• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.50 no.6
• /
• pp.709-722
• /
• 2014

Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) is an innovative new material that, in comparison to conventional concretes, has high compressive strength and excellent ductility properties achieved through the addition of randomly dispersed short fibers to the concrete mix. This study presents the results of an experimental investigation on the behavior of axially loaded UHPC short circular columns wrapped with Carbon-FRP (CFRP), Glass-FRP (GFRP), and Aramid-FRP (AFRP) sheets. Six plain and 36 different types of FRP-wrapped UHPC columns with a diameter of 100 mm and a length of 200 mm were tested under monotonic axial compression. To predict the ultimate strength of the FRP-wrapped UHPC columns, a simple confinement model is presented and compared with four selected confinement models from the literature that have been developed for low and normal strength concrete columns. The results show that the FRP sheets can significantly enhance the ultimate strength and strain capacity of the UHPC columns. The average greatest increase in the ultimate strength and strain for the CFRP- and GFRP-wrapped UHPC columns was 48% and 128%, respectively, compared to that of their unconfined counterparts. All the selected confinement models overestimated the ultimate strength of the FRP-wrapped UHPC columns.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.465-481
• /
• 2018

The use of external carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates is one of the most effective techniques existing for the confinement of circular concrete specimens. Currently, several researches have been made to develop models for predicting the ultimate conditions of this type of confinement. As most of the major existing models were developed based on limited experimental database. This paper presents the development of new confinement ultimate conditions, strength and strain models, for concrete cylinders confined with CFRP composites based on a statistical analysis of a large existing experimental database of 310 cylindrical concrete specimens wrapped with CFRP. The database is used to evaluate the performance of the proposed and major existing strength and strain models. Based on the two different statistical indices, the coefficient of determination ($R^2$) and the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), the two proposed confinement ultimate conditions presents a good performance compared to the major existing models except the models of Lam and Teng (2003) and Youssef et al. (2007) which have relatively similar performance to the proposed models.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.235-243
• /
• 2019

The discontinuous Galerkin method (DGM) has become widely used as it possesses several qualities, such as a natural ability to dealing with discontinuities. DGM has its major success related to fluid mechanics. Its major importance is the ability to deal with discontinuities and still provide high order of approximation. That is an important advantage when simulating cracking propagation. No remeshing is necessary during the propagation, since the crack path follows the interface of elements. However, DGM comes with the drawback of an increased number of degrees of freedom when compared to the classical continuous finite element method. Thus, it seems a natural approach to combine them in the same simulation obtaining the advantages of both methods. This paper proposes the application of the combined continuous-discontinuous Galerkin method (CDGM) to crack propagation. An important engineering problem is the simulation of crack propagation in concrete structures. The problem is characterized by discontinuities that evolve throughout the domain. Crack propagation is simulated using CDGM. Discontinuous elements are placed in regions with discontinuities and continuous elements elsewhere. The cohesive zone model describes the fracture process zone where softening effects are expressed by cohesive zones in the interface of elements. Two numerical examples demonstrate the capacities of CDGM. In the first example, a plain concrete beam is submitted to a three-point bending test. Numerical results are compared to experimental data from the literature. The second example deals with a full-scale ground slab, comparing the CDGM results to numerical and experimental data from the literature.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.39 no.2
• /
• pp.189-200
• /
• 2021

The compressive strength of circular concrete filled steel tubular (C-CFST) stubs strengthened with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) is studied theoretically. According to previous experimental results, the failure process and mechanism of circular CFRP-concrete filled steel tubular (C-CFRP-CFST) stubs is analyzed, and the loading process is divided into 3 stages, i.e., elastic stage, elasto-plastic stage and failure stage. Based on continuum mechanics, the theoretical model of C-CFRP-CFST stubs under axial compression is established based on the assumptions that steel tube and concrete are both in three-dimensional stress state and CFRP is in uniaxial tensile stress state. Equations for calculating the yield strength and the ultimate strength of C-CFRP-CFST stubs are deduced. Theoretical predictions from the presented equations are compared with existing experimental results. There are a total of 49 tested specimens, including 15 ones for comparison of yield strength and 44 ones for comparison of ultimate strength. It is found that the predicted results of most specimens are within an error limit of 10%. Finally, simplified equations for calculating both yield strength and ultimate strength of C-CFRP-CFST stubs are proposed.

• Advances in concrete construction
• /
• v.11 no.5
• /
• pp.387-396
• /
• 2021

The behavior of headed bars in concrete is investigated through 108 pullout tests having an embedment depth of eight times the bar diameter in the M20 concrete mix. Headed bars are designed based on ASTM A970-16 and ACI 318-19 recommendations. The primary parameters used in this study are the steel bar diameter, the steel fibers percentage, and the head shapes. Three failure modes namely, Steel, Concrete-Blowout & Pull-Through failure have been observed. Based on load-deflection curves which are plotted to investigate the bond capacity of headed bars, it is observed that the circular-headed bars have displayed the highest peak load. The comparative analysis shows the smaller differences in the ultimate bond strength between MC2010 (0.89-2.26 MPa) and EN 1992-1-1 (2.32 MPa) as compared to ACI-318-19 (11-22 MPa) which is due to the absence of embedment depth and peak load factor in MC2010 and EN 1992-1-1 respectively.

• Advances in nano research
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.285-295
• /
• 2022

Creation of plastic deformation under seismic loads, is one of the most serious subjects in RC structures with steel bars which reduces the life threatening risks and increases dissipation of energy. Shape memory alloy (SMA) is one of the best choice for the relocating plastic hinges. In a challenge to study the seismic response of concrete moment resisting frame (MRF), this article investigates numerically a new type of concrete frames with nano fiber reinforced polymer (NFRP) and shape memory alloy (SMA) hinges, simultaneously. The NFRP layer is containing carbon nanofibers with agglomeration based on Mori-Tanaka model. The tangential shear deformation (TASDT) is applied for modelling of the structure and the continuity boundary conditions are used for coupling of the motion equations. In SMA connections between beam and columns, since there is phase transformation, hence, the motion equations of the structure are coupled with kinetic equations of phase transformation. The Hernandez-Lagoudas theory is applied for demonstrating of pseudoelastic characteristics of SMA. The corresponding motion equations are solved by differential cubature (DC) and Newmark methods in order to obtain the peak ground acceleration (PGA) and residual drift ratio for MRF-2%. The main impact of this paper is to present the influences of the volume percent and agglomeration of nanofibers, thickness and length of the concrete frame, SMA material and NFRP layer on the PGA and drift ratio. The numerical results revealed that the with increasing the volume percent of nanofibers, the PGA is enhanced and the residual drift ratio is reduced. It is also worth to mention that PGA of concrete frame with NFRP layer containing 2% nanofibers is approximately equal to the concrete frame with steel bars.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.84 no.3
• /
• pp.375-391
• /
• 2022

This paper discussed and analyzed the interfacial stress distribution characteristic of adjacent cracks in Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) plate strengthened concrete slabs. One un-strengthened concrete test beam and four CFRP plate-strengthened concrete test beams were designed to carry out four-point flexural tests. The test data shows that the interfacial shear stress between the interface of CFRP plate and concrete can effectively reduce the crack shrinkage of the tensile concrete and reduces the width of crack. The maximum main crack flexural height in pure bending section of the strengthened specimen is smaller than that of the un-strengthened specimen, the CFRP plate improves the rigidity of specimens without brittle failure. The average ultimate bearing capacity of the CFRP-strengthened specimens was increased by 64.3% compared to that without CFRP-strengthen. This indicites that CFRP enhancement measures can effectively improve the ultimate bearing capacity and delay the occurrence of debonding damage. Based on the derivation of mechanical analysis model, the calculation formula of interfacial shear stress between adjacent cracks is proposed. The distributions characteristics of interfacial shear stress between certain crack widths were given. In the intermediate cracking region of pure bending sections, the length of the interfacial softening near the mid-span cracking position gradually increases as the load increases. The CFRP-concrete interface debonding capacity with the larger adjacent crack spacing is lower than that with the smaller adjacent crack spacing. The theoretical calculation results of interfacial bonding shear stress between adjacent cracks have good agreement with the experimental results. The interfacial debonding failure between adjacent cracks in the intermediate cracking region was mainly caused by the root of the main crack. The larger the spacing between adjacent cracks exists, the easier the interfacial debonding failure occurs.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.429-446
• /
• 2006

Experimental investigation was conducted to evaluate the seismic ductility of earthquake-experienced concrete columns with an aspect ratio of 2.5. Eight circular concrete columns with a diameter of 600 mm were constructed with three test parameters: confinement ratio, lap-splice of longitudinal bars, and retrofitting with Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) materials. The objective of this research is to examine the seismic performance of RC bridge piers subjected to a Quasi static test (QST), which were preliminary tested under a series of artificial earthquake motions referred to as a Pseudo dynamic test (PDT). The seismic enhancement effect of FRP wrap was also investigated on these RC bridge piers. Six specimens were loaded to induce probable damage by four series of artificial earthquakes, which were developed to be compatible with earthquakes in the Korean peninsula by the Korea Highway Corporation (KHC). Directly after the PDT, six earthquake-experienced columns were subjected to inelastic cyclic loading under a constant axial load of $0.1{f_c}^{\prime}A_g$. Two other reference specimens without the PDT were also subjected to similar quasi-static loads. Test results showed that specimens pre-damaged by moderate artificial earthquakes generally demonstrated good residual seismic performance, which was similar to the corresponding reference specimen. Moreover, RC bridge specimens retrofitted with wrapping fiber composites in the potential plastic hinge region exhibited enhanced flexural ductility.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.51 no.5
• /
• pp.509-527
• /
• 2024

Bonding carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates have been extensively employed in the restoration of steel constructions. In addition to the mechanical properties of the CFRP, the bond strength (P_U) between the CFRP and steel is often important in the eventual strengthened performance. Nonetheless, the bond behavior of the CFRP-steel (CS) interface is exceedingly complicated, with multiple failure causes, giving the P_U challenging to forecast, and the CFRP-enhanced steel structure is unsteady. In just this case, appropriate methods were established by hybridized Random Forests (RF) and support vector regression (SVR) approaches on assembled CS single-shear experiment data to foresee the P_U of CS, in which a recently established optimization algorithm named Aquila optimizer (AO) was used to tune the RF and SVR hyperparameters. In summary, the practical novelty of the article lies in its development of a reliable and efficient method for predicting bond strength at the CS interface, which has significant implications for structural rehabilitation, design optimization, risk mitigation, cost savings, and decision support in engineering practice. Moreover, the Fourier Amplitude Sensitivity Test was performed to depict each parameter's impact on the target. The order of parameter importance was t_c> L_c > E_A > t_A > E_c > b_c > f_c > f_A from largest to smallest by 0.9345 > 0.8562 > 0.79354 > 0.7289 > 0.6531 > 0.5718 > 0.4307 > 0.3657. In three training, testing, and all data phases, the superiority of AO - RF with respect to AO - SVR and MARS was obvious. In the training stage, the values of R² and VAF were slightly similar with a tiny superiority of AO - RF compared to AO - SVR with R² equal to 0.9977 and VAF equal to 99.772, but large differences with results of MARS.

• Advances in concrete construction
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.179-190
• /
• 2023

The effect of glass fibres (GF) and polypropylene fibres (PPF) on the fresh properties and mechanical properties of lightweight concrete (LWC) exposed to high temperatures is investigated in this study. In this study, fifteen LWC mixtures were carried out in three different groups reinforced with PPF or GF fibers by 0%, 0.2%, and 0.4% by volume of concrete. The first group included aluminum powder (AP) as an air agent at 0.03% with the normal weight coarse aggregate (NWCA) by 100% of the weight of coarse aggregate. In the second group, 33% of the NWCA weight was replaced by lightweight coarse aggregate (LWCA). In the third group, 67% of the NWCA weight was replaced by LWCA. The slump, unit weight, Compressive strength (CS), tensile strength (TS), and flexural strength (FS) were examined. For two hours, the CS and FS were subjected to elevated temperatures of 200℃, 400℃, and 600℃, in addition to microstructure analysis of concrete. In comparison to the reference mixture, the fresh properties and bulk density of LWC decreased with the use of the air agent or the replacement of 67% of the NWCA with LWCA. As a result of the fiber addition, both the slump test and the bulk density decreased. The addition of fibers increased the CS; the highest CS was 38.5 MPa when 0.4% GF was added, compared to 28.9 MPa for the reference mixture at the test age of 28 days. In addition, flexural and TS increased by 53% and 38%, respectively, for 0.4% GF mixes. As well as, adding 0.4% GF to LWC maintained a higher CS than other mixtures.