• Computers and Concrete
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.239-255
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• 2020

Experimental and discrete element method were used to investigate the effects of joint number and its angularities on the shear behaviour of joint's bridge area. A new shear test condition was used to model the gypsum cracks under shear loading. Gypsum samples with dimension of 120 mm×100 mm×50 mm were prepared. the length of joints was 2cm. in experimental tests, the joint number is 1, 2 and 3 and its angularities change from 0° to 90° with increment of 45°. Assuming a plane strain condition, special rectangular models are prepared with dimension of 120 mm×100 mm. similar to joints configuration in experimental test, 9 models with different joint number and joint angularities were prepared. This testing show that the failure process is mostly governed by the joint number and joint angularities. The shear strengths of the specimens are related to the fracture pattern and failure mechanism of the discontinuities. The shear behaviour of discontinuities is related to the number of induced tensile cracks which are increased by increasing the rock bridge length. The strength of samples decreases by increasing the joint number and joint angularities. Failure pattern and failure strength are similar in both of the experimental test and numerical simulation.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.201-211
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• 2017

This paper experimentally investigates the effect of yield strength of reinforcing bars and stirrups on the seismic performance of reinforced concrete (RC) circular piers. Reversed cyclic loading tests of nine-large scale specimens with longitudinal and transverse reinforcement of different yield strengths (varying between HRB335, HRB500E and HRB600 rebars) were conducted. The test parameters include the yield strength and amount of longitudinal and transverse reinforcement. The results indicate that the adoption of high-strength steel (HSS) reinforcement HRB500E and HRB600 (to replace HRB335) as longitudinal bars without reducing the steel area (i.e., equal volume replacement) is found to increase the moment resistance (as expected) and the total deformation capacity while reducing the residual displacement, ductility and energy dissipation capacity to some extent. Higher strength stirrups enhance the ductility and energy dissipation capacity of RC bridge piers. While the product of steel yield strength and reinforcement ratio ($f_y{\rho}_s$) is kept constant (i.e., equal strength replacement), the piers with higher yield strength longitudinal bars are found to achieve as good seismic performance as when lower strength bars are used. When higher yield strength transverse reinforcement is to be used to maintain equal strength, reducing bar diameter is found to be a better approach than increasing the tie spacing.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.355-364
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• 2008

The Buckling-Restrained Braces (BRB) has been developed to inhibit buckling and exhibit stable behavior under both tensile and compressive cycles. In this study, an experimental has been conducted by using the strength of its members and loading protocols as parameters to evaluate the structural performance of BRB (without in-filled concrete). Specimens are composed of an inner core and an outer tube with different steel strengths. When high-strength steels were used as inner cores, the ductility of BRB decreasedm and the requirements (Cumulative Plastic Ductility) of the AISC Seismic Provisions were not satisfied. However, when high-strength steels were used as inner cores instead of conventional strength steel cores, the maximum capacity increased significantly and displayed similar performance in total energy dissipation.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.217-226
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• 2017

This paper summarizes the results of experimental research, and artificial intelligence methods focused on determination of compressive strength of lightweight cement mortar with silica fume and fly ash after sulfate attack. The artificial neural network and the support vector machine were selected as artificial intelligence methods. Lightweight cement mortar mixtures containing silica fume and fly ash were prepared in this study. After specimens were cured in $20{\pm}2^{\circ}C$ waters for 28 days, the specimens were cured in different sulfate concentrations (0%, 1% $MgSO_4^{-2}$, 2% $MgSO_4^{-2}$, and 4% $MgSO_4^{-2}$ for 28, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 210 and 365 days. At the end of these curing periods, the compressive strengths of lightweight cement mortars were tested. The input variables for the artificial neural network and the support vector machine were selected as the amount of cement, the amount of fly ash, the amount of silica fumes, the amount of aggregates, the sulfate percentage, and the curing time. The compressive strength of the lightweight cement mortar was the output variable. The model results were compared with the experimental results. The best prediction results were obtained from the artificial neural network model with the Powell-Beale conjugate gradient backpropagation training algorithm.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.121-126
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• 2017

This paper presents the effect of aggregate type on high temperature resistance of self-compacting mortars (SCM) produced with normal and lightweight aggregates like expanded perlite and pumice. Silica fume (SF) and fly ash (FA) were used as mineral additives. Totally 13 different mixtures were designed according to the aggregate rates. Mini slump flow, mini V-funnel and viscometer tests were carried out on the fresh mortar. On the other hand, bulk density, porosity, water absorption and high temperature tests were made on the hardened SCM. After being heated to temperatures of 300, 600 and $900^{\circ}C$, respectively, the tensile strength in bending and compressive strength of mortars determined. As a result of the experiments, the increase in the use of lightweight aggregate increased total water absorption and porosity of mortars. It is observed that, the increment in the usage of lightweight aggregate decreased tensile strength in bending and compressive strengths of mortar specimens exposed to high temperatures but the usage of up to 10% expanded perlite in mortar increased the compressive strength of specimens exposed to $300^{\circ}C$.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.705-716
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• 2017

The objective of this study is to investigate the actual behavior of studs in structures under earthquake load through laboratory tests and numerical simulation. A test program including eighteen specimens was devised with consideration of different concrete strengths and stud diameters. Six of specimens were subjected to monotonically increasing loading while the others were subjected to cyclic loading. Mechanical behavior including the failure mechanism, load-slip relationship, stiffness degradation, energy dissipation and the damage accumulation was obtained from the test results. An accurate numerical model based on the ABAQUS software was developed and validated against the test results. The results obtained from the finite element (FE) model matched well with the experimental results. Furthermore, based on the experimental and numerical data, the design formulas for expressing the skeleton curve were proposed and the simplified hysteretic model of load versus displacement was then established. It is demonstrated that the proposed formulas and simplified hysteretic model have a good match with the test results.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.139-151
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• 2022

Filling materials poured into precast member joint are subjected to restraint stress by the precast member and joint reinforcement. The induced stress will likely cause cracks at early ages and performance degradation of the entire structure. To prevent these issues and design reasonable joints, it is very important to analyze and evaluate the restrained shrinkage cracks of filling materials at various restraint conditions. In this study, a new time zero-that defines the shrinkage development time of a filling material-is proposed to calculate the accurate amount of shrinkage. The tensile stresses and strengths at different ages were compared through the ring test (AASHTO PP34) to evaluate the crack potential of the restrained filling materials at various restraint conditions. The mixture which contained an expansive additive and a shrinkage reducing agent exhibited high resistance to shrinkage cracking owing to the high-drying shrinkage compensation effect. The high-performance, fiber-reinforced cement composite, and ultra-high-performance, fiber-reinforced cement composite yielded very high resistance to shrinkage and cracking owing to the pull-out property of steel fibers. To this end, multiple nonlinear regression analyses were conducted based on the test results. Accordingly, a modified tensile stress equation that considered both the geometric shape of the specimen and the intrinsic properties of the material is proposed.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.57-64
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• 2022

As earthquakes have increased in Korea recently, people are paying attention to the seismic performance of buildings built in the past. Many school buildings in Korea were built based on standard drawings before the seismic design was applied. However, since school buildings are often designated as emergency evacuation facilities in case of disasters such as earthquakes, seismic evaluation and retrofit must be done quickly. This study investigated the failure modes among structural components (beams, columns, and joints), focusing on 1980s standard drawings for school buildings. The effects of column axial force, partial masonry infills, and different material strengths for concrete and rebar were considered for detailed evaluation. As a result, most of the joints were found to be the weakest among structural components. Column axial forces tended to make the joints more vulnerable, and partial masonry infills increased the possibility of joint failure and shear failure in columns.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.359-370
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• 2023

Slime is produced by excavation during the installation of embedded piles, and it tends to mix with the cement paste injected into the pile shafts. The objective of this study is to investigate the strength and stiffness characteristics of cement pasteslime mixtures. Mixtures with different slime ratios are prepared and cured for 28 days. Uniaxial compression tests and elastic wave measurements are conducted to obtain the static and dynamic properties, respectively. The uniaxial compressive strengths and static elastic moduli of the mixtures are evaluated according to the curing period, slime ratio, and water-cement ratio. In addition, dynamic properties, e.g., the constrained, shear, and elastic moduli, are estimated from the compressional and shear wave velocities. The experimental results show that the static and dynamic properties increase under an increase in the curing period but decrease under an increase in the slime and water-cement ratios. The cement paste-slime mixtures show several exponential relationships between their static and dynamic properties, depending on the slime ratio. The bearing mechanisms of embedded piles can be better understood by examining the strength and stiffness characteristics of cement paste-slime mixtures.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.115-125
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• 2015

This study investigated the fluidity, heat of hydration, setting time, strength development, and characteristics of hydration and pozzolanic reactions of high-strength high-volume ground granulated blast-furnace slag(GGBFS) blended cement pasts with the water-to-binder ratio of 20% by experiments, and analyzed the effects of the replacement ratio and fineness of GGBFS on the hydration and pozzolanic reaction. The results show that, in the high-strength mixtures with low water-to-binder ratio, the initial hydration is accelerated due to the "dilution effect" which means that the free water to react with cement increases by the replacement of cement by GGBFS, and thus, strengths at from 3 to 28 days were higher than those of plain mixtures with ordinary Portland cement only. Whereas it was found that the long term strength development is limited because the hydration reaction rates rapidly decreases with ages and the degree of pozzolanic reaction is lowered due to insufficient supply of calcium hydroxide according to large replacement of cement by GGBFS. Also, the GGBFS with higher fineness absorbs more free water, and thus it decreases the fluidity, the degree of hydration, and strength. These results are different with those of normal strength concrete, and therefore, should be verified for concrete mixtures. Also, to develop the high-strength concrete with high-volume of GGBFS, the future research to enhance the long-term strength development is needed.