• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.561-568
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• 2017

Steel frames are widely used in steel structures. Exiting steel structures may be needed to strengthen for various reasons. Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) is one of the materials that are used to strengthen steel structures. Most studies on strengthening steel structures have been done on beams and steel columns. No independent study, to the researcher's knowledge, has studied the effect of CFRP strengthening on steel frames. This study explored the use of CFRP composite on retrofitting square hollow section (SHS) steel frames, using numerical investigations. Ten Finite Element (FE) models, which were strengthened with CFRP sheets, were analyzed under different coverage length, number of layers, and location of CFRP composite. One FE model without strengthening was analyzed as a control FE model to determine the increase of the ultimate load in the strengthened steel frames. ANSYS software was used to analyze the SHS steel frames. The results showed that the coverage length and the number of layers of CFRP composite have a significant effect on increasing the ultimate load of the SHS steel frames. The results also showed that the location of CFRP composite had no similar effect on increasing the ultimate load and the amount of mid span deflection of the SHS steel frames.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.267-285
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• 2011

There can be a significant amount of moment redistribution in composite frames consisting of steel columns and composite beams, due to cracking, creep and shrinkage of concrete. Considerable amount of computational effort is required for taking into account these effects for large composite frames. A methodology has been presented in this paper for taking into account these effects. In the methodology that has been demonstrated for moderately high frames, neural network models are developed for rapid prediction of the inelastic moments (typically for 20 years, considering instantaneous cracking, and time effects, i.e., creep and shrinkage, in concrete) at a joint in a frame from the elastic moments (neglecting instantaneous cracking and time effects). The proposed models predict the inelastic moment ratios (ratio of elastic moment to inelastic moment) using eleven input parameters for interior joints and seven input parameters for exterior joints. The training and testing data sets are generated using a hybrid procedure developed by the authors. The neural network models have been validated for frames of different number of spans and storeys. The models drastically reduce the computational effort and predict the inelastic moments, with reasonable accuracy for practical purposes, from the elastic moments, that can be obtained from any of the readily available software.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.393-407
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• 2020

The braced tube frame system, a combination of perimeter frame and bracing frame, is one of the systems used in tall buildings. Due to the implementation of this system in tall buildings and the high rigidity resulting from the use of general bracing, providing proper ductility while maintaining the strength of the structure when exposing to lateral forces is essential. Also, the high stress at the connection of the beam to the column may cause a sudden failure in the region before reaching the required ductility. The use of Reduced Beam Section connection (RBS connection) by focusing stress in a region away from beam to column connection is a suitable solution to the problem. Because of the fact that RBS connections are usually used in moment frames and not tested in tall buildings with braced tube frames, they should be investigated. Therefore, in this research, three tall buildings in height ranges of 20, 25 and 30 floors were modeled and designed by SAP2000 software, and then a frame in each building was modeled in PERFORM-3D software under two RBS-free system and RBS-based system. Nonlinear time history dynamic analysis is used for each frame under Manjil, Tabas and Northridge excitations. The results of the Comparison between RBS-free and RBS-based systems show that the RBS connections increased the absorbed energy level by reducing the stiffness and increasing the ductility in the beams and structural system. Also, by increasing the involvement of the beams in absorbing energy, the columns and braces absorb less energy.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.625-641
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• 2020

The realistic modeling of the beam-column semi-rigid connection in steel frames attracted the attention of many researchers in the past for the seismic analysis of semi-rigid frames. Comparatively less studies have been made to investigate the behavior of steel frames with semi-rigid connections under different types of earthquake. Herein, the seismic behavior of semi-rigid steel frames is investigated under both far and near-field earthquakes. The semi-rigid connection is modeled by the multilinear plastic link element consisting of rotational springs. The kinematic hysteresis model is used to define the dynamic behavior of the rotational spring, describing the nonlinearity of the semi-rigid connection as defined in SAP2000. The nonlinear time history analysis (NTHA) is performed to obtain response time histories of the frame under scaled earthquakes at three PGA levels denoting the low, medium and high-level earthquakes. The other important parameters varied are the stiffness and strength parameters of the connections, defining the degree of semi-rigidity. For studying the behavior of the semi-rigid frame, a large number of seismic demand parameters are considered. The benchmark for comparison is taken as those of the corresponding rigid frame. Two different frames, namely, a five-story frame and a ten-story frame are considered as the numerical examples. It is shown that semi-rigid frames prove to be effective and beneficial in resisting the seismic forces for near-field earthquakes (PGA ≈ 0.2g), especially in reducing the base shear to a considerable extent for the moderate level of earthquake. Further, the semi-rigid frame with a relatively weaker beam and less connection stiffness may withstand a moderately strong earthquake without having much damage in the beams.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.711-734
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• 2012

The foundation of a tall building frame resting on settable soil mass undergoes differential settlements which alter the forces in the structural members significantly. For tall buildings it is essential to consider seismic forces in analysis. The building frame, foundation and soil mass are considered to act as single integral compatible structural unit. The stress-strain characteristics of the supporting soil play a vital role in the interaction analysis. The resulting differential settlements of the soil mass are responsible for the redistribution of forces in the superstructure. In the present work, the nonlinear interaction analysis of a two-bay ten-storey plane building frame- layered soil system under seismic loading has been carried out using the coupled finite-infinite elements. The frame has been considered to act in linear elastic manner while the soil mass to act as nonlinear elastic manner. The subsoil in reality exists in layered formation and consists of various soil layers having different properties. Each individual soil layer in reality can be considered to behave in nonlinear manner. The nonlinear layered system as a whole will undergo differential settlements. Thus, it becomes essential to study the structural behaviour of a structure resting on such nonlinear composite layered soil system. The nonlinear constitutive hyperbolic soil model available in the literature is adopted to model the nonlinear behaviour of the soil mass. The structural behaviour of the interaction system is investigated as the shear forces and bending moments in superstructure get significantly altered due to differential settlements of the soil mass.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.473-491
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• 2022

The research investigates experimentally the effect of confinement on structural behavior at the ends of beam-column in reinforced concrete (RC) frames. In the experimental study, five specimens consisting of 1/3-scaled RC frames having single-bay, representing the traditional deficiencies of existing buildings constructed without receiving proper engineering service is investigated. The RC frame specimens were produced to represent most of the existing buildings in Turkey that have damage potential. To decrease the probable damage to the existing buildings exposed to earthquakes, the carbon Textile Reinforced Mortar (TRM) strengthening technique (fully wrapping) was used on the ends of the RC frame elements to increase the energy dissipation and deformation capacity. The specimens were tested under reversed cyclic lateral loading with constant axial loads. They were constructed satisfying the weak column-strong beam condition and consisting of low-strength concrete, such as compressive strength of 15 MPa. The test results were compared and evaluated considering stiffness, strength, energy dissipation capacity, structural damping, ductility, and damage propagation in detail. Comprehensive investigations of these experimental results reveal that the strengthening of a brittle frame with fully-TRM wrapping with non-anchored was effective in increasing the stiffness, ductility, and energy dissipation capacities of RC bare frames. It was also observed that the frame-only-retrofitting with an infill wall is not enough to increase the ductility capacity. In this case, both the frame and infill wall must be retrofitted with TRM composite to increase the stiffness, lateral load carrying, ductility and energy dissipation capacities of RC frames. The presented strengthening method can be an alternative strengthening technique to enhance the seismic performance of existing or moderately damaged RC buildings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.763-785
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• 2008

In this study, a flexibility-based finite element method considering geometric and material nonlinearities is developed for analyzing steel-concrete frame structures. The stability functions obtained from the exact buckling solution of the beam-column subjected to end moments are used to accurately capture the second-order effects. The proposed method uses the force interpolation functions, including a moment magnification due to the axial force and lateral displacement. Thus, only one element per a physical member can account for the interaction between the bending moment and the axial force in a rational way. The proposed method applies the Newton method based on the load control and uses the secant stiffness method, which is computationally both efficient and stable. According to the evaluation result of this study, the proposed method consistently well predicts the nonlinear inelastic behavior of steel-concrete composite frames and gives good efficiency.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.347-352
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• 2002

Recent trends in the construction of building frame feature the increase use of composite steel concrete members functioning together in what terms of mixed structural systems. One of such systems, RCS(reinforced concrete column and steel beam) system is introduced and closely examined focusing on bearing strength of the composite joint in this paper. The main objective of this study was to develope one of details to increase bearing capacity while bearing failure is one of the two primary modes of failure in RCS system. Local bearing tests with specimens about 1/3 of the actual concrete column size were performed applying uniform load through steel plate with 100$\times$110mm size. Test results show that specimens with the bearing reinforcement detail developed in this study enhanced the bearing strength by 1.71~3.02 compared to concrete cylinder strength.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.107-110
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• 2005

In this study we investigated the shear and forming behavior of chain stitched multi-axial warp knitted fabric preform, so called non-crimp fabric (NCF). The picture frame test was performed to characterize the shear behavior of NCF and also provide material properties for the numerical simulation of its deformation behavior. The forming behavior of NCF with chain stitch were investigated using hemispherical forming tools. The experimental results show that processing conditions such as blank holder force (BHF) and preform shape are crucial to determining the forming behavior of NCF. For instance, an asymmetric formed shape, which is due to the stitches introduced to NCF, turns into a symmetric one as BHF increases. Furthermore the in-plane and out-of buckling (wrinkle), the severance of which were quantified using image processing method, decreases significantly as BHF increases.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.299-313
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• 2015

In this paper, an optimization process using Genetic Algorithm (GA) that mimics biological processes is presented for optimum design of planar frames with semi-rigid connections by selecting suitable standard sections from a specified list taken from American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC). The stress constraints as indicated in AISC-LRFD (American Institute of Steel Construction - Load and Resistance Factor Design), maximum lateral displacement constraints and geometric constraints are considered for optimum design. Two different planar frames with semi-rigid connections taken from the literature are carried out first without considering concrete slab effects in finite element analyses and the results are compared with the ones available in literature. The same optimization procedures are then repeated for full and semi rigid planar frames with composite (steel and concrete) beams. A program is developed in MATLAB for all optimization procedures. Results obtained from this study proved that consideration of the contribution of the concrete on the behavior of the floor beams provides lighter planar frames.