• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.47 no.6
• /
• pp.756-765
• /
• 2015

Background: Fibers have been used in cement mixture to improve its toughness, ductility, and tensile strength, and to enhance the cracking and deformation characteristics of concrete structural members. The addition of fibers into conventional reinforced concrete can enhance the structural and functional performances of safety-related concrete structures in nuclear power plants. Methods: The effects of steel and polyamide fibers on the shear resisting capacity of a prestressed concrete containment vessel (PCCV) were investigated in this study. For a comparative evaluation between the shear performances of structural walls constructed with conventional concrete, steel fiber reinforced concrete, and polyamide fiber reinforced concrete, cyclic tests for wall specimens were conducted and hysteretic models were derived. Results: The shear resisting capacity of a PCCV constructed with fiber reinforced concrete can be improved considerably. When steel fiber reinforced concrete contains hooked steel fibers in a volume fraction of 1.0%, the maximum lateral displacement of a PCCV can be improved by > 50%, in comparison with that of a conventional PCCV. When polyamide fiber reinforced concrete contains polyamide fibers in a volume fraction of 1.5%, the maximum lateral displacement of a PCCV can be enhanced by ~40%. In particular, the energy dissipation capacity in a fiber reinforced PCCV can be enhanced by > 200%. Conclusion: The addition of fibers into conventional concrete increases the ductility and energy dissipation of wall structures significantly. Fibers can be effectively used to improve the structural performance of a PCCV subjected to strong ground motions. Steel fibers are more effective in enhancing the shear performance of a PCCV than polyamide fibers.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.26 no.6
• /
• pp.771-778
• /
• 2014

This paper concerns the flexural behavior of hybrid steel fiber-reinforced ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) beams. It presents experimental research results of hybrid steel fiber-reinforced UHPC with steel fiber content of 1.5% by volume and steel reinforcement ratio of less than 0.02. This study aims at providing realistic information about UHPC beams in bending in order to establish a reasonable prediction model for flexural resistance in structural code in the future. The experimental results show that hybrid steel fiber-reinforced UHPC is in favor of cracking resistance and ductility of beams. The ductility indices range through 9.2 to 15.2, which means high ductility of UHPC. Also, the flexural capacity of beam which contains stirrups in pure bending zone is similar to that of beam which does not contain stirrups in pure bending zone. This result represents that the flexural capacity is not affected by the presence of stirrups whose spacing is 150 mm in bending zone.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.31-35
• /
• 2009

When conducting CTOD test, especially in thick welded steel plate, fatigue pre-cracking occasionally failed to satisfy the requirements of standards thus making the test result invalid. Internally accumulated residual stress of test piece has been thought as one of the main reasons. The propagation of fatigue crack, started from the tip of machined notch, which might have propagated irregularly due to residual stress field. To overcome this kind of difficulty three methods to modify the residual stress are suggested in standard i.e. local compression, reverse bending and stepwise high-R ratio method. In this paper not only multi pass welding but also local pre-compressing process of thick steel plate has been simulated using finite element method for clarifying variation of internal welding residual stress. The simulated results show that welding residual stress is compressive in the middle section of the model and it is predominantly increased after machining the specimen. Comparing as-welded state all component of the welding residual stress changing to compressive in the tip of machine notch whereas residual stress of the outer area remain as tensile condition relatively. Analysis results also show that this irregular residual stress distribution is improved to be more uniformly by applying local compression.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.37 no.12
• /
• pp.1503-1512
• /
• 2013

In this study, we proposed an indentation evaluation method for fracture toughness using cohesive finite element simulations. First, we examined the effect of material properties (yield strain, Poisson's ratio, and elastic modulus) on crack size during Vickers indentation and then generated a regression formula that explains the relations among fracture toughness, indentation load, and crack size. We also proposed another indentation formula for fracture toughness evaluation using the contact size a and E/H (H: hardness). Finally, we examined the relation between the crack size and the indenter shapes. Based on this, we can generate from the formula obtained using the Vickers indenter a formula for an indenter of different shapes. Using the proposed method, fracture toughness is directly estimated from indentation data.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.6 no.4
• /
• pp.31-37
• /
• 2002

Recently a simplified design procedure as well as load transfer model for seismic steel moment connections with welded straight haunch have been proposed by Lee and Uang. Cyclic seismic testing was conducted to verify the proposed design procedure and to develop the details that will prevent the cracking at the haunch tip, where stress concentration was the highest. All the specimens thus designed effectively pushed plastic hinging away from the haunch tip and were able to develop satisfactory plastic rotation capacity of 0.04 radian with no fracture. A sloped edge combined with drilling a hole near the haunch tip or a pair of stiffeners(partially or fully) extended from the beam web successfully prevented the crack initiation at the haunch tip. The strut action of the haunch web, which had been predicted from the previous analytical study, was also experimentally identified through the strain gage readings.

• Advances in materials Research
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.117-135
• /
• 2019

The lifetime of a gas turbine combustor is typically limited by the durability of its liner, the structure that encloses the high-temperature combustion products. The primary objective of the combustor thermal design process is to ensure that the liner temperatures do not exceed a maximum value set by material limits. Liner temperatures exceeding these limits hasten the onset of cracking which increase the frequency of unscheduled engine removals and cause the maintenance and repair costs of the engine to increase. Hot gas temperature prediction can be considered a preliminary step for combustor liner temperature prediction which can make a suitable view of combustion chamber conditions. In this study, the temperature distribution of ceramic panels for a V94.2 gas turbine combustor subjected to realistic operation conditions is presented using three-dimensional finite difference method. A simplified model of alumina ceramic is used to obtain the temperature distribution. The external thermal loads consist of convection and radiation heat transfers are considered that these loads are applied to flat segmented panel on hot side and forced convection cooling on the other side. First the temperatures of hot and cold sides of ceramic are calculated. Then, the thermal boundary conditions of all other ceramic sides are estimated by the field observations. Finally, the temperature distributions of ceramic panels for a V94.2 gas turbine combustor are computed by MATLAB software. The results show that the gas emissivity for diffusion mode is more than premix therefore the radiation heat flux and temperature will be more. The results of this work are validated by ANSYS and ABAQUS softwares. It is showed that there is a good agreement between all results.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.355-367
• /
• 2021

This paper investigates the mechanical response of simply supported one-way reinforced concrete slabs under fire through numerical analysis. The numerical model is constructed using the software ABAQUS, and verified by experimental results. Generally, mechanical response of the slab can be divided into four stages, accompanied with drastic stress redistribution. In the first stage, the bottom of the slab is under tension and the top is under compression. In the second stage, stress at bottom of the slab becomes compression due to thermal expansion, with the tension zone at the mid-span section moving up along the thickness of the slab. In the third stage, compression stress at bottom of the slab starts to decrease with the deflection of the slab increasing significantly. In the fourth stage, the bottom of the slab is under tension again, eventually leading to cracking of the slab. Parametric studies were further performed to investigate the effects of load ratio, thickness of protective layer, width-span ratio and slab thickness on the performance of the slab. Results show that increasing the thickness of the slab or reducing the load ratio can significantly postpone the time that deflection of the slab reaches span/20 under fire. It is also worth noting that slabs with the span ratio of 1:1 reached a deflection of span/20 22 min less than those of 1:3. The thickness of protective layer has little effect on performance of the slab until it reaches a deflection of span/20, but its effect becomes obvious in the late stages of fire.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.44 no.3
• /
• pp.437-450
• /
• 2022

When the vertical load-bearing members in high-rise structures fail locally, the beam-column joints play an important role in the redistribution of the internal forces. In this paper, a static laboratory test of three full-scale flush flange beam-reinforced connections with side and cover plates (CP-FBSP connection) with double half-span steel beams and single L-shaped columns composed of concrete-filled steel tubes (L-CFST columns) was conducted. The influence of the side plate width and cover plate thickness on the progressive collapse resistance of the substructure was thoroughly analyzed. The failure mode, vertical force-displacement curves, strain variation, reaction force of the pin support and development of internal force in the section with the assumed plastic hinge were discussed. Then, through the verified finite element model, the corresponding analyses of the thickness and length of the side plates, the connecting length between the steel beam flange and cover plate, and the vertical-force eccentricity were carried out. The results show that the failure of all the specimens occurred through the cracking of the beam flange or the cover plate, and the beam chord rotations measured by the test were all greater than 0.085 rad. Increasing the length, thickness and width of the side plates slightly reduced the progressive collapse resistance of the substructures. The vertical-force eccentricity along the beam length reduced the progressive collapse resistance of the substructure. An increase in the connecting length between the beam flange and cover plate can significantly improve the progressive collapse resistance of substructures.

• Advances in concrete construction
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.161-170
• /
• 2023

Ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) is produced using high amount of cementitious materials, very low water/cementitious materials ratio, fine-sized fillers, and steel fibers. Due to the dense microstructure of UHPC, it possesses very high strength, elasticity, and durability. Besides that, the UHPC exhibits high ductility and fracture toughness due to presence of fibers in its matrix. While the high ductility of UHPC allows it to undergo high strain/deflection before failure, the high fracture toughness of UHPC greatly enhances its capacity to absorb impact energy without allowing the formation of severe cracking or penetration by the impactor. These advantages with UHPC make it a suitable material for construction of the structural members subjected to special loading conditions. In this research work, the UHPC mixtures having three different dosages of steel fibers (2%, 4% and 6% by weight corresponding to 0.67%, 1.33% and 2% by volume) were characterized in terms of their mechanical properties including facture toughness, before using these concrete mixtures for casting the slab specimens, which were tested under high-energy impact loading with the help of a drop-weight impact test setup. The effect of fiber content on the impact energy absorption capacity and central deflection of the slab specimens were investigated and the equations correlating fiber content with the energy absorption capacity and central deflection were obtained with high degrees of fit. Finite element modeling (FEM) was performed to simulate the behavior of the slabs under impact loading. The FEM results were found to be in good agreement with their corresponding experimentally generated results.

• Advances in nano research
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.495-511
• /
• 2023

In this research, the impact of micro-silica, nano-silica, and polypropylene fibers on the fracture energy of self-compacting concrete was thoroughly examined. Enhancing the fracture energy is very important to increase the crack propagation resistance. The study focused on evaluating the self-compacting properties of the concrete through various tests, including J-ring, V-funnel, slump flow, and T50 tests. Additionally, the mechanical properties of the concrete, such as compressive and tensile strengths, modulus of elasticity, and fracture parameters were investigated on hardened specimens after 28 days. The results demonstrated that the incorporation of micro-silica and nano-silica not only decreased the rheological aspects of self-compacting concrete but also significantly enhanced its mechanical properties, particularly the compressive strength. On the other hand, the inclusion of polypropylene fibers had a positive impact on fracture parameters, tensile strength, and flexural strength of the specimens. Utilizing the response surface method, the relationship between micro-silica, nano-silica, and fibers was established. The optimal combination for achieving the highest compressive strength was found to be 5% micro-silica, 0.75% nano-silica, and 0.1% fibers. Furthermore, for obtaining the best mixture with superior tensile strength, flexural strength, modulus of elasticity, and fracture energy, the ideal proportion was determined as 5% micro-silica, 0.75% nano-silica, and 0.15% fibers. Compared to the control mixture, the aforementioned parameters showed significant improvements of 26.3%, 30.3%, 34.3%, and 34.3%, respectively. In order to accurately model the tensile cracking of concrete, the authors used softening curves derived from an inverse algorithm proposed by them. This method allowed for a precise and detailed analysis of the concrete under tensile stress. This study explores the effects of micro-silica, nano-silica, and polypropylene fibers on self-compacting concrete and shows their influences on the fracture energy and various mechanical properties of the concrete. The results offer valuable insights for optimizing the concrete mix to achieve desired strength and performance characteristics.