• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.617-635
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• 2021

This paper numerically investigated the behavior of built-up square concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns under combined preload and axial compression. The finite element (FE) models of target columns were verified in terms of failure mode, axial load-deformation curve and ultimate strength. A full-range analysis on the axial load-deformation response as well as the interaction behavior was conducted to reveal the composite mechanism. The parametric study was performed to investigate the influences of material strengths and geometric sizes. Subsequently, influence of construction preload on the full-range behavior and confinement effect was investigated. Numerical results indicate that the axial load-deformation curve can be divided into four working stages where the contact pressure of curling rib arc gradually disappears as the steel tube buckles; increasing width-to-thickness (B/t) ratio can enhance the strength enhancement index (e.g., an increment of 1.88% from B/t=40 to B/t=100), though ultimate strength and ductility are decreased; stiffener length and lip inclination angle display a slight influence on strength enhancement index and ductility; construction preload can degrade the plastic deformation capacity and postpone the origin appearance of contact pressure, thus making a decrease of 14.81%~27.23% in ductility. Finally, a revised equation for determining strain εscy corresponding to ultimate strength was proposed to evaluate the plastic deformation capacity of built-up square CFST columns.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.511-527
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• 2020

The main aim of the current research is to investigate the flexural behavior of the reinforced concrete (RC) slabs strengthened with strain hardening cementitious composites (SHCC) experimentally and numerically. Seven RC slabs were prepared and tested under four-points loading test. One un-strengthened slab considered as control specimen while six RC slabs were strengthened with reinforced SHCC layers. The SHCC layers had different reinforcement ratios and different thicknesses. The results showed that the proposed strengthening techniques significantly increased the ultimate failure load and the ductility index up to 25% and 22%, respectively, compared to the control RC slab. Moreover, a three dimensional (3D) finite element model was proposed to analyze the strengthened RC slabs. It was found that the results of the proposed numerical model well agreed with the experimental responses. The validated numerical model used to study many parameters of the SHCC layer such as the reinforcement ratios and the different thicknesses. In addition, steel connectors were suggested to adjoin the concrete/SHCC interface to enhance the flexural performance of the strengthened RC slabs. It was noticed that using the SHCC layer with thickness over 40 mm changed the failure mode from the concrete cover separation to the SHCC layer debonding. Also, the steel connectors prevented the debonding failure pattern and enhanced both the ultimate failure load and the ductility index. Furthermore, a theoretical equation was proposed to predict the ultimate load of the tested RC slabs. The theoretical and experimental ultimate loads are seen to be in fairly good agreement.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.45-55
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• 2017

Stainless steel exhibits high ductility and strain hardening capacity in comparison with carbon steel widely used in constructions. To analyze the particular behaviour of stainless steel cover-plate joints, an experimental study was conducted. It showed large ductility and complex failure modes of the joints. A non-linear finite element model was developed to predict the main parameters influencing the behaviour of these joints. The results of this deterministic model allow us to built a meta-model by using the quadratic response surface method, in order to allow for efficient reliability analysis. This analysis is then applied to the assessment of design formulae in the currently used codes of practice. The reliability analysis has shown that the stainless steel joint design according to Eurocodes leads to much lower failure probabilities than the Eurocodes target reliability for carbon steel, which incites revising the resisting model evaluation and consequently reducing stainless steel joint costs. This approach can be used as a basis to evaluate a wide range of steel joints involving complex failure modes, particularly bearing failure.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.315-325
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• 2019

Double skin composite walls offer structural and economic merits over conventional reinforced concrete counterparts in terms of higher capacity, greater stiffness, and better ductility. This paper investigated the axial behavior of double skin composite walls with steel truss connectors. Full-scaled tests were conducted on three specimens with different height-to-thickness ratios. Test results were evaluated in terms of failure mode, load-axial displacement response, buckling loading, axial stiffness, ductility, strength index, load-lateral deflection, and strain distribution. The test data were compared with AISC 360 and Eurocode 4 and it was found that both codes provided conservative predictions on the safe side.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.51-66
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• 2022

This paper presents the axial compression behavior of partially encased composite (PEC) columns using H-shaped structural steel. In the experimental program, a total of eight PEC columns with H-shaped steel sections of different flange and web slenderness ratios were tested to investigate the interactive mechanism between steel and concrete. The test results showed that the PEC columns could sustain the load well beyond the peak load provided that the flange slenderness ratio was not greater than five. In addition, the previous analytical model was extended to predict the axial load-strain relationships of the PEC columns with H-shaped steel sections. A good agreement between the predicted load-strain relationships and test data was observed. Using the analytical model, the effects of compressive strength of concrete (21 to 69 MPa), yield strength of steel (245 to 525 MPa), slenderness ratio of flange (4 to 10), and slenderness ratio of web (10 to 25) on the interactive mechanism (K_h = confinement factor for highly confined concrete and K_w = reduction factor for steel web) and ductility index (DI = ratio between strain at peak load and strain at proportional load) were assessed. The numerical results showed that the slenderness of steel flange and yield strength of steel significantly influenced the compression behavior of the PEC columns.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.91-99
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• 2017

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the flexural performance of reinforced concrete (RC) beams repaired with polymer mortar. The repaired and non-repaired 13th beams which was fabricated by considering repair position, repair depth, and curing age of polymer mortar as test variables were tested under three point loading. All specimens repaired in compressive and tensile zone did not fail due to interfacial failure between polymer mortar and concrete but failed when the strain of repaired mortar exceeded the ultimate tensile strain of polymer mortar. Maximum load of specimens repaired in compressive zone was similar to that of non-repaired specimen, reference specimen. Additionally, their ductility index was higher than that of reference specimen. On the other hand, specimens repaired in tensile zone failed very brittlely and have a lower ductility index than reference specimen. Nonlinear analysis by using OpenSees was performed to predict the behavior of RC beam repaired with polymer mortar. Two dimension frame element was used to simplify an analysis model and fiber model was applied to consider the material non-linearity. It was confirmed from the analysis results that nonlinear analysis properly predicts the behavior of specimens repaired in compressive zone and overestimates the behavior of specimens repaired in tensile zone.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.6
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• pp.643-657
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• 2020

This study presents experimental and numerical investigations on circular steel tube confined ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) columns under axial compression. The plain UHPC without fibers was designed to achieve a compressive strength ranged between 150 MPa and 200 MPa. Test results revealed that loading on only the UHPC core can generate a significant confinement effect for the UHPC core, thus leading to an increase in both strength and ductility of columns, and restricting the inherent brittleness of unconfined UHPC. All tested columns failed by shear plane failure of the UHPC core, this causes a softening stage in the axial load versus axial strain curves. In addition, an increase in the steel tube thickness or the confinement index was found to increase the strength and ductility enhancement and to reduce the magnitude of the loss of load capacity. Besides, steel tube with higher yield strength can improve the post-peak behavior. Based on the test results, the load contribution of the steel tube and the concrete core to the total load was examined. It was found that no significant confinement effect can be developed before the peak load, while the ductility of post-peak stage is mainly affected by the degree of the confinement effect. A finite element model (FEM) was also constructed in ABAQUS software to validate the test results. The effect of bond strength between the steel tube and the UHPC core was also investigated through the change of friction coefficient in FEM. Furthermore, the mechanism of circular steel tube confined UHPC columns was examined using the established FEM. Based on the results of FEM, the confining pressures along the height of each modeled column were shown. Furthermore, the interaction between the steel tube and the UHPC core was displayed through the slip length and shear stresses between two surfaces of two materials.

• Magazine of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.153-160
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• 1994

Ten Half precast concrete slabs reinforced with welded deformed wire fabric were tested under two concentrated loads to investigate the flexural moment and ductile capacity. The test variables were the compressive strength of topping concrete, quantitative roughness, and reinforcernent ratio. The effects of each test variables were studied separately. Test results were as followings. The ultimate strength design method is applicable to predict flexural strength for Half P.C. concrete slab with welded deformed wire fabric and quantitative roughness. It is proper to consider 0.0035 strain ;is yielding stress of the welded deformed wire fabric. The ductility index of Half precast concrete slab with welded deformed wire fabric showed lower value. Therefore to enhance the ductility capacity the normal defomed bar should be used with the welded deformed wire fabric for the longitudinal reinforcement.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.221-229
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• 2008

An improved unbonded-type column strengthening procedure using wire rope and T-shaped steel plate units was proposed. Eight strengthened columns and an unstrengthened control column were tested under concentric axial load. The main variables considered were the volume ratio of wire rope and the flange width and configuration of T-shaped steel plates. Axial load capacity and ductility ratio of columns tested were compared with predictions obtained from the equation specified in ACI 318-05 and those of conventionally tied columns tested by Chung et al., respectively. In addition, a mathematical model was proposed to evaluate the complete stress-strain relationship of concrete confined by the wire rope and T-plate units. Test results showed that the axial load capacity and ductility of columns increased with the increase of the volume ratio of wire rope and the flange width of T-plates. In particular, at the same lateral reinforcement index, a much higher ductility ratio was observed in the strengthened columns having the volume ratio of wire rope above 0.0039 than in the tied columns. A mathematical model for the stress-strain relationship of confined concrete using the proposed strengthening procedure is developed. The predicted stress-strain curves were in good agreement with test results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.159-169
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• 2020

Sandwich composite wall consists of concrete core attached by two external steel faceplates. It combines the advantage of steel and concrete. The appropriate composite action between steel faceplate and concrete core is achieved by using adequate mechanical connectors. This research studied the compressive behavior of the sandwich composite walls using steel trusses to bond the steel faceplates to concrete infill. Four short specimens with different wall width and thickness of steel faceplate were designed and tested under axial compression. The test results were comprehensively evaluated in terms of failure modes, load versus axial and lateral deformation responses, resistance, stiffness, ductility, strength index, and strain distribution. The test results showed that all specimens exhibited high resistance and good ductility. Truss connectors offer better restraint to walls with thinner faceplates and smaller wall width. In addition, increasing faceplate thickness is more effective in improving the ultimate resistance and axial stiffness of the wall.