• Computers and Concrete
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• 제31권5호
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• pp.395-403
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• 2023

The paper investigates the effect of two parameters - sand content (SC) and grain migration during shearing - on the mechanical properties of gravel-sand mixtures. Consolidated undrained (CU) triaxial tests were carried out on eight series of mixtures containing gravel (1<d<16 mm) and sand (0.1<d<1 mm). The prepared mixtures have sand contents of 0, 10, 15, 20, 40, 54, 94 and 100%, and a relative density of 60%. The transition sand content (TSC) is experimentally defined and marks the transition from gravel-driven to sand-driven behavior. For SC<TSC, the dry density of the mixture increases with SC. This induces an increase in undrained peak strength and dilative trend. The slope and position of the critical state line (CSL) are also deeply dependent on SC. At SC=TSC, the mixtures exhibit the largest dry density and yield the highest undrained peak strength and the largest dilative trend. During shearing, large internal migration of grains was observed at the TSC, causing heterogeneity in the sample. Analysis of the CSL deduced from the final points of the triaxial tests shows that, at the TSC, failure appears to correspond to the behavior of the coarsest fraction of the soil. This fraction is located in the upper part of the sample, where the sand particles had been eliminated by suffusion. On the other hand, in the more stable materials, the CSL is consistent with the bulk grain size distribution of the soil.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제31권5호
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• pp.419-432
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• 2023

Beam-column joints are a critical component of reinforced concrete frame structures. They are responsible for transferring forces between adjoining beams and columns while limiting story drifts and maintaining structural integrity. During severe loading, beam-column joints deform significantly, affecting, and sometimes governing, the overall response of frame structures. While most failure modes for beam and column elements are commonly considered in plastic-hinge-based global frame analyses, the beam-column joint failure modes, such as concrete shear and reinforcement bond slip, are frequently omitted. One reason for this is the dearth of published guidance on what type of hinges to use, how to derive the joint hinge properties, and where to place these hinges. Many beam-column joint models are available in literature but their adoption by practicing structural engineers has been limited due to their complex nature and lack of practical application tools. The objective of this study is to provide a comparative review of the available beam-column joint models and present a practical joint modeling approach for integration into commonly used global frame analysis software. The presented modeling approach uses rotational spring models and is capable of modeling both interior and exterior joints with or without transverse reinforcement. A spreadsheet tool is also developed to execute the mathematical calculations and derive the shear stress-strain and moment-rotation curves ready for inputting into the global frame analysis. The application of the approach is presented by modeling a beam column joint specimen which was tested experimentally. Important modeling considerations are also presented to assist practitioners in properly modeling beam-column joints in frame analyses.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제31권5호
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• pp.433-442
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• 2023

This study presents the visually observed behavior of fibers embedded in concrete samples that were subjected to a flexural bending test. Three types of fibers such as macro polypropylene, macro polyethylene, and the hybrid of steel and polyvinyl alcohol were mixed with cement by a designated mix ratio to prepare a total of nine specimens of each. The bending test was conducted by following ASTM C1609 with a net deflection of 2, 4, and 7 mm. The X-ray computed tomography (XCT) was carried out for 7 mm-deflection specimens. The original XCT images were post-processed to denoise the beam-hardening effect. Then, fiber, crack, and void were semi-manually segmented. The hybrid specimen showed the highest toughness compared to the other two types. Debonding based on 2D XCT sliced images was commonly observed for all three groups. The cement matrix near the crack surface often involved partially localized breakage in conjunction with debonding. The pullout was predominant for steel fibers that were partially slipped toward the crack. Crack bridging and rupture were not found presumably due to the image resolution and the level of energy dissipation for poly-fibers, while the XCT imaging was advantageous in evaluating the distribution and behavior of various fibers upon bending for fiber-reinforced concrete beam elements.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제31권5호
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• pp.457-468
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• 2023

Buildings, bridges, and dams are examples of civil infrastructure that play an important role in public life. These structures are prone to structural variations over time as a result of external forces that might disrupt the operation of the structures, cause structural integrity issues, and raise safety concerns for the occupants. Therefore, monitoring the state of a structure, also known as structural health monitoring (SHM), is essential. Owing to the emergence of the fourth industrial revolution, next-generation sensors, such as wireless sensors, UAVs, and video cameras, have recently been utilized to improve the quality and efficiency of building forensics. This study presents a method that uses a target-based system to estimate the dynamic displacement and its corresponding dynamic properties of structures using UAV-based video. A laboratory experiment was performed to verify the tracking technique using a shaking table to excite an SDOF specimen and comparing the results between a laser distance sensor, accelerometer, and fixed camera. Then a field test was conducted to validate the proposed framework. One target marker is placed on the specimen, and another marker is attached to the ground, which serves as a stationary reference to account for the undesired UAV movement. The results from the UAV and stationary camera displayed a root mean square (RMS) error of 2.02% for the displacement, and after post-processing the displacement data using an OMA method, the identified natural frequency and damping ratio showed significant accuracy and similarities. The findings illustrate the capabilities and reliabilities of the methodology using UAV to evaluate the dynamic properties of structures.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제31권5호
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• pp.385-394
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• 2023

Displacement is an important element for evaluating the stability and failure mechanism of hydraulic structures. Digital image correlation (DIC) is a useful technique to measure a three-dimensional displacement field using two cameras without any contact with test material. The objective of this study is to evaluate the behavior of stacked geotextile tubes using the DIC technique. Geotextile tubes are stacked to build a small-scale temporary dam model to exclude water from a specific area. The horizontal and vertical displacements of four stacked geotextile tubes are monitored using a dual camera system according to the upstream water level. The geotextile tubes are prepared with two different fill materials. For each dam model, the interface layers between upper and lower geotextile tubes are either unreinforced or reinforced with a cementitious binder. The displacement of stacked geotextile tubes is measured to analyze the behavior of geotextile tubes. Experimental results show that as upstream water level increases, horizontal and vertical displacements at each layer of geotextile tubes initially increase with water level, and then remain almost constant until the subsequent water level. The displacement of stacked geotextile tubes depends on the type of fill material and interfacial reinforcement with a cementitious binder. Thus, the proposed DIC technique can be effectively used to evaluate the behavior of a hydraulic structure, which consists of geotextile tubes.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제29권2호
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• pp.81-92
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• 2022

The influence of normal stress perpendicular to the potential shear plane was always neglected in existing researches, which may lead to a serious deviation of the shear strength of concrete members in practice designs and numerical analyses. In this study, a series of experimental studies are carried out in this paper, which serves to investigate the shear behavior of concrete under compression shear loading. Based on the test results, a three-phase shear failure model for cohesive elements are developed, which is able to take into consideration the influence of normal stress on the shear strength of concrete. To identify the accuracy and applicability of the proposed model, numerical models of a double-noted concrete plate are developed and compared with experimental results. Results show that the proposed constitutive model is able to take into consideration the influence of normal stress on the shear strength of concrete materials, and is effective and accurate for describing the complex fracture of concrete, especially the failure modes under compression shear loadings.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제29권2호
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• pp.93-105
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• 2022

The degrees of freedom (DOFs) of high-rise structures increase rapidly due to the need for refined analysis, which poses a challenge toward a computationally efficient method for numerical analysis of high-rise structures using the finite element method (FEM). This paper presented an efficient iterative method, an algebraic multigrid (AMG) with a Jacobi overrelaxation smoother preconditioned conjugate gradient method (AMG-CG) used for solving large-scale structural system equations running on heterogeneous platforms with parallel accelerator graphics processing units (GPUs) enabled. Furthermore, an AMG-CG FEM application framework was established for the numerical analysis of high-rise structures. In the proposed method, the coarsening method, the optimal relaxation coefficient of the JOR smoother, the smoothing times, and the solution method for the coarsest grid of an AMG preconditioner were investigated via several numerical benchmarks of high-rise structures. The accuracy and the efficiency of the proposed FEM application framework were compared using the mature software Abaqus, and there were speedups of up to 18.4x when using an NVIDIA K40C GPU hosted in a workstation. The results demonstrated that the proposed method could improve the computational efficiency of solving structural system equations, and the AMG-CG FEM application framework was inherently suitable for numerical analysis of high-rise structures.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제29권2호
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• pp.107-115
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• 2022

With the improvements in computer technologies, utilization of image processing techniques has increased in many areas (such as medicine, defence industry, other industries etc.) Many different image processing techniques are used for surface analysis, detection of manufacturing defects, and determination of physical and mechanical characteristics of composite materials. In this study, cementitious composites were obtained by addition of Grounded Granulated Blast-Furnace Slag (GGBFS), Styrene Butadiene polymer (SBR), and Grounded Granulated Blast-Furnace Slag and Styrene Butadiene polymer together (GGBFS+SBR). Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) beads were added to these cementitious composites in different ratios (20%, 40% and 60%). The mechanical and physical characteristics of the composites were determined, and homogeneity indexes of the composites were determined by image processing techniques to determine EPS distribution forms in them. Physical and mechanical characteristics of the produced samples were obtained by applying consistency, density, water absorption, compressive strength (7 and 28 days), flexural strength (7 and 28 days) and tensile splitting strength (7 and 28 days) tests on them. Also, visual examination by using digital microscope, and image analysis by using image processing techniques with open source coded ImageJ program were performed. As a result of the study, it is determined that GGBFS and SBR addition strengthens the adhesion sites formed as it increases the adhesion power of the mixture and helps to get rid of the segregation problem caused by EPS. As a result of the image processing analysis it is demonstrated that GGBFS and SBR addition has positive contribution on homogeneity index.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제31권6호
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• pp.537-543
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• 2023

To study the seismic behavior of recycled aggregate concrete filled circular steel tube (RACFCST) frames, the seismic behavior experiment of RACFCST frame was carried out to measure the hysteresis curve, skeleton curve and other seismic behavior indexes. Moreover, based on the experimental study, a feasible numerical analysis model was established to analyze the finite element parameters of 8 RACFCST frame specimens, and the influence of different variation parameters on the seismic behavior index for RACFCST frame was revealed. The results showed that the skeleton curve of specimens under different axial compression ratios were divided into three stages: elastic stage, elastic-plastic stage and descending stage, and the descending stage was relatively stable, indicating that the specimen had stronger deformation capacity in the descending stage. With the increase of axial compression ratio, the peak bearing capacity of all specimens reduced gradually, and the reduction was less than 5%. With the decrease of beam-column linear stiffness ratio, the peak bearing capacity decreased gradually. With the decrease of yield bending moment ratio of beam-column, the peak bearing capacity decreased gradually, and the decreasing rate of peak bearing capacity gradually accelerated. In addition, compared with the axial compression ratio, the beam-column linear stiffness ratio and the yield bending moment ratio of beam-column had a more significant influence on the peak bearing capacity of RACFCST frame.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제31권6호
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• pp.513-525
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• 2023

This research presents the experimental and theoretical evaluations on circular steel-fiber-reinforced-concrete (SFRC) columns reinforced by glass-fiber-reinforced-polymer (GFRP) rebar under the axial compressive loading. Test programs were designed to investigate and compare the effect of different parameters on the structural behavior of columns by performing tests. Theses variables included conventional concrete (CC), fiber concrete (FC), steel/GFRP longitudinal rebars, and transversal rebars configurations. A total of 16 specimens were constructed and categorized into four groups in terms of different rebar-concrete configurations, including GFRP-rebar-reinforced-CC columns (GRCC), GFRP-rebar-reinforced-FC columns (GRFC), steel-rebar-reinforced-CC columns (SRCC) and steel-rebar- reinforced-FC columns (SRFC). Experimental observations displayed that failure modes and cracking patterns of four groups of columns were similar, especially in pre-peak branches of load-deflection curves. Although the average ultimate axial load of columns with longitudinal GFRP rebars was obtained by 17.9% less than the average ultimate axial load of columns with longitudinal steel rebars, the average axial ductility index (DI) of them was gained by 10.2% higher than their counterpart columns. Adding steel fibers (SFs) into concrete led to the increases of 7.7% and 6.7% of the axial peak load and the DI of columns than their counterpart columns with CC. The volumetric ratio had greater efficiency on peak loads and DIs of columns than the type of transversal reinforcement. A simple analytical equation was proposed to predict the axial compressive capacity of columns by considering the axial involvement of longitudinal GFRP rebars, volumetric ratio, and steel spiral/hoop rebar. There was a good correlation between test results and predictions of the proposed equation.