• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.125-139
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• 2016

For seismic retrofitting of masonry walls, the use of fibre reinforced cement-based mortar for bonding the fibre grids can eliminate some of the shortcomings related to the use of resin as bonding material. The results of an experimental testing program on masonry walls retrofitted with fibre reinforced mortar and fibre grids are presented in this paper. Seven squat masonry walls were tested under unidirectional lateral displacement reversals and constant axial load. Steel anchors were used to increase the effectiveness of the bond between the fibre grids and the masonry walls. Application of fibre grids on both lateral faces of the walls effectively improved the hysteretic behaviour and specimens could be loaded until slip occurred in the horizontal joint between the masonry and the bottom concrete stub. Application of the fibre grids on a single face did not effectively improve the hysteretic behaviour. Retrofitting with fibre reinforced mortar only prevented the early damage but did not effectively increase deformation capacity. When the boundaries of the cross sections were not properly confined, midplane splitting of the masonry walls occurred. Steel anchors embedded in the walls in the corners area effectively prevented this type of failure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.645-667
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• 2016

The 750 m long "De Bosset" bridge in the Cephalonia Island of Western Greece, being the area with the highest seismicity in Europe, was constructed in 1830 by successive stone arches and stiff block-type piers. The bridge suffered extensive damages during past earthquakes, such as the strong M7.2 earthquake of 1953, followed by poorly-designed reconstruction schemes with reinforced concrete. In 2005, a multidisciplinary project for the seismic assessment and restoration of the "De Bosset" bridge was undertaken under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture. The proposed retrofitting scheme combining soil improvement, structural strengthening and reconstruction of the deteriorated masonry sections was recently applied on site. Design of the rehabilitation measures and assessment of the pre- and post-interventions seismic response of the bridge were based on detailed in-situ and laboratory tests, providing foundation soil and structural material properties. In-situ inspection of the rehabilitated bridge following the strong M6.1 and M6.0 Cephalonia earthquakes of January 26th and February 3rd 2014, respectively, revealed no damages or visible defects. The efficiency of the bridge retrofitting is also proved by a preliminary performance analysis of the bridge under the recorded ground motion induced by the above earthquakes.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.54-63
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• 2011

Steel plate or FRP materials have been typically used for the seismic retrofit of civil infrastructures. In order to overcome the limitation of each retrofitting material, a composite material, which takes advantages from both metal and fiber polymer materials, has been developed. In the study herein, the composite retrofitting material consists of metal part(steel or aluminum) and FRP sheet part(glass or carbon fiber). The metal part can enhance the ductility and the FRP part the ultimate strength. As a preliminary study to investigate the fundamental mechanical characteristics of the metal-FRP laminated composite material this study performed the tensile test with various experimental variables including the number, the angle and the combination of FRP laminates. From the test results, both aluminum and steel-FRP laminate composite material showed increased fracture toughness. However, the angle and the kind of fibers should be carefully considered in conjunction with the expected loading conditions. In general, steel-FRP laminate composite showed better tensile performance in regards to the seismic retrofit purposes.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.215-225
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• 2016

High performance materials such as Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP) are often used for retrofitting structures against blast loads due to its ductility and strength. The effectiveness of retrofit materials needs to be precisely evaluated for the retrofitting design based on the dynamic material responses under blast loads. In this study, the blast resistance of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) and Kevlar/Glass hybrid fabric (K/G) retrofitted reinforced concrete (RC) wall is analyzed by using the explicit analysis code LS-DYNA, which accommodates the high-strain rate dependent material models. Also, the retrofit effectiveness of FRP fabrics is evaluated by comparing the analysis results for non-retrofitted and retrofitted walls. The verification of the analysis is performed through comparisons with the previous experimental results.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.55-62
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• 2012

Steel plate or FRP materials have been typically used for the seismic retrofit of civil infrastructures. In order to overcome the limitation of each retrofitting material, a composite material, which takes advantages from both metal and fiber polymer materials, has been developed. In the study herein, the composite retrofitting material consists of metal part(steel or aluminum) and FRP sheet part(glass or carbon fiber). The metal part can enhance the ductility and the FRP part the ultimate strength. As a preliminary study to investigate the fundamental mechanical characteristics of the metal-FRP laminated composite material this study performed the flexural fracture test with various experimental variables including the number, the angle and the combination of FRP laminates. From the aluminum-FRP composite tests no great increase in flexural strength and flexural toughness were observed. However, flexural toughness of steel-FRP laminate composite was increased so that its behavior can be considered in the retrofit design. In addition, the angle and the kind of fibers should be carefully considered in conjunction with the expected loading conditions.

• Architectural research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2023

Structural ageing influences the structural performance in a negative way by reducing the seismic resilience of the structure which makes it a major concern around the world. Retrofitting is considered to be a pragmatic and feasible solution to address this issue. Numerous retrofitting techniques are devised by researchers over the years. The viability of using steel bracings as retrofitting component is evaluated on a G+30 storied building model designed according to ACI318-14 and ASCE 7-16. Four different types of steel bracing arrangements (V, Inverted V/ Chevron, Cross/ X, Diagonal) are assessed in the model developed in commercial nu-merical analysis software while considering both material and geometric nonlinearities. Reducing displacement and cost in the structures indicates that the design is safe and economical. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to find the best bracing system that causes minimum displacement, which indicates maximum lateral stiffness. To evaluate the seismic vulnerability of each system, incremental dynamic analysis was conducted to develop fragility curves, followed by the formation of collapse margin ratio (CMR) as stipulated in FEMA P695 and finally, a cost estimation was made for each system. The outcomes revealed that the effects of ge-ometric nonlinearity tend to evoke hazardous consequences if not considered in the structural design. Probabilistic seismic and economic probes indicated the superior performance of V braced frame system and its competency to be a germane technique for retrofitting.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.207-230
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• 2012

Full-scale shake table seismic experiments and low-amplitude vibration tests on a masonry building are carried out to assess its seismic performance as well as study the effectiveness of a new multifunctional textile material for retrofitting masonry structures against earthquakes. The un-reinforced and the retrofitted with glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) strips masonry building was subjected to a series of earthquake excitations of increasing magnitude in order to progressively induce various small, moderate and severe levels of damage to the masonry walls. The performance of the original and retrofitted building states is evaluated. Changes in the dynamic characteristics (lowest four modal frequencies and damping ratios) of the building are used to assess and quantify the damage states of the masonry walls. For this, the dynamic modal characteristics of the structure states after each earthquake event were estimated by performing low-amplitude impulse hammer and sine-sweep forced vibration tests. Comparisons between the modal results calculated using traditional accelerometers and those using Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors embedded in the reinforcing textile were carried on to investigate the reliability and accuracy of FBG sensors in tracking the dynamic behaviour of the building. The retrofitting actions restored the stiffness characteristics of the reinforced masonry structure to the levels of the original undamaged un-reinforced structure. The results show that despite a similar dynamic behavior identified, corresponding to reduction of the modal frequencies, the un-reinforced masonry building was severely damaged, while the reinforced masonry building was able to withstand, without visual damage, the induced strong seismic excitations. The applied GFRP reinforcement architecture for one storey buildings was experimentally proven reliable for the most severe earthquake accelerations. It was easily placed in a short time and it is a cost effective solution (covering only 20% of the external wall surfaces) when compared to the cost for full wall coverage by GFRPs.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.1139-1155
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• 2015

In this study, a new retrofitting method for improving the seismic performance of reinforced concrete column was presented, in which prestressed steel strips were utilized as retrofitting stuff to confine the reinforced concrete column transversely. In order to figure out the seismic performance of concrete column specimen retrofitted by such prestressed steel strips methods, a series of quasi-static tests of five retrofitted specimens and two unconfined column specimen which acted as control specimens were conducted. Based on the test results, the seismic performance including the failure modes, hysteresis performance, ductility performance, energy dissipation and stiffness degradation of all these specimens were fully investigated and analyzed. And furthermore the influences of some key parameters such as the axial force ratios, shear span ratios and steel strips spacing on seismic performance of those retrofitted reinforced concrete column specimens were also studied. It was shown that the prestressed steel strips provided large transverse confining effect on reinforced concrete column specimens, which resulted in improving the shearing bearing capacity, ductility performance, deformation capacity and energy dissipation performance of retrofitted specimens effectively. In comparison to the specimen which was retrofitted by the carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) strips method, the seismic performance of the specimens retrofitted by the prestressed steel strips was a bit better, and with much less cost both in material and labor. From this research results, it can be concluded that this new retrofitting method is really useful and has significant advantages both in saving money and time over some other retrofitting methods.

• Journal of Urban Science
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.5-9
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• 2018

The nickel-titanium shape memory alloy (SMA), referred to as Nitinol, exhibits a superelastic effect that can be restored to its original shape even if a significant amount of deformation is applied at room temperature, without any additional heat treatment after removal of the load. Owing to these unique material characteristics, it has widely used as displacement control devices for seismic retrofitting in civil engineering fields as well as medical, electrical, electronic and mechanical fields. Contrary to ordinarty carbon steel, superelastic SMAs are very resistant to fatigue, and have force-displacement properties depending on loading speed. The change for the mechanical properties of superelastic SMAs are experimentally inviestigated in this study when loading cycle numbers and loading speeds are different. In addition, the standardized force-displacement properties of such superelastic SMAs are proposed with an aim to efficiently design the seismic retrofitting devices made of these materials.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.673-678
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• 1997

The main structural system of domestic apartments is the wall-slab system. In such structures, the lack of material strength of wall affects severely on the safety of structures. It is fond frequently that the wall in the apartment structures has lower strength in concrete than the specified. This paper presents the retrofitting method of the reinforced concrete wall with low concrete strength. The tests are performed to investigate the structural behavior and the effects of external reinforcing and thickness increasing on the axial load capacity of walls. Six specimens are tested. As the test results, the external reinforcing method is less effective than thickness increasing method.