• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.143-162
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• 2019

A number of desirable characteristics concerning excellent durability, aesthetics, recyclability, high ductility and fire resistance have made stainless steel a preferred option in engineering practice. However, the relatively high initial cost has greatly restricted the application of stainless steel as a major structural material in general construction. This drawback can be partially overcome by introducing composite stainless steel-concrete structures, which provides a cost-efficient and sustainable solution for future stainless steel construction. This paper presents a preliminary numerical study on stainless steel-concrete composite beam-to-column joints with bolted flush endplates. In order to ensure a consistent corrosion resistance within the whole structural system, all structural steel components were designed with austenitic stainless steel, including beams, columns, endplates, bolts, reinforcing bars and shear connectors. A finite element model was developed using ABAQUS software for composite beam-to-column joints under monotonic and symmetric hogging moments, while validation was performed based on independent test results. A parametric study was subsequently conducted to investigate the effects of several critical factors on the behaviour of composite stainless steel joints. Finally, comparisons were made between the numerical results and the predictions by current design codes regarding the plastic moment capacity and the rotational stiffness of the joints. It was concluded that the present codes of practice generally overestimate the rotational stiffness and underestimate the plastic moment resistance of stainless steel-concrete composite joints.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.59-76
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• 2016

Penetration problems in geomechanics are common. Usually the soil is heavily disturbed around the penetrating bodies and large deformations and distortions can occur. The simulation of the installation of displacement piles is a good example of the interest of these types of problems for geomechanics. In this paper the Material Point Method is used to overcome the difficulties associated with the simulations of problems involving large deformation and full displacement type penetration. Recent modifications of the Material Point Method known as Generalized Interpolation Material Point and the Convected Particle Domain Interpolation are also used and evaluated in some of the examples. Herein a footing submitted to large settlements is presented and simulated, together with the processes associated to a driven pile under undrained conditions. The displacements of the soil surrounding the pile are compared with those obtained by the Small Strain Path Method. In addition, the Modified Cam Clay model is implemented in a code of MPM and used to simulate the process of driving a pile in dry sand. Good and rather encouraging agreement is found between compared data.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.67-81
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• 2013

Laterite blocks are used for construction of masonry walls since ages in the South-western coastal areas of India. The south-west coastal areas of India lie in zone III of seismic zonation map of Indian code IS 1893-2002. In spite of the fact that laterite is the most favored masonry material in these regions of India, the structural performance of laterite masonry has not been systematically investigated. Again there are no previous studies addressing, in detail, the seismic performance of laterite masonry buildings. Now that these areas are becoming more and more important from point of view of trade and commerce, there is a need for a detailed research on the seismic response of laterite masonry structures located in these areas. The present paper reports the results of such a study of the seismic response of box-type laterite masonry structures. Time history analysis of these structures under El-Centro acceleration has been performed using commercial finite element software ANSYS. Effect of 'containment reinforcement' on the seismic response of box type laterite masonry structures has been evaluated.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.253-272
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• 2013

The use of steel bracing systems is a popular method for the strengthening of existing reinforced concrete (RC) frames and may lead to a substantial increase of both strength and stiffness. However, in most retrofitting cases, the main target is the increase of the energy dissipation capacity. This paper studies numerically the efficiency of a specific strengthening methodology which utilizes a steel link element having a cross-section of various shapes, connected to the RC frame through bracing elements. The energy is dissipated through the yielding of the steel link element. The case studied is a typical one bay, single-storey RC frame, constructed according to older code provisions, which is strengthened through two different types of link elements. The presented numerical models are based on tests which are simulated in order to gain a better insight of the behaviour of the strengthened structures, but also in order to study the effects of different configurations for the link element. The behaviour of the strengthened frames is studied with respect to the one of the original bare frame. Moreover, the numerically obtained results are compared to the experimentally obtained ones, in order to verify the effectiveness of the applied simulation methodology.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.29-44
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• 2013

Post earthquake fire (PEF) can lead to the collapse of buildings that are partially damaged in a prior ground-motion that occurred immediately before the fire. The majority of standards and codes for the design of structures against earthquake ignore the possibility of PEF and thus buildings designed with those codes could be too weak when subjected to a fire after an earthquake. An investigation based on sequential analysis inspired by FEMA356 is performed here on the Life-Safety performance level of structures designed to the ACI 318-08 code after they are subjected to two different earthquake levels with PGA of 0.35 g and 0.25 g. This is followed by a four-hour fire analysis of the weakened structure, from which the time it takes for the weakened structure to collapse is calculated. As a benchmark, the fire analysis is also performed for undamaged structure and before occurrence of earthquake. The results show that the vulnerability of structures increases dramatically when a previously damaged structure is exposed to PEF. The results also show the damaging effects of post earthquake fire are exacerbated when initiated from second and third floor. Whilst the investigation is for a certain class of structures (regular building, intermediate reinforced structure, 3 stories), the results confirm the need for the incorporation of post earthquake fire in the process of analysis and design and provides some quantitative measures on the level of associated effects.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.4
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• pp.417-426
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• 2019

Buckling is one of the major causes of failure in thin-walled plate members and the presence of cracks with different lengths and locations in such structures may adversely affect this phenomenon. This study focuses on the buckling stability assessment of centrally and non-centrally cracked plates with small-, intermediate-, and large-size cracks, and different aspect ratios as well as support conditions, subjected to uniaxial compression. To this end, numerical models of the cracked plates were created through singular finite element method using a computational code developed in MATLAB. Eigen-buckling analyses were also performed to study the stability behavior of the plates. The numerical results and findings of this research demonstrate the effectiveness of the crack length and location on the buckling capacity of thin plates; however, the degree of efficacy of these parameters in plates with various aspect ratios and support conditions is found to be significantly different. Overall, careful consideration of the aspect ratio, support conditions, and crack parameters in buckling analysis of plates is crucial for efficient stability design and successful application of such thin-walled members.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2019

This paper presents an experimental study on a 1/2 scale steel frame with archaized-style under the pseudo-dynamic loading. Four seismic waves, including El Centro wave, Taft wave, Lanzhou wave and Wenchuan wave, were input during the test. The hysteresis characteristic, energy dissipation acceleration response, displacement response, strength, stiffness and strain were analyzed. Based on the experiment, the elastoplastic dynamic time-history analysis was carried out with the software ABAQUS. The stress distribution and failure mode were obtained. The results indicate that the steel frame with archaized-style was in elastic stage when the peak acceleration of input wave was no more than 400 gal. Under Wenchuan wave with peak acceleration of 620 gal, the steel frame enters into the elastoplastic stage, the maximum inter-story drift was 1/203 and the bearing capacity still tended to increase. During the loading process, Dou-Gong yielded first and played the role of the first seismic fortification line, and then beam ends and column bottom ends yielded in turn. The steel frame with archaized-style has good seismic performance and meets the seismic design requirement of Chinese code.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.257-270
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• 2019

The purpose of this work is to analyze the bending behavior of laminated composite plates using the refined fourvariable theory and the finite element method approach using an ANSYS 12 computational code. The analytical model is based on the multilayer plate theory of shear deformation of the nth-order proposed by Xiang et al 2011 using the theory principle developed by Shimpi and Patel 2006. Unlike other theories, the number of unknown functions in the present theory is only four, while five or more in the case of other theories of shear deformation. The formulation of the present theory is based on the principle of virtual works, it has a strong similarity with the classical theory of plates in many aspects, it does not require shear correction factor and gives a parabolic description of the shear stress across the thickness while filling the condition of zero shear stress on the free edges. The analysis is validated by comparing results with those in the literature.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.72 no.3
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• pp.395-408
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• 2019

Engineered structures built in seismic-prone areas are affected by aftershocks in addition to mainshocks. Although aftershocks generally are lower in magnitude than that of the mainshocks, some aftershocks may have higher intensities; thus, structures should be able to withstand the effect of strong aftershocks as well. This seismic scenario arises for far-field mainshock along with near-field aftershocks. In this study, four 2D reinforced concrete (RC) frames with different numbers of stories were designed in accordance with the current Iranian seismic design code. As a way to evaluate the seismic response of the case-study RC frames, the inter-story drift ratio (IDR) demand, the residual inter-story drift ratio (RIDR) demand, the Park-Ang damage index, and the period elongation ratio can be useful engineering demand parameters for evaluating their seismic performance under mainshock-aftershock sequences. The frame models were analyzed under a set of far-field mainshock, near-fault aftershocks seismic sequences using nonlinear dynamic time-history analysis to investigate the relationship among IDR, RIDR, Park-Ang damage index and period ratio experienced by the frames. The results indicate that the growth of IDR, RIDR, Park-Ang damage index, and period ratio in high-rise and short structures under near-fault aftershocks were significant. It is evident that engineers should consider the effects of near-fault aftershocks on damaged frames that experience far-field mainshocks as well.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.72 no.3
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• pp.313-327
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• 2019

Damage evolution in the form of void nucleation, propagation and coalescence is the primary cause that is responsible for the ductile failure of microalloyed steels. The Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman (GTN) damage model has proven to be extremely robust for characterizing the microscopic damage behavior of ductile metals. Nonetheless, successful applications of the model on a given metal type are limited by the correct identification of damage parameters as well as the validation of the calculated void growth rate. The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, we aim to identify the damage parameters of the GTN model for Q345 steel (Chinese code), due to its extensive application in mechanical and civil industries in China. The identification of damage parameters is facilitated by the well-suited response surface methodology, followed by a complete analysis of variance for evaluating the statistical significance of the identified model. Second, taking notched Q345 cylinders as an example, finite element simulations implemented with the identified GTN model are performed in order to analyze their microscopic damage behavior. In particular, the void growth rate predicted from the simulations is successfully correlated with experimentally measured acoustic emissions. The quantitative correlation suggests that during the yielding stage the void growth rate increases linearly with the acoustic emissions, while in the strain-hardening and softening period the dependence becomes an exponential function. The combined experimental and finite element approach provides a means for validating simulated void growth rate against experimental measurements of acoustic emissions in microalloyed steels.