• Computers and Concrete
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.329-334
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• 2019

Traffic flow capacity of some old road bridges is insufficient due to limited deck width. In such cases bridge deck widening is a common solution. For multi-girder reinforced concrete (RC) bridges it is possible to add steel-concrete composite girders as the new outermost girders. The deck widening may be combined with bridge strengthening thanks to thickening of the existing deck slab. Joint action of the existing and the added parts of such bridge span must be ensured. It refers especially to the horizontal plane at the interface of the existing slab and the added concrete layer as well as to the vertical planes at the external surfaces of the initially outermost girders where the added girders are connected to the existing bridge span. Since the distribution of the added concrete is non-uniform in the span cross-section the structure is particularly sensitive to the added concrete shrinkage. The shrinkage induces shear forces in the aforementioned planes. Widening of a 12 m long RC multi-girder bridge span is numerically analysed to assess the influence of the added concrete shrinkage. The analysis results show that: a) in the vertical plane of the connection of the added and the existing deck slab the longitudinal shear due to the shrinkage of the added concrete is comparable with the effect of live load, b) it is necessary to provide appropriate longitudinal reinforcement in the deck slab over the added girders due to tension induced by the shrinkage of the added concrete.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.335-349
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• 2019

A low-cycle loading experiment of 16 transfer column specimens was conducted to study the influence of parameters, likes the extension length of shape steel, the ratio of shape steel, the axial compression ratio and the volumetric ratio of stirrups, on the shear distribution between steel and concrete, the concrete damage state and the degradation of lateral stiffness. Shear force of shape steel reacted at the core area of concrete section and led to tension effect which accelerated the damage of concrete. At the same time, the damage of concrete diminished its shear capacity and resulted in the shear enlargement of shape steel. The interplay between concrete damage and shear force of shape steel ultimately made for the failures of transfer columns. With the increase of extension length, the lateral stiffness first increases and then decreases, but the stiffness degradation gets faster; With the increase of steel ratio, the lateral stiffness remains the same, but the degradation gets faster; With the increase of the axial compression ratio, the lateral stiffness increases, and the degradation is more significant. Using more stirrups can effectively restrain the development of cracks and increase the lateral stiffness at the yielding point. Also, a formula for calculating the yielding lateral stiffness is obtained by a regression analysis of the test data.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.351-359
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• 2019

In this study, the calcium hydroxide, an inherent product of cement hydration, was treated using biomimetic carbonation method of incorporating stearic acid to generate the hydrophobic calcium carbonate on concrete surface. Carbonation reaction was carried out at various $CO_2$ pressure and temperatures and utilizing the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), chloride-ion penetration test apparatus, and compression test machine to investigate the hydrophobicity, durability, and mechanical properties of the synthesized products. Experimental results indicate that the calcium stearate may change the surface property of concrete from hydrophilicity to hydrophobicity. Increasing reaction temperature can change the particles from irregular shapes to needle-rod structures with increased shear stress and thus favorable to hydrophobicity and microhardness. The contact angle against water for the concrete surface was found to increase with increasing $CO_2$ pressure and temperature, and reached to an optimum value at around $90^{\circ}C$. The maximum static water contact angle of 128.7 degree was obtained at the $CO_2$ pressure of 2 atm and temperature of $90^{\circ}C$. It was also found that biomimetic carbonation increased the permeability, acid resistance and chloride-ion permeability of the concrete material. These unique results demonstrate that the needle-rod structures of $CaCO_3$ synthetized on concrete surface could enhance hydrophobicity, durability, and mechanical properties of concrete.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.361-376
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• 2019

In this research, bending analysis of a micro sandwich skew plate with isotropic core and piezoelectric composite face sheets reinforced by carbon nanotube on the elastic foundations are studied. The classical plate theory (CPT) are used to model micro sandwich skew plate and to apply size dependent effects based on modified strain gradient theory. Eshelby-Mori-Tanaka approach is considered for the effective mechanical properties of the nanocomposite face sheets. The governing equations of equilibrium are derived using minimum principle of total potential energy and then solved by extended Kantorovich method (EKM). The effects of width to thickness ratio and length to width of the sandwich plate, core-to-face sheet thickness ratio, the material length scale parameters, volume fraction of CNT, the angle of skew plate, different boundary conditions and types of cores on the deflection of micro sandwich skew plate are investigated. One of the most important results is the reduction of the deflection by increasing the angle of the micro sandwich skew plate and decreasing the deflection by decreasing the thickness of the structural core. The results of this research can be used in modern construction in the form of reinforced slabs or stiffened plates and also used in construction of bridges, the wing of airplane.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.49-60
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• 2019

In recent years, multiple experimental studies have been performed on using fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) bars in reinforced concrete (RC) structural members. FRP bars provide a new type of reinforcement that avoids the corrosion of traditional steel reinforcement. In this study, predicting the shear strength of RC beams with FRP longitudinal bars using artificial neural networks (ANNs) is investigated as a different approach from the current specific codes. An ANN model was developed using the experimental data of 104 FRP-RC specimens from an existing database in the literature. Seven different input parameters affecting the shear strength of FRP bar reinforced RC beams were selected to create the ANN structure. The most convenient ANN algorithm was determined as traingdx. The results from current codes (ACI440.1R-15 and JSCE) and existing literature in predicting the shear strength of FRP-RC beams were investigated using the identical test data. The study shows that the ANN model produces acceptable predictions for the ultimate shear strength of FRP-RC beams (maximum $R^2{\approx}0.97$). Additionally, the ANN model provides more accurate predictions for the shear capacity than the other computed methods in the ACI440.1R-15, JSCE codes and existing literature for considering different performance parameters.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.321-327
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• 2019

Experimental isotherm compressive tests show that concrete behaviour is dependent on temperature. The aim of such tests is to reproduce how concrete will behave under environmental changes within a moderate range of temperature. In this paper, a novel constitutive elastic damage behaviour law is proposed based on a free energy with an apparent damage depending on temperature. The proposed constitutive behaviour leads to classical theory of thermo-elasticity at small strains. Fixed elastic mechanical characteristics and fixed evolution law of damage independent of temperature and the material volume element size are considered. This approach is applied to compressive tests. The model predicts compressive strength and secant modulus of elasticity decrease as temperature increases. A power scaling law is assumed for specific entropy as function of the specimen size which leads to a volume size effect on the stress-strain compressive behaviour. The proposed model reproduces theoretical and experimental results from literature for tempertaures ranging between $20^{\circ}C$ and $70^{\circ}C$. The effect of the difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion between the mortar and coarse aggregates is also considered which gives a better agreement with FIB recommendations. It is shown that this effect is of a second order in the considered moderate range of temperature.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.305-317
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• 2021

The bond between the concrete and bar is a main factor affecting the performance of the reinforced concrete (RC) members, and since the steel corrosion reduces the bond strength, studying the bond behavior of concrete and GFRP bars is quite necessary. In this research, a database including 112 concrete beam test specimens reinforced with spliced GFRP bars in the splitting failure mode has been collected and used to estimate the concrete-GFRP bar bond strength. This paper aims to accurately estimate the bond strength of spliced GFRP bars in concrete beams by applying three soft computing models including multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS), Kriging, and M5 model tree. Since the selection of regularization parameters greatly affects the fitting of MARS, Kriging, and M5 models, the regularization parameters have been so optimized as to maximize the training data convergence coefficient. Three hybrid model coupling soft computing methods and genetic algorithm is proposed to automatically perform the trial and error process for finding appropriate modeling regularization parameters. Results have shown that proposed models have significantly increased the prediction accuracy compared to previous models. The proposed MARS, Kriging, and M5 models have improved the convergence coefficient by about 65, 63 and 49%, respectively, compared to the best previous model.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.385-393
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• 2021

Reinforcement corrosion is the main cause of the durability failure of reinforced concrete (RC) structure. In this paper, a three-dimensional (3D) numerical model of macro-cell corrosion is established to reveal the corrosion mechanisms of steel reinforcement in RC structure. Modified Direct Iteration Method (MDIM) is employed to solve the system of partial differential equations for reinforcement corrosion. Through the sensitivity analysis of electrochemical parameters, it is found that the average corrosion current density is more sensitive to the change of cathodic Tafel slope and anodic equilibrium potential, compared with the other electrochemical parameters. Furthermore, both the anode-to-cathode (A/C) ratio and the anodic length have significant influences on the average corrosion current density, especially when A/C ratio is less than 0.5 and anodic length is less than 35 mm. More importantly, it is demonstrated that the corrosion rate of semi-circumferential corrosion is much larger than that of circumferential corrosion for the same A/C ratio value. The simulation results can give a unique insight into understanding the detailed electrochemical corrosion processes of steel reinforcement in RC structure for application in service life prediction of RC structures in actual civil engineer.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.445-452
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• 2019

In this paper, dynamic stress, strain and deflection analysis of concrete pipes conveying nanoparticles-water under the seismic load are studied. The pipe is buried in the soil which is modeled by spring and damper elements. The Navier-Stokes equation is used for obtaining the force induced by the fluid and the mixture rule is utilized for considering the effect of nanoparticles. Based on refined two variables shear deformation theory of shells, the pipe is simulated and the equations of motion are derived based on energy method. The Galerkin and Newmark methods are utilized for calculating the dynamic stress, strain and deflection of the concrete pipe. The influences of internal fluid, nanoparticles volume percent, soil medium and damping of it as well as length to diameter ratio of the pipe are shown on the dynamic stress, strain and displacement of the pipe. The results show that with enhancing the nanoparticles volume percent, the dynamic stress, strain and deflection decrease.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.413-422
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• 2019

In this study, 3D Meso-scale finite-element model is presented to study the mechanical behavior of steel microfiber-reinforced polymer concrete considering the random distribution of fibers in the matrix. The composite comprises two separate parts which are the polymer composite and steel microfibers. The polymer composite is assumed to be homogeneous, which its mechanical properties are measured by performing experimental tests. The steel microfiber-polymer bonding is simulated with the Cohesive Zone Model (CZM) to offer more-realistic assumptions. The CZM parameters are obtained by calibrating the numerical model using the results of the experimental pullout tests on an individual microfiber. The accuracy of the results is validated by comparing the obtained results with the corresponding values attained from testing the steel microfiber-reinforced polymer concrete incorporating 0, 1 and 2% by volume of microfibers, which indicates the excellent accuracy of the current proposed model. The results show that the microfiber aspect ratio has a considerable effect on the mechanical properties of the reinforced polymer concrete. Applying microfibers with a higher aspect ratio improves the mechanical properties of the composite considerably especially when the first crack appears in the polymer concrete specimens.