• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.783-791
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• 2019

Prefabricated reinforced-concrete shear walls are used extensively in building structures because they are convenient to construct and environmentally sustainable. To make large walls easier to transport, they are divided into smaller segments and then assembled at the construction site using a variety of connection methods. The present paper proposes a precast shear wall assembled using steel shear keys, wherein the shear keys are fixed on the embedded steel plates of adjacent wall segments by combined plug and fillet welding. The anchoring strength of shear keys is known to affect the mechanical properties of the wall segments. Loading tests were therefore performed to observe the behavior of precast shear wall specimens with different anchoring components for shear keys. The specimen with insufficient strength of anchoring components was found to have reduced stiffness and lateral resistance. Conversely, an extremely high anchoring strength led to a short-column effect at the base of the wall segments and low deformation ability. Finally, for practical engineering purposes, a design approach involving the safety coefficient of anchoring components for steel shear keys is suggested.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.477-487
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• 2019

Understanding the behavior of skew bridges under the action of earthquakes is quite challenging due to the combined transverse and longitudinal responses even under unidirectional hit. The main goal of this research is to assess the response of skew bridges when subjected to longitudinal and transversal earthquake loading. The effect of skew on the response considering two- and three- span bridges with skew angles varying from 0 to 60 degrees is illustrated. Various pier fixities (and hence stiffness) and cross-section shapes, as well as different abutment's bearing articulations, are also studied. Finite-element models are established for modal and seismic analyses. Around 900 models are analyzed under the action of the code design response spectrum. $Vis-{\grave{a}}-vis$ modal properties, the higher the skew angle, the less the fundamental period. In addition, it is found that bridges with skew angles less than 30 degrees can be treated as straight bridges for the purpose of calculating modal mass participation factors. Other monitored results are bearings' reactions at abutments, shear and torsion demand in piers, as well as deck longitudinal displacement. Unlike straight bridges, it has been typically noted that skew bridges experience non-negligible torsion and bi-directional pier base shears. In a complementary effort to assess the accuracy of the conducted response spectrum analysis, a series of time-history analyses are applied under seven actual earthquake records scaled to match the code design response spectrum and critical comparisons are performed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.203-219
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• 2006

One of the most promising ways through which a steel moment frame may attain high energy dissipating capability is to trim off a portion of the beam flanges near the column face. This type of moment connection, known as Reduced Beam Section (RBS) connection, has notable superiority in comparison with other moment connection types. As the result of the advantages of RBS moment connection, it has widely being used in practice. In spite of the good hysteretic behaviour, an RBS beam suffers from an undesirable drawback, which is local and lateral instability of the beam. The instability in the RBS beam reduces beam load-carrying capacity. This paper aims to investigate key issues influencing cyclic behaviour of RBS beams. To this end, a numerical analysis was conducted on a series of steel subassemblies with various geometric properties. The obtained results together with the existing experimental data are used to study the instability of RBS beams. A new slenderness concept is presented to control an RBS beam for combined local and lateral instability. This concept is in good agreement with the numerical and experimental results. Finally, a model is developed for the prediction of the magnitude of moment degradation owing to the instability of an RBS beam.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.68 no.5
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• pp.527-536
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• 2018

The free vibration frequency responses of the graded flat and curved (cylindrical, spherical, hyperbolic and elliptical) panel structures investigated in this research considering the rectangular and tilted planforms under unlike temperature loading. For the numerical implementation purpose, a micromechanical model is prepared with the help of Voigt's methodology via the power-law type of material model. Additionally, to incur the exact material strength, the temperature-dependent properties of each constituent of the graded structure included due to unlike thermal environment. The deformation kinematics of the rectangular/tilted graded shallow curved panel structural is modeled via higher-order type of polynomial functions. The final form of the eigenvalue equation of the heated structure obtained via Hamilton's principle and simultaneously solved numerically using finite element steps. To show the solution accuracy, a series of comparison the results are compared with the published data. Some new results are exemplified to exhibit the significance of power-law index, shallowness ratio, aspect ratio and thickness ratio on the combined thermal eigen characteristics of the regular and tilted graded panel structure.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.149-169
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• 2019

A new form of composite column, concrete-filled round-ended steel tubes (CFRTs), has been proposed as piers or columns in bridges and high-rise building and has great potential to be used in civil engineering. Hence, the objective of this paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation on the flexural behavior of CFRTs through combined experimental results and ABAQUS standard solver. The failure mode was discussed in detail and the specimens all behaved in a very ductile manner. The effect of different parameters, including the steel ratio and aspect ratio, on the flexural behavior of CFRTs was further investigated. Furthermore, the feasibility and accuracy of the numerical method was verified by comparing the FE and experimental results. The moment vs. curvature curves of CFRTs during the loading process were analyzed in detail. The development of the stress and strain distributions in the core concrete and steel tube was investigated based on FE models. The composite action between the core concrete and steel tube was discussed and clarified. In addition, the load transfer mechanism of CFRT under bending was introduced comprehensively. Finally, the predicted ultimate moment according to corresponding designed formula is in good agreement with the experimental results.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.41-54
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• 2019

Reinforced Concrete (RC) shear walls are widely used in Nuclear power plants as effective lateral force resisting elements of the structure and these may experience nonlinear behavior for higher earthquake demand. Short shear walls of aspect ratio less than 1.5 generally experience combined shear flexure interaction. This paper presents the results of the displacement-controlled experiments performed on six RC short shear walls with varying aspect ratios (1, 1.25 and 1.5) for monotonic and reversed quasi-static cyclic loading. Simulation of the shear walls is then carried out by Finite element modeling and also by macro modeling considering the coupled shear and flexure behaviour. The shear response is estimated by softened truss theory using the concrete model given by Vecchio and Collins (1994) with a modification in softening part of the model and flexure response is estimated using moment curvature relationship. The accuracy of modeling is validated by comparing the simulated response with experimental one. Moreover, based on the experimental work a multi-linear hysteretic model is proposed for short shear walls. Finally ultimate load, drift, ductility, stiffness reduction and failure pattern of the shear walls are studied in details and hysteretic energy dissipation along with damage index are evaluated.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.155-162
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• 2019

Hybrid precast concrete panel is a wall element that is able to quickly construct the core wall structure for moderate-rise modular buildings. Hybrid precast concrete panel has unique characteristics which is a pair of C-shaped steel beams combined at the top and bottom of a concrete wall, In this study, an improved anchorage detail for vertical rebar is proposed to ensure the lateral force resistance performance of hybrid precast concrete panel emulating monolithic concrete wall. Also, the structural performance of horizontal connection is investigated experimentally with the bolt spacing parameter. And the behavior of hybrid precast concrete panel with the improved detail is compared with the monolithic concrete wall tested in a previous study. Finally, the required thickness of C-shaped steel beam to eliminate or minimize the deformation in horizontal connection is calculated by prying action equation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.116-124
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• 2021

In this study, the reliability of vehicle frames employed in small electric road sweepers was assessed through durability testing. The frames were tested under three conditions, whereby mechanical loads were applied to (1) the entire frame, (2) the front frame, and (3) the rear frame. The strain distributions in the loaded frames were determined through a combination of direct strain gauge measurements and supplementary numerical analysis. While subtle differences were observed between the experimental and numerical analyses, both methods successfully yielded comparable deformation patterns. Thus, the dependence of stress distribution and the state of the frame on loading conditions could be fully identified through our combined structural and numerical analysis.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.5
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• pp.691-703
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• 2021

Reinforced concrete (RC) beams can be subjected to a complex combination of shear forces (V), torsional moments (T), flexural moments (M) and axial loads (N). This paper proposes a unified approach for the analysis of these elements. An existing model for the analysis of orthogonally reinforced concrete membrane elements subjected to in-plane shear and normal stresses is generalized to apply to the case of beams subjected to the complex loading. The combination of V and T can be critical. Torsion is modelled using the hollow-tube analogy. A direct equation for the calculation of the thickness of the equivalent hollow tube is proposed, and the shear stresses caused by V and T are combined using a simple approach. The development and the evaluation of the model are described. The calculations of the model are compared to experimental data from 350 beams subjected to various combinations of stress-resultants and to the calculations of the ACI and the CSA codes. The proposed model provides the most favorable results. It is also shown that it can accurately model the interaction between V and T. The proposed model provides a unified treatment of shear in beams subjected to complex stress-resultants and in thin membrane elements subjected to in-plane stresses.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.497-521
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• 2021

In this study, an effective numerical method is introduced for nonlinear inelastic analyses of rectangular concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) frames for the first time. A steel-concrete composite fiber beam-column element model is developed that considers material, and geometric nonlinearities, and residual stresses. This is achieved by using stability functions combined with integration points along the element length to capture the spread of plasticity over the composite cross-section along the element length. Additionally, a multi-spring element with a zero-length is employed to model the nonlinear semi-rigid beam-to-column connections in CFST frame models. To solve the nonlinear equilibrium equations, the generalized displacement control algorithm is adopted. The accuracy of the proposed method is firstly verified by a large number of experiments of CFST members subjected to various loading conditions. Subsequently, the proposed method is applied to investigate the nonlinear inelastic behavior of rectangular CFST frames with fully rigid, semi-rigid, and hinged connections. The accuracy of the predicted results and the efficiency pertaining to the computation time of the proposed method are demonstrated in comparison with the ABAQUS software. The proposed numerical method may be efficiently utilized in practical designs for advanced analysis of the rectangular CFST structures.