• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.4
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• pp.455-464
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• 2020

Reinforcement corrosion is one of the major problems in the durability of reinforced concrete structures exposed to aggressive environments. Deterioration caused by reinforcement corrosion reduces the durability and the safety margin of concrete structures, causing excessive costs in managing these structures safely. This paper aims to investigate the effects of reinforcement corrosion on the load bearing capacity deterioration of the corroded reinforced concrete structures. A new analytical method is proposed to predict the crack growth of cover concrete and evaluate the residual strength of concrete structures with corroded reinforcement failing in bond. The structural performance indicators, such as concrete crack growth and flexural strength deterioration rate, are assumed to be a stochastic process for lifetime distribution modelling of structural performance deterioration over time during the life cycle. The Weibull life evolution model is employed for analysing lifetime reliability and estimating remaining useful life of the corroded concrete structures. The results for the worked example show that the proposed approach can provide a reliable method for lifetime performance assessment of the corroded reinforced concrete structures.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.137-147
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• 2018

Heavy damages to properties with attendant losses were frequently caused by tornadoes in recent years. This natural hazard is one of the most destructive wind events that must be fully studied and well understood in order to keep the safety of structures and infrastructure facilities. On June 23, 2016, a severe tornado, which is an Enhanced Fujita (EF) 4 storm, occurred in the rim of a coastal city named as Yancheng in China. Numerous low-rise buildings as well as facilities (e.g., transmission towers) were destroyed or damaged. In this paper, damages to structures and infrastructure facilities by the severe tornado are reviewed. The collapses of residential buildings, industrial structures and other infrastructure facilities are described. With an overview of the damages, various possible mechanisms of the collapse are then discussed and utilized to reveal the initiation of the damage to various facilities. It is hoped that this paper can provide a concise but comprehensive reference for the researchers and engineers to help understand the tornado effects on structures and expose the vulnerabilities that need to be improved in current wind-resistant design practices.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.391-402
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• 2011

It is clear from the former researches on reinforced concrete filled steel tubular (RCFT) structures that RCFT structures have higher strength and deformation capacity than concrete filled steel tubular (CFT) structures. However, in the case of actual applications to large-scaled structures, the thin-walled steel tube must be used from the view point of economic condition. Therefore, in this study, compression tests of RCFT columns which were made by thin-walled steel tube or small load-sharing ratio in cooperation with high strength concrete were carried out, meanwhile corresponding tests of CFT, reinforced concrete (RC), pure concrete and steel tube columns were done to compare with RCFT. By the a series of comparison and analysis, characteristics of RCFT columns were clarified, and following conclusions were drawn: RCFT structures can effectively avoided from brittle failure by the using of reinforcement while CFT structures are damaged due to the brittle failure; with RCFT structures, excellent bearing capacity can be achieved in plastic zone by combining the thin-walled steel tube with high strength concrete and reinforcement. The smaller load-sharing ratio can made the reinforcement play full role; Combination of thin-walled steel tube with high strength concrete and reinforcement is effective way to construct large-scaled structures.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1998.04b
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• pp.703-706
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• 1998

Primarily, to evaluate the structural condition assessment of concrete structures, percentile strength of concrete in concrete structures should be found out. This study aims to establish the evaluation techniques for concrete strength in existing concrete structures considering the concrete quality and reliability. The results are as follows ; 1. Percentile strength of concrete in concrete structures can be estimated from following strength equation. $$f_p=f_{mea} - {\lambda}_pS_s$$2. For the calibration of above percentile strength equation with proposed codes or specifications, following sample size based on ASTM E122 can be applied.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.739-744
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• 2001

In this study, experimental research was carried out to develop protective finishing, coating materials and new hybrid technique for deteriorating prevention and high durability in concrete structures. It had sufficiently recommended performance for the protective finishing method of concrete structures through testings. This is more progressive double membrane method than single membrane type designed by conventional method. It was found that this hybrid construction method had very excellent performance to improve the durability of existing concrete structures and attain the beauty of concrete structures.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.281-287
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• 2020

Nanotechnology is an upcoming technology that can provide solution for combating pollution by controlling shape and size of materials at the nanoscale. This review provides comprehensive information regarding the role of nanotechnology in pollution control at concrete structures. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles are a good item for concrete structures for diminishing the air polluting affect by gasses of exhaust. In this article, the mixture rule is presented for the effect of nanoparticles in environmental pollution reduction in concrete structures. The compressive strength, elastic modulus and reduction of steel bars in the concrete structures are studied. The Results show that TiO2 nanoparticles have significant effect on the reduction of environmental pollution and increase of stiffness in the concrete structures. In addition, the nanoparticles can reduce the use of steel bars in the concrete structure.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.615-623
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• 2023

Crack detection is an essential method to ensure the safety of dam concrete structures. Low-quality crack images of dam concrete structures limit the application of neural network methods in crack detection. This research proposes a modified attentional mechanism model to reduce the disturbance caused by uneven light, shadow, and water spots in crack images. Also, the focal loss function solves the small ratio of crack information. The dataset collects from the network, laboratory and actual inspection dataset of dam concrete structures. This research proposes a novel method for crack detection of dam concrete structures based on the U-Net neural network, namely AF-UNet. A mutual comparison of OTSU, Canny, region growing, DeepLab V3+, SegFormer, U-Net, and AF-UNet (proposed) verified the detection accuracy. A binocular camera detects cracks in the experimental scene. The smallest measurement width of the system is 0.27 mm. The potential goal is to achieve real-time detection and localization of cracks in dam concrete structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1183-1200
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• 2015

Reinforcement corrosion can cause serious safety deterioration to aging concrete structures exposed in aggressive environments. This paper presents an approach for reliability analyses of deteriorating reinforced concrete structures affected by reinforcement corrosion on the basis of the representative symptoms identified during the deterioration process. The concrete cracking growth and rebar bond strength evolution due to reinforcement corrosion are chosen as key symptoms for the performance deterioration of concrete structures. The crack width at concrete cover surface largely depends on the corrosion penetration of rebar due to the expansive rust layer at the bond interface generated by reinforcement corrosion. The bond strength of rebar in the concrete correlates well with concrete crack width and decays steadily with crack width growth. The estimates of cracking development and bond strength deterioration are examined by experimental data available from various sources, and then matched with symptom-based lifetime Weibull model. The symptom reliability and remaining useful life are predicted from the predictive lifetime Weibull model for deteriorating concrete structures. Finally, a numerical example is provided to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach for forecasting the performance of concrete structures subject to reinforcement corrosion. The results show that the corrosion rate has significant impact on the reliability associated with serviceability and load bearing capacity of reinforced concrete structures during their service life.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.135-148
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• 2021

Hollow structural section (HSS) columns have been increasingly popular due to their structural and architectural merits. However, practical difficulty lies in developing proper connections. The through-diaphragm connections are considered as suitable connection type that is widely adopted in Asian countries. However, the stress concentration occurs at the location connecting through-diaphragm and steel beam. Furthermore, the actual load path from the beam flange is not uniformly transferred to the HSS column as conventionally assumed. In this paper, tensile tests were further conducted on three additional specimens with beam flange plate to evaluate the load versus displacement response. The load-displacement curves, yield and ultimate capacity, ductility ratio were obtained. Furthermore, the strain development at different loading levels was discussed comprehensively. It is shown that the studied connection configuration significantly reduces the stress concentration. Meanwhile, simplified trilinear load-displacement analytical model for specimen under tensile load was presented. Good agreement was found between the theoretical and experimental results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.783-794
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• 2020

Steel-concrete-steel sandwich composite wall is composed of two external steel plates and infilled concrete core. Internal mechanical connectors are used to enhance the composite action between the two materials. In this paper, the compressive behavior of a novel sandwich composite wall was studied. The steel trusses were applied to connect the steel plates to the concrete core. Three short specimens with different truss spacings were tested under compressive loading. The boundary columns were not included. It was found that the failure of walls started from the buckling of steel plates and followed by the crushing of concrete. Global instability was not observed. It was also observed that the truss spacing has great influence on ultimate strength, buckling stress, ductility, strength index, lateral deflection, and strain distribution. Three modern codes were introduced to calculate the capacity of walls. The comparisons between test results and code predictions show that AISC 360 provides significant underestimations while Eurocode 4 and CECS 159 offer overestimated predictions.