• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.203-210
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• 2019

Concrete structures in marine environment are susceptible to chloride attack, where chloride diffusion results in the corrosion of steel bar and further lead to the cracking of concrete cover. This process causes structural deterioration and affects the response of concrete structures to different forms of loading. This paper presents the use of ABAQUS Finite Element Software in simulating the processes involved in concrete's structural degradation from chloride diffusion to steel corrosion and concrete cover cracking. Fick's law was used for the chloride diffusion, while the mass loss from steel corrosion was obtained using Faraday's law. Pressure generated by steel corrosion product at the concrete-steel interface was modeled by applying uniform radial displacements, while concrete smeared cracking alongside the Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) was used for concrete cover cracking simulation. Results show that, chloride concentration decreases with penetration depth, but increases with exposure time at the concrete-steel interface. Cracks initiate and propagate in the concrete cover as pressure caused by the steel corrosion product increases. Furthermore, the crack width increases with the exposure time on the surface of the concrete.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.263-275
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• 2019

In the present work, Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GBFS) and Fly ash (FA) were used as partial replacement of Natural Sand (NS) and Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) by weight. One control mix, one with GBFS, three with FA and three with GBFS-FA combined mixes were prepared. Replacements were 50% GBFS with NS and 20%, 30% and 40% FA with OPC. Preliminary investigation on development of compressive strength was carried out at 7, 28 and 90 days to ensure sustainability of waste materials in concrete matrix at room temperature. After 90days, thermo-mechanical study was performed on the specimen for a temperature regime of $200^{\circ}-1000^{\circ}C$ followed by furnace cooling. Weight loss, visual inspection along with colour change, residual compressive strength and microstructure analysis were performed to investigate the effect of replacement of GBFS and FA. Although adding waste mineral by-products enhanced the weight loss, their pozzolanicity and formation history at high temperature played a significant role in retaining higher residual compressive strength even up to $800^{\circ}C$. On detail microstructural study, it has been found that addition of FA and GBFS in concrete mix improved the density of concrete by development of extra calcium silicate gel before fire and restricts the development of micro-cracks at high temperature as well. In general, the authors are in favour of combined replacement mix in view of high volume mineral by-products utilization as fire protection.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.219-229
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• 2019

This paper presents an experimental study on the structural performance of an innovative ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) deck with coarse aggregate of composite bridge under shear force. Test parameters included curing method and shear span-to-height ratio. Test results indicated that more short fine cracks developed beside the existing cracks due to the randomly dispersed fibers, resulting in re-distributing and homogenizing of the concrete stress beside cracks and allowing for the occurrence of more cracks with small spacing compared to normal strength concrete beams. Curing methods, incorporating steam curing and natural curing, did not have obvious effect on the nominal bending cracking strength and the ultimate strength of the test specimens. Shear reinforcement need not be provided for UHPFRC decks with a fiber volume fraction of 2%. UHPFRC decks showed superior load resistance ability after the appearance of cracks and excellent post-cracking deformability. Lastly, the current shear provisions were evaluated by the test results.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.65-74
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• 2019

This paper reports on the results of a parametric study, which examines the effects of varying aspect ratios on the dynamic response of cylindrical silos directly supported on the ground under earthquake loading. Previous research has shown that numerical models can provide considerably realistic simulations when it comes to the behavior of silos by using correct boundary conditions, appropriate element types and material models. To this end, a three dimensional numerical model, taking into account the bulk material-silo wall interaction, was produced by the ANSYS commercial program, which is in turn based on the finite element method. The results obtained from the numerical analysis are discussed comparatively in terms of dynamic material pressure, horizontal displacement, equivalent base shear force and equivalent bending moment responses for considered aspect ratios. The effects experienced because of the slenderness of the silo in regards to the seismic response were evaluated along with the effectiveness of the classification system proposed by Eurocode in evaluating the loads on the vertical walls. Results clearly show that slenderness directly affects the seismic response of such structures especially in terms of behavior and the magnitude of the responses. Furthermore the aspect ratio value of 2.0, given as a behavioral changing limit in the technical literature, can be used as a valid limit for seismic behavior.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.107-115
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• 2019

The possibility of using a combination of mineral admixtures as a replacement for cement may reduce the $CO_2$ emission which causes global warming and climatic changes on the environment. By using the combination of different byproducts from various industries, for replacing cement in concrete leads to saving in energy and natural resources. In this article, an attempt has been made to study the mechanical and water absorption properties of concrete incorporated with combination of Fly ash (FA), Alccofine (ALC) and Collodial Nano Silica (CNS) at 7, 28 and 56 days curing period. Cement has been partially replaced by combination of FA at 25%, ALC at 10% and CNS at 0.5%, 1%, 2% and 3% with water cement ratio of 0.43. The result indicates that the incorporation of combination of FA, ALC and CNS can be very effective in improvement of mechanical and water absorption properties of concrete. The Mix with a combination of 25% FA, 10% ALC and 1% CNS is most effective in improvement of mechanical and water absorption properties as compared with all other mixes.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.97-105
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• 2019

In this paper, the workability and static stability were evaluated using a proposed test method. Workability and static stability represent a key property of self-compacting concrete (SCC) in fresh state. A number of standardized test methods were developed to assess these properties. However, no accelerated test method reliably predicts both workability and static stability of SCC. In the present work, a modified K-slump test method was developed to evaluate workability and static stability of SCC. In order to take implicit mixture variations of SCC constituents that can affect fresh SCC properties, a central composite design was adopted to highlight the effect of gravel to sand ratio (G/S), gravel 3/8 to gravel 8/15 ratio (G1/G2), water to cement ratio (W/C), marble powder to cement ratio (MP/C) and superplasticizer content (SP) on workability measured with slump and flow time (T50) tests and static stability measured with sieve stability test (Pi), segregation test index (SSI), Penetration test (Pd) and the proposed K-slump test (Km). The obtained results show that G/S ratio close to 1 and G1/G2 ratio close to 60% can be considered as optimal values to achieve a good workability while ensuring a sufficient static stability of SCC. Acceptable relationships were obtained between Slump flow, Pi, Pd and Km. Results show that the proposed K-slump test allow to assess both workability and static stability of fresh SCC mixtures.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.175-181
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• 2019

Low-calcium fly ash (LCFA) were used to prepare cement/LCFA specimens in this study. The basic physical properties including water demand, fluidity, setting time, soundness and drying shrinkage of cement/LCFA paste were investigated. The effects of curing time, immersion time and wet-dry cycles in 3% $Na_2SO_4$ solution on the compressive strength and the microstructures of specimens were also discussed. The results show that LCFA increases the water demand, setting time, soundness of cement paste samples. 50% and 60% LCFA replacement ratio decrease the drying shrinkage of hardened cement paste. The compressive strength of plain cement specimens decreases at the later immersion stage in 3% $Na_2SO_4$ solution. The addition of LCFA can decrease this strength reduction of cement specimens. For all specimens with LCFA, the compressive strength increases with increasing immersion time. During the wet-dry cycles, the compressive strength of plain cement specimens decreases with increasing wet-dry cycles. However, the pores in the specimens with 30% and 40% LCFA at early ages could be large enough for the crystal of sodium sulfate, which leads to the compressive strength increase with the increase of wet-dry cycles in 3% $Na_2SO_4$ solution. The microstructures of cement/LCFA specimens are in good agreement with the compressive strength.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.131-141
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• 2019

Irregular distribution of mass in elevation is regarded as a structural irregularity by which the modes with high energy levels are excited and in addition, it can lead the structure to withstanding concentration of nonlinear deformations and consequently, suffer from unpredictable local or global damages. Accordingly, with respect to the lack of knowledge and insight towards the performance of concrete buildings making use of tunnel-form structural system in seismic events, it is of utmost significance to assess seismic vulnerability of such structures involved in vertical mass irregularity. To resolve such a crucial drawback, this papers aims to seismically assess vulnerability of RC tunnel-form buildings considering effects of irregular mass distribution. The results indicate that modal responses are not affected by building's height and patterns of mass distribution in elevation. Moreover, there was no considerable effect observed on the performance levels under DBE and MCE hazard scenarios within different patterns of irregular mass distribution. In conclusion, it appears that necessarily of vertical regularity for tunnel-form buildings, is somehow drastic and conservative at least for the buildings and irregularity patterns studied herein.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.387-396
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• 2021

The behavior of headed bars in concrete is investigated through 108 pullout tests having an embedment depth of eight times the bar diameter in the M20 concrete mix. Headed bars are designed based on ASTM A970-16 and ACI 318-19 recommendations. The primary parameters used in this study are the steel bar diameter, the steel fibers percentage, and the head shapes. Three failure modes namely, Steel, Concrete-Blowout & Pull-Through failure have been observed. Based on load-deflection curves which are plotted to investigate the bond capacity of headed bars, it is observed that the circular-headed bars have displayed the highest peak load. The comparative analysis shows the smaller differences in the ultimate bond strength between MC2010 (0.89-2.26 MPa) and EN 1992-1-1 (2.32 MPa) as compared to ACI-318-19 (11-22 MPa) which is due to the absence of embedment depth and peak load factor in MC2010 and EN 1992-1-1 respectively.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.59-71
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• 2021

This research aims to study the utilization of olive waste ash (OWA) in the production of concrete as a partial substitute for cement. Effects of using OWA on the physical and mechanical properties of concrete mixtures have been investigated. This is done by carrying out tests involving the addition of various percentages of OWA to cement (0%, 5%, 10% and 15%). For each percentage, tests were performed on both fresh and hardened concrete; these included slump test, unit weight test and compressive strength test after 7, 28 and 90 days. Durability tests were investigated in solutions containing 5% NaOH and MgSO4 by weight of water. In addition, resistance to high temperatures was tested by subjecting the cubes to high temperatures of up to 170℃. The results of this research indicate that a higher percentage of OWA gives a lower compressive strength and lower workability but higher performance in terms of durability against both different weather conditions and high temperatures.