• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.73 no.6
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• pp.613-620
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• 2020

The research study is focuses on a form of all-bolted joint with the external ring stiffening plate in the prefabricated steel structure. The components are bolted at site after being fabricated in the factory. Six specimens were tested under cyclic loading, and the effects of column axial compression ratio, concrete-filled column, beam flange sub plate, beam web angle cleats, and spliced column on the failure mode, hysteretic behavior and ductility of the joints were analyzed. The results shown that the proposed all-bolted joint with external ring stiffening plate performed high bearing capability, stable inflexibility degradation, high ductility and plump hysteretic curve. The primary failure modes were bucking at beam end, cracking at the variable section of the external ring stiffening plate, and finally welds fracturing between external ring stiffening plate and column wall. The bearing capability of the joints reduced with the axial compression ratio increased. The use of concrete-filled steel tube column can increase the bearing capability of joints. The existence of the beam flange sub plate, and beam web angle cleat improves the energy dissipation, ductility, bearing capacity and original rigidity of the joint, but also increase the stress concentration at the variable section of the external reinforcing ring plate. The proposed joints with spliced column also performed desirable integrity, large bearing capacity, initial stiffness and energy dissipation capacity for engineering application by reasonable design.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.661-678
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• 2024

The utilization of geopolymer recycled aggregate concrete (GRAC) as the infilled core of the concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns provides superior economic and environmental benefits. However, limited research exists within the field of geopolymer recycled aggregate concrete considered a green and sustainable material, in addition to the limitation of the design guidelines to predict the behavior of such an innovative new material combination. Moreover, the behavior of high-strength concrete is different from the normal-strength one, especially when there is another material of high-strength properties, such as the steel tube. This paper aims to investigate the behavior of the axially loaded square high-strength GRACFST columns through the nonlinear finite element analysis (NLFEA). A total of thirty-two specimens were simulated using ABAQUS/Standard software with three main variables: recycled aggregate replacement ratio (0, 30, and 50) %, width-to-thickness ratios (52.0, 32.0, 23.4, and 18.7), and length-to-width ratio (3, 5, 9, and 12). During the analysis, the response in terms of the axial load versus the longitudinal strain was recorded and plotted. In addition, various mechanical properties were calculated and analyzed. In view of the results, it has been demonstrated that the mechanical properties of high-strength GRACFST columns such as ultimate load-bearing capacity, compressive stiffness, energy absorption capacity, and ductility increase with the increase of the steel tube thickness owing to the improvement of the confinement effect of the steel tube. In contrast, the incorporation of the recycled aggregate adversely affected the mentioned properties except the ductility, while the increase of the recycled aggregate replacement ratio improved the column's ductility. Moreover, it has been found that the increase in the length-to-width ratio significantly reduced both the failure strain and the energy absorption capacity. Finally, the obtained NLFEA results of the ultimate load-bearing capacity were compared with the corresponding predicted capacities by numerous codes. It has been concluded that AISC, ACI, and EC give conservative predictions for the ultimate load-bearing capacity since the confinement effect was not considered by these codes.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.323-339
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• 2020

In steel framed-tube structures (SFTSs), the plastic hinges at beam-ends cannot be adequately improved because of the large cross sections of spandrel beams, which results in the lower ductility and energy dissipation capacities of traditional SFTSs. To address this drawback, high-strength steel fabricated SFTSs with bolted web-connected replaceable shear links (HSFTS-SLs) have been proposed. In this system, shear links use conventional steel and are placed in the middle of the deep spandrel beams to act as energy dissipative components. In this study, 2/3-scaled HSFTS-SL specimens were fabricated, and cyclic loading tests were carried out to study the seismic performance of both specimens. The finite element models (FEMs) of the two specimens were established and the numerical results were compared with the test results. The results showed that the specimens had good ductility and energy dissipation capacities due to the reliable deformation capacities. The specimens presented the expected failure modes. Using a shorter shear link can provide a higher load-carrying capacity and initial elastic lateral stiffness but induces lower ductility and energy dissipation capacity in HSFTS-SLs. The performance of the specimens was comparable to that of the original sub-structure specimens after replacing shear links. Additionally, the expected post-earthquake recoverability and resilience of the structures could be achieved by replacing shear links. The acceptable residual interstory drift that allows for easy replacement of the bolted web-connected shear link was 0.23%. The bolted web-connected shear links had reliable hysteretic responses and deformation capacities. The connection rotation had a notable contribution to total link rotation. The results of the numerical analysis run for the proposed FEMs were consistent with the test results. It showed that the proposed FEMs could be used to investigate the seismic performance of the HSFTS-SL.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.279-289
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• 2018

Shear walls are one of the important structural elements for bearing loads imposed on buildings due to winds and earthquakes. Composite shear walls with high lateral resistance, and high energy dissipation capacity are considered as a lateral load system in such buildings. In this paper, a composite shear wall consisting of steel faceplates, infill concrete and tie bars which tied steel faceplates together, and concrete filled steel tubular (CFST) as boundary columns, was modeled numerically. Test results were compared with the existing experimental results in order to validate the proposed numerical model. Then, the effects of some parameters on the behavior of the composite shear wall were studied; so, the diameter and spacing of tie bars, thickness and compressive strength of infill concrete, thickness of steel faceplates, and the effect of strengthening the bottom region of the wall were considered. The seismic behavior of the modeled composite shear wall was evaluated in terms of stiffness, ductility, lateral strength, and energy dissipation capacity. The results of the study showed that the diameter of tie bars had a trivial effect on the performance of the composite shear wall, but increasing the tie bars spacing decreased ductility. Studying the effect of infill concrete thickness, concrete compressive strength, and thickness of steel faceplates also showed that the main role of infill concrete was to prevent buckling of steel faceplates. Also, by strengthening the bottom region of the wall, as long as the strengthened part did not provide a support performance for the upper part, the behavior of the composite shear wall was improved; otherwise, ductility of the wall could be reduced severely.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.1
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• pp.49-57
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• 2020

This paper presents a full-scale experimental test to investigate the flexural behavior of an innovative dovetail ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) joint designed for the 5^th Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge. The test specimen had a dimension of 3600 × 1600 × 170 mm, in accordance with the real bridge. The failure mode, crack pattern and structural response were presented. The ductility and stiffness degradation of the tested specimens were explicitly discussed. Test results indicated that different from conventional reinforced concrete slabs, well-distributed cracks with small spacing were observed for UHPC joint slabs at failure. The average nominal flexural cracking strength of the test specimens was 7.7 MPa, signifying good crack resistance of the proposed dovetail UHPC joint. It is recommended that high grade reinforcement be cooperatively used to take full advantage of the superior mechanical property of UHPC. A new ductility index, expressed by dividing the ultimate deflection by flexural cracking deflection, was introduced to evaluate the post-cracking ductility capacity. Finally, a strut-and-tie (STM) model was developed to predict the ultimate strength of the proposed UHPC joint.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.103-110
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• 2024

In this study, a nonlinear dynamic analysis of a frame and single member, which reflect the characteristics of a plant facility, is performed using the commercial MIDAS GEN program and the results are analyzed. The general structural members and material properties of the plant are considered. The Newmark average-acceleration numerical-analysis method is applied to a plastic hinge to study material nonlinearity. The blast load of a vapor-cloud explosion, a representative plant explosion, is calculated, and nonlinear dynamic analysis is conducted on a frame and single member. The observed dynamic behavior is organized according to the ratio of natural period to load duration, maximum displacement, ductility, and rotation angle. The conditions and range under which the frame functions as a single member are analyzed and derived. NSFF with a beam-column stiffness ratio of 0.5 and ductility of 2.0 or more can be simplified and analyzed as FFC, whereas NSPF with a beam-column stiffness ratio of 0.5 and ductility of 1.5 or more can be simplified and analyzed as FPC. The results of this study can serve as guidelines for the blast-resistant design of plant facilities.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.797-818
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• 2022

Steel-precast ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) composite beams with demountable high-strength friction-grip bolt (HSFGB) shear connectors can be used for accelerated bridge construction (ABC) and achieve excellent structural performance, which is expected to be dismantled and recycled at the end of the service life. However, no investigation focuses on the demountability and reusability of such composite beams, as well as the installation difficulties during construction. To address this issue, this study conducted twelve push-out tests to investigate the effects of assembly condition, bolt grade, bolt-hole clearance, infilling grout and pretension on the crack pattern, failure mode, load-slip/uplift relationship, and the structural performance in terms of ultimate shear strength, friction resistance, shear stiffness and slip capacity. The experimental results demonstrated that the presented composite beams exhibited favorable demountability and reusability, in which no significant reduction in strength (less than 3%) and stiffness (less than 5%), but a slight improvement in ductility was observed for the reassembled specimens. Employing oversized preformed holes could ease the fabrication and installation process, yet led to a considerable degradation in both strength and stiffness. With filling the oversized holes with grout, an effective enhancement of the strength and stiffness can be achieved, while causing a difficulty in the demounting of shear connectors. On the basis of the experimental results, more accurate formulations, which considered the effect of bolt-hole clearance, were proposed to predict the shear strength as well as the load-slip relationship of HSFGBs in steel-precast UHPC composite beams.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.273-289
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• 2020

Due to the unique construction method of modular steel buildings (MSBs) with units prefabricated fully off the site and assembled quickly on the site, the inter-module connection for easy operation and overall performance of the system were key issues. However, it was a lack of relevant research on the system-level performance of MSBs. This study investigated the seismic performance of two-storey modular steel structure with a proposed vertical rotary inter-module connection. Three full-scale quasi-static tests, with and without corrugated steel plate and its combination, were carried out to evaluate and compare their seismic behaviour. The hysteretic performance, skeleton curves, ductile performance, stiffness degradation, energy dissipation capacity, and deformation pattern were clarified. The results showed that good ductility and plastic deformation ability of such modular steel structures. Two lateral-force resistance mechanisms with different layout combinations were also discussed in detail. The corrugated steel plate could significantly improve the lateral stiffness and bearing capacity of the modular steel structure. The cooperative working mechanism of modules and inter-module connections was further analyzed. When the lateral stiffness of upper and lower modular structures was close, limited bending moment transfer may be considered for the inter-module connection. While a large lateral stiffness difference existed initially between the upper and lower structures, an obvious gap occurred at the inter-module connection, and this gap may significantly influence the bending moments transferred by the inter-module connections. Meanwhile, several design recommendations of inter-module connections were also given for the application of MSBs.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.867-870
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• 2008

Flat plate system has many advantages, story height reduction, a term of works shortening and changeableness of space, etc. However structures become a tendency of higher stories and when we use RC column, the size of column grow larger. For this reason the use of CFT column is increasing more and more. Accordingly, this study carried out the nonlinear finite element analysis. As a result of analysis moment strength of the connection increased but ductility decreased as the top reinforcement ratio in th effective width increased. And moment strength and ductility of the connection decreased as gravity load ratio decreased. In the case that shearhead length is not more than 0.27m, the effectiveness of shearhead length on the moment strength and ductility of the connection were small relatively to other variables. Initial stiffness and moment strength of connection increased as slab thickness increased

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.29-43
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• 2024

In this paper, the behavior of an innovative metallic a butterfly-shaped link as damper with shear and flexural mechanism was investigated experimentally and numerically. The damper is directly attached to the diagonal member of the Concentrically Braced Frame (CBF) to prevent buckling of the braces. Since it is expected that nonlinear behavior of the system is limited to the dampers, the other parts of structures remind elastic that the damper can replaced easily after a severe earthquake. The experimental outcomes indicated that both types of dampers (with shear or flexural mechanism) pertain to stable hysteresis loops without any significant degradation in stiffness or strength. Comparing the dampers indicated that the shear damper has a greater ultimate strength (4.59 times) and stiffness (3.58 times) than flexural damper but a lower ductility (16%) and ultimate displacement (60%). Also, the shear damper has a considerable dissipation energy 14.56 times greater than flexural dampers where dissipating energy are affected by ultimate strength, stiffness and ultimate displacement. Also, based on the numerical study, the effect of main plate slenderness on the behavior of the damper was considered and the allowable slenderness was suggested to the design of the dampers. Numerical results confirmed that the flexural damper is more sensitive to the slenderness than shear damper. Accordingly, as the slenderness is less than 50 and 30, respectively, for, shear and flexural damper, no degradation in ultimate strength is realized. By increasing the slenderness, the maximum reduction of the ultimate strength, stiffness, and energy dissipation capacity reached by 16%, 7%, and 17% for SDB dampers whereas it is 3%, 33%, 20%, and 45% for MDB.