• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1259-1277
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• 2015

The present study is focused on the behavior and design of perforated steel storage rack columns under axial compression. These columns may exhibit different types of behavior and levels of strength owing to their peculiar features including their complex cross-section forms and perforations along the member. In the present codes of practice, the design of these columns is carried out using analytical formulas which are supported by experimental tests described in the relevant code document. Recently proposed analytical approaches are used to estimate the load carrying capacity of axially compressed steel storage rack columns. Experimental and numerical studies were carried out to verify the proposed approaches. The experimental study includes compression tests done on members of different lengths, but of the same cross-section. A comparison between the analytical and the experimental results is presented to identify the accuracy of the recently proposed analytical approaches. The proposed approach includes modifications in the Direct Strength Method to include the effects of perforations (the so-called reduced thickness approach). CUFSM and CUTWP software programs are used to calculate the elastic buckling parameters of the studied members. Results from experimental and analytical studies compared very well. This indicates the validity of the recently proposed approaches for predicting the ultimate strength of steel storage rack columns.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.467-485
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• 2015

This paper presents a comprehensive work on determination of yield base shear coefficient and displacement ductility factor of three to eight story actual reinforced concrete buildings, instead of using generic frames. The building data is provided by a walkdown survey in different locations of the pilot areas. Very detailed three dimensional models of the selected buildings are generated by using the data provided in architectural and reinforcement projects. Capacity curves of the buildings are obtained from nonlinear static pushover analyses and each capacity curve is approximated with a bilinear curve. Characteristic points of capacity curve, the yield base shear capacity, the yield displacement and the ultimate displacement capacity, are determined. The calculated values of the yield base shear coefficients and the displacement ductility factors for directions into consideration are compared by those expected values given in different versions of Turkish Seismic Design Code. Although having sufficient lateral strength capacities, the deformation capacities of these typical mid-rise reinforced concrete buildings are found to be considerably low.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.451-469
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• 2010

The majority of weather-related failures of transmission line structures that have occurred in the past have been attributed to high intensity localized wind events, in the form of tornadoes and downbursts. A numerical scheme is developed in the current study to assess the performance of transmission lines under tornado wind load events. The tornado wind field is based on a model scale Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) analysis that was conducted and validated in a previous study. Using field measurements and code specifications, the CFD model data is used to estimate the wind fields for F4 and F2 full scale tornadoes. The wind forces associated with these tornado fields are evaluated and later incorporated into a nonlinear finite element three-dimensional model for the transmission line system, which includes a simulation for the towers and the conductors. A comparison is carried between the forces in the members resulting from the tornadoes, and those obtained using the conventional design wind loads. The study reveals the importance of considering tornadoes when designing transmission line structures.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.245-255
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• 2012

The damping effect of a Concrete-filled Rectangular Steel Tube (CRST) frame structure is studied in this paper. Viscous dampers are employed to insure the function of the building especially subjected to earthquakes, for some of the main vertical elements of the building are not continuous. The shaking table test of a 1:15 scale model was conducted under different earthquake excitations to recognize the seismic behavior of this building. And the vibration damping effect was also investigated by the shaking table test and the simulation analysis. The nonlinear time-history analysis of the shaking table test model was carried out by the finite element analysis program CANNY. The simulation model was constructed in accordance with the tested one and was analyzed under the same loading condition and the simulation effect was then validated by the tested results. Further more, the simulation analysis of the prototype structure was carried out by the same procedure. Both the simulated and tested results indicate that there are no obvious weak stories on the damping equipped structure, and the dampers can provide the probability of an irregular CRST frame structure to meet the requirements of the design code on energy dissipation and deformation limitation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.3
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• pp.379-386
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• 2018

The present study addresses the direct and indirect methods of determining the mode-I fracture toughness of concrete using experimental tests and particle flow code. The direct method used is compaction tensile test and the indirect methods are notched Brazilian disc test, semi-circular bend specimen test, and hollow center cracked disc. The experiments were carried out to determine which indirect method yields the fracture toughness closer to the one obtained by the direct method. In the numerical analysis, the PFC model was first calibrated with respect to the data obtained from the Brazilian laboratory test. The crack paths observed in the simulated tests were in reasonable accordance with experimental results. The discrete element simulations demonstrated that the macro fractures in the models are caused by microscopic tensile breakages on large numbers of bonded particles. The mode-I fracture toughness in the direct tensile test was smaller than the indirect testing results. The fracture toughness obtained from the SCB test was closer to the direct test results. Hence, the semi-circular bend test is recommended as a proper experiment for determination of mode-I fracture toughness of concrete in the absence of direct tests.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.3
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• pp.305-315
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• 2018

Interaction of lateral loading, combined with axial force needs to be determined with care in reinforced concrete (RC) one-dimensional structural members (1D SMs) such as beam-columns (BCs) and columns. RC 1D SMs under heavy axial loading are known to fail by brittle mode and small lateral displacements. In this paper, a macro element-based algorithm is proposed to analyze the RC 1D SMs under monotonic or cyclic combined loading. The 1D SMs are discretized into macro-elements (MEs) located between the critical sections and the inflection points. The critical sections are discretized into fixed rectangular finite elements (FRFE). The nonlinear behavior of confined and unconfined concretes and steel elements are considered in the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm has been validated by the results of experimental tests carried out on full-scale RC structural members. The evolution of ultimate strain at extreme compression fiber of a rectangular RC section for different orientations of lateral loading shows that the ultimate strain decreases with increasing the axial force. In the examined cases, this ultimate strain ranges from 0.0024 to 0.0038. Therefore, the 0.003 value given by ACI-318 code for ultimate strain, is not conservative and valid for the combined load cases with significant values of axial force (i.e. for the axial forces heavier than 70% of the ultimate axial force).

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.69-75
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• 2017

In fire design for floors, the three criteria of stability, integrity and insulation are required for the specified fire resistance duration. Among these, stability is not easy to confirm. For solid prestressed concrete slabs of uniform thickness, Eurocode 2 provides tabulated data and specifies an axis distance to the centroid of strands to achieve particular fire resistance ratings, but it is not clear if this data can be used for a wide range of different prestressed slab profiles. In order to verify the current code-fire ratings for precast prestressed slabs, both simple and advanced calculation methods are investigated. This paper examines the use of calculation methods, accounting for the real behaviour of unprotected simply supported prestressed concrete slabs exposed to the standard ISO 834 fire. The calculated fire resistance of each prestressed concrete slab is compared with tabulated data in Eurocode part 1.2, with detailed discussion.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.65-88
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• 2011

A new method for the seismic design of plane steel moment resisting frames is developed. This method determines the design base shear of a plane steel frame through modal synthesis and spectrum analysis utilizing different values of the strength reduction (behavior) factor for the modes considered instead of a single common value of that factor for all these modes as it is the case with current seismic codes. The values of these modal strength reduction factors are derived with the aid of a) design equations that provide equivalent linear modal damping ratios for steel moment resisting frames as functions of period, allowable interstorey drift and damage levels and b) the damping reduction factor that modifies elastic acceleration spectra for high levels of damping. Thus, a new performance-based design method is established. The direct dependence of the modal strength reduction factor on desired interstorey drift and damage levels permits the control of deformations without their determination and secures that deformations will not exceed these levels. By means of certain seismic design examples presented herein, it is demonstrated that the use of different values for the strength reduction factor per mode instead of a single common value for all modes, leads to more accurate results in a more rational way than the code-based ones.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.59-65
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• 2010

The paper presents a comparison between a semi-implicit time integration linear finite element implementation and fully-implicit nonlinear Newton-Raphson finite element implementation of a triphasic small strain mixture formulation of an elastic partially saturated porous medium. The pore air phase pressure pa is assumed atmospheric, i.e., $p_a$ = 0, although the formulation and implementation are general to handle increase in pore air pressure as a result of loading, if needed. The solid skeleton phase is assumed linear isotropic elastic and partially saturated 'consolidation' in the presence of surface infiltration and traction is simulated. The verification of the implementation against an analytical solution for partially saturated pore water flow (no deformation) and comparison between the two implementations is presented and the important of the porosity-dependent nature of the partially saturated permeability is assessed on comparison with a commercial code for the partially saturated flow with deformation. As a result, the response of partially saturated permeability subjected to the porosity influences on the saturation of a soil, and the different behaviors of the partially saturated soil between staggered and monolithic coupled programs is worth of attention because the negative pore water pressure in the partially saturated soil depends on the difference.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.121-126
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• 2016

Hydraulic performance of a micro-bubble pump has been analyzed by numerical simulation and experimental measurements. Flow recirculation apparatus between the pump inlet and outlet reserviors has been adopted to measure pump performance according to flow conditions sequentially. To analyze three-dimensional flow field in the micro-bubble pump, general analysis code, CFX, is employed. SST turbulence model is employed to estimate the eddy viscosity and compared the pump performance to k-${\varepsilon}$ model. Unstructured grids are used to represent a composite grid system including blade, casing and inlet casing. It is found that the numerical model used in the present study is effective to evaluate the pump performance. From the numerical simulation, low velocity region due to pressure loss is decreased where pump efficiency has maximum value. Detailed flow field inside the micro-bubble pump is also analyzed and compared.