• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제48권1호
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• pp.27-41
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• 2023

Under the long-term effect of corrosive environment, many cold-formed steel (CFS) structures have serious corrosion problems. Corrosion leads to the change of surface morphology and the loss of section thickness, which results in the change of instability mode and failure mechanism of CFS structure. This paper mainly investigates the elastic local buckling behavior of corroded CFS columns. The surface morphology scanning test was carried out for eight CFS columns accelerated corrosion by the outdoor periodic spray test. The thin shell finite element (FE) eigen-buckling analysis was also carried out to reveal the influence of corrosion surface characteristics, corrosion depth, corrosion location and corrosion area on the elastic local buckling behaviour of the plates with four simply supported edges. The accuracy of the proposed formulas for calculating the elastic local buckling stress of the corroded plates and columns was assessed through extensive parameter studies. The results indicated that for the plates considering corrosion surface characteristics, the maximum deformation area of local buckling was located at the plates with the minimum average section area. For the plates with localized corrosion, the main buckling shape of the plates changed from one half-wave to two half-wave with the increase in corrosion area length. The elastic local buckling stress decreased gradually with the increase in corrosion area width and length. In addition, the elastic local buckling stress decreased slowly when corrosion area thickness was relatively large, and then tends to accelerate with the reduction in corrosion area thickness. The distance from the corrosion area to the transverse and longitudinal centerline of the plate had little effect on the elastic local buckling stress. Finally, the calculation formula of the elastic local buckling stress of the corroded plates and CFS columns was proposed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제48권1호
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• pp.59-71
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• 2023

Corrosion of the headed studs shear connectors is an important factor in the reduction of the durability and mechanical properties of the steel-concrete composite structure. In order to study the effect of stud corrosion on the mechanical properties in the negative moment region of steel-concrete composite beams, the corrosion of stud was carried out by accelerating corrosion method with constant current. Static monotonic loading was adopted to evaluate the cracking load, interface slip, mid-span deflection, and ultimate bearing capacity of four composite beams with varying corrosion rates of headed studs. The effect of stud corrosion on the stiffness of the composite beam's hogging moment zone during normal service stage was thoroughly examined. The results indicate that the cracking load decreased by 50% as the corrosion rate of headed studs increase to 10%. Meanwhile, due to the increase of interface slip and mid-span deflection, the bending stiffness dropped significantly with the same load. In comparison to uncorroded specimens, the secant stiffness of specimens with 0.5 times ultimate load was reduced by 25.9%. However, corrosion of shear studs had no obvious effect on ultimate bending capacity. Based on the experimental results and the theory of steel-concrete interface slip, a method was developed to calculate the bending stiffness in the negative bending moment region of composite beams during normal service stage while taking corrosion of headed studs into account. The validity of the calculation method was demonstrated by data analysis.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제48권1호
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• pp.103-111
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• 2023

The caving property of top coal is a key factor to the success of top coal caving mining. The influence law of cyclic loading and unloading of hydraulic support on top coal caving is of great significance to improve the recovery rate of top coal. The similar simulation methods were used to study the dynamic evolution of the top coal cracks under the multi-cycle action of the support, and the parameters of top coal cracks were analyzed quantitatively in this paper. The results show that the top coal cracks can be divided into horizontal cracks and vertical cracks under the cyclic loading and unloading of the support. With the increase of the times of the support cycles loading and unloading, the load on the support decreases, the fractal dimension of the cracks increases, the number and total length of the top coal cracks increases, and the top coal caving is getting better. With the increase of the times of multi-cycle loading and unloading, the fractal dimension, total crack length and crack rate of top coal show a trend of rapid increase first and then increase slowly. Both the total length of the top coal cracks and the crack rate basically show linear growth with the change of the fractal dimension. The top coal caving can be well improved and the coal resource recovery rate increased through the multi-cycle loading and unloading.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제49권2호
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• pp.215-230
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• 2023

Cable-girder anchorage joint is the critical part of cable-supported bridges. Tensile-plate anchorage (TPA) is one of the most commonly used types of cable-girder anchorage joints in steel girder cable-supported bridges. In recent years, it has been proposed by bridge designers to apply TPA to concrete girder cable-supported bridges to form composite cable-girder anchorage joint (CCGAJ). In this paper, the mechanical performance of CCGAJ under tensile force is studied through experimental and numerical analyses. Firstly, the effects of the external prestressing (EP) and the bearing plate (BP) on the mechanical performance of CCGAJ were investigated through three tests. Then, finite element model was established for parametrical study, and was verified by the experimental results. Then, the effects of shear connector forms, EP, BP, vertical rebar rate, and perforated rebar rate on the tensile capacity of CCGAJ were investigated through numerical analyses. The results show that the tensile capacity of CCGAJ depends on the first row of PR. The failure mode of CCGAJ using headed stud connectors is to form a shear failure surface at the end of the studs while the failure mode using PBLs is similar to the bending of a deep girder. Finally, based on the strut-and-tie model (STM), a calculation method for CCGAJ tensile capacity was proposed, which has a high accuracy and can be used to calculate the tensile capacity of CCGAJ.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제49권2호
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• pp.143-159
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• 2023

Recently, the design of scaffolding systems has garnered considerable attention due to the increasing number of scaffold collapses. These incidents arise from the underestimation of imposed loads and the site-specific conditions that restrict the application of lateral restraints in scaffold assemblies. The present study is committed to augmenting the buckling resistance of vertical support members, obviating the need for supplementary lateral restraints. To achieve this objective, experimental and computational analyses were performed to assess the axial load buckling capacity of steel props, composed of two hollow steel pipes that slide into each other for a certain length. Three full-scale steel props with various geometric properties were tested to construct and validate the analytical models. The total unsupported length of the steel props is 6 m, while three pins were installed to tighten the outer and inner pipes in the distance they overlapped. Finite Element (FE) modeling is carried out for the three steel props, and the developed models were verified using the experimental results. Also, theoretical analysis is utilized to verify the FE analysis. Using the FE-verified models, a parametric study is conducted to evaluate the effect of different inserted pipe lengths on the steel props' axial load capacity and lateral displacement. Based on the results, the typical failure mode for the studied steel props is global elastic buckling. Also, the prop's elastic buckling strength is sensitive to the inserted length of the smaller pipe. A threshold of minimum inserted length is one-third of the total length, after which the buckling strength increases. The present study offers a prop with enhanced buckling resistance and introduces an equation for calculating an equivalent effective length factor (k), which can be seamlessly incorporated into Euler's buckling equation, thereby facilitating the determination of the buckling capacity of the enhanced props and providing a pragmatic engineering solution.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제49권2호
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• pp.161-180
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• 2023

In the previous research, the axial compressive capacity models for the glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP)-reinforced circular concrete compression elements restrained with GFRP helix were put forward based on small and noisy datasets by considering a limited number of parameters portraying less accuracy. Consequently, it is important to recommend an accurate model based on a refined and large testing dataset that considers various parameters of such components. The core objective and novelty of the current research is to suggest a deep learning model for the axial compressive capacity of GFRP-reinforced circular concrete columns restrained with a GFRP helix utilizing various parameters of a large experimental dataset to give the maximum precision of the estimates. To achieve this aim, a test dataset of 61 GFRP-reinforced circular concrete columns restrained with a GFRP helix has been created from prior studies. An assessment of 15 diverse theoretical models is carried out utilizing different statistical coefficients over the created dataset. A novel model utilizing the group method of data handling (GMDH) has been put forward. The recommended model depicted good effectiveness over the created dataset by assuming the axial involvement of GFRP main bars and the confining effectiveness of transverse GFRP helix and depicted the maximum precision with MAE = 195.67, RMSE = 255.41, and R2 = 0.94 as associated with the previously recommended equations. The GMDH model also depicted good effectiveness for the normal distribution of estimates with only a 2.5% discrepancy from unity. The recommended model can accurately calculate the axial compressive capacity of FRP-reinforced concrete compression elements that can be considered for further analysis and design of such components in the field of structural engineering.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제32권4호
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• pp.253-266
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• 2023

The time-reversal method is employed to improve the ability of pipeline defect detection, and a new approach of identifying the pipeline defect depth is proposed in this research. When the L(0,2) mode ultrasonic guided wave excited through a lead zirconate titinate (PZT) transduce array propagates along the pipeline with a defect, it will interact with the defect and be partially converted to flexural F(n, m) modes and longitudinal L(0,1) mode. Using a receiving PZT array attached axisymmetrically around the pipeline, the L(0,2) reflection signal as well as the mode conversion signals at the defect are obtained. An appropriate rectangle window is used to intercept the L(0,2) reflection signal and the mode conversion signals from the obtained direct detection signals. The intercepted signals are time reversed and re-excited in the pipeline again, result in the guided wave energy focusing on the pipeline defect, the L(0,2) reflection and the L(0,1) mode conversion signals being enhanced to a higher level, especially for the small defect in the early crack stage. Besides the L(0,2) reflection signal, the L(0,1) mode conversion signal also contains useful pipeline defect information. It is possible to identify the pipeline defect depth by monitoring the variation trend of L(0,2) and L(0,1) reflection coefficients. The finite element method (FEM) simulation and experiment results are given in the paper, the enhancement of pipeline defect reflection signals by time-reversal method is obvious, and the way to identify pipeline defect depth is demonstrated to be effective.

• Advances in nano research
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• 제15권4호
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• pp.315-328
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• 2023

The main goal of the present study was to assess the effects of eggshell powder (ESP) and halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) on the mechanical properties of abaca fiber (AF)-reinforced natural composites. For this purpose, a limited number of indentation tests were first performed on the AF/polypropylene (PP) composites for different HNT and ESP loadings (0 wt.% ~ 6 wt.%), load amplitudes (150, 200, and 250 N), and two types of indenters (Vickers or conical). The Young's modulus, hardness and plasticity index of each specimen were calculated using the indentation test results and Oliver-Pharr method. The accuracy of the experimental results was confirmed by comparing the values of the Young's modulus obtained from the indentation test with the results of the conventional tensile test. Then, a feed-forward shallow artificial neural network (ANN) with high efficiency was trained based on the obtained experimental data. The trained ANN could properly predict the variations of the mentioned mechanical properties of AF/PP composites incorporated with different HNT and ESP loadings. Furthermore, the trained ANN demonstrated that HNTs increase the elastic modulus and hardness of the composite, while the incorporation of ESP reduces these properties. For instance, the Young's modulus of composites incorporated with 3 wt.% of ESP decreased by 30.7% compared with the pure composite, while increasing the weight fraction of ESP up to 6% decreased the Young's modulus by 34.8%. Moreover, the trained ANN indicated that HNTs have a more significant effect on reducing the plasticity index than ESP.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.59-68
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• 2023

In the pumping process, concrete moves along the pipe and experiences both pressure and shear. This changes the workability and flow characteristics of the concrete. However, the effect of pressure and shear on the change in properties of concrete during the pumping process has not yet been accurately identified. This study analyzed the effects of pressure and shear on the properties of concrete during pumping. For quantitative tests, lab-scale test equipment capable of simulating the pressure and shear applied to concrete during pumping was used. For one coarse aggregate type, two paste types, three mortar types, and five concrete types, the effects of pressure, shear, and shear under pressure conditions were examined by varying the maximum pressure (0 to 200 bar) and the rotational speed of the vane for shear (0 to 180 rpm). Under the maximum pressure condition of 200 bar, the water absorption of coarse aggregate increased by 0.62% and that of fine aggregate also increased. When the concrete was under pressure, significant changes (a reduction in a slump and an increase in viscosity and yield stress) compared with the effect of the elapsed time occurred owing to an increase in the water absorption of the aggregates. When both pressure and shear were applied to concrete, both the slump and viscosity decreased. As the rotational speed of the vane increased, changes in properties became significant. Shearing in the absence of pressure maintained the properties of concrete. However, shearing under pressure conditions caused a reduction in slump and viscosity.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제49권3호
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• pp.337-348
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• 2023

Successive wetting and drying cycles of concrete due to weather changes can endanger the safety of engineering structures over time. Considering wetting and drying cycles in concrete tests can lead to a more correct and reliable design of engineering structures. This study aims to provide a model that can be used to estimate the resistance properties of concrete under different wetting and drying cycles. Complex sample preparation methods, the necessity for highly accurate and sensitive instruments, early sample failure, and brittle samples all contribute to the difficulty of measuring the strength of concrete in the laboratory. To address these problems, in this study, the potential ability of six machine learning techniques, including ANN, SVM, RF, KNN, XGBoost, and NB, to predict the concrete's tensile strength was investigated by applying 240 datasets obtained using the Brazilian test (80% for training and 20% for test). In conducting the test, the effect of additives such as glass and polypropylene, as well as the effect of wetting and drying cycles on the tensile strength of concrete, was investigated. Finally, the statistical analysis results revealed that the XGBoost model was the most robust one with R2 = 0.9155, mean absolute error (MAE) = 0.1080 Mpa, and variance accounted for (VAF) = 91.54% to predict the concrete tensile strength. This work's significance is that it allows civil engineers to accurately estimate the tensile strength of different types of concrete. In this way, the high time and cost required for the laboratory tests can be eliminated.