• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.183-193
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• 2022

Structural health monitoring and structural vibration control are multidisciplinary and frontier research directions of civil engineering. As intelligent materials that integrate sensing and actuation capabilities, shape memory alloys (SMAs) exhibit multiple excellent characteristics, such as shape memory effect, superelasticity, corrosion resistance, fatigue resistance, and high energy density. Moreover, SMAs possess excellent resistance sensing properties and large deformation ability. Superfine NiTi SMA wires have potential applications in structural health monitoring and micro-drive system. In this study, the mechanical properties and electrical resistance sensing characteristics of superfine NiTi SMA wires were experimentally investigated. The mechanical parameters such as residual strain, hysteretic energy, secant stiffness, and equivalent damping ratio were analyzed at different training strain amplitudes and numbers of loading-unloading cycles. The results demonstrate that the detwinning process shortened with increasing training amplitude, while austenitic mechanical properties were not affected. In addition, superfine SMA wires showed good strain-resistance linear correlation, and the loading rate had little effect on their mechanical properties and electrical resistance sensing characteristics. This study aims to provide an experimental basis for the application of superfine SMA wires in engineering.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.87 no.4
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• pp.333-346
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• 2023

This paper presents findings from an experimental study that was focused on evaluating the use of Forta-Ferro (FF) and Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) fibers on the response of moderate and special ductility beams under load cycles. For this reason, eight full-scale specimens, identical in geometry, were subjected to gradual cyclic loading. The specimens included two plain concrete beams with medium and special ductility, three beams with medium ductility and stirrup spacing of one-quarter the effective depth (d/4) and three beams with special ductility, and stirrup spacing of one-half the effective depth (d/2), strengthened with FF and PVA fibers separately. The use of fibers was aimed at reducing the amount of shear reinforcement in flexural members. Here, the variation of parameters including the maximum strength, ultimate strength, stiffness, ductility, damage index, energy dissipation, and equivalent damping was studied. Utilizing FF and PVA fibers improved the performance in beams with moderate ductility when compared to those beams with special ductility. Therefore, in special ductility beams, fibers can be used instead of crossties and in moderate ductility beams, fibers can be added to reduce the ratio of shear reinforcement. Furthermore, increasing the stirrup spacing in the moderate ductility beams from d/4 to d/2 and adding 0.6% FF or 1.5% PVA fibers resulted in behavior similar to those of the moderate ductility beam.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.33-42
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• 2004

While transforming the inelastic system into the equivalent elastic one gives an advantage of simpler analysis, the actual inelastic behavior of the system is hardly modeled in the capacity spectrum method (CSM). Therefore, the accuracy of CSM depends on the precise estimation of equivalent period and damping ratio as well as the modification of the elastic response spectrum and the corresponding demand spectrum. In this paper, the effect of demand spectrums on the accuracy of CSM is evaluated. First, the response reduction factors provided in ATC-40 and Euro Code are evaluated. Numerical analysis results indicated that the acceleration responses obtained using the factor of Euro Code are closer to the actual response than those obtained using the factors of ATC-40. Next, the accuracy of CSM is evaluated constructing the demand spectrum using the absolute acceleration responses and pseudo acceleration responses. The results obtained using the absolute acceleration responses were found to be generally larger than those obtained using the pseudo ones. Since CSM often underestimates the response, the use of absolute acceleration response gives the response relatively closer to the exact ones. However, the difference becomes negligible as the hardening ratio and the yield strength ratio become larger.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2017

Three small scale hollow circular reinforced concrete columns with aspect ratio 4.5 were tested under cyclic lateral load with constant axial load. Diameter of section is 400 mm, hollow diameter is 200 mm. The selected test variable is transverse steel ratio. Volumetric ratios of spirals of all the columns are 0.302~0.604% in the plastic hinge region. It corresponds to 45.9~91.8% of the minimum requirement of confining steel by Korean Bridge Design Specifications, which represent existing columns not designed by the current seismic design specifications or designed by seismic concept. The longitudinal steel ratio is 2.017%. The axial load ratio is 7%. This paper describes mainly crack behavior, load-displacement hysteresis loop, seismic performance such as equivalent damping ratio, residual displacement and effective stiffness and flexural over-strength of circular reinforced concrete bridge columns with respect to test variable. The regulation of flexural over-strength is adopted by Korea Bridge Design Specifications (Limited state design, 2012). The test results are compared with nominal strength, result of nonlinear moment-curvature analysis and the design specifications such as AASHTO LRFD and Korea Bridge Design Specifications(Limited state design).

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.543-558
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• 2005

The natural frequencies of a long span bridge vary during its construction and it is thus difficult to apply traditional tuned liquid column dampers (TLCD) with a fixed configuration to reduce bridge vibration. The restriction of TLCD imposed by frequency tuning requirement also make it difficult to be applied to structure with either very low or high natural frequency. A semi-active tuned liquid column damper (SATLCD), whose natural frequency can be altered by active control of liquid column pressure, is studied in this paper. The principle of SATLCD with adaptive tuning capacity is first introduced. The analytical models are then developed for lateral vibration of a structure with SATLCD and torsional vibration of a structure with SATLCD, respectively, under either harmonic or white noise excitation. The non-linear damping property of SATLCD is linearized by an equivalent linearization technique. Extensive parametric studies are finally carried out in the frequency domain to find the beneficial parameters by which the maximum vibration reduction can be achieved. The key parameters investigated include the distance from the centre line of SATLCD to the rotational axis of a structure, the ratio of horizontal length to the total length of liquid column, head loss coefficient, and frequency offset ratio. The investigations demonstrate that SATLCD can provide a greater flexibility for its application in practice and achieve a high degree of vibration reduction. The sensitivity of SATLCD to the frequency offset between the damper and structure can be improved by adapting its frequency precisely to the measured structural frequency.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1-9
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• 2015

Transverse steel bars are used in the plastic hinge zone of columns to insure adequate confinement, prevention of longitudinal bar buckling and ductile behavior. Fabrication and placement of rectangular hoops and cross-ties in columns are difficult to construct. Details of reinforcement for rectangular section require a lot of rectangular hoops and cross-ties. In this paper, to solve these problems, the new lateral confinement method using oblong hoop is proposed for the transverse confinement of the flared column. It can be the alternative for oblong cross-section and flared column with improved workability and cost-efficiency. The final objectives of this study are to suggest appropriate oblong hoop details and to provide quantitative reference data and tendency for seismic performance or damage assessment based on the drift levels such as residual deformation, elastic strain energy. This paper describes factors of seismic performance such as ultimate displacement/drift ratio, displacement ductility, response modification factor, equivalent viscous damping ratio and effective stiffness.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.173-185
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• 2019

This article presents a comparative study of the effect of steel layouts on the seismic behavior of transition steel-concrete composite connections, both experimental and analytical investigations of concrete filled steel tube-reinforced concrete (CFST-RC) and steel reinforecd concrete-reinforced concrete (SRC-RC) structures were conducted. The steel-concrete composite connections were subjected to combined constant axial load and lateral cyclic displacements. Tests were carried out on four full-scale connections extracted from a real project engineering with different levels of axial force. The effect of steel layouts on the mechanical behavior of the transition connections was evaluated by failure modes, hysteretic behavior, backbone curves, displacement ductility, energy dissipation capacity and stiffness degradation. Test results showed that different steel layouts led to significantly different failure modes. For CFST-RC transition specimens, the circular cracks of the concrete at the RC column base was followed by steel yielding at the bottom of the CFST column. While uncoordinated deformation could be observed between SRC and RC columns in SRC-RC transition specimens, the crushing and peeling damage of unconfined concrete at the SRC column base was more serious. The existences of I-shape steel and steel tube avoided the pinching phenomenon on the hysteresis curve, which was different from the hysteresis curve of the general reinforced concrete column. The hysteresis loops were spindle-shaped, indicating excellent seismic performance for these transition composite connections. The average values of equivalent viscous damping coefficients of the four specimens are 0.123, 0.186 and 0.304 corresponding to the yielding point, peak point and ultimate point, respectively. Those values demonstrate that the transition steel-concrete composite connections have great energy dissipating capacity. Based on the experimental research, a high-fidelity ABAQUS model was established to further study the influence of concrete strength, steel grade and longitudinal reinforcement ratio on the mechanical behavior of transition composite connections.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.41-52
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• 1991

A study of the effects of dynamic pile-soil-structure interactions on the response of super- structures, supported by group piles, are presented in this paper. The dynamic impedance functions of single pile generated by soil-pile interactions are obtained and compared among others using the methods proposed by Novak, Gazetas, and Kuhlemeyer, and using the equivalent cantilever method. Group pile effects are also considered by the following approaches : neglecting interaction effects : group efficiency ratio concept : static interaction approach . and dynamic interaction approach. The responses of a nuclear containment structure are obtained by using the elastic half-space analysis, based on the impedance functions mentioned above. Main conclusions drawn from this study are as follows : 1. The numerical results of the impedance functions calculated by each method were quite different : the Novak's was the smallest, and the Kuhlemeyer's the highest. Considering group effects, similar values in each approach were obtained for the stiffness : the difference was very big for the damping. 2. The top displacement of the structure was reduced by 20% or more by pile installations. However, the base shear force, the base moment, and the resonance frequency were increased by more than two times due to stiffening effect of the ground by pile installations. 3. Whether frequency dependant impedence functions or frequency independant functions were used, the responses of the structure were not so much affected by the choice of the impedance functions. 4. The reduction effect of the top displacement increased with the increase of the maximum ground acceleration.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.49-59
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• 2020

Precast concrete elements in accelerated bridge construction (ABC) extends from superstructure to substructure, precast pile foundation has proven a benefit for regions with fragile ecological environment and adverse geological condition. There is still a lack of knowledge of the seismic behavior and performance of the precast pile foundation. In this study, a 1/8 scaled model of precast pile foundation with elevated cap is fabricated for quasi-static test. The failure mechanism and responses of the precast pile-soil interaction system are analyzed. It is shown that damage occurs primarily in precast pile-soil interaction system and the bridge pier keeps elastic state because of its relatively large cross-section designed for railways. The vulnerable part of the precast pile with elevated cap is located at the embedded section, but no plastic hinge forms along the pile depth under cyclic loading. Hysteretic curves show no significant strength degradation but obvious stiffness degradation throughout the loading process. The energy dissipation capacity of the precast pile-soil interaction system is discussed by using index of the equivalent viscous damping ratio. It can be found that the energy dissipation capacity decreases with the increase of loading displacement due to the unyielding pile reinforcements and potential pile uplift. It is expected to promote the use of precast pile foundation in accelerated bridge construction (ABC) of railways designed in seismic regions.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.241-254
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• 2020

Using confined shape memory alloy (SMA) bar or plate, this study proposes an innovative self-centering damper. The damper is essentially properly machined SMA core, i.e., bar or plate, that encased in buckling-restrained device. To prove the design concept, cyclic loading tests were carried out. According to the test results, the damper exhibited desired flag-shape hysteretic behaviors upon both tension and compression actions, although asymmetric behavior is noted. Based on the experimental data, the hysteretic parameters that interested by seismic applications, such as the strength, stiffness, equivalent damping ratio and recentering capacity, are quantified. Processed in the Matlab/Simulink environment, a preliminary evaluation of the seismic control effect for this damper was conducted. The proposed damper was placed at the first story of a multi-story frame and then the original and controlled structures were subjected to earthquake excitations. The numerical outcome indicated the damper is effective in controlling seismic deformation demands. Besides, a companion SMA damper which represents a popular type in previous studies is also introduced in the analysis to further reveal the seismic control characteristics of the newly proposed damper. In current case, it was found that although the current SMA damper shows asymmetric tension-compression behavior, it successfully contributes comparable seismic control effect as those having symmetrical cyclic behavior. Additionally, the proposed damper even shows better global performance in controlling acceleration demands. Thus, this paper reduces the concern of using SMA dampers with asymmetric cyclic behavior to a certain degree.