• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.5
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• pp.637-650
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• 2021

The paper presents an investigation of the widely varying mechanical performance and behaviour of steel and Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) reinforced concrete beams using non-destructive techniques of Acoustic Emission (AE) and Digital Image Correlation (DIC) under four-point bending. Laboratory experiments are performed on both differently reinforced concrete beams with 0.33%, 0.52% and 1.11% of tension reinforcement against balanced section. The results show that the ultimate load-carrying capacity increases with an increase in tensile reinforcement in both cases. In addition to that, AE waveform parameters of amplitude and number of AE hits successfully correlates and picks up the divergent mechanism of cracking initiation and progression of failure in steel reinforced and GFRP reinforced concrete beams. AE activity is about 20-30% more in GFRP-RC beams as compared to steel-RC beams. It was primarily due to the lower modulus of elasticity of GFRP bars leading to much larger ductility and deflections as compared to steel-RC beams. Furthermore, AE XY event plots and longitudinal strain profiles using DIC gives an online and real-time visual display of progressive AE activity and strains respectively to efficaciously depict the crack evolution and their advancement in steel-RC and GFRP-RC beams which show a close matching with the micro-and macro-cracks visually observed in the actual beams at various stages of loading.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.109-123
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• 2021

This research endeavor intends to use the implicit finite element method to investigate the structural response of steel shear walls with partial plate-column connection. To this end, comprehensive verification studies are initially performed by comparing the numerical predictions with several reported experimental results in order to demonstrate the reliability and accuracy of the implicit analysis method. Comparison is made between the hysteresis curves, failure modes, and base shear capacities predicted numerically using ABAQUS software and obtained/observed experimentally. Following the validation of the finite element analysis approach, the effects of partial plate-column connection on the strength and stiffness performances of steel shear wall systems with different web-plate slenderness and aspect ratios under monotonic loading are investigated through a parametric study. While removal of the connection between the web-plate and columns can be beneficial by decreasing the overall system demand on the vertical boundary members, based on the results and findings of this study such detachment can lower the stiffness and strength capacities of steel shear walls by about 25%, on average.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.239-253
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• 2021

The behavior of concrete containing waste glass as a replacement of cement or aggregate was studied previously in the most of researches, but the present investigation focuses on the recycling of waste glass powder as a substitute for silica fume in high strength concrete (HSC). This endeavor deals with the efficiency of using waste glass powder, as an alternative for silica fume, in the flexural capacity of HSC beam. Thirteen members with dimensions of 0.3 m width, 0.15 m depth and 0.9 m span length were utilized in this work. A comparison study was performed considering HSC members and hybrid beams fabricated by HSC and conventional normal concrete (CC). In addition to the experiments on the influence of glass powder on flexural behavior, numerical analysis was implemented using nonlinear finite element approach to simulate the structural performance of the beams. Same constitutive relationships were selected to model the behavior of HSC with waste glass powder or silica fume to show the matching between the modeling outputs for beams made with these powders. The results showed that the loading capacity and ductility index of the HSC beams with waste glass powder demonstrated enhancing ultimate load and ductility compared with those of HSC specimens with silica fume. The study deduced that the recycled waste glass powder is a good alternative to the pozzolanic powder of silica fume.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.13-17
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• 2022

The mechanical properties of REBCO coated conductor (CC) tapes under uniaxial tension are mainly determined by the thick layer Components like the substrate and the stabilizer. Depending on the applications of the CC tapes, it is also needed to externally reinforce thin metallic foils to one side or both sides of the CC tapes. This study investigated the effect of additional stabilizer layers or lamination on the electrical resistivity and electromechanical properties in RCE-DR processed GdBCO CC tapes with different structures. The strain/stress tolerance of I_c in differently processed 12 mm-wide REBCO CC tapes under uniaxial tension at 77 K and self-field could be determined by the loading-unloading scheme. As a result, Sn-Cu stabilized CC tape showed a significant decrease in mechanical properties due to its soft but thick stabilizing layer. However, similar electromechanical properties have been observed on both Sn-Cu and Sn-stabilized CC tapes, the I_c degradation behavior was independent of whether the CC tape has an external reinforcement or different stabilizing layers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.101-112
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• 2022

Expanding urbanization practices result in high numbers of buildings being developed in city centers. This high building concentration leads to an increased fire risk, resulting in higher casualty rates and increased economic damages compared to fires in the past. The purpose of this study was to analyze the structural behavior of fire-damaged reinforced concrete buildings using analytical methods and to suggest methods of improving fire resistance in the event of a fire. Damage levels were measured using commercial software to apply the finite element method, ABAQUS, and MIDAS GEN to the dataset. Load-deflection curves were calculated using the effective area and moment of inertia of the fire-damaged columns provided by ABAQUS. The results of this analysis indicate that fire-damaged beams with experience greater deflection from indoor fires than they will from outdoor fires. Fires that occurred on the middle floors were more dangerous than those occurring on higher floors, and eccentrically loaded columns experienced more damage than axially loaded columns. The results indicate that these methods accurately predict structural behaviors of fire damaged concrete columns by considering fire exposure area and eccentric loading.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.17-34
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• 2022

For steel structures, fatigue cracks are critical damage induced by long-term cycle loading and distortion effects. Vision-based crack detection can be a solution to ensure structural integrity and performance by continuous monitoring and non-destructive assessment. A critical issue is to distinguish cracks from other features in captured images which possibly consist of complex backgrounds such as handwritings and marks, which were made to record crack patterns and lengths during periodic visual inspections. This study presents a parametric study on image-based crack identification for orthotropic steel bridge decks using captured images with complicated backgrounds. Firstly, a framework for vision-based crack segmentation using the atrous convolution-based Deeplapv3+ network (ACDN) is designed. Secondly, features on crack images are labeled to build three databanks by consideration of objects in the backgrounds. Thirdly, evaluation metrics computed from the trained ACDN models are utilized to evaluate the effects of obstacles on crack detection results. Finally, various training parameters, including image sizes, hyper-parameters, and the number of training images, are optimized for the ACDN model of crack detection. The result demonstrated that fatigue cracks could be identified by the trained ACDN models, and the accuracy of the crack-detection result was improved by optimizing the training parameters. It enables the applicability of the vision-based technique for early detecting tiny fatigue cracks in steel structures.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.63-74
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• 2022

The deformation coordination between a rock/soil mass and an optical sensing cable is an important issue for accurate deformation monitoring. A stress-controlled triaxial apparatus was retrofitted by introducing an optical fiber into the soil specimen. High spatial resolution optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) was used for monitoring the strain distribution along the axial direction of the specimen. The results were compared with those measured by a displacement meter. The strain measured by the optical sensing cable has a good linear relationship with the strain calculated by the displacement meter for different confining pressures, which indicates that distributed optical fiber sensing technology is feasible for soil deformation monitoring. The performance of deformation coordination between the sensing cable and the soil during unloading is higher than that during loading based on the strain transfer coefficients. Three hypothetical strain distributions of the triaxial specimen are proposed, based on which theoretical models of the strain transfer coefficients are established. It appears that the parabolic distribution of specimen strain should be more reasonable by comparison. Nevertheless, the strain transfer coefficients obtained by the theoretical models are higher than the measured coefficients. On this basis, a strain transfer model considering slippage at the interface of the sensing cable and the soil is discussed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.1464-1470
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• 2022

This paper presents a high performance burnable absorber named as CIMBA (Cylindrically Inserted and Mechanically Separated Burnable Absorber) for the soluble-boron-free SMR. The CIMBA is the cylindrical gadolinia inserted into the annular fuel pellets. Although the CIMBA utilizes the spatial self-shielding effect of the fuel material, a large reactivity upswing occurs when the gadolinia is depleted. To minimize the reactivity swing of the CIMBA-loaded FA, two approaches were investigated. One is controlling the spatial self-shielding effect of the CIMBA as burnup proceeds by a multi-layered structure of the CIMBA (ML-CIMBA) and the other is the mixed-loading of two different types of CIMBA (MIX-CIMBA). Both approaches show promising performances to minimize the reactivity swing, where the MIX-CIMBA is more preferable due to its simpler fabrication process. In conclusion, the MIX-CIMBA is expected to accelerate the commercialization of the CIMBA and can be used to achieve an optimal soluble-boron-free SMR core design.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.553-568
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• 2022

This paper explored the viability of utilising titanium alloy bolts in the construction industry through an experimental programme, where a total of sixty-six titanium alloy (Ti/6Al/4V) bolts were tested under axial tension, pure shear and combined tension and shear. In addition, a series of Charpy V-notch specimens machined from titanium alloy bolts, conventional high-strength steel bolts, austenitic and duplex stainless steel bolts were tested for impact toughness comparisons. The obtained experimental results demonstrated that the axial tensile and pure shear capacities of titanium alloy bolts can be reasonably estimated by the current design standards for steel structures (Eurocode 3, AS 4100 and AISC 360). However, under the combined tension and shear loading conditions, significant underestimation by Eurocode 3 and unsafe predictions through AS 4100 and AISC 360 indicate that proper modifications are necessary to facilitate the safe and economic use of titanium alloy bolts. In addition, numerical models were developed to calibrate the fracture parameters of the tested titanium alloy bolts. Furthermore, a design-based selection process of titanium alloy bolts in the structural applications was proposed, in which the ultimate strength, ductility performance and corrosion resistance (including galvanic corrosion) of titanium alloy bolts was mainly considered.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.447-458
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• 2022

Cold-formed steel (CFS) sections are thin-walled, therefore, more susceptible to different types of geometric imperfections. Global type of geometric imperfections has a significant impact on the load-carrying capacity of flexural members. This paper reports an experimental study that discusses the influence of global imperfections on the flexural response of CFS built-up I-beams composed of two lipped channels, with simply supported ends, under four-point loading. Global imperfections of magnitude over eight times the maximum permissible ones were induced in the specimens, leading to their distress. Using various simple stiffening schemes, the capacity and stiffness of the distressed specimens were improvised. The performance comparisons were made based on the maximum loads resisted, flexural stiffnesses offered, and failure modes experienced by the specimens. As experimental data on such distressed specimens are currently lacking in the literature, the test results of the present study will provide the necessary data needed by future researchers to numerically extend this study further, which will help in the development of necessary design guidelines for the same. The stiffening schemes significantly improved the structural efficiency of distressed specimens in terms of strength and stiffness, by over 60%. As a result, an effective and time-saving solution to such realistic structural engineering problems is given.