• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.583-598
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• 2021

The composite steel reinforced concrete (SRC) columns have been widely used in Structural Engineering due to their good performances. Many studies have been done on the SRC columns' performances, but they focused on the ordinary types with conventional configurations and materials. In this study, nine new types of steel reinforced lightweight aggregate concrete (SRLAC) short columns with cross-shaped (+shaped and X-shaped) steel section were tested under monotonically axial compressive load; the studied parameters included steel section ratio, steel section configuration, ties spacing, lightweight aggregate concrete (LWAC) strength, and longitudinal bars ratio. From the results, it could be found that the specimens with larger ties ratio, concrete strength, longitudinal bars ratio, and steel section ratio achieved great strength and stiffness due to the excellent interaction between the concrete and steel. The well-confined concrete core could strengthen the steel section. The ductility and toughness of the specimens were influenced by the LWAC strength, steel section ratio, and longitudinal bars ratio; in addition, larger ties ratio with smaller LWAC strength led to better ductility and toughness. The load transfer between concrete and steel section largely depends on the LWAC strength, and the ultimate strength of the new types of SRLAC short columns could be approximately predicted, referring to the codes' formulas of ordinary types of steel reinforced concrete (SRC) columns. Among the used codes, the BS-5400-05 led to the most conservative results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.19-36
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• 2023

An experimental study of eleven PVC-FRP Confined Concrete (PFCC) column-Reinforced Concrete (RC) beam joints reinforced with Core Steel Tube (CST) under axial compression is carried out. All specimens are designed in accordance with the principle of "weak column and strong joint". The influences of FRP strips spacing, length and steel ratio of CST, height and stirrup ratio of joint on mechanical behavior are investigated. As the design anticipated, all specimens are destroyed by column failure. The failure mode of PFCC column-RC beam joint reinforced with CST is the yielding of longitudinal steel bars, CST and stirrups of column as well as the fracture of FRP strips and PVC tube. The ultimate bearing capacity decreases as FRP strips spacing or joint height increases. The effects of other three studied parameters on ultimate bearing capacity are not obvious. The strain development rules of longitudinal steel bars, PVC tube, FRP strips, column stirrups and CST are revealed. The effects of various studied parameters on stiffness are also examined. Additionally, an influence coefficient of joint height is introduced based on the regression analysis of test data, a theoretical formula for predicting bearing capacity is proposed and it agrees well with test data.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.559-571
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• 2020

This study aimed to inspect the axial compression mechanical performance of basalt-fiber-reinforced recycled - concrete (BFRRC)-filled square steel tubular stub column. The replacement ratio of recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) and the basalt fiber (BF) dosage were used as variation parameters, and the axial compression performance tests of 15 BFRRC-filled square steel tubular stub column specimens were conducted. The failure mode and the load-displacement/strain curve of the specimen were measured. The working process of the BFRRC-filled square steel tubular stub column was divided into three stages, namely, elastic-elastoplasticity, sudden drawdown, and plasticity. The influence of the design parameters on the peak bearing capacity, energy dissipation performance, and other axial compression performance indexes was discussed. A mathematical model of segmental stiffness degradation was proposed on the basis of the degradation law of combined secant-stiffness under axial compression. The full-process curve equation of axial compressive stress-strain was proposed by introducing the influencing factors, including the RCA replacement ratio and the BF dosage, and the calculated curve agreed well with the test-measured curve.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.653-677
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• 2005

Concrete filled steel tubular columns (CFT) are widely used in civil engineering works, especially in large scale of works because of high strength, deformation, toughness and so on. On the other hand, as a kind of strengthening measure for seriously damaged reinforced concrete piers of viaduct in Hansin-Awaji earthquake of Japan in 1995, reinforced concrete piers were wrapped with steel plate. Then, a new kind of structure appeared, that is, reinforced concrete filled steel tubular column (RCFT). In this paper, compression test and bending-shearing test on RCFT are carried out. The main parameters of experiments are (1) strength of concrete, (2) steel tube with or without rib, (3) width-thickness ratio and (4) arrangement of reinforcing bars. According to the experimental results, the effect of parameters on mechanical characteristics of RCFT is analyzed clearly. At the same time, strength evaluation formula for RCFT column is proposed and tested by experimental results and existed recommendations (AIJ 1997). The strength calculated by the proposal formula is in good agreement with test result. As a result, the proposed evaluation formula can evaluate the strength of RCFT column properly.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.72 no.3
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• pp.367-382
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• 2019

This paper presents experimental and analytical investigations on additional fixed-end rotations resulting from the strain penetration of high-strength reinforcement in reinforced concrete (RC) beam-column connections under monotonic loading. The experimental part included the test of 18 interior beam-column connections with straight long steel bars and 24 exterior beam-column connections with hooked and headed steel bars. Rebar strains along the anchorage length were recorded at the yielding and ultimate states. Furthermore, a numerical program was developed to study the effect of strain penetration in beam-column connections. The numerical results showed good agreement with the test results. Finally, 87 simulated specimens were designed with various parameters based on the test specimens. The effect of concrete compressive strength ($f_c$), yield strength ($f_y$), diameter ($d_b$), and anchorage length ($l_{ah}$) of the reinforcement in the beam-column connection was examined through a parametric study. The results indicated that additional fixed-end rotations increased with a decrease in $f_c$ and an increase in $f_y$, $d_b$ and $l_{ah}$. Moreover, the growth rate of additional fixed-end rotations at the yielding state was faster than that at the ultimate state when high-strength steel bars were used.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.423-436
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• 2023

In this research, we tested 10 simply supported concrete-encased composite columns under monotonic eccentric loads and investigated their shear behaviour. The specimens tested were two reinforced concrete specimens, three steel-reinforced concrete (SRC) specimens with an H-shaped steel section (also called a beam section), and five SRC specimens with a cruciform-shaped steel section (also called a column section). The experimental variables included the transverse steel shape's depth and the longitudinal steel flange's width. Experimental observations indicated the following. (1) The ultimate load-carrying capacity was controlled by web compression failure, defined as a situation where the concrete within the diagonal strut's upper end was crushed. (2) The composite effect was strong before the crushing of the concrete outside the steel shape. (3) We adjusted the softened strut-and-tie SRC (SST-SRC) model to yield more accurate strength predictions than those obtained using the strength superposition method. (4) The MSST-SRC model can more reasonably predict shear strength at an initial concrete softening load point. The rationality of the MSST-SRC model was inferred by experimentally observing shear behaviour, including concrete crushing and the point of sharp variation in the shear strain.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.319-332
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• 2020

The impacts of reinforcing concrete matrix with steel fibers, polypropylene fibers and recycled plastic fibers using different volume fractions of 0.15%, 0.5%, 1.5% and 2.5% on the compressive and tensile characteristics are experimentally investigated in the current research. Also, flexural behavior of plain concrete (PC) beams, shear performance of reinforced concrete (RC) beams and compressive characteristics of both PC and RC columns reinforced with recycled plastic fibers were studied. The experimental results showed that the steel fibers improved the splitting tensile strength of concrete higher than both the polypropylene fibers and recycled plastic fibers. The end-hooked steel fibers had a positive effect on the compressive strength of concrete while, the polypropylene fibers, the recycled plastic fibers and the rounded steel fibers had a negative impact. Compressive strength of end-hooked steel fiber specimen with volume fraction of 2.5% exhibited the highest value among all tested samples of 32.48 MPa, 21.83% higher than the control specimen. The ultimate load, stiffness, ductility and failure patterns of PC and RC beams in addition to PC and RC columns strengthened with recycled plastic fibers enhanced remarkably compared to non-strengthened elements. The maximum ultimate load and stiffness of RC column reinforced with recycled plastic fibers with 1.5% volume fraction improved by 21 and 15%, respectively compared to non-reinforced RC column.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.471-482
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• 2018

The composite reinforced concrete and steel (RCS) structural systems have larger structural lateral stiffness, higher inherent structural damping, and faster construction speed than either traditional reinforcement concrete or steel structures. In this paper, four RCS subassemblies with or without the RC slab designed following a strong column-weak beam philosophy were constructed and tested under reversed-cyclic loading. Parameters including the width of slab and composite effect of the RC slab and beam were explored. The test results showed that all specimens performed in a ductile manner with plastic hinges formed in the beam ends near the column faces. The seismic responses of composite connections are influenced significantly by different width of slabs. Compared with that of the steel beam without the RC slab, it was found that the load carrying capacity of composite connections with the RC slab increased by 30% on average, and strength degradation, energy dissipation also had better performance, while the ductility of that were almost the same. Furthermore, the contribution of connection deformation to the overall specimen displacement was analyzed and compared. It decreased approximately 10% due to the coupling effect in the columns and beams with the RC slab. Based on the test result, some suggestions are presented for the design of composite RCS joints.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.299-310
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• 2018

When reinforced concrete structures are subjected to strong seismic forces, their beam-column connections are very susceptible to be damaged during the earthquake event. Consequently, structural designers try to fit an important quantity of steel reinforcement inside the connection, complicating its construction without a clear justification for this. The aim of this work is to evaluate -and demonstrate- numerically how the quantity and the array of the internal steel reinforcement influences on the nonlinear response of the RC beam-column connection. For this, two specimens (extracted from an experimental test of 12 RC beam-column connections reported in literature) were modeled in the Finite Element code FEAP considering different stirrup's arrays. The nonlinear response of the RC beam-column connection is evaluated taking into account the nonlinear thermodynamic behavior of each component: a damage model is used for concrete; a classical plasticity model is adopted for steel reinforcement; the steel-concrete bonding is considered perfect without degradation. At the end, the experimental responses obtained in the tests are compared to the numerical results, as well as the distribution of shear stresses and damage inside the concrete core of the beam-column connection, which are analyzed for a low and high state of confinement.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.193-200
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• 2018

This paper presents an experimental work for short circular steel tube columns filled with normal concrete (NAC), recycled aggregate concrete (RAC), and RAC with silica fume and steel fiber. Ten specimens were tested under axial compression to research the effect of silica fume and steel fiber volume percentage on the behavior of recycled aggregate concrete-filled steel tube columns (RACFST). The failure modes, ultimate loads and axial load- strain relationships are presented. The test results indicate that silica fume and steel fiber would not change the failure mode of the RACFST column, but can increase the mechanical performances of the RACFST column because of the filling effect and pozzolanic action of silica fume and the confinement effect of steel fiber. The ultimate load, ductility and energy dissipation capacity of RACFST columns can exceed that of corresponding natural aggregate concrete-filled steel tube (NACFST) column. Design formulas EC4 for the load capacity NACFST and RACFST columns are proposed, and the predictions agree well with the experimental results from this study.