• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.279-293
• /
• 2019

The overall seismic performance of existing pre 1960-70s reinforced concrete (RC) structures is significantly affected by the inadequate length of columns' lap-spliced reinforcement. Due to this crucial structural deficiency, the cyclic response is dominated by premature bond - slip failure, strength and stiffness degradation, poor energy dissipation capacity and low ductility. Recent earthquakes worldwide highlighted the importance of improving the load transfer mechanism between lap-spliced bars, while it was clearly demonstrated that the failure of lap splices may result in a devastating effect on structural integrity. Extensive experimental and analytical research was carried out herein, to evaluate the effectiveness and reliability of strengthening techniques applied to RC columns with lap-spliced reinforcement and also accurately predict the columns' response during an earthquake. Ten large scale cantilever column subassemblages, representative of columns found in existing pre 1970s RC structures, were constructed and strengthened by steel or RC jacketing. The enhanced specimens were imposed to earthquake-type loading and their lateral response was evaluated with respect to the hysteresis of two original and two control subassemblages. The main variables examined were the lap splice length, the steel jacket width and the amount of additional confinement offered by the jackets. Moreover, an analytical formulation proposed by Tsonos (2007a, 2019) was modified appropriately and applied to the lap splice region, to calculate shear stress developed in the concrete and predict if yielding of reinforcement is achieved. The accuracy of the analytical method was checked against experimental results from both the literature and the experimental work included herein.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.231-251
• /
• 2019

In the present study, a numerical and experimental investigation has been carried out on the seismic behavior of RC columns of a bridge which damaged under corrosive environments and retrofitted by various techniques including combined application of CFRP sheets and steel profiles. A novel hybrid retrofitting procedure, including the application of inner steel profiles and outer peripheral CFRP sheets, has been proposed for strengthening purpose. Seven large-scale RC columns of a Girder Bridge have been tested in the laboratory under the influence of simultaneous application of constant axial load and the lateral cyclic displacements. Having verified the finite element modeling, using ABAQUS software, the effects of important parameters such as the corrosion percentage of steel rebars and the number of CFRP layers have been evaluated. Based on the results, retrofitting of RC columns of the bridge with the proposed technique was effective in improving some measures of structural performance such as lateral strength degradation and higher energy absorption capability. However, the displacement ductility was not considerably improved whereas the elastic stiffness of the specimens has been increased.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.77 no.6
• /
• pp.705-720
• /
• 2021

Reinforced concrete (RC) columns are the primary type of vertical support used in building structures that sustain vertical loads. However, their strength may be insufficient due to fire, earthquake or volatile environments. The load demand may be increased due to new functional usages of the structure. The deformability of concrete columns can be greatly reduced under high axial load conditions. In response, a novel steel encasement that distinguishes from the traditional steel jacketing that is assembled by welding or bolt is developed. This novel strengthening method features easy installation and quick strengthening because direct fastening is used to connect the four steel plates surrounding the column. This new connection method is usually used to quickly and stably connect two steel components by driving high strength fastener into the steel components. The connections together with the steel plates behave like transverse reinforcement, which can provide passive confinement to the concrete. The confined column along with the steel plates resist the axial load. By this way, the axial load capacity and deformability of the column can be enhanced. Eight columns are tested to examine the reliability and effectiveness of the proposed method. The effects of the vertical spacing between adjacent connections, thickness of the steel plate and number of fasteners in each connection are studied to identify the critical parameters which affect the load bearing performance and deformation behavior. Lastly, a theoretical model is proposed for predicting the axial load capacity of the strengthened RC columns.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.29 no.6
• /
• pp.645-655
• /
• 2022

Granular columns have recently found widespread use in underground construction. The behaviour of granular columns under vertical loads has been extensively studied, specifically in relation to vertical load capacity obtained by bulging of the column body, including the behaviour after encasement of material. Determining the shear strength of loose soils reinforced with granular columns has received less attention. After the observations of lateral deformation near the toe of the embankment, attempts have been made to strengthen the lateral strength of granular columns. The purpose of this research is to look into the effects of different encasement conditions on the lateral load capacity of granular columns. This was accomplished by three-dimensional finite element analysis with FEM software. Various normal pressures and two different encasement configurations, namely single layer encasement and double layer encasement, with differing tensile strengths, were used in this study to determine their effect on lateral resistance. The failure envelope for a single column planted in loose sand was used to analyse the findings for three different granular column diameters, as well as the impact of different encasement conditions. According to the findings, the inclusion of a Granular Column enhanced the shear strength and overall stiffness of the loose sand bed, and the encasement of the Granular Column helped in deriving higher lateral resistance.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.43 no.2
• /
• pp.257-270
• /
• 2022

Recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) is rarely used in load-carrying structural members. To widen its structural application, the compressive behavior of a promising type of composite column, steel-fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) double-tube confined RAC column, has been experimentally and analytically investigated in this study. The objectives are the different performance of such columns from their counterparts using natural aggregate concrete (NAC) and the different mechanisms of the double-tube and single-tube confined concrete. The single-tube confined concrete refers to that in concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns and concrete-filled FRP tubular (CFFT) columns. The test results showed that the use of recycled coarse aggregates (RCA) affected the axial load-strain response in terms of deformation capacity but such effect could be eliminated with the increasing confinement. The composite effect can be triggered by the double confinement of the steel and carbon FRP (CFRP) tubes but not by the steel and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) FRP tubes. The proposed analysis-oriented stress-strain model is capable to capture the load-deformation history of such steel-FRP double-tube confined concrete columns under axial compression.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.32 no.6
• /
• pp.625-637
• /
• 2023

The application of ML approaches in determining the resisting capacity of fire damaged RC columns is introduced in this paper, on the basis of analysis data driven ML modeling. Considering the characteristics of the structural behavior of fire damaged RC columns, the representative five approaches of Kernel SVM, ANN, RF, XGB and LGBM are adopted and applied. Additional partial monotonic constraints are adopted in modelling, to ensure the monotone decrease of resisting capacity in RC column with fire exposure time. Furthermore, additional suggestions are also added to mitigate the heterogeneous composition of the training data. Since the use of ML approaches will significantly reduce the computation time in determining the resisting capacity of fire damaged RC columns, which requires many complex solution procedures from the heat transfer analysis to the rigorous nonlinear analyses and their repetition with time, the introduced ML approach can more effectively be used in large complex structures with many RC members. Because of the very small amount of experimental data, the training data are analytically determined from a heat transfer analysis and a subsequent nonlinear finite element (FE) analysis, and their accuracy was previously verified through a correlation study between the numerical results and experimental data. The results obtained from the application of ML approaches show that the resisting capacity of fire damaged RC columns can effectively be predicted by ML approaches.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.52 no.2
• /
• pp.391-403
• /
• 2014

In this study an innovative method of earthquake-resistant strengthening of reinforced concrete structures is presented for the first time. Strengthening according to this new method consists of the construction of steel fiber high-strength concrete jackets without conventional reinforcement which is usually applied in the construction of conventional reinforced concrete jackets (i.e., longitudinal reinforcement, stirrups, hoops). The proposed in this study innovative steel fiber high-strength or ultra high-strength concrete jackets were proved to be much more effective than the reinforced concrete jackets and the FRP-jackets when used for the earthquake-resistant strengthening of reinforced concrete structural members.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.351-365
• /
• 2020

This work presents numerical and experimental analyses of the behavior of reinforced-concrete deep beams with unconventional geometries. The main goal here is to experimentally and numerically study these geometries to find possible new behaviors due to the material nonlinearity of reinforced concrete with complex geometries. Usually, unconventional geometries result from innovative designs; in general, studies of reinforced concrete structures are performed only on conventional members such as beams, columns, and labs. To achieve the goal, four reinforced-concrete deep beams with geometries not addressed in the literature were tested. The models were numerically analyzed with the Adaptive Micro Truss Model (AMTM), which is the proposed method, to address new geometries. This work also studied the main parameters of the constitutive model of concrete based on a statistical analysis of the finite element (FE) results. To estimate the ultimate loads, FE simulations were performed using the Monte Carlo method. Based on the obtained ultimate loads, a probabilistic distribution was created, and the final ultimate loads were computed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.63 no.3
• /
• pp.385-400
• /
• 2017

This paper presents an experimental study on the behavior of axially-loaded steel RHS (rectangular hollow section) compression members that are partially reinforced along their lengths with welded steel plates. 28 slender column tests were carried out to investigate the effects of the slenderness ratio of the unreinforced member and the ratio of the reinforced length of the member to its entire length. In addition to the slender column tests, 14 stub-column tests were conducted to determine the basic mechanical properties of the test specimens under uniform compression. Test results show that both the compressive strength and stiffness of an RHS member can be increased significantly compared to its unreinforced counterpart even when only the central quarter of the member is reinforced. Based on the limited test data, it can be concluded that partial reinforcement is, in general, more effective in members with larger slenderness ratios. A simple design expression is also proposed to predict the compressive strength of RHS columns partially reinforced along their length with welded steel plates by modifying the provisions of AISC 360-10 to account for the partial reinforcement.

• Advances in concrete construction
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.333-343
• /
• 2020

In the architectural design process, the selection and configuration of the structural system significantly affect the earthquake behaviours of the reinforced concrete buildings. The main purpose of this study, the effects on the earthquake performances and the rough construction cost of the buildings of the slab type in reinforced concrete buildings are to examine comparatively for different local soil classes. The results obtained from this study have been determined that the building model having slabs with beams is safer compared to other types of slabs, especially when considering the vertical bearing structural elements (columns). It also shows that other types of slab, except for slab with beams, reduce the earthquake performances of reinforced concrete buildings, increase the displacement values, 1st natural vibration period values and the cost of rough construction. This matter reveals that slab type is quite important and the preference of beamed slabs in reinforced concrete buildings to be constructed in earthquake zones would be more appropriate in terms of safety and cost.