The amount and configuration of transverse reinforcement are known as critical parameters that significantly affect the lateral confinement of concrete, the ductility capacity, and the plastic hinge length of RC columns. Based on test results, this study investigated the effect of the three variables on structural indexes such as neutral axis depth, lateral expansion of concrete, and ductility capacity. Five reinforced concrete column specimens were tested under cyclic flexure and shear while simultaneously subjected to a constant axial load. The columns were reinforced by two types of reinforcing steel: rectangular hoops and spiral type reinforcing bars. The variables in the test program were the shape, diameter, and yield strength of transverse reinforcement. The interactive influence of the amount of transverse reinforcement on the structural indexes was evaluated. Test results showed that when amounts of transverse reinforcement were similar, and yield strength of transverse reinforcement was 600 MPa or less, the neutral axis depth of a column with spiral type reinforcing bars was reduced by 28% compared with that of a column reinforced by existing rectangular hoops at peak strength. While the diagonal elements of spiral-type reinforcing bars significantly contributed to the lateral confinement of concrete, the strain of diagonal elements decreased with increases of their yield strength. It was confirmed that shapes of transverse reinforcement significantly affected the lateral confinement of concrete adjacent to plastic hinges. Transverse reinforcement with a yield strength exceeding 600 MPa, however, increased the neutral axis depth of normal-strength concrete columns at peak strength, resulting in reductions in ductility and energy dissipation capacity.

In this study, limestone powder (LS) and fly ash (FA) were used as powder materials in self-compacting concrete (SCC) in increasing quantities in addition to cement, so that the two powders commonly used in the production of SCC could be compared in the same study. Considering the reduction of the maximum aggregate size in SCC, 10 mm or 16 mm was selected as the coarse aggregate size. The properties of fresh concrete were determined by slump flow (including T₅₀₀ time), V-funnel and J-ring experiments. The experimental results showed that as the amount of both LS and FA increased, the slump flow also increased. The increase in powder material had a negative effect on V-funnel flow times, causing it to increase; however, the increase in FA concretes was smaller compared to LS ones. The increase in the powder content reduced the amount of blockage in the J-ring test for both aggregate sizes. As the hardened concrete properties, the compressive and splitting strengths as well as the modulus of elasticity were determined. Longitudinal and transverse deformations were measured by attaching a special frame to the cylindrical specimens and the values of Poisson's ratio, initiation and critical stresses were obtained. Despite having a similar W/C ratio, all SCC exhibited higher compressive strength than NVC. Compressive strength increased with increasing powder content for both LS and FA; however, the increase of the FA was higher than the LS due to the pozzolanic effect. SCC with a coarse aggregate size of 16 mm showed higher strength than 10 mm for both powders. Similarly, the modulus of elasticity increased with the amount of powder material. Inelastic properties, which are rarely found in the literature for SCC, were determined by measuring the initial and critical stresses. Crack formation in SCC begins under lower stresses (corresponding to lower initial stresses) than in normal concretes, while critical stresses indicate a more brittle behavior by taking higher values.

On the basis of fabrication, the utilization of nano material in numerous industrial and technological system, obtained the utmost significance in current decade. Therefore, the current investigation presents a theoretical disposition regarding the flow of electric conducting Williamson nanoliquid over a stretchable surface in the presence of the motile microorganism. The impact of thermal radiation and magnetic parameter are incorporated in the energy equation. The concentration field is modified by adding the influence of chemical reaction. Moreover, the splendid features of nanofluid are displayed by utilizing the thermophoresis and Brownian motion aspects. Compatible similarity transformation is imposed on the equations governing the problem to derive the dimensionless ordinary differential equations. The Homotopy analysis method has been implemented to find the analytic solution of the obtained differential equations. The implications of specific parameters on profiles of velocity, temperature, concentration and motile microorganism density are investigated graphically. Moreover, coefficient of skin friction, Nusselt number, Sherwood number and density of motile number are clarified in tabular forms. It is revealed that thermal radiation, thermophoresis and Brownian motion parameters are very effective for improvement of heat transfer. The reported investigation can be used in improving the heat transfer appliances and systems of solar energy.

This paper presents an application of the maturation effect on the strength of high-strength concrete which is produced with different origin aggregates. While investigating the maturation effect on HSC 384 specimens were prepared with 22 different origin aggregates. These prepared specimens were subjected to the standard compressive tests which were applied after curing for 2, 7, 28, and 56 days under appropriate conditions. The test results revealed that bright surface-low adherence behavior is valid in normal strength concretes, but is not as effective as expected in high-strength concretes. The application of artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict 2, 7, 28, and 56 day compressive strength of HSC is also investigated in this paper. An ANN model is built, trained, and tested using the available test data gathered from experimental studies. The ANN model is found to predict 2, 7, 28, and 56 days of compressive strength of high-strength concrete well within the ranges of the input parameters considered. These comparisons show that ANNs have strong potential as a feasible tool for predicting the compressive strength of high-strength concrete within the range of the input parameters considered.

Based on the design of reinforced concrete columns in Chinese design codes, the failure function of reinforced concrete (RC) columns cannot be expressed as a linear function. This makes it difficult to reveal the level of reliability control in Chinese design code. Therefore, the failure function of dimensionless form is established in this paper, and the typical components (Industrial plant columns) are selected for analysis. At last, numerical simulation proves that the proposed model can be used to analysis reliability of columns. The results based on this model indicate that there is a strong difference in the reliability of RC columns designed with different design parameters, and the reliability would be lower when the eccentricity produced by crane load is smaller.

Filling materials poured into precast member joint are subjected to restraint stress by the precast member and joint reinforcement. The induced stress will likely cause cracks at early ages and performance degradation of the entire structure. To prevent these issues and design reasonable joints, it is very important to analyze and evaluate the restrained shrinkage cracks of filling materials at various restraint conditions. In this study, a new time zero-that defines the shrinkage development time of a filling material-is proposed to calculate the accurate amount of shrinkage. The tensile stresses and strengths at different ages were compared through the ring test (AASHTO PP34) to evaluate the crack potential of the restrained filling materials at various restraint conditions. The mixture which contained an expansive additive and a shrinkage reducing agent exhibited high resistance to shrinkage cracking owing to the high-drying shrinkage compensation effect. The high-performance, fiber-reinforced cement composite, and ultra-high-performance, fiber-reinforced cement composite yielded very high resistance to shrinkage and cracking owing to the pull-out property of steel fibers. To this end, multiple nonlinear regression analyses were conducted based on the test results. Accordingly, a modified tensile stress equation that considered both the geometric shape of the specimen and the intrinsic properties of the material is proposed.