• Computers and Concrete
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2020

This study presents applications of the multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) method for predicting the ultimate loading carrying capacity (N_u) of rectangular concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns subjected to eccentric loading. A database containing 141 experimental data was collected from available literature to develop the MARS model with a total of seven variables that covered various geometrical and material properties including the width of rectangular steel tube (B), the depth of rectangular steel tube (H), the wall thickness of steel tube (t), the length of column (L), cylinder compressive strength of concrete (f'_c), yield strength of steel (f_y), and the load eccentricity (e). The proposed model is a combination of the MARS algorithm and the grid search cross-validation technique (abbreviated here as GS-MARS) in order to determine MARS' parameters. A new explicit formulation was derived from MARS for the mentioned input variables. The GS-MARS estimation accuracy was compared with four available mathematical methods presented in the current design codes, including AISC, ACI-318, AS, and Eurocode 4. The results in terms of criteria indices indicated that the MARS model was much better than the available formulae.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.557-564
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• 2002

Corrugated board is an efficient low-cost structure material fur the boxes that are widely used for transporting, storing and distributing goods. Corrugated board is also considered as an orthotropic because the principal material directions are the same as in paperboard. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the principal design parameters of ventilating box through the FEA on the various types of ventilating hole. From the viewpoint of the stress distribution and stress level, the optimum pattern and location of the ventilating hole were vertically oblong, and symmetry position with a short distance to the right and left from the center of front and rear panel. And, the optimum location and pattern of hand hole were a short distance to the top from the center of both side panels, and modified shape to increase the radius of curvature of both side in horizontal oblong. In general, the optimum pattern and location of both the ventilating hole and hand hole based on the FEM analysis were well verified by experimental investigation. It is suggested that decrease in compressive strength of the box could be minimized in the same ventilating hole area under the condition of the length of major axis of ventilating hole is less than 1/4 of box length, the ratio of minor axis/major axis is 113.5∼l/2.5, and number of the ventilating holes is even and symmetrical.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.215-231
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• 2011

As a brittle and heterogeneous material, concrete behaves differently under different stress conditions and its bulk strength is loading rate dependent. To a large extent, the varying behavioural properties of concrete can be explained by the mechanical failure processes at a mesoscopic level. The development of a computational mesoscale model in a general finite element environment, as presented in the preceding companion paper (Part 1), makes it possible to investigate into the underlying mechanisms governing the bulk-scale behaviour of concrete under a variety of loading conditions and to characterise the variation in quantitative terms. In this paper, we first present a series of parametric studies on the behaviour of concrete material under quasi-static compression and tension conditions. The loading-face friction effect, the possible influences of the non-homogeneity within the mortar and ITZ phases, and the effect of randomness of coarse aggregates are examined. The mesoscale model is then applied to analyze the dynamic behaviour of concrete under high rate loading conditions. The potential contribution of the mesoscopic heterogeneity towards the generally recognized rate enhancement of the material compressive strength is discussed.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.133-142
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• 2017

Two-stage concrete (TSC), also known as pre-placed aggregate concrete, is characterized by its unique placement technique, whereby the coarse aggregate is first placed in the formwork, then injected with a special grout. Despite its superior sustainability and technical features, TSC has remained a basic concrete technology without much use of modern chemical admixtures, new binders, fiber reinforcement or other emerging additions. In the present study, an experimental database for TSC was built. Different types of cementitious binders (single, binary, and ternary) comprising ordinary portland cement, fly ash, silica fume, and metakaolin were used to produce the various TSC mixtures. Different dosages of steel fibres having different lengths were also incorporated to enhance the mechanical properties of TSC. The database thus created was used to develop fuzzy logic models as predictive tools for the grout flowability and mechanical properties of TSC mixtures. The performance of the developed models was evaluated using statistical parameters and error analyses. The results indicate that the fuzzy logic models thus developed can be powerful tools for predicting the TSC grout flowability and mechanical properties and a useful aid for the design of TSC mixtures.

• KCI Concrete Journal
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.79-88
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• 1999

Most difficulties of inducing high fluidity on the concrete mixing design with a strength range of 210 to 240kg/$\textrm{cm}^2$ result from the segregation of aggregates due to the shortage of cementitious binders. To solve the problem, this study concentrated on finding the optimized amount of binder material which does not affect the concrete strength and is also economical. Also there were studies on the use of intermediate sized aggregates to avoid the gap-grading between coarse and fine aggregates so that the material segregation in high flowing concrete was and minimalized the fluidity and penetration capacity of the reinforcing bars was enhanced. Throughout the parametric study with respect to water/binder ratio. superplasticizer. replaceable mineral admixture, the size of coarse aggregate and mixing methods, the effect of each constituent on the characteristics of high flowing concrete could be observed. As a result or partially using stone powder or an intermediate class of aggregate (max. diameter 13mm) . it was fund that the fluidity of concrete significantly increased without material segregation and any change of compressive strengths. It was also proved in this study that proper mixing time and speed are significant factors influence the performence of high flowing concrete.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.145-154
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• 2019

The present experimental study addresses the structural response of reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened in shear. Thirteen RC beams were divided into four different sets to investigate the effect of transverse and longitudinal steel reinforcement ratios, concrete compressive strength change and orientation for installing carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates. Then, we employed a shear strengthening solution through externally bonded reinforcement in grooves (EBRIG) and externally bonded reinforcement (EBR) techniques. In this regard, rectangular beams of $200{\times}300{\times}2000mm$ dimensions were subjected to the 4-point static loading condition and their load-displacement curves, load-carrying capacity and ductility changes were compared. The results revealed that using EBRIG method, the gain percentage augmented with the increase in the longitudinal reinforcement ratio. Also, in the RC beams with stirrups, the gain in shear strength decreased as transverse reinforcement ratio increased. The results also revealed that the shear resistance obtained by the experimental tests were in acceptable agreement with the design equations. Besides, the results of this research indicated that using the EBRIG system through vertical grooves in RC beams with and without stirrups caused the energy absorption to increase about 85% and 97%, respectively, relative to the control.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.39-59
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• 2011

Results of an experimental investigation on the behavior and ultimate shear capacity of 27 reinforced concrete Transfer (deep) beams are summarized. The main variables were percent longitudinal(tension) steel (0.28 to 0.60%), percent horizontal web steel (0.60 to 2.40%), percent vertical steel (0.50to 2.25%), percent orthogonal web steel, shear span-to-depth ratio (1.10 to 3.20) and cube concrete compressive strength (32 MPa to 48 MPa).The span of the beam has been kept constant at 1000 mm with100 mm overhang on either side of the supports. The result of this study shows that the load transfer capacity of transfer (deep) beam with distributed longitudinal reinforcement is increased significantly. Also, the vertical shear reinforcement is more effective than the horizontal reinforcement in increasing the shear capacity as well as to transform the brittle mode of failure in to the ductile mode of failure. It has been observed that the orthogonal web reinforcement is highly influencing parameter to generate the shear capacity of transfer beams as well as its failure modes. Moreover, the results from the experiments have been processed suitably and presented an analytical model for design of transfer beams in high-rise buildings for estimating the shear capacity of beams.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.319-335
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• 2021

This study proposes a new and highly-accurate artificial intelligence model, namely ANN-IP, which combines an interior-point (IP) algorithm and artificial neural network (ANN), to improve the axial compression capacity prediction of elliptical concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns. For this purpose, 145 tests of elliptical CFST columns extracted from the literature are used to develop the ANN-IP model. In this regard, axial compression capacity is considered as a function of the column length, the major axis diameter, the minor axis diameter, the thickness of the steel tube, the yield strength of the steel tube, and the compressive strength of concrete. The performance of the ANN-IP model is compared with the ANN-LM model, which uses the robust Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm to train the ANN model. The comparative results show that the ANN-IP model obtains more magnificent precision (R² = 0.983, RMSE = 59.963 kN, a20 - index = 0.979) than the ANN-LM model (R² = 0.938, RMSE = 116.634 kN, a20 - index = 0.890). Finally, a new Graphical User Interface (GUI) tool is developed to use the ANN-IP model for the practical design. In conclusion, this study reveals that the proposed ANN-IP model can properly predict the axial compression capacity of elliptical CFST columns and eliminate the need for conducting costly experiments to some extent.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.355-372
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• 2022

The study is part of an experimental program on full-scale Un-Reinforced Masonry (URM) wall panels strengthened with Textile reinforced mortars (TRM). Eight brick walls (two with and five without central opening), were tested under the diagonal tension (shear) test method in order to investigate the strengthening system effectiveness on the in-plane behaviour of the walls. All the URM panels consist of the innovative components, named "Orthoblock K300 bricks" with vertical holes and a thin layer mortar. Both of them have great capacity and easy application and can be constructed much more rapidly than the traditional bricks and mortars, increasing productivity, as well as the compressive strength of the masonry walls. Several parameters pertaining to the in-plane shear behaviour of the retrofitted panels were investigated, including shear capacity, failure modes, the number of layers of the external TRM jacket, and the existence of the central opening of the wall. For both the control and retrofitted panels, the experimental shear capacity and failure mode were compared with the predictions of existing prediction models (ACI 2013, TA 2000, Triantafillou 1998, Triantafillou 2016, CNR 2018, CNR 2013, Eurocode 6, Eurocode 8, Thomoglou et al. 2020). The experimental work allowed an evaluation of the shear performance in the case of the bidirectional textile (TRM) system applied on the URM walls. The results have shown that some analytical models present a better accuracy in predicting the shear resistance of all the strengthened masonry walls with TRM systems which can be used in design guidelines for reliable predictions.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.51-67
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• 2023

In this research, the degradation rate of physical properties of the Angouran pit bedrock (calc-schist) is first investigated under the specific numbers of freeze-thaw (F-T) cycles. Then, the durability of calc-schist specimens against the F-T cycle number (N) is examined considering the mechanical parameters, and using the decay function and half-time techniques. For this purpose, point load strength (I_S(50)), second durability index (I_d2), Brazilian tensile strength (BTS), and compressive (V_P) and shear (V_S) wave velocities of calc-schist specimens are measured after 0, 7, 15, 40, and 75 N. For comparing the degradation rate of mechanical properties of available rock types on the Angouran mine walls, these tests are also carried out on the limestone and amphibolite schist specimens beside the calc-schist. According to test results, the exponential regression models are developed between the mechanical parameters of rock specimen's and N variable. Also, the long-term durability of each rock type versus N is studied using the decay function and half-time techniques. Results indicated that the degradation rate differs for the above rock types in which amphibolite schist and calc-schist specimens have the highest and least resistance against the N, respectively. The obtained results from this study can play a key role in the optimal design of the mine's final walls.