• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.361-372
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• 2019

Tubular joints are used in the construction of offshore structures and other land-based structures because of its ease of fabrication. These joints are subjected to different environmental loadings in their lifetime. At the time of fabrication or modification of an existing offshore platform, tubular joints are usually strengthened to withstand the environmental loads. Currently, various strengthening techniques such as ring stiffeners, gusset plates are employed to strengthen new and existing tubular joints. Due to some limitations with the present practices, some new techniques need to be addressed. Many researchers used Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) to strengthen tubular joints. Some of the studies were focused on axial compression of Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) strengthened tubular joints and found that it was an efficient technique. Earlier, the authors had performed studies on Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) strengthened tubular joint subjected to axial compression. The study steered to the conclusion that FRP composites is an alternative strengthening technique for tubular joints. In this work, the study was focused on axial compression of Y-joint and in plane and out of plane bending of T-joints. Experimental investigations were performed on these joints, fabricated from ASTM A106 Gr. B steel. Two sets of joints were fabricated for testing, one is a reference joint and the other is a joint strengthened with CFRP. After performing the set of experiments, test results were then compared with the numerical solution in ANSYS Parametric Design Language (APDL). It was observed that the joints strengthened with CFRP were having improved strength, lesser surface displacement and ovalization when compared to the reference joint.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.109-128
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• 2010

The expediency of using tubular composite steel and concrete columns of annular cross-sections in construction is discussed. The new type space framework with tubular composite columns of multi-storey buildings and its rigid beam-column joints are demonstrated. The features of interaction between the circular steel tube and spun concrete stress-strain states during the concentrical and eccentrical loading of tubular composite members are considered. The modeling of the bearing capacity of beam-columns of composite annular cross-sections is based on the concepts of bending with a concentrical force and compression with a bending moment. The comparison of modeling results for the composite cross-sections of beam-columns is analysed. The expediency of using these concepts for the limit state verification of beam-columns in the methods of the partial safety factors design (PSFD) legitimated in Europe and the load and resistance factors design (LRFD) used in other countries is presented and illustrated by a numerical example.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.255-268
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• 2017

Fibre reinforced polymers (FRP) are widely used to strengthen steel structures and retrofitting of existing structures due to its excellent properties. This paper reviews the use of carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) and glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) in strengthening steel and concrete structures. The paper discusses the use of FRP in strengthening of steel bridges, uses of FRP in repairing of corroded structures and the behaviour of different adhesives. The paper then deals with the FRP strengthened hollow sections and the different failure experienced. The paper then reviewed the current state of art used in strengthening tubular structures and focusing on FRP in strengthening of joints.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.615-633
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• 2017

Fatigue crack initiated in welded tubular joints due to cyclic loading may produce harmful effect on the integrity of the tubular structures. To study such effect, both fatigue and static tests on nine circular tubular T-joint specimens made of carbon steel materials were carried out. The specimens were subjected to tensile loading in both fatigue and static tests. The load-displacement relation, the crack propagation and the failure mode of the specimens are all analyzed. The deterioration of the static strength of the cracked T-joints is also investigated and evaluated through an area reduction factor. Experimental results indicate that the static strength of a tubular T-joint with a surface crack seems to decrease slightly while a through crack has relatively remarkable effect on the reduction of the static strength. Additionally, experimental results also show that the toughness of the materials and the geometry of the specimens play an important role on the failure process of cracked tubular T-joints.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.93-108
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• 2022

Steel tubular towers are commonly used in UHV and long crossing transmission lines. By considering effects of the model scale, the solidity ratio and the ratio of the mean width to the mean height, wind tunnel tests under different wind speeds on twenty tubular steel tower body models and twenty-six tubular steel cross-arm models were completed. Drag coefficients and shielding factors of the experimental tower body models and cross-arm models in wind directional axis for typical skewed angles were obtained. The influence of the lift forces on the skewed wind load factors of tubular steel tower bodies was evaluated. The skewed wind load factors, the wind load distribution factors in transversal and longitudinal direction were calculated for the tubular tower body models and cross-arm models, respectively. Fitting expressions for the skewed wind load factors of tubular steel bodies and cross-arms were determined through nonlinear fitting analysis. Parameters for skewed wind loads determined by wind tunnel tests were compared with the regulations in applicable standards. Suggestions on the drag coefficients, the skewed wind load factors and the wind load distribution factors were proposed for tubular steel transmission towers.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.585-596
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• 2017

Tubular joints have been widely used in offshore platforms and space structures due to their merits such as easy fabrication, aesthetic appearance and better static strength. For existing tubular joints, a grouted sleeve reinforced method was proposed in this paper. Experimental tests on five tubular T-joints reinforced with the grouted sleeve and two conventional tubular T-joints were conducted to investigate their mechanical behaviour. A constant axial compressive force was applied to the chord end to simulate the compressive state of the chord member during the tests. Then an axial compressive force was applied to the top end of the brace member until the collapse of the joint specimens occurred. The parameters investigated herein were the grout thickness, the sleeve length coefficient and the sleeve construction method. The failure mode, ultimate load, initial stiffness and deformability of these joint specimens were discussed. It was found that: (1) The grouted sleeve could change the failure mode of tubular T-joints. (2) The grouted sleeve was observed to provide strength enhancement up to 154.3%~172.7% for the corresponding un-reinforced joint. (3) The initial stiffness and deformability were also greatly improved by the grouted sleeve. (4) The sleeve length coefficient was a key parameter for the improved effect of the grouted sleeve reinforced method.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.581-598
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• 2020

This paper aims to investigate the seismic behavior and influence parameters of the large-scaled thin-walled reinforced concrete (RC) tubular columns in air-cooled supporting structures of thermal power plants (TPPs). Cyclic loading tests and finite element analysis were performed on 1/8-scaled specimens considering the influence of wall diameter ratio, axial compression ratio, longitudinal reinforcement ratio, stirrup reinforcement ratio and adding steel diagonal braces (SDBs). The research results showed that the cracks mainly occurred on the lower half part of RC tubular columns during the cyclic loading test; the specimen with the minimum wall diameter ratio presented the earlier cracking and had the most cracks; the failure mode of RC tubular columns was large bias compression failure; increasing the axial compression ratio could increase the lateral bearing capacity and energy dissipation capacity, but also weaken the ductility and aggravate the lateral stiffness deterioration; increasing the longitudinal reinforcement ratio could efficiently enhance the seismic behavior; increasing the stirrup reinforcement ratio was favorable to the ductility; RC tubular columns with SDBs had a much higher bearing capacity and lateral stiffness than those without SDBs, and with the decrease of the angle between columns and SDBs, both bearing capacity and lateral stiffness increased significantly.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.523-540
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• 2012

It was clear from the former researches on reinforced concrete filled tubular steel (RCFT) structures that RCFT structures have different performance than concrete filled steel tubular (CFT) structures. However, despite of that, load-sharing ratio of RCFT is evaluating by the formula and range of CFT given by JSCE. Therefore, the aim of this investigation is to study the load-sharing ratio of RCFT columns subjected to axial compressive load by performing numerical simulations of RCFT columns with the nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA) program - ADINA. To achieve this goal, firstly proper material constitutive models for concrete, steel tube and reinforcement are proposed. Then axial compression tests of concrete, RC, CFT, and RCFT columns are carried out to verify proposed material constitutive models. Finally, by the plenty of numerical analysis with small-sized and big-sized columns, load-sharing ratio of RCFT columns was studied, the evaluation formulas and range were proposed, application of the formula was demonstrated, and following conclusions were drawn: The FEA model introduced in this paper can be applied to nonlinear analysis of RCFT columns with reliable results; the load-sharing ratio evaluation formula and range of CFT should not be applied to RCFT; The lower limit for the range of load-sharing ratio of RCFT can be smaller than that of CFT; the proposed formulas for load-sharing ratio of RCFT have practical mean in design of RCFT columns.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.1 no.2 s.2
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• pp.67-74
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• 2001

This paper is to estimate the load carrying capacities of concrete-filled steel tubular columns and the important parameters are selected the size, length and concrete strength. he concrete-filled tube structures has many excellent structural properties, that is, high load capacity, good plastic deformation and high resistance local buckling. Under these background, this study Investigated to the structural compression behaviors, the maximum strength, the confinement effects, the fracture mechanism, local buckling failure and concrete strength effects.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.639-655
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• 2014

The mechanical characteristic of reinforced concrete filled steel tubular (RCFT) structures are differed from that of concrete filled tubular steel (CFT) structures because the reinforcement in RCFT largely affects the performance of core concrete such as ductility, strength and toughness, and hence the performance of RCFT should be evaluated differently from CFT. To examine the effect axial reinforcement on bending performance, an investigation on RCFT beams with varying levels of axial reinforcement is performed by the means of numerical parametric study. According to the numerical simulation results with 13 different ratios of axial reinforcement, it is concluded that the reinforcement has obvious effect on bending capacity, and the neutral axis of RCFT is different from CFT, and an evaluation equation in which the effect of axial reinforcement is considered for ultimate bending strength of RCFT is proposed.