This paper reports the experimental and analytical investigations for evaluating the flexural strength of a RC slab strengthened with carbon fiber sheet (CFS). The evaluation of the ultimate flexural strength of a slab is tried under the assumption that the failure occurs when the shear stress mobilized at the interface between the concrete bottom and the glued CFS reaches its bond strength. The shear stress is evaluated theoretically and the bond strength is obtained by a laboratory test. The ultimate flexural strength is obtained by flexural static test of the slab specimen, which corresponds to the part of a real slab. From the results, the new approach based on the bond strength between concrete and CFS looks feasible to evaluate the flexural strength of the CFS and RC composite slab.

This is the first of two part series on experimental studies of grout type transverse joints. In this study, grout type transverse joints between precast concrete slabs are statically tested to determine the cracking loads and ultimate shear capacities of the grout type transverse joints. The tests are performed with a loading equipment designed and constructed especially in the lab to induce shear failures on the joints of the test specimens. Shape of the transverse joints, grouting materials and amount of prestress are selected as test parameters for the study. The results indicate that epoxy is an excellent grouting material which can be used in limited locations where large tensile stress is acting on the slab. Longitudinal prestressing is also an effective method to increase the shear strength of the transverse joints. A rational method to estimate the cracking and ultimate loads for the design of grout type transverse joints is proposed based on the static loading tests. Success of the tests with shear loading equipment allowed continuing the research further onto the fatigue strength of the grout type joints, which will be presented in the second part of the paper.

Stresses that develop due to differential shrinkage between polymer modified cement mortar (PM) and Portland cement concrete (PCC) in a repaired concrete beam at early ages were investigated. Interface delamination or debonding of the newly cast repair material from the base is often observed in the field when the drying shrinkage of the repair material is relatively large. This study presents results of both experimental and analytical works. In the experimental part of the study, development of the material properties such as compressive strength, elastic modulus, interface bond strength, creep constant, and drying shrinkage was investigated by testing cylinders and beams for a three-week period in a constant-temperature chamber. Development of shrinkage-induced strains in a PM-PCC composite beam was determined. In the analytical part of the study, two analytical solutions were used to compare the experimental results with the analytically predicted values. One analysis method was of an exact type but could not consider the effect of creep. The other analysis method was rather approximate in nature but the creep effect was included. Comparison between the analytical and the experimental results showed that both analytical procedures resulted in stresses that were in fair agreement with the experimentally determined values. It may be important to consider the creep effect to estimate shrinkage-induced stresses at early ages.

Recent construction activities have given rise to civil petitions associated with vibration-induced damages or nuisances. To mitigate unfavorable effects of construction activities, the measures to reduce or isolate from vibration need to be adopted. In this research, a vibration-mitigated concrete, which is one of the active measures for reducing vibration in concrete structures, was investigated. Concrete was mixed with vibration-reducing materials (i.e. latex, rubber power, plastic resin, and polystyrofoam) to reduce vibration and tested to evaluate dynamic material properties and structural characteristics. Normal and high strength concrete specimens with a certain level of damage were also tested for comparisons. In addition, recycling tires and plastic materials were added to produce a vibration-reducing concrete. A total of 32 concrete bars and eight concrete beams were tested to investigate the dynamic material properties and structural characteristics. Wave measurements on concrete bars showed that vibration-mitigated concrete has larger material damping ratio than normal or high strength concrete. Styrofoam turned out to be the most effective vibration-reducing mixture. Flexural vibration tests on eight flexural concrete beams also revealed that material damping ratio of the concrete beams is much smaller than structural damping ratio for all the cases.

The fractal geometry is a non-Euclidean geometry which describes the naturally irregular or fragmented shapes, so that it can be applied to fracture behavior of materials to investigate the fracture process. Fractal curves have a characteristic that represents a self-similarity as an invariant based on the fractal dimension. This fractal geometry was applied to the crack growth of cementitious composites in order to correlate the fracture behavior to microstructures of cementitious composites. The purpose of this study was to find relationships between fractal dimensions and fracture energy. Fracture test was carried out in order to investigate the fracture behavior of plain and fiber reinforced cement composites. The load-CMOD curve and fracture energy of the beams were observed under the three point loading system. The crack profiles were obtained by the image processing system. Box counting method was used to determine the fractal dimension, D$_{f}$. It was known that the linear correlation exists between fractal dimension and fracture energy of the cement composites. The implications of the fractal nature for the crack growth behavior on the fracture energy, G$_{f}$ is apparent.ent.

Flexural behaviors of the two typical precast beam sections (inverted tee and rectangular) for buildings were investigated and compared. The height of web in the inverted tee beam was generally less than half of beam depth to be adapted to that of the nib in the ends of double-tee where the total building height limited considerably. The inverted-tee beams were designed for a parking live load - 500kgf/$m^2$ and a market - 1,200kgf/$m^2$ from the currently used typical shape of a domestic building site in Korea. The area and bottom dimension of rectangular beams were the same as those of inverted tee beams. These woo beams were also reinforced with a similar strength. following results were obtained from the studies above; 1) the rectangular beam is simpler in production, transportation, and erection, and more economic than the inverted tee beam in the construction test for these two beams with a same dimension and a similar strength, 2) all of the beams considered in the tests were generally failed in values close to those of the strength requirements in ACI Provisions. The ratios of test result to calculated value are averaged to 1.04. One rectangular and one inverted tee beams failed in a value only 2-3％ larger than the estimated volue of the Strength Design Methool the results of the Strain Compatibility Method wire slightly more accurate than those of the Strength Design Method, 4) the maximum deflections of all of the beams under the full service loads were less than those of the allowable limit in ACI Code Provisions. The rectangular beams experienced more deflection then inverted tee in the same loading condition and failed with more deflection, and 5) the rectangular and inverted tee beams showed good performances under the condition of service and ultimate loads. However, one inverted tee beams with fm span developed an initial flexural crackings under 88％ of the full service load even though they designed to satisfy the ACI tensile stress limit provisions.

In this study, size effect tests were conducted on axial compressive strength of concrete members. An experiment of Mode I failure, which is one of two representative compressive failure modes, was carried out by using dimensionally proportional cylindrical specimens (CS). An adequate notch length was taken from the experimental results obtained from the compressive strength experiment of various initial notch lengths. Utilizing the notch length, specimen sizes were then varied. In addition, new parameters for the modified size effect law (MSEL) were suggested using Levenberg-Marquardt's least square method (LSM). The test results show that size effect was apparent for axial compressive strength of cracked specimens. Namely, the effect of initial notch length on axial compressive strength size effect was apparent.

Strengthening of existing concrete structures is a major concern in recent years as the number of degraded structures increases. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the static and fatigue behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened with steel plates. To this end, a comprehensive test program has been set up and many series of strengthened beams have been tested. The major test variables include the plate thickness, adhesive thickness, and the shear-span to depth ratio. The test results indicate that the separation of plates is the dominant failure mechanism even for the full-span-length strengthened beams with steel plate. The theoretical ultimate load capacities for strengthened beams based on the full composite action of concrete beam and steel plate are found to be larger than the actual measured load capacities. The strengthened beams exhibit more dominant shear cracking as the shear-span to depth ratio decreases. The ultimate capacity of strengthened beams increases slightly with the increase of adhesive thickness, which may be caused by the late initiation of plate separation in the beams with thicker adhesive. A realistic concept of ductility for plate-strengthened beams is proposed in this study. It is seen that the strengthened beams show relatively low ductility compared with unstrengthened beams. The present study indicates that the strengthened beams exhibit much higher fatigue resistance than the unstrengthened beams. The increase of deflections of strengthened beams according to the number of load cycles is much smaller than that of unstrengthened beams. The present study provides very useful results for the realistic application of plate-strengthening method in reinforced concrete structures.