• Computers and Concrete
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.669-679
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• 2018

In this paper the behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) beam-column connections under cyclic loading was analyzed. The specimens, manufactured in a reduced-scale were made of (a) recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) by replacing 30% of natural coarse aggregate (NCA) with recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) and (b) RAC incorporating Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fiber i.e., PET fiber-reinforced concrete (PFRC) at the joint region. PET fiber (aspect ratio=25) of 0.5% by weight of concrete used in the PFRC mix was obtained by hand cutting of post-consumer PET bottles. A reference specimen was also prepared using 100% of NCA and subjected to similar loading sequence. Comparing the results the structural behavior under cyclic loading of RAC specimens are quite similar to the reference specimens. Damage tolerance, load resisting capacity, stiffness degradation, ductility, and energy dissipation of the RAC specimens enhanced due to addition of PET fibers at the joint region. PFRC specimens also presented a lower damage indices and higher principal tensile stresses as compared to the RAC specimens. The results obtained gave experimental evidence on the feasibility of RAC for structural use. Using PET fibers as a discrete reinforcement is recommended for improving the seismic performance of RAC specimens.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.171-183
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• 2019

As China's infrastructure continues to grow, concrete filled steel tubular (CFST) structures are attracting increasing interest for use in engineering applications in earthquake prone regions owing to their high section modulus, high strength, and good seismic performance. However, in a corrosive environment, the seismic resistance of the CFST columns may be affected to a certain extent. This study attempts to investigate the mechanical behaviours of square CFST members under both a cyclic load and an acid rain attack. First, the tensile mechanical properties of steel plates with various corrosion rates were tested. Second, a total of 12 columns with different corrosion rates were subjected to a reversed cyclic load and tested. Third, comparisons between the test results and the predicted ultimate strength by using four existing codes were carried out. It was found that the corrosion leads to an evident decrease in yield strength, elastic modulus, and tensile strain capacity of steel plates, and also to a noticeable deterioration in the ultimate strength, ductility, and energy dissipation of the CFST members. A larger axial force ratio leads to a more significant resulting deterioration of the seismic behaviour of the columns. In addition, the losses of both thickness and yield strength of an outer steel tube caused by corrosion should be taken into account when predicting the ultimate strength of corroded CFST columns.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.217-232
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• 2019

Modular steel buildings consist of prefabricated room-sized structural units that are manufactured offsite and installed onsite. The inter-module connections must fulfill the assembly construction requirements and soundly transfer the external loads. This work proposes an innovative assembled connection suitable for modular buildings with concrete-filled steel tube columns. The connection uses pretensioned strands and plugin bars to vertically connect the adjacent modular columns. The moment-transferring performance of this inter-module connection was studied through monotonic and cyclic loading tests. The results showed that because of the assembly construction, the connected sections were separated under lateral bending, and the prestressed inter-module connection performed as a weak semirigid connection. The moment strength at the early loading stage originated primarily from the contact bonding mechanism with the infilled concrete, and the postyield strength depended mainly on the tensioned strands. The connection displayed a self-centering-like behavior that the induced deformation was reversed during unloading. The energy dissipation originated primarily from frictional slipping of the plugin bars and steel strands. The moment transferring ability was closely related to the section dimension and the arrangements of the plugin bars and steel strands. A simplified strength calculation and evaluation method was also proposed, and the effectiveness was validated with the test data.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.181-190
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• 2019

In this study, four reinforced concrete coupling beams were subjected to cyclic lateral loading test to evaluate the structural performance of coupling beam according to volume fraction of steel fiber. For this purpose, the volume fraction of steel fiber(0%, 1%, 2%) and transverse reinforcement spacing were determined as the main parameter. According to the test results, the maximum strength of D-40C-s100-0 was 1.15, 1.13, 1.05 times higher than D-40C-s300-0, D-40C-s300-1, D-40C-s300-2, respectively. The maximum strength of coupling beams with mitigated rebar details increases as the volume fraction of steel fiber increases. Although steel fiber 2% reinforced specimen(D-40C-s300-2) did not satisfy the amount of transverse reinforcement required for seismic design of coupling beam, the overall performance including to maximum strength, ductility and energy dissipation capacity was similar to the control specimen(D-40C-s100-0). As a result, the use of steel fiber with 2% reinforcement can partially replace the transverse reinforcement in diagonally reinforced concrete coupling beam.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.6
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• pp.811-824
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• 2022

Despite its disadvantages, soft story can reduce the damage to the upper floors by concentrating drift in that specific story provided that large drifts are avoided. Gapped-Inclined Brace (GIB) with reduced P-delta effects and the control of soft story stiffness makes it possible to take advantage of the soft story in buildings and increase their capacity for energy dissipation. OpenSees software is used in this study to validate and modify the GIB model's shortcomings. Also, the analysis method for this element is changed for design. The modified element is evaluated in 3D analysis. Finally, to retrofit an existing building, this element is used. Based on the Iranian seismic code, a six-story reinforced concrete building is modelled and studied with 3D analysis. In this building, the construction shortcomings and elimination of infills on the ground floor cause the formation of a soft story. Results of nonlinear static analysis, nonlinear dynamic, and incremental dynamic analysis using both components of seismic acceleration applied to the structure at different angles and the fragility curves indicate the improvement of the retrofitted structure's performance using the modified element to reach the required performance level following the retrofit code.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.565-579
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• 2022

This study investigated the yielding capacity and performance of seismic dampers constructed with steel ring plates using numerical and analytical approaches. This study aims to provide an analytical relationship for estimating the yielding capacity and initial stiffness of steel ring dampers. Using plastic analysis and considering the mechanism of plastic hinge formation, a relation has been obtained for estimating the yielding capacity of steel ring dampers. Extensive parametric studies have been carried out using a nonlinear finite element method to examine the accuracy of the obtained analytical relationships. The parametric studies include investigating the influence of the length, thickness, and diameter of the ring of steel ring dampers. To this end, comprehensive verification studies are performed by comparing the numerical predictions with several reported experimental results to demonstrate the numerical method's reliability and accuracy. Comparison is made between the hysteresis curves, and failure modes predicted numerically or obtained/observed experimentally. Good agreement is observed between the numerical simulations and the analytical predictions for the yielding force and initial stiffness. The difference between the numerical models' ultimate tensile and compressive capacities was observed that average of about 22%, which stems from the performance of the ring-dampers in the tensile and compression zones. The results show that the steel ring-dampers are exhibited high energy dissipation capacity and ductility. The ductility parameters for steel ring-damper between values were 7.5 to 4.1.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.423-436
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• 2022

This paper proposes an innovative thin-walled square concrete filled steel tubular (CFST) column with an octagonal/circular lining steel tube, in which the outer steel tube and the inner liner are fabricated independently of each other and connected by slot-weld or self-tapping screw connections. Twelve thin-walled square CFST columns were tested under quasi-static loading, considering the parameters of liner type, connection type between the square tube and liner, yield strength of steel tube, and the axial load ratio. The seismic performance of the thin-walled square CFST columns is effectively improved by the octagonal and circular liners, and all the liner-stiffened specimens showed an excellent ductile behavior with the ultimate draft ratios being much larger than 1/50 and the ductility coefficients being generally higher than 4.0. The energy dissipation abilities of the specimens with circular liners and self-tapping screw connections were superior to those with octagonal liner and slot-weld connections. Based on the test results, both the finite element (FE) and simplified theoretical models were established, considering the post-buckling strength of the thin-walled square steel tube and the confinement effect of the liners, and the proposed models well predicted the hysteretic behavior of the liner-stiffened specimens.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.315-337
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• 2023

The steel structure is an assembly of individual structural members joined together by connections. The connections are the focal point to transfer the forces which is susceptible to damage easily. It is challenging to replace the affected connection parts after an earthquake. Hence, steel plates are utilised as a structural fuse that absorbs connection forces and fails first. The objective of the present research is to develop a beam-column end plate connection with single and dual fuse and study the effect of single fuse, dual fuse and combined action of fuse and damper. In this research, seismic resilient beam-column end plate connection is developed in the form of structural fuse. The novel connection consists of one main fuse was placed horizontally and secondary fuse was placed vertically over main fuse. The specimens are fabricated with the variation in number of fuse (single and dual) and position of fuse (beam flange top and bottom). From the fabricated ten specimens five specimens were loaded monotonically and five cyclically. The experimental results are compared with Finite Element Analysis results of Arunkumar and Umamaheswari (2022). The results are critically assessed in the aspect of moment-rotation behaviour, strain in connection components, connection stiffness, energy dissipation characteristics and ductility. While comparing the performance of total five specimens, the connection with fuse exhibited superior performance than the conventional connection. An equation is proposed for the moment of resistance of end-plate connection without and with structural fuse.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.375-382
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• 2023

The H-shaped steel beam is popular due to its ease of manufacturing and connection to the column. This profile, which is used as a shallow beam, needs the high weak-axis bending stiffness and torsional stiffness to meet the overall stability. Achieving the local beam flange stability, bearing capacity, bending stiffness, and torsional requirements need a great thickness and width of the beam flange, which causes, which will cause more uneconomical structural design. So, the box-section beam is the ideal alternative. However, the current design specifications do not have design rules for the bolt-and-welded connection of the box-section beam and box-section column. The paper proposes a novel bolt-and-welded connection of the box-section beams and box-section columns based on a high-rise structural design scheme. Three connection models, BASE, WBF, and RBS, are analyzed under cyclic loading in ABAQUS software. The failure modes, hysteresis response, bearing capacity, ductility, plastic rotation angle, energy dissipation, and stiffness degradation of all models are determined and compared. Compared with the other two models, the model WBF exhibited excellent seismic performance, ductility, and plastic rotation ability. Finally, model WBF was chosen as the connection scheme used in the project design.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.89 no.3
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• pp.239-252
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• 2024

Steel plate shear walls (SPSWs) are classified as lateral load-resisting systems. The feasibility of openings in the steel plate is a characteristic of SPSWs. The use of openings in SPSWs can lower the load capacity, stiffness, and energy dissipation. This study proposes a novel form of SPSWs that provides convenient access through openings by combining steel plates and eccentrically braced frames (EBFs). The proposed system also avoids a substantial reduction in the strength and stiffness. Hence, various geometric forms were analyzed through two different structural approaches. Groups 1, 2, and 3 included a steel EBF with a steel plate between the column and EBF in order to improve system performance. In Group 4, the proposed system was evaluated within an SPSW with openings and an EBF on the opening edge. To evaluate the performance of the proposed systems, the nonlinear finite element method (NL-FEM) was employed under cyclic loading. The hysteresis (load-drift) curve, stress contour, stiffness, and damping were evaluated as the structural outputs. The numerical models indicated that local buckling within the middle plate-EBF connection prevented a diagonal tension field. Moreover, in group 4, the EBF and stiffeners on the opening edge enhanced the structural response by approximately 7.5% in comparison with the base SPSW system.