• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.85-93
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• 2008

This study summarizes the results of a research project aimed at investigating the inelastic rotation capacity of beam-column joints of reinforced concrete special moment frames. All of the test specimens were classified as special moment frame (SMF), based on the design and detailing requirements of the ACI 318-02 provisions. The acceptance criteria, originally defined for steel moment frame connections in the 1997 edition of the AISC Seismic provisions, were used to evaluate the beam-column joints of the reinforced concrete moment frames. A total of 39 test specimens were examined in detail. Most of the joints that satisfy the design requirements for special moment frame structures were found to be ductile up to a plastic rotation of 3% without any major degradation in strength. This is mainly due to the stringent ACI 318-02 requirements for special moment frame joints. The presence of transverse beams increases confinement and shear resistance of joints, which results in better performance than for joints without transverse beams. All of the SMF connections that satisfy the ACI 318-02 limitations on joint shear stress turned out to meet the acceptance criteria.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.734-741
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• 2002

An experimental study was carried out for beam-column joints composed of RC column and RS beams. The purpose of this study is to examine the inelastic seismic behavior for the RC-RS connection. Two interior and one exterior beam-column assemblies with variable moment ratios were tested. Experimental results showed that strength and deformability except stiffness were satisfactory. It is considered that the lack of stiffness was due to the slipping of steel beam from RS beam. The behavioral characteristics of the RC-RS connection were evaluated according to the quideline suggested by Hawkins et al. Nominal strength at 5 ％ joint distortion was not satisfactory, but all the other requirements, such as strength preserving capability, energy dissipation, and initial stiffness and strength ratios after peak load were satisfactory compared with the guideline. Thus it was concluded that the RC-RS connections can maintain ductility with excellent energy-dissipating capacity if being provided with appropriate reinforced structural system such as RC core wall for the initial lateral stiffness.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.13-16
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• 2008

Corbels are short cantilevers that project from the faces of a column and are a type of stress disturbed member, resisting both the ultimate shear force applied to them by the beam, and the ultimate horizontal force caused by shrinkage, temperature changes, and creep of the supported elements. Recently, as there have been an increase in the use of high-strength concrete and the concern about corrosion problems, lots of researches about hybrid reinforcing technique, applying strategically high performance reinforcements to the concrete elements, are performed. In this study, fiber reinforced high strength concrete corbels were constructed and tested for applying hybrid reinforcing technique to the corbels using steel fibers and headed bars. The results showed that the performance in terms of load carrying capacities, stiffness, ductility, and crack width was improved, as the steel fibers were added and the percentage of steel fibers was increased. In addition, the corbel specimens used headed bars as main tension ties showed superior load carrying capacities, stiffness, and ductility to the corbel specimens anchored main tension ties by welding to the transverse bars.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.29-44
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• 2020

The effectiveness and the sensitivity of a Wireless impedance/Admittance Monitoring System (WiAMS) for the prompt damage diagnosis of two single-storey single-span Reinforced Concrete (RC) frames under cyclic loading is experimentally investigated. The geometrical and the reinforcement characteristics of the RC structural members of the frames represent typical old RC frame structure without consideration of seismic design criteria. The columns of the frames are vulnerable to shear failure under lateral load due to their low height-to-depth ratio and insufficient transverse reinforcement. The proposed Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system comprises of specially manufactured autonomous portable devices that acquire the in-situ voltage frequency responses of a network of twenty piezoelectric transducers mounted to the RC frames. Measurements of external and internal small-sized piezoelectric patches are utilized for damage localization and assessment at various and increased damage levels as the magnitude of the imposed lateral cycle deformations increases. A bare RC frame and a strengthened one using a pair of steel crossed tension-ties (X-bracing) have been tested in order to check the sensitivity of the developed WiAMS in different structural conditions since crack propagation, damage locations and failure mode of the examined frames vary. Indeed, the imposed loading caused brittle shear failure to the column of the bare frame and the formation of plastic hinges at the beam ends of the X-braced frame. Test results highlighted the ability of the proposed SHM to identify incipient damages due to concrete cracking and steel yielding since promising early indication of the forthcoming critical failures before any visible sign has been obtained.

• Interaction and multiscale mechanics
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.192-211
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• 2010

In most framed structures the nonlinearities and the damages are localized, extending over a limited length of the structural member. In order to capture the details of the local damage, the segments of a member that have entered the nonlinear range may need to be analyzed using the three-dimensional element (3D) model whereas the rest of the member can be analyzed using the simpler one-dimensional (1D) element model with fewer degrees of freedom. An Element-Coupling model was proposed to couple the small scale solid 3D elements with the large scale 1D beam elements. The mixed dimensional coupling is performed imposing the kinematic coupling hypothesis of the 1D model on the interfaces of the 3D model. The analysis results are compared with test results of a reinforced concrete pipe column and a structure consisting of reinforced concrete columns and a steel space truss subjected to static and dynamic loading. This structure is a reduced scale model of a direct air-cooled condenser support platform built in a thermal power plant. The reduction scale for the column as well as for the structure was 1:8. The same structures are also analyzed using 3D solid elements for the entire structure to demonstrate the validity of the Element-Coupling model. A comparison of the accuracy and the computational effort indicates that by the proposed Element-Coupling method the accuracy is almost the same but the computational effort is significantly reduced.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.397-408
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• 2018

In a recent tragic fire incident, the Plasco Tower collapsed after an intense outburst of fire lasting for three and a half hours and claiming the lives of 16 firefighters and 6 civilians. This paper will present continuing collaborative work between Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Queen's University in Canada to model the progressive collapse of the tower. The fire started at the 10th floor and was observed to have travelled along the floor horizontally and through the staircase and windows vertically. Plasco Tower was steel structure and all the steel sections were fabricated by welding standard European channel or angle profiles and no fire protection was applied. Four internal columns carried the loads transferred by the primary beams, and box columns were constructed along the perimeter of the building as a braced tube for resisting seismic loading. OpenSees fibre-based sections and displacement-based beam-column elements are used to model the frames, while shell elements are used for the reinforced concrete floor slabs. The thermal properties and elevated temperature mechanical properties are as recommended in the Eurocodes. The results in this preliminarily analysis are based on rough estimations of the structure's configuration. The ongoing work looks at modeling the Plasco Tower based on the most accurate findings from reviewing many photographs and collected data.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.971-983
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• 2015

To promote greater acceptance and use of composite RCS systems, a two-bay two-story frame specimen with improved composite RCS joint details was tested in the laboratory under reversed cyclic loading. The test revealed superior seismic performance with stable load versus story drift response and excellent deformation capacity for an inter-story drift ratio up to 1/25. It was found that the failure process of the frame meets the strong-column weak-beam criterion. Furthermore, cracking inter-story drift ratio and ultimate inter-story drift ratio both satisfy the limitation prescribed by the design code. Additionally, inter-story drift ratios at yielding and peak load stage provide reference data for Performance-Based Seismic Design (PBSD) approaches for composite RCS frames. An advantage over conventional reinforced concrete and steel moment frame systems is that the displacement ductility coefficient of the RCS frame system is much larger. To conclude, the test results prove that composite RCS frame systems perform satisfactorily under simulated earthquake action, which further validates the reliability of this innovative system. Based on the test result, some suggestions are presented for the design of composite RCS frame systems.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.439-452
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• 1994

A method to optimize the cost of R/C frames and an algorithm of the optimal limit state design for R/C frames subjected to dynamic loads are presented. The modal superposition method was used to find the dynamic responses of the frames. Each member of R/C frame is made up of more than two elements and the stiffness matrix and consistent mass matrix of three d.o.f in the node of each element was used to include axial, shear and flexural effects. The objective function to be minimized formulated the cost of materials, steel and concrete, and optimised to satisfy the behaviors of R/C frame and each constraint imposed by the limit state requirements. Both objective function and each constraint are derived in terms of design variables which include the effective depth, beam width, compression and tension steel area, and column shear steel area. A few applications are presented which demonstrate the feasibility, the validity and efficiency of the algorithm for automated optimum design of R/C frames where dynamic behavior is to be considered.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.419-434
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• 2024

A flat slab is a structural system where columns directly support it without the presence of beam elements. However, despite its wide advantages, this structural system undergoes a major deficiency where stresses are concentrated around the column perimeter, resulting in the progressive collapse of the entire structure as a result of losing the shear transfer mechanisms at the cracked interface. Predicting the punching shear capacity of RC flat slabs is a challenging problem where the factors contributing to the overall slab strength vary broadly in their significance and effect extent. This study proposed a new expression for predicting the slab's capacity in punching shear using a nonuniform concrete tensile stress distribution assumption to capture, as well as possible, the induced strain effect within a thick RC flat slab. Therefore, the overall punching shear capacity is composed of three parts: concrete, aggregate interlock, and dowel action contributions. The factor of the shear span-to-depth ratio (a_v/d) was introduced in the concrete contribution in addition to the aggregate interlock part using the maximum aggregate size. Other significant factors were considered, including the concrete type, concrete grade, size factor, and the flexural reinforcement dowel action. The efficiency of the proposed model was examined using 86 points of published experimental data from 19 studies and compared with five code standards (ACI318, EC2, MC2010, CSA A23.3, and JSCE). The obtained results revealed the efficiency and accuracy of the model prediction, where a covariance value of 4.95% was found, compared to (13.67, 14.05, 15.83, 19.67, and 20.45) % for the (ACI318, CSA A23.3, MC2010, EC2, and JSCE), respectively.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.381-388
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• 2010

In this study, characteristics of the seismic response of the non-earthquake resistant reinforced concrete (RC) frame were identified. The test building is designed to withstand only gravity loads and not in compliance with modern seismic codes. Smooth bars were utilized for the reinforcement. Members are provided with minimal amount of stirrups to withstand low levels of shear forces and the core concrete is virtually not confined. Columns are slender and more flexible than beams, and beam-column connections were built without stirrups. Through the modeling of an example RC frame, the feasibility of the fiber elementbased 3D nonlinear analysis method was investigated. Since the torsion is governed by the fundamental mode shape of the structure under dynamic loading, pushover analysis cannot predict torsional response accurately. Hence, dynamic response history analysis is a more appropriate analysis method to estimate the response of an asymmetric building. The latter method was shown to be accurate in representing global responses by the comparison of the analytical and experimental results. Analytical models without rigid links provided a good estimation of reduced stiffness and strength of the test structure due to bond-slip, by forming plastic hinges closer to the column ends. However, the absence of a proper model to represent the bond-slip poased the limitations on the current inelastic analysis schemes for the seismic analysis of buildings especially for those with round steel reinforcements. Thus, development of the appropriate bond-slip model is in need to achieve more accurate analysis.