• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.271-283
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• 2021

This article provides empirical evidence on factors of internal audit (IA) characteristics affecting the internal audit effectiveness in steel enterprises in Vietnam. The study uses data from survey obtained from 114 responses representing owners, managers, and internal auditors from 38 steel enterprises in Vietnam for period from 2018 to 2019. Data collected is firstly checked with Cronbach's Alpha, then the EFA test, and the model linear regression is used to test the relationship between internal audit characteristics and internal audit effectiveness. Results reveal that internal audit effectiveness in steel enterprises in Vietnam is influenced by various internal factors, including the size of internal audit, the scope of internal audit, the capacity of internal auditors, the independence of internal auditor, and the operational bases and methods of internal audit. Based on the research results, the paper makes six recommendations: strengthening operational basis of IA; increasing the independence of IA; increasing the size and capacity of IA staff; expanding and not underestimate the scope of IA; and reforming the internal governance structure. These proposed recommendations could be applied, not only for steel companies in Vietnam, but also for other companies in Vietnam or other companies in jurisdictions that have similar conditions.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.459-469
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• 2020

An external prestressed steel-bar truss unit was developed as a new strengthening technology to enhance the seismic performance of an in-plane masonry wall structure while taking advantage of the benefits of a prestressed system. The presented method consists of six steel bars: two prestressed vertical bars to introduce a prestressing force on the masonry wall, two diagonal bars to resist shear deformation, and two horizontal bars to maintain the configuration. To evaluate the effects of this new technique, four full-scale specimens, including a control specimen, were tested under combined loadings that included constant-gravity axial loads and cyclic lateral loads. The experimental results were analyzed in terms of the shear strength, initial stiffness, dissipated energy, and strain history. The efficiency of the external prestressed steel-bar truss unit was validated. In particular, a retrofitted specimen with an axial load level of 0.024 exhibited a more stable post behavior and higher energy dissipation than a control specimen with an observed complete sliding failure. The four vertical bars of the adjacent retrofitting units created a virtual column, and their strain values did not change until they reached the peak shear strength. The shear capacity of the masonry wall structure with external prestressed steel-bar truss units could be predicted using the model suggested by Yang et al.

• International journal of steel structures
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1483-1496
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• 2018

Negligible research has been conducted to date on how to analyse weakened columns, thus safety risks are still involved when structures are weakened prior to demolition. There are various methods available for demolishing steel structures. One of the most effective methods that has been developed involves pre-cutting steel columns at a certain height, so that the least effort can be used to collapse the structure by means of pulling out some of the columns. This paper presents (a) an experimental setup developed to test the capacity of axially loaded weakened columns, which is used to (b) validate a finite element (FE) model. The two pre-cuts that are presented in this paper are (1) the double window cut and (2) the triangular window cut, which are both commonly used in industry. A column weakened with a double window cut or triangular window cut reduces the axial load capacity by up to 50 and 40%, respectively. The FE models developed predict the axial failure load of weakened columns for a double window cut and triangular window cut are generally within an accuracy of less than 8 and 10%, respectively. It is shown at higher slendernesses the influence of column cuts is less than would be intuitively expected because global buckling becomes dominant.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.193-206
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• 2021

Extensive research has been conducted on the basic mechanical property and structural applications of engineered cementitious composites (ECC). Despite the high tensile ductility and high toughness of ECC, transverse steel reinforcement is still necessary to confine ECC for high performance. However, limited research has examined performance of ECC confined with practical amount of transverse reinforcement. This paper presents the results of axial compression tests on 14 square ECC columns and 4 conventional concrete columns (used as control specimens) with transverse reinforcement. The test variables were spacing, configuration (square ties or square and diamond shape ties), and yield strength of stirrups. The test showed that ECC columns confined with steel stirrup had good compressive ductility, and the stirrup spacing had the greatest effect on the compressive performance. The self-confinement effect of ECC results in a more uniform but slower expansion of the whole column compared with CC ones. The test results are then compared against the predictions from a number of existing models for conventional confined concrete. It is indicated that these models fail to predict the axial strains at peak axial stress and the trend of the stress-strain curve of steel stirrups-confined ECC with sufficient accuracy. Several new equations are then proposed for the compressive properties of steel-confined ECC based on test results and potential approaches for future studies are proposed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.741-759
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• 2020

Steel plate-concrete composite slabs provide attractive features, such as more effective loading transfer, and more cost-effective stay-in-place forms, thereby enabling engineers to design more high-performance light structures. Although significant studies in the literatures have been directed toward designing and implementing the steel plate-concrete composite beams, there are limited data available for understanding of the composite slabs. To fill this gap, nine the composite slabs with different variables in this study were tested to unveil the impacts of the critical factors on the ultimate strength behavior. The key information of the findings included sample failure modes, crack pattern, and ultimate strength behavior of the composite slabs under either four-point or three-point loading. Test results showed that the failure modes varied from delamination to shear failures under different design factors. Particularly, the shear stud spacing and thicknesses of the concrete slabs significantly affected their ultimate load-carrying capacities. Moreover, an analytical model of the composite slabs was derived for determining their ultimate load-carrying capacity and was well verified by the experimental data. Further extensive parametric study using the proposed analytical methods was conducted for a more comprehensive investigation of those critical factors in their performance. These findings are expected to help engineers to better understand the structural behavior of the steel plate-concrete composite slabs and to ensure reliability of design and performance throughout their service life.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.445-460
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• 2021

This study experimentally explored the behaviour of 12 concrete filled steel tube (CFST) and steel tube columns subjected to lateral cyclic loading. The L/D ratio was 12.3 while D/t ratios were 45.4, 37.8 and 32.4, classifying these 12 specimens into 3 groups. Each group included 3 CFST and 1 steel tube columns and were tested to failure. The experimental results indicated that CFST specimens reached the state of 'collapse prevention' (drift 4%) prior to the occurrence of local buckling. Strength degradation of CFST specimens did not occur up to the failure by buckling. This showed the favourable characteristic of CFST columns in preventing collapse of structures subjected to earthquakes. The high energy absorption capability in the post collapse limit state was appropriate for dissipating energy in structures. Compared to steel tube columns, CFST columns delayed local buckling and prevented inward buckling. Consequently, CFST columns exhibited their outstanding seismic performance in terms of the increased ultimate resistance, capacity to sustain 2-3 additional load cycles and significantly higher drift. A simple and reasonably accurate model was proposed to predict the ultimate strength of CFST columns under lateral cyclic loading.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.803-816
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• 2022

Composite materials are effective in forming externally bonded reinforcements which find applications related to existing structures repair, attributed to their high strength-to-weight ratio and ease of installation. Among various composites, fibre reinforced polymers (FRP) have somewhat been largely accepted as a commonly utilized composite for such purposes. It is only recently that steel fibres have been considered as additional members of the FRP fibre family, intuitively termed as steel reinforced polymer (SRP). Owing to its low cost and permissibility of fibre bending at sharp corners, SRP is rapidly becoming a viable contender to other FRP systems. This paper investigates the bond behaviour of SRP-concrete joints with different bonded lengths (50, 75, 100, 150 and 300 mm) and widths (15, 30, 40, 50, and 75 mm) using single-lap shear tests. The experimental specimens contain SRP strips with a fixed density of steel fibres (0.472 cords/mm) bonded to the face of concrete prisms. The load responses were obtained and compared in terms of corresponding load and slip boundaries of the constant region and the peak loads. The failure modes of SRP composites are discussed, and the range of effective bonded length is evaluated herein. In the end, a new analytical model was proposed to estimate the SRP-concrete bond strength using a genetic algorithm, which outperforms 22 existing FRP-concrete bond strength models.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.283-289
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• 2000

The panel shear and bearing strengths determining the seismic resistance of reinforced concrete column-to-steel beam connections are predicted by various methods for four previously tested exterior beam-column joints. The analytical approach to model the joint deformation is also examined. Several analyses incorporating the deformations of panel shear and bearing in the joint are demonstrated using a analyses incorporating the deformations of panel shear and bearing in the joint are demonstrated using a fairly simple connection model in the commercial packages such as Drain2dx and IDARC. The strength prediction results indicated that the ASCE method with the modifcation of the comprssion strut contribution is th most accurate. It is also considered that the analytical model presented including the joint deformation can be used for the overall analysis

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.227-230
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• 2009

In order to predict failure behavior of advanced high-strength steel sheets (AHSS) in hole expansion tests, damage model was developed considering surface condition sensitivity (with specimens prepared by milling and punching: 340R, TRIP590, TWIP940). To account for the micro-damage initiation and evolution as well as macro-crack formation, the stress triaxiality dependent fracture criterion and rate-dependent hardening and ultimate softening behavior were characterized by performing numerical simulations and experiments for the simple tension and V-notch tests. The developed damage model and the characterized mechanical property were incorporated into the FE program ABAQUS/Explicit to perform hole expansion simulations, which showed good agreement with experiments.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.101-110
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• 2012

This paper focuses on the finite element (FE) response sensitivity and reliability analyses considering smooth constitutive material models. A reinforced concrete frame is modeled for FE sensitivity analysis followed by direct differentiation method under both static and dynamic load cases. Later, the reliability analysis is performed to predict the seismic behavior of the frame. Displacement sensitivity discontinuities are observed along the pseudo-time axis using non-smooth concrete and reinforcing steel model under quasi-static loading. However, the smooth materials show continuity in response sensitivity at elastic to plastic transition points. The normalized sensitivity results are also used to measure the relative importance of the material parameters on the structural responses. In FE reliability analysis, the influence of smoothness behavior of reinforcing steel is carefully noticed. More efficient and reasonable reliability estimation can be achieved by using smooth material model compare with bilinear material constitutive model.