• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.735-757
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• 2015

Composite bonding steel plate (CBSP) is a newly developed type of structure strengthened technique applicable to the existing RC beam. This composite structure is applicable to strengthening the existing beam bearing high load. The strengthened beam consists of two layers of epoxy bonding prestressed steel plates and the RC beam sandwiched in between. The bonding enclosed and prestressed U-shaped steel jackets are applied at the beam sides. This technique is adopted in case of structures with high longitudinal reinforcing bar ratio and impracticable unloading. The prestress can be generated on the strengthening steel plates and jackets by using the CBSP technique before loading. The test results of full-scale CBSP strengthened beams show that the strength and stiffness are enhanced without reduction of their ductility. It is demonstrated that the strain hysteresis effect can be effectively overcome after prestressing on the steel plates by using such technique. The applied plates and jackets can jointly behave together with the existing beam under the action of epoxy bonding and the mechanical anchorage of the steel jackets. The simplified formulas are proposed to calculate the prestress and the ultimate capacities of strengthened beams. The accuracy of formulas was verified with the experimental results.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.85 no.5
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• pp.573-592
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• 2023

This paper presents a careful theoretical investigation into interfacial stresses in composite aluminum-slab reinforced concrete beam bonded by a prestressed hybrid carbon-glass composite material. The model is based on equilibrium and deformations compatibility requirements in and all parts of the strengthened beam, i.e., the aluminum beam, the slab reinforced concrete, the hybrid carbon-glass composite plate and the adhesive layer. The theoretical predictions are compared with other existing solutions. Numerical results from the present analysis are presented both to demonstrate the advantages of the present solution over existing ones and to illustrate the main characteristics of interfacial stress distributions. It is shown that the stresses at the interface are influenced by the material and geometry parameters of the composite beam. This research is helpful for the understanding on mechanical behaviour of the interface and design of the hybrid structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.4
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• pp.543-555
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• 2018

Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP), which has a high strength to weight ratio, are now regularly used for strengthening of deficient reinforced concrete (RC) structures. While various researches have been conducted on FRP strengthening, an area that still requires attention is predicting the debonding failure load of prestressed FRP strengthened RC beams. Application of prestressing increases the capacity and reduces the premature failure of the beams largely, though not entirely. Few analytical methods are available to predict the failure loads under flexure failure. With this paucity, this research proposes a method for predicting debonding failure induced by intermediate crack (IC) for prestressed FRP-strengthened beams. The method consists of a numerical study on beams retrofitted with prestressed FRP in the tension side of the beam. The method applies modified Branson moment-curvature analysis together with the global energy balance approach in combination with fracture mechanics criteria to predict failure load for complicated IC-induced failure. The numerically simulated results were compared with published experimental data and the average of theoretical to experimental debonding failure load is found to be 0.93 with a standard deviation of 0.09.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.10 no.sup3
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• pp.53-63
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• 2016

Steel fiber-reinforced prestressed concrete (SFRPSC) members typically have high shear strength and deformation capability, compared to conventional prestressed concrete (PSC) members, due to the resistance provided by steel fibers at the crack surface after the onset of diagonal cracking. In this study, shear tests were conducted on the SFRPSC members with the test variables of concrete compressive strength, fiber volume fraction, and prestressing force level. Their localized behavior around the critical shear cracks was measured by a non-contact image-based displacement measurement system, and thus their shear deformation was thoroughly investigated. The tested SFRPSC members showed higher shear strengths as the concrete compressive strength or the level of prestress increased, and their stiffnesses did not change significantly, even after diagonal cracking due to the resistance of steel fibers. As the level of prestress increased, the shear deformation was contributed by the crack opening displacement more than the slip displacement. In addition, the local displacements around the shear crack progressed toward directions that differ from those expected by the principal strain angles that can be typically obtained from the average strains of the concrete element. Thus, this localized deformation characteristics around the shear cracks should be considered when measuring the local deformation of concrete elements near discrete cracks or when calculating the local stresses.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1998.04a
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• pp.339-345
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• 1998

The creep of concrete structures caused by variable stresses is mostly calculated by step-by-step method based on the superposition of creep function. Although most practical application is carried out by this linear assumption, significant deviations between predictions and experiments have been observed when unloading takes place, that is, stress is reduced. The recovery is overestimated. The main purpose of this study is to present the application method of the creep analysis model which is expressed with both creep function and creep recovery function to concrete structures where is expressed with both creep function and creep recovery function to concrete structures where increase or decrease of stress is repeated . To apply two function method to time analysis of concrete structures, this study presents the calculation method of creep strain increment for stress variation. Then, this paper executes the time analysis for an example using suggested method, and compares theses results with the previous analysis values and experimental results.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.723-740
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• 2013

This paper presents a parametric study of reinforced concrete bridge tall piers with hollow, rectangular sections. Such piers are typically used in railway construction of prestressed concrete viaducts. Twenty one different piers have been studied with seven column heights of 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100 m and three types of 10-span continuous viaducts, whose main span lengths are 40, 50 and 60 m. The piers studied are intermediate columns placed in the middle of the viaducts. The total number of optimization design variables varies from 139 for piers with column height of 40 m to 307 for piers with column height of 100 m. Further, the results presented are of much value for the preliminary design of the piers of prestressed concrete viaducts of high speed railway lines.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.153-160
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• 2008

Fracture of prestressed concrete beams is studied with a novel and robust three-dimensional meshfree method. The meshfree method describes the crack as a set of cohesive crack segments and avoids the representation of the crack surface. It is ideally suited for a large number of cracks. The crack is modeled by splitting particles into two particles on opposite sides of the crack segment and the shape functions of neighboring particles are modified in a way the discontinuous displacement field is captured appropriately. A simple, robust and efficient way to determine, on which side adjacent particles of the corresponding crack segment lies, is proposed. We will show that the method does not show any "mesh" orientation bias and captures complicated failure patterns of experimental data well.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.43-59
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• 2014

Many bridges are subject to lateral damage for their girders due to impact by over-height vehicles collision. In this study, the optimum configurations of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) laminates were investigated to repair the laterally damaged prestressed concrete (PS) bridge girders. Experimental and analytical investigations were conducted to study the flexural behavior of 13 half-scale AASHTO type II PS girders under both static and fatigue loading. Lateral impact damage due to vehicle collision was simulated by sawing through the concrete of the bottom flange and slicing through one of the prestressing strands. The damaged concrete was repaired and CFRP systems (longitudinal soffit laminates and evenly spaced transverse U-wraps) were applied to restore the original flexural capacity and mitigate debonding of soffit CFRP longitudinal laminates. In addition to the static load tests for ten girders, three more girders were tested under fatigue loading cycles to investigate the behavior under simulated traffic conditions. Measurements of the applied load, the deflection at five different locations, strains along the cross-section height at mid-span, and multiple strains longitudinally along the bottom soffit were recorded. The study investigated and recommended the proper CFRP repair design in terms of the CFRP longitudinal layers and U-wrapping spacing to obtain flexural capacity improvement and desired failure modes for the repaired girders. Test results showed that with proper detailing, CFRP systems can be designed to restore the lost flexural capacity, sustain the fatigue load cycles, and maintain the desired failure mode.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.499-511
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• 2018

This paper aims to investigate the seismic performance of the prestressed steel strips retrofitted RC beam-column joints. Two series of joint specimens were conducted under compression load and reversed cyclic loading through quasi-static tests. Based on the test results, the seismic behavior of the strengthened joints specimens in terms of the failure modes, hysteresis response, bearing capacity, ductility, stiffness degradation, energy dissipation performance and damage level were focused. Moreover, the effects of the amount of the prestressed steel strips and the axial compression ratio on seismic performance of retrofitted specimens were analyzed. It was shown that the prestressed steel strips retrofitting method could significantly improve the seismic behavior of the RC joint because of the large confinement provided by prestressed steel strips in beam-column joints. The decrease of the spacing and the increase of the layer number of the prestressed steel strips could result in a better seismic performance of the retrofitted joint specimens. Moreover, increasing the axial compression ration could enhance the peak load, stiffness and the energy performance of the joint specimens. Furthermore, by comparison with the specimens reinforced with CFRP sheets, the specimens reinforced with prestressed steel strips was slightly better in seismic performance and cost-saving in material and labor. Therefore, this prestressed steel strips retrofitting method is quite helpful to enhance the seismic behavior of the RC beam-column joints with reducing the cost and engineering time.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.501-516
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the performance of precast concrete pier cap system. The proposed precast pier cap provides an alternative to current cast-in-place systems, particularly for projects in which a reduced construction time is desired. Five large-scale pier cap specimens were constructed and tested under quasistatic monotonic loading. The computer program, RCAHEST (Reinforced Concrete Analysis in Higher Evaluation System Technology) was used for the analysis of reinforced concrete structures. A bonded tendon element is used based on the finite element method, and can represent the interaction between the tendon and concrete of a prestressed concrete member. A joint element is used in order to predict the inelastic behaviors of segmental joints with a shear key. This study documents the testing of the precast concrete pier cap system under monotonic loading and presents conclusions and design recommendations based on the experimental and analytical findings. Additional full-scale experimental research is needed to refine and confirm design details, especially for actual detailing employed in the field.