• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.657-680
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• 2016

Reinforced concrete (RC) deep beams are structural members that predominantly fail in shear. Therefore, determining the shear strength of these types of beams is very important. The strut-and-tie method is commonly used to design deep beams, and this method has been adopted in many building codes (ACI318-14, Eurocode 2-2004, CSA A23.3-2004). In this study, the efficiency of artificial neural networks (ANNs) in predicting the shear strength of RC deep beams is investigated as a different approach to the strut-and-tie method. An ANN model was developed using experimental data for 214 normal and high-strength concrete deep beams from an existing literature database. Seven different input parameters affecting the shear strength of the RC deep beams were selected to create the ANN structure. Each parameter was arranged as an input vector and a corresponding output vector that includes the shear strength of the RC deep beam. The ANN model was trained and tested using a multi-layered back-propagation method. The most convenient ANN algorithm was determined as trainGDX. Additionally, the results in the existing literature and the accuracy of the strut-and-tie model in ACI318-14 in predicting the shear strength of the RC deep beams were investigated using the same test data. The study shows that the ANN model provides acceptable predictions of the ultimate shear strength of RC deep beams (maximum $R^2{\approx}0.97$). Additionally, the ANN model is shown to provide more accurate predictions of the shear capacity than all the other computed methods in this study. The ACI318-14-STM method was very conservative, as expected. Moreover, the study shows that the proposed ANN model predicts the shear strengths of RC deep beams better than does the strut-and-tie model approaches.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.211-227
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• 2020

To explore the feasibility of eliminating the longitudinal rebars and stirrups by using ultra-high-performance fiber reinforcement concrete (UHPFRC) in concrete encased steel composite stub column, compressive behavior of UHPFRC encased steel stub column has been experimentally investigated. Effect of concrete types (normal strength concrete, high strength concrete and UHPFRC), fiber fractions, and transverse reinforcement ratio on failure mode, ductility behavior and axial compressive resistance of composite columns have been quantified through axial compression tests. The experimental results show that concrete encased composite columns with NSC and HSC exhibit concrete crushing and spalling failure, respectively, while composite columns using UHPFRC exhibit concrete spitting and no concrete spalling is observed after failure. The incorporation of steel fiber as micro reinforcement significantly improves the concrete toughness, restrains the crack propagation and thus avoids the concrete spalling. No evidence of local buckling of rebars or yielding of stirrups has been detected in composite columns using UHPFRC. Steel fibers improve the bond strength between the concrete and, rebars and core shaped steel which contribute to the improvement of confining pressure on concrete. Three prediction models in Eurocode 4, AISC 360 and JGJ 138 and a proposed toughness index (T.I.) are employed to evaluate the compressive resistance and post peak ductility of the composite columns. It is found that all these three models predict close the compressive resistance of UHPFRC encased composite columns with/without the transverse reinforcement. UHPFRC encased composite columns can achieve a comparable level of ductility with the reinforced concrete (RC) columns using normal strength concrete. In terms of compressive resistance behavior, the feasibility of UHPFRC encased steel composite stub columns with lesser longitudinal reinforcement and stirrups has been verified in this study.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.269-287
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• 2023

The WGJ420 fire-resistant weathering (FRW) steel is developed and manufactured with standard yield strength of 420 MPa at room temperature, which is expected to significantly enhance the performance of steel structures with excellent fire and corrosion resistances, strong seismic capacity, high strength and ductility, good resilience and robustness. In this paper, the mechanical properties of FRW steel plates and buckling behavior of columns are investigated through tests at elevated temperatures. The stress-strain curves, mechanical properties of FRW steel such as modulus of elasticity, proof strength, tensile strength, as well as corresponding reduction factors are obtained and discussed. The recommended constitutive model based on the Ramberg-Osgood relationship, as well as the relevant formulas for mechanical properties are proposed, which provide fundamental mechanical parameters and references. A total of 12 FRW steel welded I-section columns with different slenderness ratios and buckling load ratios are tested under standard fire to understand the global buckling behavior in-depth. The influences of boundary conditions on the buckling failure modes as well as the critical temperatures are also investigated. In addition, the temperature distributions at different sections/locations of the columns are obtained. It is found that the buckling deformation curve can be divided into four stages: initial expansion stage, stable stage, compression stage and failure stage. The fire test results concluded that the residual buckling capacities of FRW steel columns are substantially higher than the conventional steel columns at elevated temperatures. Furthermore, the numerical results show good agreement with the fire test results in terms of the critical temperature and maximum axial elongation. Finally, the critical temperatures between the numerical results and various code/standard curves (GB 51249, Eurocode 3, AS 4100, BS 5950 and AISC) are compared and verified both in the buckling resistance domain and in the temperature domain. It is demonstrated that the FRW steel columns have sufficient safety redundancy for fire resistance when they are designed according to current codes or standards.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.185-193
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• 2015

Ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) has been developed to overcome the low tensile strengths and brittleness of conventional concrete. Considering that UHPC, owing to its composition and the use of steel fibers, develops a compressive strength of 180 MPa as well as high stiffness, the top flange of the steel girder may be superfluous in the composite beam combining a slab made of UHPC and the steel girder. In such composite beam, the steel girder takes the form of an inverted-T shaped structure without top flange in which the studs needed for the composition of the steel girder with the UHPC slab are disposed in the web of the steel girder. This study investigates experimentally and analytically the flexural behavior of this new type of composite beam to propose details like stud spacing and slab thickness for further design recommendations. To that goal, eight composite beams with varying stud spacing and slab thickness were fabricated and tested. The test results indicated that stud spacing running from 100 mm to 2 to 3 times the slab thickness can be recommended. In view of the relative characteristic slip limit of Eurocode-4, the results showed that the composite beam developed ductile behavior. Moreover, except for the members with thin slab and large stud spacing, most of the specimens exhibited results different to those predicted by AASHTO LRFD and Eurocode-4 because of the high performance developed by UHPC.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.997-1016
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• 2015

The contribution of tensioned concrete between cracks (tension-stiffening) cannot be ignored when analysing deformation of reinforced concrete elements. The tension-stiffening effect is crucial when it comes to adequately estimating the load-deformation response of steel reinforced concrete and the more recently appeared fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforced concrete. This paper presents a unified methodology for numerical modelling of the tension-stiffening effect in steel as well as FRP reinforced flexural members using the concept of equivalent deformation modulus and the smeared crack approach to obtain a modified stress-strain relation of the reinforcement. A closed-form solution for the equivalent secant modulus of deformation of the tensioned reinforcement is proposed for rectangular sections taking the Eurocode 2 curvature prediction technique as the reference. Using equations based on general principles of structural mechanics, the main influencing parameters are obtained. It is found that the ratio between the equivalent stiffness and the initial stiffness basically depends on the product of the modular ratio and reinforcement ratio ($n{\rho}$), the effective-to-total depth ratio (d/h), and the level of loading. The proposed methodology is adequate for numerical modelling of tension-stiffening for different FRP and steel reinforcement, under both service and ultimate conditions. Comparison of the predicted and experimental data obtained by the authors indicates that the proposed methodology is capable to adequately model the tension-stiffening effect in beams reinforced with FRP or steel bars within wide range of loading.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.51-68
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• 2007

High-strength concrete (HSC) is becoming increasingly attractive for various construction projects since it offers a multitude of benefits over normal-strength concrete (NSC). Unfortunately, current design provisions for shear capacity of RC slender beams are generally based on data developed for NSC members having a compressive strength of up to 50 MPa, with limited recommendations on the use of HSC. The failure of HSC beams is noticeably different than that of NSC beams since the transition zone between the cement paste and aggregates is much denser in HSC. Thus, unlike NSC beams in which micro-cracks propagate around aggregates, providing significant aggregate interlock, micro-cracks in HSC are trans-granular, resulting in relatively smoother fracture surfaces, thereby inhibiting aggregate interlock as a shear transfer mechanism and reducing the influence of compressive strength on the ultimate shear strength of HSC beams. In this study, a new approach based on genetic algorithms (GAs) was used to predict the shear capacity of both NSC and HSC slender beams without shear reinforcement. Shear capacity predictions of the GA model were compared to calculations of four other commonly used methods: the ACI method, CSA method, Eurocode-2, and Zsutty's equation. A parametric study was conducted to evaluate the ability of the GA model to capture the effect of basic shear design parameters on the behaviour of reinforced concrete (RC) beams under shear loading. The parameters investigated include compressivestrength, amount of longitudinal reinforcement, and beam's depth. It was found that the GA model provided more accurate evaluation of shear capacity compared to that of the other common methods and better captured the influence of the significant shear design parameters. Therefore, the GA model offers an attractive user-friendly alternative to conventional shear design methods.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.477-488
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• 2009

A slip critical joint has various values to adopt the proper slip coefficient in various conditions of faying surfaces in the following codes: AISC, AIJ and Eurocode 3. However, the Korean Building Code still regulates the unique slip coefficient, 0.45, regardless of the diverse faying conditions. In this study, the slip resistance test, including five kinds of surface treatments were conducted to obtain the proper slip coefficients available to steel plate KS SM490A. The faying surfaces were comprised of a clean mill, rust, red lead paint, zinc primer, and shot blast treatment. The candidates for high strength bolts were torque-shear bolts, torque-shear bolts with zinc coating, and ASTM A490 bolts. Based on the test results, the specimens with a shot blasted surface and rusted surface exhibited $k_s$, 0.61, and 0.5, respectively. It is recommended that the specimens with zinc primer exhibit $k_s{\geq}0.40$. The clean mill treated surface had prominently lower values, 0.27. For red lead painted treatment, the thickness of the coating affects the determinant of slip coefficient, so it is necessary to establish a minimum $k_s$ of 0.2, with a coating thickness of 65 ${\mu}m$. During 1,000 hours of relaxation, the uncoated surfaces exhibited the loss of clamping force behind 3%, while the coated surfaces within a certain limited thickness exhibited the loss of clamping within a range of 4.71% and 8.37%.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.275-291
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• 2012

The service loads are often decisive in the design of concrete structures. The evaluation of the cracking moment, $M_{cr}$, is an important issue to predict the performance of the structure, such as, the deflections of the reinforced concrete beams and slabs. To neglect the steel bars of the section is a simplification that is normally used in the computation of the cracking moment. Such simplification leads to small errors in the value of this moment (typically less than 20%). However, these small errors can conduce to significant errors when the values of deflections need to be computed from $M_{cr}$. The article shows that an error of 10% on the evaluation of $M_{cr}$ can lead to errors over 100% in the deformation values. When the deformation of the structure is the decisive design parameter, the exact computing of the cracking moment is obviously very important. Such rigorous computing might lead to important savings in the cost of the structure. With this article the authors wish to draw the attention of the technical community to this fact. A simple equation to evaluate the cracking moment, $M_{cr}$, is proposed for a rectangular cross-section. This equation leads to cracking moments higher than those obtained by neglecting the reinforcement bars and is a simple rule that can be included in Eurocode 2. To verify the accuracy of the developed model, the results of the proposed equation was compared with a rigorous computational procedure. The proposed equation corresponds to a good agreement when compared with the previous approach and, therefore, this model can be used as a practical aid for calculating an accurate value of the cracking moment.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.79-92
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• 2017

Initial damage to a stud due to corrosion, fatigue, unexpected overloading, a weld defect or other factors could degrade the shear capacity of the stud. Based on typical push-out tests, a FEM model and theoretical formulations were proposed in this study. Six specimens with the same geometric dimensions were tested to investigate the effect of the damage degree and location on the static behavior and shear capacity of stud shear connectors. The test results indicated that a reduction of up to 36.6% and 62.9% of the section area of the shank could result in a dropping rate of 7.9% and 57.2%, respectively, compared to the standard specimen shear capacity. Numerical analysis was performed to simulate the push-out test and validated against test results. A parametrical study was performed to further investigate the damage degree and location on the shear capacity of studs based on the proposed numerical model. It was demonstrated that the shear capacity was not sensitive to the damage degree when the damage section was located at 0.5d, where d is the shank diameter, from the stud root, even if the stud had a significant reduction in area. Finally, a theoretical formula with a reduction factor K was proposed to consider the reduction of the shear capacity due to the presence of initial damage. Calculating K was accomplished in two ways: a linear relationship and a square relationship with the damage degree corresponding to the shear capacity dominated by the section area and the nominal diameter of the damaged stud. This coefficient was applied using Eurocode 4, AASHTO LRFD (2014) and GB50017-2003 (2003) and compared with the test results found in the literature. It was found that the proposed method produced good predictions of the shear capacity of stud shear connectors with initial damage.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.287-297
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• 2015

In concrete structural design provisons, there is a minimum allowable strain of steel to ensure a ductility of RC members and a c/d is limited for the same purpose in EC2. In general, a ductility capacity of RC members is evaluated by a displacement ductility which is a ratio of ultimate displacement to yield displacement, and it is necessary to calculate accurately a yield displacement and an ultimate displacement to evaluate a displacement ductility. But a displacement in members is affected by various member characteristics, so it is hard to calculate a displacement exactly. In this study, a displacement ductility is calculated by calculating a yield displacement and an ultimate displacement through a moment-curvature relationship. The main variables examined are concrete strength, yield strength, steel ratio, spacing of confinement, axial force ratio and concrete ultimate strain. As results, as a concrete strength is increased, a ductility displacement is increased. But as yield strength, steel ratio, spacing of confinement and axial force ratio are increased, a displacement ductility is decreased. And a displacement ductility is necessary to calculate a response modification factor (R) of columns for seismic design, so it is appeared that it is important to calculate a displacement ductility more accurately.