• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.76 no.6
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• pp.737-749
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• 2020

A hybrid bridge deck is proposed, which includes steel bars, concrete and glass-fiber-reinforced-polymer (GFRP) plates with channel sections. The steel bar in the negative moment region can increase the flexural stiffness, improve the ductility, and reduce the GFRP ratio. Three continuous decks with different steel bar ratios and a simply supported deck were fabricated and tested to study the mechanical performance. The failure mode, deflection, strain distribution, cracks and support reaction were tested and discussed. The steel bar improves the mechanical performance of continuous decks, and a theoretical method is proposed to predict the deformation and the shear capacity. The experimental results show that all specimens failed with shear failure in the positive moment region. The increase of steel bar ratio in the negative moment region can achieve an enhancement in the flexural stiffness and reduce the deflection without increasing GFRP. Moreover, the continuous deck can achieve a yield load, and the negative moment can be carried by GFRP plates after the steel bar yields. Finally, a nonlinear analytical method for the deflection calculation was proposed and verified, with considering the moment redistribution, non-cracked sections and nonlinearity of material. In addition, a simplified calculation method was proposed to predict the shear capacity of GFRP-concrete decks.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.85 no.3
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• pp.315-335
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• 2023

Limited studies are available on the mathematical estimates of the compressive strength (CS) of glass fiber-embedded polymer (glass-FRP) compressive elements. The present study has endeavored to estimate the CS of glass-FRP normal strength concrete (NSTC) compression elements (glass-FRP-NSTC) employing two various methodologies; mathematical modeling and artificial neural networks (ANNs). The dataset of 288 glass-FRP-NSTC compression elements was constructed from the various testing investigations available in the literature. Diverse equations for CS of glass-FRP-NSTC compression elements suggested in the previous research studies were evaluated employing the constructed dataset to examine their correctness. A new mathematical equation for the CS of glass-FRP-NSTC compression elements was put forwarded employing the procedures of curve-fitting and general regression in MATLAB. The newly suggested ANN equation was calibrated for various hidden layers and neurons to secure the optimized estimates. The suggested equations reported a good correlation among themselves and presented precise estimates compared with the estimates of the equations available in the literature with R²= 0.769, and R² =0.9702 for the mathematical and ANN equations, respectively. The statistical comparison of diverse factors for the estimates of the projected equations also authenticated their high correctness for apprehending the CS of glass-FRP-NSTC compression elements. A broad parametric examination employing the projected ANN equation was also performed to examine the effect of diverse factors of the glass-FRP-NSTC compression elements.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.1
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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.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.257-270
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• 2022

Recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) is rarely used in load-carrying structural members. To widen its structural application, the compressive behavior of a promising type of composite column, steel-fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) double-tube confined RAC column, has been experimentally and analytically investigated in this study. The objectives are the different performance of such columns from their counterparts using natural aggregate concrete (NAC) and the different mechanisms of the double-tube and single-tube confined concrete. The single-tube confined concrete refers to that in concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns and concrete-filled FRP tubular (CFFT) columns. The test results showed that the use of recycled coarse aggregates (RCA) affected the axial load-strain response in terms of deformation capacity but such effect could be eliminated with the increasing confinement. The composite effect can be triggered by the double confinement of the steel and carbon FRP (CFRP) tubes but not by the steel and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) FRP tubes. The proposed analysis-oriented stress-strain model is capable to capture the load-deformation history of such steel-FRP double-tube confined concrete columns under axial compression.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.229-240
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• 2022

The main objective of this work is presenting a mathematical model for the concrete slab with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) layer under the impact load. Impacts are assumed to occur normally over the top slab and the interaction between the impactor and the structure is simulated using a new equivalent three-degree-of-freedom (TDOF) spring-mass-damper (SMD) model. The structure is assumed viscoelastic based on Kelvin-Voigt model. Based on the sinusoidal shear deformation theory (SSDT), energy method and Hamilton's principle, the motion equations are derived. Applying DQM, the dynamic deflection and contact force of the structure is calculated numerically so that the effects of mass, velocity and height of impactor, boundary conditions, FRP layer, structural damping and geometrical parameters of structure are shown on the dynamic deflection and contact force of system. Results show that considering structural damping leads to lower dynamic deflection and contact force. In addition, increasing the impact velocity of impactor yields to increases in the maximum contact force and deflection while the contact duration is decreased. The result shows that the contact force and the central deflection of the structure decreases and the contact time decreases with assuming FRP layer.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.637-648
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• 2021

Nowadays, one of the practical, fast and easy ways to strengthen steel elements is the use of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP). Most previous research in the CFRP strengthening of steel members has carried out on straight steel members. The main difference between horizontal curved beams and straight beams under vertical load is the presence of torsional moment in the horizontal curved beams. In the other words, the horizontal curved beams are analyzed and designed for simultaneous internal forces included bending moment, torsional moment, and shear force. The horizontal curved steel beams are usually used in buildings, bridges, trusses, and others. This study explored the effect of the CFRP strengthening on the behavior of the horizontal curved square hollow section (SHS) steel beams. Four specimens were analyzed, one non-strengthened curved steel beam as a control column and three horizontal curved steel beams strengthened using CFRP sheets (under concentrated load and uniform distributed load). To analyze the horizontal curved steel beams, three dimensional (3D) modeling and nonlinear static analysis methods using ANSYS software were applied. The results indicated that application of CFRP sheets in some specific locations of the horizontal curved steel beams could increase the ultimate capacity of these beams, significantly. Also, the results indicated when the horizontal curved steel beams were under distributed load, the increase rate in the ultimate capacity was more than in the case when these beams were under concentrated load.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.85 no.6
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• pp.755-764
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• 2023

The article examines the impact response of the sandwich beam furnished by a novel bilayer core as inspired by the woodpecker's head architecture under different repeatedly exerted low-velocity impact loadings by employing the finite element package, ABAQUS. The sandwich beam forms four essential parts comprising bottom and top carbon fiber reinforced polymer laminates encasing bilayer core made of laterally arched solid hot melt adhesive material and aluminum honeycomb. Impact loadings are implemented repeatedly with a steel hemisphere impactor for various impact energies, 7.28 J, 9.74 J, and 12.63 J. Essentially, the commonly concentrated stresses at the impact region are regulated away by the arched core in all considered cases thus reducing the threat of failure. The sandwich beam can resist up to 5 continual impacts at 7.28 J and 9.74 J but only up to 3 times repeated loads at 12.63 J before visible failure is noticed. In the examination of several key impact performance indicators under numerous loading cases, the proposed beam demonstrates favorably up to 1.3-11.2 higher impact resistance efficacies compared to existing designs, therefore displaying an improvement in repeated impact resistance of the new design.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.5
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• pp.605-618
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• 2022

Glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) elastic gridshells consist of long continuous GFRP tubes that form elastic deformations. In this paper, a method for the form-finding of gridshell structures is presented based on the interpretable machine learning (ML) approaches. A comparative study is conducted on several ML algorithms, including support vector regression (SVR), K-nearest neighbors (KNN), decision tree (DT), random forest (RF), AdaBoost, XGBoost, category boosting (CatBoost), and light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM). A numerical example is presented using a standard double-hump gridshell considering two characteristics of deformation as objective functions. The combination of the grid search approach and k-fold cross-validation (CV) is implemented for fine-tuning the parameters of ML models. The results of the comparative study indicate that the LightGBM model presents the highest prediction accuracy. Finally, interpretable ML approaches, including Shapely additive explanations (SHAP), partial dependence plot (PDP), and accumulated local effects (ALE), are applied to explain the predictions of the ML model since it is essential to understand the effect of various values of input parameters on objective functions. As a result of interpretability approaches, an optimum gridshell structure is obtained and new opportunities are verified for form-finding investigation of GFRP elastic gridshells during lifting construction.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.431-444
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• 2022

The unique thermomechanical properties of shape memory alloys (SMAs) make it a versatile material for strengthening and repairing structures. In particular, several research studies have already demonstrated the effectiveness of using the heat activated shape memory effect of nickel-titanium (Ni-Ti) based SMAs to actively confine concrete members. Despite the proven effectiveness and wide commercial availability of Ni-Ti SMAs, however, their high cost remains a major obstacle for applications in real structural engineering projects. In this study, the shape memory effect of a new, much more economical iron-based SMA (Fe-SMA) is characterized and the compressive behavior of concrete confined with Fe-SMA strips is investigated. Tests showed the Fe-SMA strips used in this study are capable of developing high levels of recovery stress and can be easily formed into hoops to provide effective active and passive confining pressure to concrete members. Compared to concrete cylinders confined with conventional carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites, Fe-SMA confinement yielded significantly higher compressive deformation capacity and residual strength. Overall, the compressive behavior of Fe-SMA confined concrete was comparable to that of Ni-Ti SMA confined concrete. This study clearly shows the potential for Fe-SMA as a robust and cost-effective strengthening solution for concrete structures and opens possibilities for more practical applications.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.81 no.1
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• pp.39-50
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• 2022

Layer separation (delamination) is an essential threat to fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) plates under dynamic, static, and fatigue loads. Under compressive load, the growth of delamination will lead to structural instability. The aim of this paper is to present a method using shape memory alloy (SMA) stitches to suppress the delamination growth in a FRP plate and to improve the buckling behavior of the plate with a rectangular hole. The present paper is divided into two parts. Firstly, a closed-form (CF) formulation for evaluating the buckling load of the FRP plate is presented. Secondly, the finite element method (FEM) will be employed to calculate the buckling loads of the plates which serves to validate the results obtained from the closed-form method. The novelty of this work is the development of the closed-form solution using the p-Ritz energy approach regarding the stress-dependent phase transformation of SMA to trace the equilibrium path. For the FEM, the Lagoudas constitutive model of the SMA material is implemented in FORTRAN programming language using a user material subroutines (VUMAT). The model is simulated in ABAQUS/Explicit solver due to the nature of the loading type. The cohesive zone model (CZM) is applied to simulate the delamination growth.