• Computers and Concrete
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.245-253
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• 2019

The studies on the applications of waste materials in concrete have been increased in Iraq since 2003. In this research, rubber wastes that resulting from scrapped tires was added to concrete mix with presence of superplasticizer. The mechanical properties of concrete and workability of concrete mixes were studied. The used rubber were ranging in size from (2-4) mm with addition percentages of (0.1% and 0.2%) by volume of concrete. The results of mechanical properties of concrete show that rubber enhance the ductility, and compressive and tensile strength compared to concrete without it. Also, the flexural behavior of hybrid strength concrete beams (due to using rubber at the bottom or top layer of section) was investigated. The rubber concrete located at bottom layer gives higher values of ultimate loads and deflections compared to the beam with top layer. A similar response to fiber concrete beam (all section contains 0.1% rubber) was recognized. Finite element modeling in three dimensions was carried for the tested beams using ABAQUS software. The ultimate loads and deflection obtained from experimental and finite elements are in good agreements with average difference of 8% in ultimate load and 20% in ultimate deflection.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제84권1호
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• pp.101-111
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• 2022

It is widely known that axially loaded fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) confined concrete presents significant and enhanced mechanical properties with reference to the unconfined concrete. Therefore, to predict the mechanical behavior of FRP-confined concrete two quantities-peak strength and ultimate strain are required. Despite the significant advances, the determination of the ultimate strain of FRP-confined concrete is one of the most challenging problems to be resolved. This is often attributed to our persistence in desiring the conventional methods as the sole technique to examine this phenomenon and the complex nature of the ultimate strain of FRP-confined concrete. To bridge the research gap, this study adopted two machine learning (ML) techniques-artificial neural network (ANN) and Gaussian process regression (GPR)-to analyze observations obtained from 627 datasets of FRP-confined concrete circular and non-circular sections under axial loading test. Besides, the techniques are also used to predict the ultimate strain of FRP-confined concrete. Seven parameters namely width/diameter of the specimens, corner radius ratio, the strength of concrete, FRP elastic modulus, FRP thickness, FRP tensile rupture strain, and the axial strain of unconfined concrete-are the input parameters used to predict the ultimate strain of FRP-confined concrete. The results of the current study highlight the merit of using AI techniques in structural engineering applications given their extraordinary ability to comprehend multidimensional phenomena of FRP-confined concrete structures with ease, low computational cost, and high performance over the existing empirical models.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.313-326
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• 2020

Glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars have been introduced as an effective alternative for the conventional steel reinforcement in concrete structures to mitigate the costly consequences of steel corrosion. However, despite the superior performance of these composite materials in terms of corrosion, the effect of replacing steel reinforcement with GFRP on the seismic performance of concrete structures is not fully covered yet. To address some of the key parameters in the seismic behavior of GFRP-reinforced concrete (RC) structures, two full-scale beam-column joints reinforced with GFRP bars and stirrups were constructed and tested under two phases of loading, each simulating a severe ground motion. The objective was to investigate the effect of damage due to earthquakes on the service and ultimate behavior of GFRP-RC moment-resisting frames. The main parameters under investigation were geometrical configuration (interior or exterior beam-column joint) and joint shear stress. The performance of the specimens was measured in terms of lateral load-drift response, energy dissipation, mode of failure and stress distribution. Moreover, the effect of concrete damage due to earthquake loading on the performance of beam-column joints under service loading was investigated and a modified damage index was proposed to quantify the magnitude of damage in GFRP-RC beam-column joints under dynamic loading. Test results indicated that the geometrical configuration significantly affects the level of concrete damage and energy dissipation. Moreover, the level of residual damage in GFRP-RC beam-column joints after undergoing lateral displacements was related to reinforcement ratio of the main beams.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.1-12
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• 2024

Precast deck joints have problems due to the occurrence of additional processes at construction sites, the complexity of construction, and the lack of design and construction standards for precast deck joints. To solve these, this study proposes a new precast deck joint that uses an Ultra-High-Performance Fiber-reinforced Cement Composite (UHPFRCC) filling material containing steel fibers and a straight rebar joint. In addition, the structural performance of the proposed joint, based on various parameters, was compared to that of existing precast deck joints, and the proposed joint showed equivalent strength and ductility. Therefore, the proposed joint can solve construction site problems by replacing the existing ones. The influence of various variables is expected to provide basic data on the design and construction guidelines for the precast deck joints.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제10권5호
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• pp.435-455
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• 2012

In the recent years, rehabilitation of structures, strengthening and increasing the ductility of them under seismic loads have become so vital that many studies has been carried out on the retrofit of steel and concrete members so far. Bridge piers are very important members concerning rehabilitation, in which the plastic hinging zone is very vulnerable. Pier is usually confined by special stirrups predicted in the design procedure; moreover, fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) jackets are used after construction to confine the pier. FRP wrapping of the piers is one of the most effective ways of increasing moment and ductility capacity of them, which has a growing application due to its relative advantages. In many earthquake-resistant bridges, reinforced concrete columns have a major defect which could be retrofitted in different ways like using FRP. After rehabilitation, it is important to check the strengthening adequacy by dynamic nonlinear analysis and precise modeling of material properties. If the plastic hinge properties are simplified for the strengthened members, as the simplified properties which FEMA 356 proposes for non-strengthened members, static nonlinear analysis could be performed more easily. Current paper involves this matter and it is intended to determine the plastic hinge properties for static nonlinear analysis of the FRP-strengthened circular columns.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제8권2호
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• pp.145-154
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• 2019

The present experimental study addresses the structural response of reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened in shear. Thirteen RC beams were divided into four different sets to investigate the effect of transverse and longitudinal steel reinforcement ratios, concrete compressive strength change and orientation for installing carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates. Then, we employed a shear strengthening solution through externally bonded reinforcement in grooves (EBRIG) and externally bonded reinforcement (EBR) techniques. In this regard, rectangular beams of $200{\times}300{\times}2000mm$ dimensions were subjected to the 4-point static loading condition and their load-displacement curves, load-carrying capacity and ductility changes were compared. The results revealed that using EBRIG method, the gain percentage augmented with the increase in the longitudinal reinforcement ratio. Also, in the RC beams with stirrups, the gain in shear strength decreased as transverse reinforcement ratio increased. The results also revealed that the shear resistance obtained by the experimental tests were in acceptable agreement with the design equations. Besides, the results of this research indicated that using the EBRIG system through vertical grooves in RC beams with and without stirrups caused the energy absorption to increase about 85% and 97%, respectively, relative to the control.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제27권5호
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• pp.437-445
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• 2021

Retrofitting of structures has gained importance over the recent years. Particularly, Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) column strengthening has become a challenge to the structural engineers, owing to the risks and complexities involved in it. There are several methods of RCC column strengthening viz. RCC jacketing, steel jacketing and Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) wrapping etc., FRP wrapping is the most promising alternative when compared to the others. The large research database shows FRP wrapping, through lateral confinement, improves the axial load carrying capacity of the columns under concentric loading. However, its confining efficiency reduces under eccentric loading. Hence a relative newer technique called Near Surface Mounting (NSM), in which Carbon FRP (CFRP) strips are epoxy grouted to the precut grooves in the cover concrete of the columns, has been thrust domain of research. NSM technique strengthens the column nominally under concentric load case while significantly under eccentric case. A novel configuration of NSM in which the vertical NSM (VNSM) strips are being connected by horizontal NSM (HNSM) strips was numerically investigated under both concentric and eccentric loading. It was found that the configuration with 6 HNSM strips performed better under eccentric loading than under concentric loading, while the configuration with 3 HNSM strips performed better under concentric loading than under eccentric loading. Hence an optimum of 4 HNSM strips is recommended as strengthening measure for the given column specifications. It was also found that Aluminum alloy cannot be used instead of CFRP in NSM applications owing to its lower mechanical properties.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제13권4호
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• pp.307-313
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• 2022

This paper performs an experimental study on the flexural behavior of preloaded reinforced self-compacted concrete beams strengthened with carbon fiber reinforced polymers CFRP. A group of six preloaded strengthened beams was investigated along with one unstrengthened beam used as a reference beam RB. All beams have the same dimensions and reinforcement details: three beams are strengthened with CFRP laminates against flexural failure and three beams are strengthened with CFRP sheets. For simulating actual conditions, the beams are loaded before strengthening. Then, after strengthening, the beams are tested for flexural strength using 4-point loads where cracked and ultimate load and failure mode, along with load-deflection relation are recorded. To study the different configurations of strengthening, one layer, two layers, and U-wrap formation of laminates and sheets are considered. The results show that strengthing the RC beams using CFRP is an effective method to increase the beam's capacity by 47% up to 153% where deflection is reduced by 5%-80%. So, the beams strengthened with CFRP laminates have higher load capacity and lower ductility in comparison with the beams strengthened with CFRP sheets.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• 제12권3호
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• pp.241-260
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• 2023

The objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of adding fibers to concrete and the distribution rate of the porosity on the interfacial stresses of the beams strengthened with various types of functionally graded porous (FGP) plate. Toward this goal, the beams strengthened with FGP plate were considered and subjected to uniform loading. Three types of beams are considered namely RC beam, RC beam reinforced with metal fibers (RCFM) and RC beam reinforced with Alfa fibers (RCFA). From an analytical development, shear and normal interfacial stresses along the length of the FGP plates were obtained. The accuracy and validity of the proposed theoretical formula are confirmed by the others theoretical results. The results showed clearly that adding fibers to concrete and the distribution rate of the porosity have significant influence on the interfacial stresses of the beams strengthened with FGP plates. Finally, parametric studies are carried out to demonstrate the effect of the mechanical properties and thickness variations of FGP plate, concrete and adhesive on interface debonding, we can conclude that, This research is helpful for the understanding on mechanical behavior of the interface and design of the FRP-RC hybrid structures.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제45권4호
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• pp.591-603
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• 2022

The flexural strengthening of reinforced concrete beams by external bonding of composite materials has proved to be an efficient and practical technique. This paper presents a study on the flexural performance of reinforced concrete continuous beams with three spans (one span and two cantilevered) strengthened by bonding carbon fiber fabric (CFRP). The model is based on equilibrium and deformations compatibility requirements in and all parts of the strengthened continuous beam, i.e., the continuous concrete beam, the FRP plate and the adhesive layer. The adherend shear deformations have been included in the present theoretical analyses by assuming a linear shear stress through the thickness of the adherends. Remarkable effect of shear deformations of adherends has been noted in the results. The theoretical predictions are compared with other existing solutions that shows good agreement, and It shows the effectiveness of CFRP strips in enhancing shear capacity of continuous beam. It is shown that both the normal and shear stresses at the interface are influenced by the material and geometry parameters of the composite beam.