• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.205-227
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• 2013

Current design standards do not provide adequate guidelines for the fire design of cold-formed steel compression members subject to flexural-torsional buckling. Eurocode 3 Part 1.2 (2005) recommends the same fire design guidelines for both hot-rolled and cold-formed steel compression members subject to flexural-torsional buckling although considerable behavioural differences exist between cold-formed and hot-rolled steel members. Past research has recommended the use of ambient temperature cold-formed steel design rules for the fire design of cold-formed steel compression members provided appropriately reduced mechanical properties are used at elevated temperatures. To assess the accuracy of flexural-torsional buckling design rules in both ambient temperature cold-formed steel design and fire design standards, an experimental study of slender cold-formed steel compression members was undertaken at both ambient and elevated temperatures. This paper presents the details of this experimental study, its results, and their comparison with the predictions from the current design rules. It was found that the current ambient temperature design rules are conservative while the fire design rules are overly conservative. Suitable recommendations have been made in relation to the currently available design rules for flexural-torsional buckling including methods of improvement. Most importantly, this paper has addressed the lack of experimental results for slender cold-formed steel columns at elevated temperatures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.1
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• pp.55-64
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• 2017

The paper concerns concrete carbonation, the phenomena that occurs in every type of climate, especially in urban-industrial areas. In European Standards, including Eurocode (EC) for concrete structures the demanded durability of construction located in the conditions of the carbonation threat is mainly assured by the selection of suitable thickness of reinforcement cover. According to EC0 and EC2, the thickness of the cover in the particular class of exposure depends on the structural class/category and concrete compressive strength class which is determined by cement content and water-cement ratio (thus the quantitative composition) but it is not differentiated for various cements, nor additives (i.e., qualitative composition), nor technological types of concrete. As a consequence the selected thickness of concrete cover is in fact a far estimation - sometimes too exaggerated (too safe or too risky). The paper presents the elaborated "self-terminated carbonation model" that includes abovementioned factors and enables to indicate the maximal possible depth of carbonation. This is possible because presented model is a hyperbolic function of carbonation depth in time (the other models published in the literature use the parabolic function that theoretically assume the infinite increase of carbonation depth value). The paper discusses the presented model in comparison to other models published in the literature, moreover it contains the algorithm of concrete cover design with use of the model as well as an example of calculation of the cover thickness.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.505-516
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• 2016

This paper evaluates the scaling of ground motions recorded from nine intermediate-depth earthquakes produced in the Vrancea seismic zone in Romania. The considered ground motion database consists of 363 horizontal recordings obtained on soil classes B and C (according to Eurocode 8). An analysis of the inter- and intra-event spectral accelerations is performed in order to gain information regarding the magnitude and distance scaling of the Vrancea ground motions. The analyses reveal a significant influence of the earthquake magnitude and focal depth on the distance scaling and different magnitude and distance scaling for the two soil classes. A linear magnitude and distance scaling is inferred from the results for the range of magnitudes $5.2{\leq}M_W{\leq}7.1$. The results obtained are checked through stochastic simulations and the influence of the stress drop and kappa values on the ground motion levels is assessed. In addition, five ground motion models which were tested in other studies using recordings from Vrancea earthquakes are analyzed in order to evaluate their corresponding host stress drop and kappa. The results show generally a direct connection between the host kappa values and the host stress drop values. Moreover, all the ground motion models depict magnitude dependent host kappa and stress drop levels.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.159-165
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• 2010

The composite frame system suggested in this paper consists of steel reinforced concrete beam encased with structural tee and precast concrete column. This system has advantages such as reduction of materials, CO2 emissions and waste. To commercialize the new composite frame system, it is necessary to develop connections that can effectively connect each member. Therefore, a hybrid connection that has steel type connection and reinforced concrete together is utilized to connect easily at the composite frame system. To evaluate the structural performance of the composite frame system, an experimental investigation is presented. In this study, the flexural moment capacity of the composite frame was determined using the strain compatibility approach. The strain compatibility approach can be used to predict the flexural moment capacity at each limit state. As a result, all elements of the beam to column connection are represented to fully interact between each other. The specimens show errors of -1.9% in the yield limit state and 0.9% at the maximum load limit state. Also, testing shows that beam to column connections have characteristics of semi-rigid connection as per Eurocode 3.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.59 no.5
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• pp.853-866
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• 2016

This paper examines a methodology for computing the probability of structural failure of reinforced concrete beams subjected to fire. The significant load variables considered are dead load, sustained live load and fire temperature. Resistance is expressed in terms of moment capacity with random variables taken as yield strength of steel, concrete class (or grade of concrete), beam width and depth. The flexural capacity is determined based on the design equations recommended in Indian standard IS456:2000. Simplified method named $500^{\circ}C$ isotherm method detailed in Eurocode 2 is incorporated for fire design. A transient thermal analysis is conducted using finite element software ANSYS$^{(R)}$ Release15. Reliability is evaluated from the initial state to 4h of fire exposure based on the first order reliability method (FORM). A procedure is coded in MATLAB for finding the reliability index. This procedure is validated with available literature. The effect of various parameters like effective cover, yield strength of steel, grade of concrete, distribution of reinforcement bars and aggregate type on reliability indices are studied. Parameters like effective cover of concrete, yield strength of steel has a significant effect on reliability of beams. Different failure modes like limit state of flexure and limit state of shear are checked.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.313-325
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• 2018

Concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) members are commonly used as composite columns in modern construction. However, the current guidelines for members' fire design (EN1994-1-2) have been proved to be unsafe in case the relative slenderness is higher than 0.5. In addition, the simplified design methods of Eurocode 4 are limited to circular and square CFST columns, while in practice columns with rectangular and elliptical hollow sections are being increasingly used because of their architectural aesthetics. In the last years a large experimental research has been carried out at Coimbra University on the topic. They have been tested concrete filled circular, square, rectangular and elliptical hollow columns with restrained thermal elongation. Some parameters such as the slenderness, the type of cross-section geometry as well as the axial and rotational restraint of the surrounding structure to the column have been tested in order to evaluate their influence on the fire resistance of such columns. In this paper it is evaluated the influence of the boundary conditions (pin-ended and semi-rigid end-support conditions) on the behavior of the columns in case of fire. In these tests it could not be seen a marked effect of the tested boundary conditions but it is believed that the increasing of rotational stiffness increases the fire resistance of the columns.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.115-124
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• 2022

There are many different types of tanks on ships that meet various requirements. Each tank is required to undergo hydrostatic testing according to the Ship Safety Act after being installed onboard. In some hydrostatic tests, excessive deformation may occur. The overpressure of the air in the tank generated during testing is one of the possible causes of deformation. Based on the dimensions of the tank, nozzle, and pipes installed, it was confirmed that the overpressure of the air can cause problems with the structure, according to the Bernoulli equation. Additionally, finite element analysis (FEA) was performed on the tank structure to confirm the deformation and the stress occurring in the structure. From the perspective of deformation, the maximum deflection limit was set based on the criteria provided by the Eurocode and DNV. From the perspective of stress, the structural safety assessment was performed by comparing the allowable stress and equivalent stress generated in the structure. To determine whether the behavior of the actual structure was well implemented via FEA, beam theory was applied to the tank structure and compared with the FEA results. As a result of the analysis, severe deformation was found in some cases. This means that the overpressure of the air may be the cause of actual deformation. It was also confirmed that permanent deformation may occur.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.251-262
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• 2023

There are many examples of steel structures subjected to severe environmental conditions with bolted connections directly exposed to extreme climatic agents such as freeze-thaw cycles or low temperatures. Some examples are: steel bridges, mining transfer towers, wind towers... These service conditions neither are included in Eurocode 3 or EN1090-2, nor there are references in other international standards. In this experimental research, 46 specimens of non-slip joints with HV M20 bolts and four different types of contact surfaces have been studied. Half of the specimens were subjected to fourteen twelve-hours freeze-thaw cycles, with periodic immersion in water and temperature oscillation. Subsequently, half of the connections were subjected to a slip test under monotonic load at temperature of -20 ± 0.5 ℃ and the other half at room temperature. The results were compared with others equal joints not subjected to freeze-thaw cycles and kept at room temperature for the same time. This finally resulted in 4 sets of joints by combining the freeze-thaw degradation or not with the low-temperature conditions or not in the slip testing. Therefore, a total of 16 different conditions were studied by also considering 4 different contact surfaces between the joined plates in each set. The results obtained show influence of environmental conditions on the slip resistant capacity of these joints.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.163-182
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• 2020

Coupled thermo-mechanical analysis of reinforced concrete slab at elevated temperatures from a fire accounting for nonlinear thermal parameters is carried out. The main focus of the paper is put on a one-way continuous reinforced concrete slab exposed to fire from the single (bottom) side as the most typical working condition under fire loading. Although contemporary techniques alongside the fire protection measures are in constant development, in most cases it is not possible to avoid the material deterioration particularly nearby the exposed surface from a fire. Thereby the structural fire resistance of reinforced concrete slabs is mostly influenced by a relative distance between reinforcement and the exposed surface. A parametric study with variable concrete cover ranging from 15 mm to 35 mm is performed. As the first part of a one-way coupled thermo-mechanical analysis, transient nonlinear heat transfer analysis is performed by applying the net heat flux on the exposed surface. The solution of proposed heat analysis is obtained at certain time steps of interest by α-method using the explicit Euler time-integration scheme. Spatial discretization is done by the finite element method using a 1D 2-noded truss element with the temperature nodal values as unknowns. The obtained results in terms of temperature field inside the element are compared with available numerical and experimental results. A high level of agreement can be observed, implying the proposed model capable of describing the temperature field during a fire. Accompanying thermal analysis, mechanical analysis is performed in two ways. Firstly, using the guidelines given in Eurocode 2 - Part 1-2 resulting in the fire resistance rating for the aforementioned concrete cover values. The second way is a fully numerical coupled analysis carried out in general-purpose finite element software DIANA FEA. Both approaches indicate structural fire behavior similar to those observed in large-scale fire tests.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.71-80
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• 2013

Fire-resistant (FR) test data for a square concrete-filled steel tube (CFT) columns consisting of high-strength steel (fy>650MPa) and high strength concrete (fck>100MPa) under axial loads are insufficient. The FR behavior of square high-strength CFT members was investigated experimentally for two specimens having ${\Box}-400{\times}400{\times}15{\times}3,000mm$ with two axial load cases (5,000kN and 2,500kN). The results show that the FR performance of the high-strength CFT was rapidly decreased at earlier time (much earlier at high axial load) than expected due to high strength concrete spalling and cracks. In addition, a fiber element analysis (FEA) model was proposed and used to simulate the fiber behaviour of the columns. For steel and concrete, the mechanical and thermal properties recommended in EN 1994-1-2 are adopted. Test results were compared to those of numerical analyses considering a combination of temperature and axial compression. The numerical model can reasonably predict the time-axial deformation relationship.