• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.81 no.3
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• pp.349-365
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• 2022

Steel fibre-reinforced concrete (SFRC) is an emerging class of composite for construction. However, a reliable method to assess the flexural behaviour of SFRC structural member is in lack. An analytical technique is proposed for determining the moment-curvature response of concrete beams reinforced with steel fibres and longitudinal bars (R/SFRC members). The behaviour of the tensile zone of such members is highly complex due to the interaction between the residual (tension softening) stresses of SFRC and the tension stiffening stresses. The current study suggests a transparent and mechanically sound method to combine these two stress concepts. Tension stiffening is modelled by the reinforcement-related approach assuming that the corresponding stresses act in the area of tensile reinforcement. The effect is quantified based on the analogy between the R/SFRC member and the equivalent RC member having identical geometry and materials except fibres. It is assumed that the resultant tension stiffening force for the R/SFRC member can be calculated as for the equivalent RC member providing that the reinforcement strain in the cracked section of these members is the same. The resultant tension stiffening force can be defined from the moment-curvature relation of the equivalent RC member using an inverse technique. The residual stress is calculated using an existing model that eliminates the need for dedicated mechanical testing. The proposed analytical technique was validated against test data of R/SFRC beams and slabs.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.447-456
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• 2022

Recent experimental studies showed that deep steel I-shaped profiles classified as high ductility class sections in seismic design international codes exhibit low deformation capacity when subjected to cyclic loading. This paper presents an innovative retrofit solution to increase the rotation capacity of beams using bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) patches validated with advanced finite element analysis. This investigation focuses on the flexural cyclic behaviour of I-shaped hot rolled steel deep section used as beams in moment-resisting frames (MRF) retrofitted with CFRP patches on the web. The main goal of this CFRP reinforcement is to increase the rotation capacity of the member without increasing the overstrength in order to avoid compromising the strong column-weak beam condition in MRF. A finite element model that simulates the cyclic plasticity behavior of the steel and the damage in the adhesive layer is developed. The damage is modelled using the cohesive zone modelling (CZM) technique that is able to capture the crack initiation and propagation. Details on the modelling techniques including the mesh sensitivity near the fracture zone are presented. The effectiveness of the retrofit solution depends strongly on the selection of the appropriate adhesive. Different adhesive types are investigated where the CZM parameters are calibrated from high fidelity fracture mechanics tests that are thoroughly validated in the literature. This includes a rigid adhesive commonly found in the construction industry and two tough adhesives used in the automotive industry. The results revealed that the CFRP patch can increase the rotation capacity of a steel member considerably when using tough adhesives.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.16 no.2 s.69
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• pp.235-245
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• 2004

The advantages of composite construction are now well understood in terms of structural economy, good performance in service, and ease of construction. However, these conventional composite construction systems have some problems in application to steel framed buildings due to their large depth. So, in this study we executed an experimental test with the "Slim Floor"system which could reduce the overall depth of composite beam. Slim Floor system is a method of steel frame multi-story building construction in which the structural depth of each floor is minimized by incorporating the steel floor beams within the depth of the concrete floor slab. Presented herein is an experimental study that focuses on the flexural behaviour of the partially connected slim floor system with asymmetric steel beams encased in composite concrete slabs. Eight full-scale specimens were constructed and tested in this study with different steel beam height, slab width, with or without shear connection and concrete topping thickness. Observations from experiments indicated that the degree of shear connection without additional shear connection was $0.53{\sim}0.95$ times that of the full shear connection due to inherent mechnical and chemical bond stress.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.479-490
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• 2012

Flexural tests on full-scale H-shaped beams, built up from high-strength steels (HSB800 and HSA800) with a nominal tensile strength of 800 MPa, was carried out to study the effect of flange slenderness of high-strength steel on flexural strength and rotation capacity. The primary objective was to investigate the appropriateness of extrapolating current stability criteria (originally developed for ordinary steel) to high-strength steel. The performance of high-strength steel specimens was very satisfactory from the strength, but not from the rotation capacity, perspective. The inferior rotation capacity of high-strength steel beams was shown to be directly attributable to the absence of a distinct yield plateau and the high yield ratio of the material. Residual stress measurements reconfirmed that the magnitude of the residual stress is almost independent of the yield stress of the base metal.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.499-511
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• 2019

The reliability of reinforced concrete structures is frequently compromised by the deterioration caused by reinforcement corrosion. Evaluating the effect caused by reinforcement corrosion on structural behaviour of corrosion damaged concrete structures is essential for effective and reliable infrastructure management. In lifecycle management of corrosion affected reinforced concrete structures, it is difficult to correctly assess the lifecycle performance due to the uncertainties associated with structural resistance deterioration. This paper presents a stochastic deterioration modelling approach to evaluate the performance deterioration of corroded concrete structures during their service life. The flexural strength deterioration is analytically predicted on the basis of bond strength evolution caused by reinforcement corrosion, which is examined by the experimental and field data available. An assessment criterion is defined to evaluate the flexural strength deterioration for the time-dependent reliability analysis. The results from the worked examples show that the proposed approach is capable of evaluating the structural reliability of corrosion damaged concrete structures.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.151-158
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• 2002

Recently, the externally prestressed unbonded steel I-beam bridges have been increasingly built. The mechanical behavior of prestressed steel I-beams which are with external unbonded tendon is different from that of normal bonded PSC beams in a point of that the slip of tendons at deviators and the change of tendon eccentricity occurs, when external loads are applied in external unbonded steel I-beams. The concept of prestressing steel structures has not been widely considered, in spite of long and successful history of prestressing concrete members. In this study, The field experiment on prestressed steel I-beams has been performed in the various aspects of prestressed I-beam including the tend on type and profile.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.99-108
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• 2012

In this paper, to intend anticorrosive effect and weight reduction of conventional reinforced concrete slab, lightweight concrete slab reinforced with glass fiber reinforced polymer(GFRP) bar was considered and some basic behaviour of the slab were investigated. Measurement of splitting tensile strength and fracture energy of the concrete, a number of flexural experiment of the slab, numerical analysis using nonlinear finite element analysis, and comparison of the experimental results to the numerical analysis, were conducted. As a result, even the weight of the lightweight concrete slab could be reduced by about 28% than the normal concrete slab, failure load of the lightweight concrete slab was 36% smaller than the normal concrete slab. Such a thing can be attributed to the lower axial stiffness and lower bond strength of GFRP bar. In the numerical analysis, to consider decreasing property of bond strength of the lightweight concrete, interface element was used between the concrete and the GFRP bar elements and this method was shown to be a better way for the numerical analysis to approach the experimental results.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.267-278
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• 2022

Pre-stressed concrete circular spun piles are widely used in various infrastructure projects around the world and offer an economical deep foundation system with consistent and superior quality compared to cast in-situ and other concrete piles. Conventional methods for measuring the lateral response of piles have been limited to conventional instrumentation, such as electrical based gauges and pressure transducers. The problem with existing technology is that the sensors are not able to assist in recording the lateral stiffness changes of the pile which varies along the length depending on the distribution of the flexural moments and appearance of tensile cracks. This paper describes a full-scale bending test of a 1-m diameter spun pile of 30 m long and instrumented using advanced fibre optic distributed sensor, known as Brillouin Optical Time Domain Analysis (BOTDA). Optical fibre sensors were embedded inside the concrete during the manufacturing stage and attached on the concrete surface in order to measure the pile's full-length flexural behaviour under the prescribed serviceability and ultimate limit state. The relationship between moments-deflections and bending moments-curvatures are examined with respect to the lateral forces. Tensile cracks were measured and compared with the peak strains observed from BOTDA data which corroborated very well. By analysing the moment-curvature response of the pile, the structure can be represented by two bending stiffness parameters, namely the pre-yield (EI) and post-yield (EI_cr), where the cracks reduce the stiffness property by 89%. The pile deflection profile can be attained from optical fibre data through closed-form solutions, which generally matched with the displacements recorded by Linear Voltage Displacement Transducers (LVDTs).

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.355-368
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• 2022

This paper investigates the impact of length and volume fractions (VFs) of banana fibres (BFs) on the mechanical and physical properties of concrete. The mechanical properties were compressive strength, splitting tensile, flexural strength, and bond stress, while the physical properties were unit weight and absorption. The slump test was used to determine workability. The concrete's behaviour with BFs was studied using scanning electron microscopy. Experimental work of concrete mixtures with BFs of various lengths (12 mm, 25 mm, and 35 mm) and VFs (0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5%) were carried out. The samples did not indicate any agglomeration of fibres or heterogeneity during mixing. The addition of BFs to concrete with VFs of up to 1.50% for all fibre lengths have a significant impact on mechanical properties, also the longer fibres performed better than shorter ones at all volume fractions of BFs. The mix10, which contain BFs with VFs 1.5% and length 35 mm, demonstrated the highest mechanical properties. The compressive strength, splitting tensile, flexural strength, and bond stress of the mix10 were 37.71 MPa, 4.27 Mpa, 6.12 MPa, and 6.75 MPa, an increase of 7.37%, 20.96%, 24.13%, and 11.2% over the reference concrete, which was 35.12 MPa, 3.53 MPa, 4.93 MPa, and 6.07 MP, respectively. The absorption is increased for all lengths by increasing the VFs up to 1.5%. Longer fibres have lower absorption, while shorter fibres have higher absorption. The mix8 had the highest absorption of 4.52%, compared to 3.12% for the control mix. Furthermore, the microstructure of concrete was improved through improved bonding between the fibres and the matrix, which resulted in improved mechanical properties of the composite.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.3
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• pp.375-391
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• 2022

This paper discussed and analyzed the interfacial stress distribution characteristic of adjacent cracks in Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) plate strengthened concrete slabs. One un-strengthened concrete test beam and four CFRP plate-strengthened concrete test beams were designed to carry out four-point flexural tests. The test data shows that the interfacial shear stress between the interface of CFRP plate and concrete can effectively reduce the crack shrinkage of the tensile concrete and reduces the width of crack. The maximum main crack flexural height in pure bending section of the strengthened specimen is smaller than that of the un-strengthened specimen, the CFRP plate improves the rigidity of specimens without brittle failure. The average ultimate bearing capacity of the CFRP-strengthened specimens was increased by 64.3% compared to that without CFRP-strengthen. This indicites that CFRP enhancement measures can effectively improve the ultimate bearing capacity and delay the occurrence of debonding damage. Based on the derivation of mechanical analysis model, the calculation formula of interfacial shear stress between adjacent cracks is proposed. The distributions characteristics of interfacial shear stress between certain crack widths were given. In the intermediate cracking region of pure bending sections, the length of the interfacial softening near the mid-span cracking position gradually increases as the load increases. The CFRP-concrete interface debonding capacity with the larger adjacent crack spacing is lower than that with the smaller adjacent crack spacing. The theoretical calculation results of interfacial bonding shear stress between adjacent cracks have good agreement with the experimental results. The interfacial debonding failure between adjacent cracks in the intermediate cracking region was mainly caused by the root of the main crack. The larger the spacing between adjacent cracks exists, the easier the interfacial debonding failure occurs.