• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.81-92
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• 2020

Flexural and splitting strength behavior of conventional concrete can significantly be improved by incorporating the fibers in it. A significant number of research studies have been conducted on various types of fibers and their influence on the tensile capacity of concrete. However, as an important property, tensile capacity of fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) is not modelled properly. Therefore, this paper intends to formulate a model based on experiments that show the relationship between the fiber properties such as the aspect ratio (length/diameter), fiber content, compressive strength, flexural strength and splitting strength of FRC. For the purpose of modeling, various FRC mixes only with steel fiber are adopted from the existing research papers. Automated neural network search (ANS) is then developed and used to investigate the effect of input parameters such as fiber content, aspect ratio and compressive strength to the output parameters of flexural and splitting strength of FRC. It is found that the ANS model can be used to predict the flexural and splitting strength of FRC in a sensible precision.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2015

The proposed techniques to strengthen concrete members such as steel plates, polymers or concrete have important deficiencies in adherence and durability. The use of UHPFC plates can overtake effectively these problems. In this paper, the possibility of using UHPFC to strengthen RC beams under torsion is investigated. Four specimens of concrete beams reinforced with longitudinal bars only were tested under pure torsion. One of the beams was considered as the baseline specimen, while the others were strengthened by ultra-high-performance fiber concrete (UHPFC) on two, three, and four sides. Finite element analysis was conducted in tandem with experimental work. Results showed that UHPFC enhances the strength, ductility, and toughness of concrete beams under torsional load, and that finite element analysis is in good agreement with the experimental data.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.539-546
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• 2018

Making a transverse opening in concrete beams in order to accommodate utility services through the member instead of below or above of that, sometimes may be necessary. It is obvious that inclusions of an opening in a beam decreases its flexural and shear strengths. Fabricated steel bars are usually used to increase the capacity of the opening section, but details of reinforcements around the opening are dense and complex resulting in laborious pouring and setup process. The goal of this study was to investigate the possibility of using steel fibers in concrete mixture instead of complex reinforcement detailing order to strengthen opening section. Nonlinear finite element method was employed to investigate the behavior of steel fiber reinforced concrete beams. The numerical models were validated by comparison with experimental measurements tested by other investigators and then used to study the influence of fiber length, fiber aspect ratio and fiber content on the shear performance of SFRC slender beams with opening. Finally, it was concluded that the predicted shear strength enhancement is considerably influenced by use of steel fibers in concrete mixture but the effect of fiber length and fiber aspect ratio wasn't significant.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.72 no.3
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• pp.305-312
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• 2019

This paper investigates the effect of utilizing vacuum bagging process to enhance the bond behavior between fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites and concrete substrate. Sixty specimens were prepared and tested using double-shear bond test. The effect of various parameters such as vacuum, fiber type, and FRP sheet length and width on the bond strength were investigated. The experimental results revealed that utilizing vacuum leads to improve the bond behavior between FRP composites and concrete. Both the ultimate bond forces and the maximum displacements were enhanced when applying the vacuum which leads to reduction in the amount of FRP materials needed to achieve the required bond strength compared with the un-vacuumed specimens. The efficiency of the enhancement in bond behavior due to vacuum highly depends on the fiber type; using carbon fiber showed higher enhancement in the bond strength compared to the glass fiber when vacuum was applied. On the contrary, specimens with glass fiber showed higher enhancement in the maximum slippage compared to specimens with carbon fibers. Utilizing vacuum does not affect the debonding failure modes but lead to increase in the amount of attached concrete on the surface of the debonded FRP sheet.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.293-307
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• 2020

The aim of this paper is to develop design-oriented models for the prediction of the ultimate strength and ultimate axial strain for concrete confined with glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) wraps. Twenty of most used and recent design-oriented models developed to predict the strength and strain of GFRP-confined concrete in circular sections are selected and evaluated basing on a database of 163 test results of concrete cylinders confined with GFRP wraps subjected to uniaxial compression. The evaluation of these models is performed using three statistical indices namely the coefficient of the determination (R²), the root mean square error (RMSE), and the average absolute error (AAE). Based on this study, new strength and strain models for GFRP-wrapped concrete are developed using regression analysis. The obtained results show that the proposed models exhibit better performance and provide accurate predictions over the existing models.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.781-794
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• 2023

In order to directly apply seawater and sea sand in construction without desalination, a type of square concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) encased with prefabricated seawater sea-sand concrete filled Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)/Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) tube column was proposed. Twenty short columns were tested under uniaxial loads, and the test parameters included inner tube types, seawater sea-sand concrete replacement ratios, concrete strength, the wrapping area of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) strips and the thickness of GFRP tube. The effects of the parameters on failure modes, loading capacity, ductility and strain responses were discussed. All the tested specimens failed with serious buckling of the steel tubes and fracture of the inner tubes. The specimens had good residual bearing capacity corresponding to 64% to 88.9% of the peak capacity. The inner GFRP tubes and PVC tubes wrapped by CFRP strips provided stronger confinement to the core concrete, and were good choices for the proposed columns. Moreover, an analytical model for the composite column with different inner tube types was proposed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.59-66
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• 2019

Hollow steel-reinforced concrete-filled GFRP tubular member is a new kind of composite members. Firstly set the mold in the GFRP tube (non-bearing component), then set the longitudinal reinforcements with stirrups (steel reinforcement cage) between the GFRP tube and the mold, and filled the concrete between them. Through the axial compression test of the hollow steel-reinforced concrete-filled GFRP tubular member, the working mechanism and failure modes of composite members were obtained. Based on the experiment, when the load reached the ranges of $55-70%P_u$ ($P_u-ultimate$ load), white cracks appeared on the surface of the GFRP tubes of specimens. At that time, the confinement effects of the GFRP tubes on core concrete were obvious. Keep loading, the ranges of white cracks were expanding, and the confinement effects increased proportionally. In addition, the damages of specimens, which were accompanied with great noise, were marked by fiber breaking and resin cracking on the surface of GFRP tubes, also accompanied with concrete crushing. The bearing capacity of the axially compressed components increased with the increase of reinforcement ratio, and decreased with the increase of hollow ratio. When the reinforcement ratio was increased from 0 to 4.30%, the bearing capacity was increased by about 23%. When the diameter of hollow part was decreased from 55mm to 0, the bearing capacity was increased by about 32%.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.1
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• pp.93-105
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• 2022

The brittleness of concrete can be overcome by fiber reinforcement that controls the crack mechanisms of concrete. Corrosion-related durability issues can be prevented by synthetic fibers (SFs), while macro synthetic fibers have proven to be particularly effective to provide ductility and toughness after cracks. This experimental study has been performed to investigate the comparative flexural and mechanical behavior of four different macro-synthetic fiber-reinforced concretes (SFRCs). Two polyamide fibers (SF1 and SF2) with different aspect ratios and two different polypropylene fiber types (SF3 and SF4) were used in production of SFRCs. Four different SFRCs and reference concrete were compared for their influences on the toughness, compressive strength, elastic modulus, flexural strength, residual strength and splitting tensile strength. The outcomes of the study reveal that the flowability of reference mixture decreases after addition of SFs and the air voids of all SFRC mixtures increased with the addition of macro-synthetic fibers except SFRC2 mixture whose air content is the same as the reference mixture. The results also revealed that with the inclusion of SFs, 11.34% reduction in the cube compressive strength was noted for SFRC4 based on that of reference specimens and both reference concrete and SFRC exhibited nearly similar cylindrical compressive strength. Results illustrated that SFRC1 and SFRC4 mixtures consistently provide the highest and lowest flexural toughness values of 36.4 joule and 27.7 joule respectively. The toughness values of SFRC3 and SFRC4 are very near to each other.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.525-535
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• 2018

This study presents a new beam-column model comprising material nonlinearity and joint flexibility to predict the nonlinear response of reinforced concrete structures. The nonlinear behavior of connections has an outstanding role on the nonlinear response of reinforced concrete structures. In presented research, the joint flexibility is considered applying a rotational spring at each end of the member. To derive the moment-rotation behavior of beam-column connections, the relative rotations produced by the relative slip of flexural reinforcement in the joint and the flexural cracking of the beam end are taken into consideration. Furthermore, the considered spread plasticity model, unlike the previous models that have been developed based on the linear moment distribution subjected to lateral loads includes both lateral and gravity load effects, simultaneously. To confirm the accuracy of the proposed methodology, a simply-supported test beam and three reinforced concrete frames are considered. Pushover and nonlinear dynamic analysis of three numerical examples are performed. In these examples the nonlinear behavior of connections and the material nonlinearity using the proposed methodology and also linear flexibility model with different number of elements for each member and fiber based distributed plasticity model with different number of integration points are simulated. Comparing the results of the proposed methodology with those of the aforementioned models describes that suggested model that only uses one element for each member can appropriately estimate the nonlinear behavior of reinforced concrete structures.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.327-341
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• 2011

Three-dimensional graphic objects created by MATLAB are exported to the AUTOCAD program through the MATLAB handle functions. The imported SAT format files are used to produce the finite element mesh for MSC.PATRAN. Based on the Monte-Carlo random sample principle, the material heterogeneity of cement composites with randomly distributed fibers is described by the WEIBULL distribution function. In this paper, a concept called "soft region" including micro-defects, micro-voids, etc. is put forward for the simulation of crack propagation in fiber-reinforced cement composites. The performance of the numerical model is demonstrated by several examples involving crack initiation and growth in the composites under three-dimensional stress conditions: tensile loading; compressive loading and crack growth along a bimaterial interface.