• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.525-545
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• 2020

This paper presents a new structural system to use as retaining walls. In civil works, there is a general trend to use traditional reinforced concrete (RC) retaining walls to resist soil pressure. Despite their good resistance, RC retaining walls have some disadvantages such as need for huge temporary formworks, high dense reinforcing, low construction speed, etc. In the present work, a composite wall with only one steel plate (steel-concrete) is proposed to address the disadvantages of the RC walls. In the proposed system, steel plate is utilized not only as tensile reinforcement but also as a permanent formwork for the concrete. In order to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed SC composite system, an experimental program that includes nine SC composite wall specimens is developed. In this experimental study, the effects of different parameters such as distance between shear connectors, length of shear connectors, concrete ultimate strength, use of compressive steel plate and compressive steel reinforcement are investigated. In addition, a 3D finite element (FE) model for SC composite walls is proposed using the finite element program ABAQUS and load-displacement curves from FE analyses were compared against results obtained from physical testing. In all cases, the proposed FE model is reasonably accurate to predict the behavior of SC composite walls under out-of-plane loads. Results from experimental work and numerical study show that the SC composite wall system has high strength and ductile behavior under flexural loads. Furthermore, the design equations based on ACI code for calculating out-ofplate flexural and shear strength of SC composite walls are presented and compared to experimental database.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2023

Assessment of the compressive strength of concrete plays a major role during formwork removal and in the prestressing process. In concrete, temperature changes occur due to hydration which is an influencing factor that decides the compressive strength of concrete. Many methods are available to find the compressive strength of concrete, but the maturity method has the advantage of prognosticating strength without destruction. The temperature-time factor is found using a LM35 temperature sensor through the IoT technique. An experimental investigation was carried out with 56 concrete cubes, where 35 cubes were for obtaining the compressive strength of concrete using a universal testing machine while 21 concrete cubes monitored concrete's temperature by embedding a temperature sensor in each grade of M25, M30, M35, and M40 concrete. The mathematical prediction model equation was developed based on the temperature-time factor during the early age compressive strength on the 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 7^th days in the M25, M30, M35, and M40 grades of concrete with their temperature. The 14^th, 21^st and 28^th day's compressive strength was predicted with the mathematical predicted equation and compared with conventional results which fall within a 2% difference. The compressive strength of concrete at any desired age (day) before reaching 28 days results in the discovery of the prediction coefficient. Comparative analysis of the results found by the predicted mathematical model show that, it was very close to the results of the conventional method.