect the effect of transverse beams. This paper is to analyze the test result of five inner beam-column joints specimen with a variable such as web, flange thickness of transverse beam and face bearing plate(FBP) for RCS systems were tested under cyclic loadings conforming to NEHRP recommendation to investigate the effect of transverse beams and the structural performance of beam-column joints. From the test result, it was shown that transverse beams are effective to enhance the shear strength and structural performance of beam-column joints.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.221-238
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• 2008

Numerical solution to buckling analysis of beams and columns are obtained by the method of differential quadrature (DQ) and harmonic differential quadrature (HDQ) for various support conditions considering the variation of flexural rigidity. The solution technique is applied to find the buckling load of fully or partially embedded columns such as piles. A simple semi- inverse method of DQ or HDQ is proposed for determining the flexural rigidities at various sections of non-prismatic column ( pile) partially and fully embedded given the buckling load, buckled shape and sub-grade reaction of the soil. The obtained results are compared with the existing solutions available from other numerical methods and analytical results. In addition, this paper also uses a recently developed technique, known as the differential transformation (DT) to determine the critical buckling load of fully or partially supported heavy prismatic piles as well as fully supported non-prismatic piles. In solving the problem, governing differential equation is converted to algebraic equations using differential transformation methods (DT) which must be solved together with applied boundary conditions. The symbolic programming package, Mathematica is ideally suitable to solve such recursive equations by considering fairly large number of terms.