• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.7-15
• /
• 2007

A mechanical model was developed to predict the behavior of point-loaded RC slender beams (a/d > 2.5) without stirrups. It is commonly accepted by most researchers that a diagonal tension crack plays a predominant role in the failure mode of these beams, but the failure mechanism of these members is still debatable. In this paper, it was assumed that diagonal tension failure was triggered by the concrete cover splitting due to the dowel action at the initial location of diagonal tension cracks, which propagate from flexural cracks. When concrete cover splitting occurred, the shape of a diagonal tension crack was simultaneously developed, which can be determined from the principal tensile stress trajectory. This fictitious crack rotates onto the crack tip with load increase. During the rotation, all forces acting on the crack (i.e, dowel force of longitudinal bars, vertical component of concrete tensile force, shear force by aggregate interlock, shear force in compression zone) were calculated by considering the kinematical conditions such as crack width or sliding. These forces except for the shear force in the compression zone were uncoupled with respect to crack width and sliding by the proposed constitutive relations for friction along the crack. Uncoupling the shear forces along the crack was aimed at distinguishing each force from the total shear force and clarifying the failure mechanism of RC slender beams without stirrups. In addition, a proposed method deriving the dowel force of longitudinal bars made it possible to predict the secondary shear failure. The proposed model can be used to predict not only the entire behavior of point-loaded RC slender shear beams, but also the ultimate shear strength. The experiments used to validate the proposed model are reported in a companion paper.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2020

This study presents a shear strength estimation model, in which the shear failure of a reinforced concrete (RC) member is assumed to be governed by the flexure-shear mechanism. Two shear demand curves and corresponding potential capacity curves for cracked tension and uncracked compression zones are derived, for which the bond mechanism developed between reinforcing bars and surrounding concrete is considered in flexural analysis. The shear crack concentration factor is also addressed to consider the so-called size effect induced in large RC members. In addition,unlike exising methods, a new formulation was addressed to consider the interaction between the shear contributions of concrete and stirrup. To verify the proposed method, an extensive shear database was established, and it appeared that the proposed method can capture the shear strengths of the collected test specimens regardless of their material properties, geometrical features, presence of stirrups, and bond characteristics.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.50 no.1
• /
• pp.107-122
• /
• 2024

Following an internal column failure, adjacent double-span beams above the failed column will play a critical role in the load transfer and internal force redistribution within the remaining structure, and the span-to-depth ratios of double-span beams significantly influence the structural resistance capacity against progressive collapse. Most existing studies have focused on the collapse-resistant performances of single-story symmetric structures, whereas limited published works are available on the collapse resistances of multi-story steel frames with unequal spans. To this end, in this study, numerical models based on shell elements were employed to investigate the structural behavior of multi-story steel frames with unequal spans. The simulation models were validated using the previous experimental results obtained for single- and two-story steel frames, and the load-displacement responses and internal force development of unequal-span three-story steel frames under three cases were comprehensively analyzed. In addition, the specific contributions of the different mechanism resistances of unequal-span, double-span beams of each story were separated quantitatively using the energy equilibrium theory, with an aim to gain a deeper level of understanding of the load-resistance mechanisms in the unequal-span steel frames. The results showed that the axial and flexural mechanism resistances were determined by the span ratio and linear stiffness ratio of double-span beams, respectively.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.191-199
• /
• 2016

Piloti-type building is one of typical vertical atypical buildings. These buildings can fail by weak-story or flexible-story mechanism on the first story. They should be designed by taking into account the special seismic load, but those less than six stories are not required to confirm the seismic performance from structural engineers in Korea. For this reason, small-size pilloti-type RC buildings need to be checked for seismic performance. Based on this background, this study performed nonlinear dynamic analysis using the PERFORM-3D for small-size pilloti-type RC buildings and assessed their seismic performance. Examples are two through four story buildings with and without walls in the first story. The walls and columns in the first story satisfied the target performance in the basic of flexural behavior due to quite a large size and reinforcement. However, wall shear demands exceed shear strength in some buildings. When designed for KBC2009, wall shear strength exceed shear demand in some buildings, but still does not in others. Consequently, wall shear must be carefully checked in both existing and new small-size pilloti-type RC buildings.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.593-606
• /
• 2015

This paper presents a novel concept of healing some of the damages in wind turbine blades (WTBs) such as cracks and delamination. This is achieved through an inherent functioning autonomous repairing system. Such wind turbine blades have the benefit of reduced maintenance cost and increased operational period. Previous techniques of developing autonomous healing systems uses hollow glass fibres (HGFs) to deliver repairing fluids to damaged sites. HGFs have been reported with some limitations like, failure to fracture, which undermines their further usage. The self-healing technique described in this paper represents an advancement in the engineering of the delivery mechanism of a self-healing system. It is analogous to the HGF system but without the HGFs, which are replaced by multiple hollow channels created within the composite, inherently in the FRP matrix at fabrication. An in-house fabricated NACA 4412 WTB incorporating this array of network hollow channels was damaged in flexure and then autonomously repaired using the vascular channels. The blade was re-tested under flexure to ascertain the efficiency of the recovered mechanical properties.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.16 no.6
• /
• pp.1023-1047
• /
• 2015

In this study, the optimal location of the MR fluid segments in a partially treated laminated composite sandwich plate has been identified to maximize the natural frequencies and the loss factors. The finite element formulation is used to derive the governing differential equations of motion for a partially treated laminated composite sandwich plate embedded with MR fluid and rubber material as the core layer and laminated composite plate as the face layers. An optimization problem is formulated and solved by combining finite element analysis (FEA) and genetic algorithm (GA) to obtain the optimal locations to yield maximum natural frequency and loss factor corresponding to first five modes of flexural vibration of the sandwich plate with various combinations of weighting factors under various boundary conditions. The proposed methodology is validated by comparing the natural frequencies evaluated at optimal locations of MR fluid pockets identified through GA coupled with FEA and the experimental measurements. The converged results suggest that the optimal location of MR fluid pockets is strongly influenced not only by the boundary conditions and modes of vibrations but also by the objectives of maximization of natural frequency and loss factors either individually or combined. The optimal layout could be useful to apply the MR fluid pockets at critical components of large structure to realize more efficient and compact vibration control mechanism with variable damping.

• Carbon letters
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.22-26
• /
• 2013

The effects of heat treatment temperature (HTT) of polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber (CF) on the mechanical, thermal, and tribological properties of C/C composites were investigated. It was found that HTT (graphitization) of CF affects the thermal conductivity and mechanical and tribological characteristics of C/C composites. Thermal treatment of fibers at temperatures up to $2800^{\circ}C$ led to a decrease of the wear rate and the friction coefficient of C/C composite-based discs from 7.0 to 1.1 ${\mu}m$/stop and from 0.356 to 0.269, respectively. The friction surface morphology and friction mechanism strongly depended on the mechanical properties of the CFs. The relief of the friction surface of composites based on CFs with final graphitization was also modified, compared to that of composites based on initial fibers. This phenomenon could be explained by modification of the abrasive wear resistance of reinforcement fibers and consequently modification of the friction and wearing properties of composites. Correlation of the graphitization temperature with the increased flexural and compressive strength, apparent density, and thermal conductivity of the composites was also demonstrated.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
• /
• v.10 no.sup3
• /
• pp.87-96
• /
• 2016

This numerical study investigated the effects of different reinforcing details in beam-column joints on the blast resistance of the joints. Due to increasing manmade and/or natural high rate accidents such as impacts and blasts, the resistance of critical civil and military infrastructure or buildings should be sufficiently obtained under those high rate catastrophic loads. The beam-column joint in buildings is one of critical parts influencing on the resistance of those buildings under extreme events such as earthquakes, impacts and blasts. Thus, the details of reinforcements in the joints should be well designed for enhancing the resistance of the joints under the events. Parameters numerically investigated in this study include diagonal, flexural, and shear reinforcing steel bars. The failure mechanism of the joints could be controlled by the level of tensile stress of reinforcing steel bars. Among various reinforcing details in the joints, diagonal reinforcement in the joints was found to be most effective for enhancing the resistance under blast loads. In addition, shear reinforcements also produced favourable effects on the blast resistance of beam-column joints.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.723-740
• /
• 2016

Reinforced concrete corbels are generally used to transfer loads within a structural system, such as buildings, bridges, and facilities in general. They commonly present low aspect ratio, requiring an accurate model for shear strength prediction in order to promote flexural behavior. The model described here, originally developed for walls, was adapted for corbels. The model is based on a reinforced concrete panel, described by constitutive laws for concrete and steel and applied in a fixed direction. Equilibrium in the orthogonal direction to the shearing force allows for the estimation of the shear stress versus strain response. The original model yielded conservative results with important scatter, thus various modifications were implemented in order to improve strength predictions: 1) recalibration of the strut (crack) direction, capturing the absence of transverse reinforcement and axial load in most corbels, 2) inclusion of main (boundary) reinforcement in the equilibrium equation, capturing its participation in the mechanism, and 3) decrease in aspect ratio by considering the width of the loading plate in the formulation. To analyze the behavior of the theoretical model, a database of 109 specimens available in the literature was collected. The model yielded an average model-to-test shear strength ratio of 0.98 and a coefficient of variation of 0.16, showing also that most test variables are well captured with the model, and providing better results than the original model. The model strength prediction is compared with other models in the literature, resulting in one of the most accurate estimates.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.241-259
• /
• 2013

This paper presents the optimum load-speed diagram evaluation for a linear micromotor, including multitude cantilever piezoelectric bimorphs, briefly. Each microbeam in the mechanism can be actuated in both axial and flexural modes simultaneously. For this design, we consider quasi-static and linear conditions, and a relatively new numerical method called the smoothed finite element method (S-FEM) is introduced here. For this purpose, after finding an optimum volume fraction for piezoelectric layers through a standard numerical method such as quadratic finite element method, the relevant load-speed curves of the optimized micromotor are examined and compared by deterministic topology optimization (DTO) design. In this regard, to avoid the overly stiff behavior in FEM modeling, a numerical method known as the cell-based smoothed finite element method (CS-FEM, as a branch of S-FEM) is applied for our DTO problem. The topology optimization procedure to find the optimal design is implemented using a solid isotropic material with a penalization (SIMP) approximation and a method of moving asymptotes (MMA) optimizer. Because of the higher efficiency and accuracy of S-FEMs with respect to standard FEMs, the main micromotor characteristics of our final DTO design using a softer CS-FEM are substantially improved.