Recently, advanced transit systems are being constructed to reduce traffic congestions in metropolitan areas. For these projects, curved bridges with various curvatures are required. Many curved bridges in the past were constructed using aesthetically unpleasant straight beams with curved slabs or expensive curved steel box girders with curved slabs. Therefore, many recent studies have been performed to develop less expensive and very safe precast prestressed concrete (PSC) curved girder. One method of reducing the construction cost of a PSC curved girder is to use a reusable formwork that can easily be adjusted to change the curvature and length of a girder. A reusable and curvature/dimension adjustable formwork called Multi-tasking formwork is developed for constructing efficient precast PSC curved girders. With the Multi-tasking formwork, two 40 m precast PSC box girders with different curvatures were constructed to build a two-girder curved bridge for a static flexural test to evaluate its safety and serviceability performance. The static flexural test results showed that the initial cracking load was 1400 kN, exceeding the design cracking load of 450 kN. Also, the code allowed deflection of 50 mm occurred at a load of 1800 kN, verifying the safety and serviceability of the precast PSC curved bridge constructed using the multi-tasking formwork.

The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of thickness and moisture on temperature distributions of reinforced concrete walls under fire conditions. Toward this goal, the first three wall specimens having different thicknesses are heated for 2 h according to ISO standard heating curve and the temperature distribution through the wall thickness is measured. Since the thermal behavior of the tested walls is influenced by thickness, as well as moisture content, three additional walls are prepared and preheated to reduce moisture content and then tested under fire exposure. The experimental results clearly show the temperatures measured close to the fire exposed surface of the thickest wall with 250 mm thickness is the highest in the temperatures measured at the same location of the thinner wall with 150 mm thickness because of the moisture clog that is formed inside the wall with 250 mm of thickness. This prevents heat being transferred to the opposite side of the heated surface. This is also confirmed by the thermal behavior of the preheated walls, showing that the temperature is well distributed in the preheated walls as compared to that in non-preheated walls. Finite element models including moisture clog zone are generated to simulate fire tests with consideration of moisture clog effect. The temperature distributions of the models predicted from the transient heat analyses are compared with experimental results and show good agreements. In addition, parametric studies are performed with various moisture contents in order to investigate effect of moisture contents on the thermal behaviors of the concrete walls.

Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) is one of the most promising construction materials because it exhibits high performance, such as through high strength, high durability, and proper rheological properties. However, it has low tensile ductility compared with other normal strength grade high ductile fiber-reinforced cementitious composites. This paper presents an experimental study on the tensile behavior, including tensile ductility and crack patterns, of UHPC reinforced by hybrid steel and polyethylene fibers and incorporating plastic beads which have a very weak bond with a cementitious matrix. These beads behave as an artificial flaw under tensile loading. A series of experiments including density, compressive strength, and uniaxial tension tests were performed. Test results showed that the tensile behavior including tensile strain capacity and cracking pattern of UHPC investigated in this study can be controlled by fiber hybridization and artificial flaws.

The degradation of the load-bearing capacity of reinforced concrete beams due to corrosion has a profoundly negative impact on the structural safety and integrity of a structure. The literature is limited with regard to models of bond characteristics that relate to the reinforcement corrosion percentage. In this study, uniaxial tensile tests were conducted on specimens with irregular corrosion of their reinforced concrete. The development of cracks in the corroded area was found to be dependent on the level of corrosion, and transverse cracks developed due to tensile loading. Based on this crack development, the average stress versus deformation in the rebar and concrete could be determined experimentally and numerically. The results, determined via finite element analysis, were calibrated using the experimental results. In addition, bond elements for reinforced concrete with corrosion are proposed in this paper along with a relationship between the shear stiffness and corrosion level of rebar.

Steel fiber-reinforced prestressed concrete (SFRPSC) members typically have high shear strength and deformation capability, compared to conventional prestressed concrete (PSC) members, due to the resistance provided by steel fibers at the crack surface after the onset of diagonal cracking. In this study, shear tests were conducted on the SFRPSC members with the test variables of concrete compressive strength, fiber volume fraction, and prestressing force level. Their localized behavior around the critical shear cracks was measured by a non-contact image-based displacement measurement system, and thus their shear deformation was thoroughly investigated. The tested SFRPSC members showed higher shear strengths as the concrete compressive strength or the level of prestress increased, and their stiffnesses did not change significantly, even after diagonal cracking due to the resistance of steel fibers. As the level of prestress increased, the shear deformation was contributed by the crack opening displacement more than the slip displacement. In addition, the local displacements around the shear crack progressed toward directions that differ from those expected by the principal strain angles that can be typically obtained from the average strains of the concrete element. Thus, this localized deformation characteristics around the shear cracks should be considered when measuring the local deformation of concrete elements near discrete cracks or when calculating the local stresses.

During concrete pumping, the migration and redistribution of particles occur in a pipe and the lubrication layer that forms between the bulk concrete and the pipe wall is the governing factor determining the flow behavior. In order to identify flow behavior of pumping, in this study, the viscoelastic properties related to the microstructural behavior of a flocculated suspension were examined by using dynamic oscillatory measurements. Cement paste is assumed to be a constituent material of the lubrication layer and ten cases of mixing design are employed by changing the proportions of mineral admixtures. The relationship between the yield stress obtained from the steady shear test and the dynamic modulus resulted from the oscillatory shear measurement was derived and the implications of the correlation are discussed. Moreover, based on the investigation of the viscoelastic properties with oscillatory measurements, the initial behavior of pumped concrete was analyzed systematically.

Large scale constructions needs to estimate a possibility for pumping concrete. In this paper, the state of the art on prediction of concrete pumping including analytical and experimental works is presented. The existing methods to measure the rheological properties of slip layer (or called lubricating layer) are first introduced. Second, based on the rheological properties of slip layer and parent concrete, models to predict concrete pumping (flow rate, pumping pressure, and pumpable distance) are explained. Third, influencing factors on concrete pumping are discussed with the test results of various concrete mixes. Finally, future need for research on concrete pumping is suggested.

This numerical study investigated the effects of different reinforcing details in beam-column joints on the blast resistance of the joints. Due to increasing manmade and/or natural high rate accidents such as impacts and blasts, the resistance of critical civil and military infrastructure or buildings should be sufficiently obtained under those high rate catastrophic loads. The beam-column joint in buildings is one of critical parts influencing on the resistance of those buildings under extreme events such as earthquakes, impacts and blasts. Thus, the details of reinforcements in the joints should be well designed for enhancing the resistance of the joints under the events. Parameters numerically investigated in this study include diagonal, flexural, and shear reinforcing steel bars. The failure mechanism of the joints could be controlled by the level of tensile stress of reinforcing steel bars. Among various reinforcing details in the joints, diagonal reinforcement in the joints was found to be most effective for enhancing the resistance under blast loads. In addition, shear reinforcements also produced favourable effects on the blast resistance of beam-column joints.

When the energy performance of concrete is substantially higher than that of normal type concrete, such concrete is regarded as energy efficient concrete (WBSCSD 2009). An experimental study was conducted to investigate mechanical properties of energy efficient concrete with binary, ternary and quaternary admixture at different curing ages. Slump test for workability and air content test were performed on fresh concretes. Compressive strength, splitting tensile strength were made on hardened concrete specimens. The mechanical properties of concrete were compared with predicted values by ACI 363R-84 Code, NZS 3101-95 Code, CSA A23.3-94 Code, CEB-FIP Model, EN 1991, EC 2-02, AIJ Code, JSCE Code, and KCI Code. The use of silica fume increased the compressive strengths, splitting tensile strengths, modulus of elasticities and Poisson's ratios. On the other hand, the compressive strength and splitting tensile strength decreased with increasing fly ash.

Recently, as the use of high-performance materials and complex composite methods has increased, the need for advanced design specifications for steel-concrete composite structures has grown. In this study, various design provisions for ultimate flexural strengths of composite beams were reviewed. Design provisions reviewed included the load and resistance factor design method of AISC 360-10 and the partial factor methods of KSSC-KCI, Eurocode 4 and JSCE 2009. The design moment strengths of composite beams were calculated according to each design specification and the variation of the calculated strengths with design variables was investigated. Furthermore, the relationships between the deformation capacity and resistance factor for flexure were examined quantitatively. Results showed that the design strength and resistance factor for flexure of composite beams were substantially affected by the design formats and variables.