• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.73-91
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• 2016

The use of box columns has been increased due to the rigidity in rigid orthogonal moment resisting frames. On the other hand, the installation and welding of necessary horizontal continuity plates inside the columns are both labor-consuming and costly tasks. Accordingly, in this paper, a new beam-to-box column connection by trapezoidal external stiffeners and horizontal bar mats is presented to provide seismic parameters. The proposed connection consists of eight external stiffeners in the level of beam flanges and five horizontal bar mats in Concrete Filled Tube (CFT) columns. The new connection effectively alleviates the stress concentration and moves the plastic hinge away from the column face by horizontal external stiffeners. In addition, the result shows that proposed connection has provided the required strength and rigidity of connection, so that the increased strength, 8.08% and rigidity, 3.01% are compared to connection with internal continuity plates, also the results indicate that this connection can offer appropriate ductility and energy dissipation capacity for its potential application in moment resisting frames in seismic region. As a result, the proposed connection can be a good alternative for connection with continuity plates.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.377-391
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• 2020

A concrete filled steel tube (CFT) column with stiffeners has preferable behavior subjected to axial loading condition due to delay local buckling of the steel wall than traditional CFT columns without stiffeners. Welding lines in welded built-up steel box columns is expected to behave as longitudinal stiffeners. This study has presented a numerical investigation into the behavior of built-up concrete filled steel tube columns under axial pressure. At first stage, a finite element model (FE) has been built to simulate the behavior of built-up CFT columns. Comparing the results of FE and test has shown that numerical model passes the desired conditions and could accurately predict the axial performance of CFT column. Also, by the raise of steel tube thickness, the load bearing capacity of columns has been increased due to higher confinement effect. Also, the raise of concrete strength with greater cross section is led to a higher load bearing capacity compared to the steel tube thickness increment. In CFT columns with greater cross section, concrete strength has a higher influence on load bearing capacity which is noticeable in columns with more welding lines.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.423-440
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• 2020

In the recent years, steel box girder bridges have been extensively used due to high bending stiffness, torsional rigidity, and rapid construction. Therefore, researches related to this girder bridge have been widely conducted. This paper investigates the effect of residual stresses and geometric imperfections on the load-carrying capacity of steel box girder bridges spanning 30 m and 50 m. A three - dimensional finite element model of the steel box girder with a closed section was developed and analyzed using ABAQUS software. Nonlinear inelastic analysis was used to capture the actual response of the girder bridge accurately. Based on the results of analyses, the superimposed mode of webs and flanges was recommended for considering the influence of initial geometric imperfections of the steel box model. In addition, 4% and 16% strength reduction rates on the load - carrying capacity of the perfect structural system were respectively recommended for the girders with compact and non-compact sections, whose designs satisfy the requirements specified in AASHTO LRFD standard. As a consequence, the research results would help designers eliminate the complexity in modeling residual stresses and geometric imperfections when designing the steel box girder bridge.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.381-386
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• 2017

A railway track generates severe levels of vibrations. In order to reduce these vibrations and to provide structural stability, various rail pads, mats, etc., are used for vibration protection. In this study, a specially designed rail pad was developed to reduce vibration and to generate electric power simultaneously, that is, by using the vibrations generated by railway cars on the track. The newly developed rail pads were tested to evaluate the characteristics of electric power by investigating the generated voltage and the current levels and patterns. In addition, we proposed an optimal laminated structure and adhesive by comparing the voltage generated by each type of adhesive required for optimal adhesion of the rail pad and the piezoelectric device.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.501-516
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• 2017

Numerical simulations are prevalently used to evaluate the seismic behaviour of structures. The accuracy of the simulation results depends directly on the accuracy of the modelling techniques employed to simulate the behaviour of individual structural members. An empirical modelling technique is employed in this paper to simulate the behaviour of column members under cyclic and seismic loading. Despite the common modelling techniques, this technique is capable of simulating two important aspects of the cyclic and seismic behaviour of columns simultaneously. The proposed fiber-based modelling technique captures explicitly the interaction between the bending moment and the axial force in columns, and the cyclic deterioration of the hysteretic behaviour of these members is implicitly taken into account. The fiber-based model is calibrated based on the cyclic behaviour of square hollow steel sections. The behaviour of several column archetypes is investigated under a dual cyclic loading protocol to develop a benchmark database before the calibration procedure. The dual loading protocol used in this study consists of both axial and lateral loading cycles with varying amplitudes. After the calibration procedure, a regression analysis is conducted to derive an equation for predicting a varying calibrated modelling parameter. Finally, several nonlinear time-history analyses are conducted on a 6-story steel special moment frame in order to investigate how the results of numerical simulations can be affected by employing the intended modelling technique for columns instead of other common modelling techniques.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.271-286
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• 2017

The use of Hollow Structural Sections (HSS) provides an alternative for steel buildings in seismic zones, with the advantage over WF columns that the HSS columns have similar resistance along both axes and enhanced performance under flexure, compression and torsion with respect to other columns sections. The HSS columns have shown satisfactory performance under seismic loads, such as observed in buildings with steel moment frames in the Honshu earthquake (2011). The purpose of this research is to propose a new moment connection, EP-HSS ("End-plate to Hollow Structural Section"), using a wide flange beam and HSS column where the end plate falls outside the range of prequalification established in the ANSI/AISC 358-10 Specification, as an alternative to the traditional configuration of steel moment frames established in current codes. The connection was researched through analytical, numerical (FEM), and experimental studies. The results showed that the EP-HSS allowed the development of inelastic action on the beam only, avoiding stress concentrations in the column and developing significant energy dissipation. The experiments followed the qualification protocols established in the ANSI/AISC 341-10 Specification satisfying the required performance for highly ductile connections in seismic zones, thereby ensuring satisfactory performance under seismic actions without brittle failure mechanisms.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.811-831
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• 2015

This paper focuses on the strengthening methods used for improving the compression behaviors of perforated box-section walls as provided in the anchorage zones of steel pylons. Rectangular plates containing double-row continuous elliptical holes are investigated by employing the boundary condition of simple supporting on four edges in the out-of-plane direction of plate. Two types of strengthening stiffeners, named flat stiffener (FS) and longitudinal stiffener (LS), are considered. Uniaxial compression tests are first conducted for 18 specimens, of which 5 are unstrengthened plates and 13 are strengthened plates. The mechanical behaviors such as stress concentration, out-of-plane deformation, failure pattern, and elasto-plastic ultimate strength are experimentally investigated. Finite element (FE) models are also developed to predict the ultimate strengths of plates with various dimensions. The results of FE analysis are validated by test data. The influences of non-dimensional parameters including plate aspect ratio, hole spacing, hole width, stiffener slenderness ratio, as well as stiffener thickness on the ultimate strengths are illustrated on the basis of numerous parametric studies. Comparison of strengthening efficiency shows that the continuous longitudinal stiffener is the best strengthening method for such perforated plates. The simplified formulas used for estimating the compression strengths of strengthened plates are finally proposed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.963-980
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• 2016

The jib system with middle strut is widely used to achieve the large arm length in the large scale tower crane and the deployability in the mobile construction crane. In this paper, an analytical solution for the out-of-plane buckling of the jib system with middle strut is proposed. To obtain the analytical expression of the buckling characteristic equation, the method of differential equation was adopted by establishing the bending and torsional differential equation of the jib system under the instability critical state. Compared with the numerical solutions of the finite element software ANSYS, the analytical results in this work agree well with them. Therefore, the correctness of the results in this work can be confirmed. Then the influences of the lateral stiffness of the cable fixed joint, the dip angle of the strut, the inertia moment of the strut, and the horizontal position of the cable fixed joint on the out-of-plane buckling behavior of the jib system were investigated.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.1045-1067
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• 2016

Concrete bridges with corrugated steel webs and prestressed by both internal and external tendons have emerged as one of the promising bridge forms. In view of the different behaviour of components and the large shear deformation of webs with negligible flexural stiffness, the assumption that plane sections remain plane may no longer be valid, and therefore the classical Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beam models may not be applicable. In the design of this type of bridges, both the ultimate load and ductility should be examined, which requires the estimation of full-range behaviour. An analytical sandwich beam model and its corresponding beam finite element model for geometric and material nonlinear analysis are developed for this type of bridges considering the diaphragm effects. Different rotations are assigned to the flanges and corrugated steel webs to describe the displacements. The model accounts for the interaction between the axial and flexural deformations of the beam, and uses the actual stress-strain curves of materials considering their stress path-dependence. With a nonlinear kinematical theory, complete description of the nonlinear interaction between the external tendons and the beam is obtained. The numerical model proposed is verified by experiments.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.1105-1119
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• 2016

In this study, it is presented that a new developed approach for equivalent area-distributed loading (EADL) induced from a single concentrated force. For the purpose, a full scale 3D steel formwork system was constructed in laboratory conditions. A developed load transmission platform was put on the formwork system and loaded step by step on the mass center. After each load increment, displacement was measured in several crictical points of the system. The developed platform which was put in to slab of formwork to equivalently distribute the load from a point to the whole slab was constituted using I profiles. A 3D finite element model of the formwork system was analyzed to compare numerical displacement results with experimental ones. In experimental tests,difference among the displacements obtained from reference numerical model (model applied EADL) and main numerical model (model applied single load using a load cell via load transmission platform) is about %13 in avarage. Difference among the displacements obtained from experimental results and main numerical model under 30 kN single load is about %11 in avarage. The results revealed that the displacements obtained experimentally and numerically are dramatically closed to each other. It is highlighted from the study that the developed approach is reliable and useful to get EDL.