• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.133-148
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• 2014

An experimental study is carried out to evaluate the performance of Lime mortar-Well graded Soil (Lime-WS) columns for the improvement of soft soils. Tests are conducted on a column of 100 mm diameter and 600 mm length surrounded by soft soil in different area ratios. Experiments are performed either with the entire area loading to evaluate the load - settlement behavior of treated grounds and only a column area loading to find the limiting axial stress of the column. A series of tests are carried out in soaking condition to investigate the influence of moisture content on the load - settlement behavior of specimens. In order to compare the behavior of Lime-WS columns with Conventional Stone (CS) columns as well as Geogrid Encased Stone (GES) columns, the behavior of these columns have been also considered in the present study. Remarkable improvement in the behavior of soft soil is observed due to the installation of Lime-WS columns and the performance of these columns is significantly enhanced by increasing the area ratio. The results show that CS columns are not suitable as a soil improvement technique for extremely soft soils and should be enhanced by encasing the column or replaced by rigid stone columns.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.337-352
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• 2021

The study presented experimental and numerical investigation on the seismic performance of steel reinforced concrete (SRC) L-shaped column- reinforced concrete (RC) beam joints. Various parameters described as steel configuration form, axial compressive ratio, loading angle, and the existence of slab were examined through 4 planar joints and 7 spatial joints. The characteristics of the load-displacement response included the bearing capacity, ductility, story drift ratio, energy-dissipating capacity, and stiffness degradation were analyzed. The results showed that shear failure and flexural failure in the beam tip were observed for planar joints and spatial joint, respectively. And RC joint with slab failed with the plastic hinge in the slab and bottom of the beam. The results indicated that hysteretic curves of spatial joints with solid-web steel were plumper than those with hollow-web specimens. The capacity of planar joints was higher than that of space joints, while the opposite was true for energy-dissipation capacity and ductility. The high compression ratio contributed to the increase in capacity and initial stiffness of the joint. The elastic and elastic-plastic story deformation capacity of L-shaped column frame joints satisfied the code requirement. A design formula of joint shear resistance based on the superposition theory and equilibrium plasticity truss model was proposed for engineering application.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.351-364
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• 2019

Earthquake and fire are both severe disasters for building structures. Since earthquake-induced damage will weaken the structure and reduce its fire endurance, it is important to investigate the behavior of structure subjected to post-earthquake fire. In this paper, steel-concrete composite beam-to-column joints were tested under fire with pre-damage caused by cyclic loads. Beforehand, three control specimens with no pre-damage were tested to capture the static, cyclic and fire-resistant performance of intact joints. Experimental data including strain, deflection and temperature recorded at several points are presented and analyzed to quantify the influence of cyclic damage on fire resistance. It is indicated that the fire endurance of damaged joints decreased with the increase of damage level, mainly due to faster heating-up rate after cyclic damage. However, cracks induced by cyclic loading in concrete are found to mitigate the concrete spalling at elevated temperatures. Moreover, the relationship between fire resistance and damage degree is revealed from experimental results, which can be applied in fire safety design and is worthwhile for further research.

• 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.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.78 no.3
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• pp.269-280
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• 2021

Reinforced concrete (RC) structural walls with L-shaped sections are commonly used in RC buildings. The walls are often expected to sustain biaxial load and Unsymmetrical bending in an earthquake event. However, there currently exists limited experimental evidence regarding their seismic behaviour in these lateral loading directions. This paper makes experimental and numerical investigations to these walls behaviours. Experimental evidences are presented for four L-shaped wall specimens which were tested under simulated seismic load from different lateral directions. The results highlighted some distinct behaviour of L-shaped walls sustaining Unsymmetrical bending relating to their seismic performance. First, due to the Unsymmetrical bending, out-of-plane reaction forces occur for these walls, which contribute to accumulation of the out-of-plane deformations of the wall, especially when out-of-plane stiffness of the section is reduced by horizontal cracks in the cyclic load. Secondly, cracking was found to affect shear centre of the specimens loaded in the Unsymmetrical bending direction. The shear centre of these specimens distinctly differs in the flange in the positive and negative loading direction. Cracking of the flange also causes significant warping in the bottom part of the wall, which eventually lead to out-of-plane buckling failure.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.163-170
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• 2019

In spite of various advantages, steel fiber reinforced concrete is still limited in its use due to the insufficient research results on the structural performance and design criteria. This study evaluated the long-term behavior of the steel fiber reinforced concrete slabs by long-term loading experiments based on the short-term load bearing capacity of steel fiber reinforced concrete slabs obtained from previous studies. In this study, long-term loading experiments were carried out on Total four 2-span continuous slab specimens were tested for examining the long-term behavior of steel fiber reinforced concrete members. Long-term behavior characteristics of members were evaluated by measuring the long-term deflection, drying shrinkage, the number and width of cracks. Experimental results showed that the instant deflection of the steel fiber reinforced concrete slab is about 50% of the normal reinforced concrete slab. And, it was analyzed that the long-term deflection of the specimen using steel fiber reinforced concrete was about 10~20% lower than that of normal concrete by the long-term deflection over 100 days. In addition, the slab specimen using steel fiber reinforced concrete was evaluated to have just 70% of the number and width of cracks compared with normal concrete specimens.

• 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.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.153-160
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• 2021

The connection of the steel structure serves to transmit external forces to the main components. The same is true for the behavior of modular systems composed mainly of steel or composite members. In this study, the joint performance of the composite and steel modules proposed was evaluated. The analytical models of the two joint types were constructed and were subjected to cyclic loading to assess the safety and the energy dissipation capacity of the joint types. The analysis results of the joints showed that the joints of the modular systems remain stable when the joint rotation reached the seismic performance limit state of the 0.02 rad required for steel intermediate moment frame. It was also observed that the joint of the composite modular system showed higher energy dissipation capacity compared with the steel modular system.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.625-636
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• 2021

This paper examines the fire performance of uninsulated and uncoated restrained steel-concrete composite beams supplemented with externally prestressed strands through advanced numerical simulation. In this work, a sequentially coupled thermo-mechanical analysis is carried out using ABAQUS. This analysis utilizes a highly nonlinear three-dimensional finite element (FE) model that is specifically developed and validated using full-sized specimens tested in a companion fire testing program. The developed FE model accounts for nonlinearities arising from geometric features and material properties, as well as complexities resulting from prestressing systems, fire conditions, and mechanical loadings. Four factors are of interest to this work including effect of restraints (axial vs. rotational), degree of stiffness of restraints, the configuration of external prestressed tendons, and magnitude of applied loading. The outcome of this analysis demonstrates how the prestressing force in the external tendons is primarily governed by the magnitude of applied loading and experienced temperature level. Interestingly, these results also show that the stiffness of axial restraints has a minor influence on the failure of restrained and prestressed steel-concrete composite beams. When the axial restraint ratio does not exceed 0.5, the critical deflection of the composite beam is lower than that of the composite beam with a restraint ratio of 1.0.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.79-86
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• 2023

Damage to gas and fire protection piping systems can lead to secondary disasters after an earthquake, so their seismic design is crucial. Accordingly, various types of seismic restraint installations are being devised, and a new suspended piping trapeze restraint installation has also recently been developed in Korea. In this study, a cyclic loading test was performed on the developed trapeze support system, and its performance was evaluated according to ASHRAE 171, the standard for seismic and wind restraint design established by the American Society of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). The three support system specimens did not break or fracture, causing only insignificant deformations until the end of the experiment. Based on the experimentally rated strength and displacement performance, this trapeze support system is expected to control the seismic movement of piping during an earthquake.