• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.157-175
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• 2017

The novelty of this work is the use of a new displacement field that includes undetermined integral terms for analyzing thermal buckling response of functionally graded (FG) sandwich plates. The proposed kinematic uses only four variables, which is even less than the first shear deformation theory (FSDT) and the conventional higher shear deformation theories (HSDTs). The theory considers a trigonometric variation of transverse shear stress and verifies the traction free boundary conditions without employing the shear correction factors. Material properties of the sandwich plate faces are considered to be graded in the thickness direction according to a simple power-law variation in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The core layer is still homogeneous and made of an isotropic material. The thermal loads are assumed as uniform, linear and non-linear temperature rises within the thickness direction. An energy based variational principle is employed to derive the governing equations as an eigenvalue problem. The validation of the present work is checked by comparing the obtained results the available ones in the literature. The influences of aspect and thickness ratios, material index, loading type, and sandwich plate type on the critical buckling are all discussed.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.165-176
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• 2017

Multi-Axial Testing System (MATS) is a 6-DOF loading system located at National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) in Taiwan for advanced seismic testing of structural components or sub-assemblages. MATS was designed and constructed for a large variety of structural testing, especially for the specimens that require to be subjected to vertical and longitudinal loading simultaneously, such as reinforced concrete columns and lead rubber bearings. Functionally, MATS consists of a high strength self-reacting frame, a rigid platen, and a large number of servo-hydraulic actuators. The high strength self-reacting frame is composed of two post-tensioned A-shape reinforced concrete frames interconnected by a steel-and-concrete composite cross beam and a reinforced concrete reacting base. The specimen can be anchored between the top cross beam and the bottom rigid platen within a 5-meter high and 3.25-meter wide clear space. In addition to the longitudinal horizontal actuators that can be installed for various configurations, a total number of 13 servo-hydraulic actuators are connected to the rigid platen. Degree-of-freedom control of the rigid platen can be achieved by driving these actuators commanded by a digital controller. The specification and information of MATS in detail are described in this paper, providing the users with a technical point of view on the design, application, and limitation of MATS. Finally, future potential application employing advanced experimental technology is also presented in this paper.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.409-420
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• 2017

This paper theoretically studies the cyclic behavior of hybrid connections between steel coupling beams and concrete shear walls with embedded steel columns. Finite element models of connections with long and short embedded steel columns are built in ABAQUS and validated against the test results in the companion paper. Parametric studies are carried out using the validated FE model to determine the key influencing factors on the load-bearing capacity of connections. A close-form solution of the load-bearing capacity of connections is proposed by considering the contributions from the compressive strength of concrete at the interface between the embedded beam and concrete, shear yielding of column web in the tensile region, and shear capacity of column web and concrete in joint zone. The results show that the bond slip between embedded steel members and concrete should be considered which can be simulated by defining contact boundary conditions. It is found that the loadbearing capacity of connections strongly depends on the section height, flange width and web thickness of the embedded column. The accuracy of the proposed calculation method is validated against test results and also verified against FE results (with differences within 10%). It is recommended that embedded steel columns should be placed along the entire height of shear walls to facilitate construction and enhance the ductility. The thickness and section height of embedded columns should be increased to enhance the load-bearing capacity of connections. The stirrups in the joint zone should be strengthened and embedded columns with very small section height should be avoided.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.215-228
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• 2021

This paper investigates the effect of micromechanical models on the bending behavior of bidirectional functionally graded (BDFG) beams subjected to different mechanical loading. The material properties of the beam are considered to be graded in both axial and thickness directions according to a power law. The beam's behavior is modeled by the mean of quasi 3D displacement field that contain undetermined integral terms and involves a reduced unknown functions. Navier's method is employed to determine and compute the displacements and stress for a simply supported beam. Different homogenization schemes such as Voigt, Reus, and Mori-Tanaka are employed to analyze the response of the BDFG beam subjected to linear, uniform, exponential and sinusoidal distributed loading. The results obtained by the present method are compared with available results in the literature and a good agreement was found. Several numerical results are presented in tabular form and in figures to examine the effects of the material gradation, micromechanical models and types of loading on the bending response of BDFG beams. It can be concluded that the present theory is not only accurate but also simple in predicting the bending response of BDFG beam subjected to different static loads.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.571-582
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• 2019

This study aimed to assess the feasibility on the wide and long 9%Ni steel plate for use in the LNG storage inner tank shell. First, 5-m-wide and 15-m-long 9%Ni steel plates were test manufactured from a steel mill and specimens taken from the plates were tested for strength, toughness, and flatness to verify their performance based on international standards and design specifications. Second, plates with a thickness of 10 mm and 25 mm, a width of 4.8~5.0 m, and a length of 15 m were test fabricated by subjecting to pretreatment, beveling, and roll bending resulting in a final width of 4.5~4.8 m and a length of 14.8m with fabrication errors identical to conventional plates. Third, welded specimens obtained via shield metal arc welding used for vertical welding of inner tank shell and submerged arc welding used for horizontal welding were also tested for strength, toughness and ductility. Fourth, verification of shell plate material and fabrication was followed by test erection using two 25-mm-thick, 4.5-m-wide and 14.8-m-long 9%Ni steel plates. No undesirable welding failure or deformation was found. Finally, parametric design using wide and long 9%Ni steel plates was carried out, and a simplified design method to determine the plate thickness along the shell height was proposed. The cost analysis based on the parametric design resulted in about 2% increase of steel weight; however, the construction cost was reduced about 6% due to large reduction in welding work.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.541-558
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• 2019

In Special Concentrically Braced Frames (SCBFs), vertical and horizontal components of the brace force must be resisted by column and beam, respectively but normal force component existing at the gusset plate-to-column and beam interfaces, creates out-of-plane action making distortion in column and beam faces adjacent to the gusset plate. It is a main concern in Hollow Structural Section (HSS) columns and beams where their webs and gusset plate are not in the same plane. In this paper, a new gusset plate passing through the HSS columns and beams, named as through gusset plate, is proposed to study the force transfer mechanism in such gusset plates of SCBFs compared to the case with conventional gusset plates. For this purpose, twelve SCBFs with diagonal brace and HSS columns and twelve SCBFs with chevron brace and HSS columns and beams are considered. For each frame, two cases are considered, one with through gusset plates and the other with conventional ones. Based on numerical results, using through gusset plates prevents distortion and out-of-plane deformation at HSS column and beam faces adjacent to the gusset plate helping the entire column and beam cross-sections to resist respectively vertical and horizontal components of the brace force. Moreover, its application increases energy dissipation, lateral stiffness and strength around 28%, 40% and 32%, respectively, improving connection behavior and raising the resistance of the normal force components at the gusset plate-to-HSS column and beam interfaces to approximately 4 and 3.5 times, respectively. Finally, using such through gusset plates leads to better structural performance particularly for HSS columns and beams with larger width-to-thickness ratio elements.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.559-573
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• 2019

Spiral spacing effect on axial compressive behavior of reinforced concrete filled steel tube (RCFST) stub column is experimentally investigated in this paper. A total of twenty specimens including sixteen square RCFST columns and four benchmarked conventional square concrete filled steel tube (CFST) columns are fabricated and tested. Test variables include spiral spacing (spiral ratio) and concrete strength. The failure modes, load versus displacement curves, compressive rigidity, axial compressive strength, and ductility of the specimens are obtained and analyzed. Especially, the effect of spiral spacing on axial compressive strength and ductility is investigated and discussed in detail. Test results show that heavily arranged spirals considerably increase the ultimate compressive strength but lightly arranged spirals have no obvious effect on the ultimate strength. In practical design, the effect of spirals on RCFST column strength should be considered only when spirals are heavily arranged. Spiral spacing has a considerable effect on increasing the post-peak ductility of RCFST columns. Decreasing of the spiral spacing considerably increases the post-peak ductility of the RCFSTs. When the concrete strength increases, ultimate strength increases but the ductility decreases, due to the brittleness of the higher strength concrete. Arranging spirals, even with a rather small amount of spirals, is an economical and easy solution for improving the ductility of RCFST columns with high-strength concrete. Ultimate compressive strengths of the columns are calculated according to the codes EC4 (2004), GB 50936 (2014), AIJ (2008), and ACI 318 (2014). The ultimate strength of RCFST stub columns can be most precisely evaluated using standard GB 50936 (2014) considering the effect of spiral confinement on core concrete.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.79-90
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• 2019

This study introduces new connections that connect the beam to the column with slit dampers. Plastic deformations and damages concentrate on slit dampers. The slit dampers prevent plastic damages of column, beam, welds and panel zone and act as fuses. The slit dampers were prepared with IPE profiles that had some holes in the webs. In this paper, two experimental specimens were made. In first specimen (SDC1), just one slit damper connected the beam to the column and one IPE profile with no holes connected the bottom flange of the beam to the column. The second specimen (SDC2) had two similar dampers which connected the top and bottom flange of the beam to the column. Cyclic loading was applied on Specimens. The cyclic displacements conditions continued until 0.06 radian rotation of connection. The experimental observations showed that the bending moment of specimen SDC2 increased until 0.04 story drift. In specimen SDC1, the bending moment decreases after 0.03 story drift. Test results indicate the high performance of the proposed connection. Based on the results, the specimen with two slit damper (SDC2) has higher seismic performance and dissipates more energy in loading process than specimen SDC1. Theoretical formulas were extended for the proposed connections. Numerical studies have been done by ABAQUS software. The theoretical and numerical results had good agreements with the experimental data. Based on the experimental and numerical investigations, the high ductility of connection is obtained from plastic damages of slit dampers. The most flexural moment of specimen SDC1 occurred at 3% story drift and this value was 1.4 times the plastic moment of the beam section. This parameter for SDC2 was 1.73 times the plastic moment of the beam section and occurred at 4% story drift. The dissipated energy ratio of SDC2 to SDC1 is equal to 1.51.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.281-292
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• 2019

In this paper, analysis of critical fluid velocity and heat transfer in the nanocomposite pipes conveying nanofluid is presented. The pipe is reinforced by carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and the fluid is mixed by $AL_2O_3$ nanoparticles. The material properties of the nanocomposite pipe and nanofluid are considered temperature-dependent and the structure is subjected to magnetic field. The forces of fluid viscosity and turbulent pressure are obtained using momentum equations of fluid. Based on energy balance, the convection of inner and outer fluids, conduction of pipe and heat generation are considered. For mathematical modeling of the nanocomposite pipes, the first order shear deformation theory (FSDT) and energy method are used. Utilizing the Lagrange method, the coupled pipe-nanofluid motion equations are derived. Applying a semi-analytical method, the motion equations are solved for obtaining the critical fluid velocity and critical Reynolds and Nusselt numbers. The effects of CNTs volume percent, $AL_2O_3$ nanoparticles volume percent, length to radius ratio of the pipe and shell surface roughness were shown on the critical fluid velocity, critical Reynolds and Nusselt numbers. The results are validated with other published work which shows the accuracy of obtained results of this work. Numerical results indicate that for heat generation of $Q=10MW/m^3$, adding 6% $AL_2O_3$ nanoparticles to the fluid increases 20% the critical fluid velocity and 15% the Nusselt number which can be useful for heat exchangers.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.455-461
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• 2018

This paper presents experimental investigations about flexural strength and durability of reinforced concrete beams repaired using ductile fiber reinforced cementitious composite (DFRCC) and carbon fiber sheet through freezing and thawing test. Total 14 RC beams of $100{\times}100{\times}400mm$ size were tested by 3-point bending and freezing and thawing test by KS F 2456. The beams were reinforced using 3D10 steels on both the tensile and compressive sides, and repaired on 3 sides expect on top cycle. Test results showed that the beams repaired using fiber carbon sheet revealed about 15% higher values of flexural strength compared than the cases of DFRCC motar. On the other hand, the results did not showed meaningful differences in the aspect of durability. For further research, consideration of the steel interference effect and real old specimens such as taken from real deteriorated structures are needed to be tested after repairing with DFRCC and carbon fiber sheet.