• 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.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.3D
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• pp.325-330
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• 2008

This study carried out the repeated freezing-thawing test in order to understand the long-term degradation mechanism of GFRP dowel bars. The mechanical property measured by shear test. In addition, analyzes repeated freezing-thawing degradation mechanism of GFRP dowel bars by observe the microstructure through Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Gas Physisorption techniques. As the result of test, it was found that the mechanical property didn't decreased as the exposure time to water and repeated freezing-thawing environment. It shows clearly observed microstructure investigations.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.27-44
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• 2023

The current study targets to apply the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) for the estimation of the shear resistance offered by the externally bonded fiber-reinforced polymer (EB-FRP) U-jackets. A total of 202 groups of data cumulated from previous investigations, were employed for the development and evaluation of the ANFIS model. A relative appraisal between the ANFIS predictions and the results of experiments has shown that the assessments by current ANFIS model are in good concurrence with the latter. In addition, assessment of the accuracy of the ANFIS model was done by relating the ANFIS predictions with the forecasts of eight extensively used design guidelines. Based on the examination of various performance measures, it has been derived that the adequacy of the ANFIS model is better than the available guidelines. A parametric investigation has additionally been done to reconnoiter the influence of individual parameters as well as their combined effects on the shear contribution of EB-FRP. Based on the observations made from the parametric study, it has been witnessed that the ANFIS model has incorporated the effect of different parameters more competently than the considered design guidelines.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.90 no.2
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• pp.127-142
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• 2024

In recent decades, pultruded glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) members including those of box sections have attracted the attention of researchers. Nevertheless, the lack of uniform and consistent material properties, simplified design methods, and practical design codes have so far been the main barrier for field applications. Consequently, this paper highlights the existing knowledge concerning the flexural behavior of pultruded GFRP profiles and their failure modes. In particulate, it reviews the most commonly accepted design expressions and code provisions addressing the flange local buckling of pultruded GFRP box beams as the most likely failure mode. In addition, the material characterization of GFRP sections is described in detail along with the standard test methods to quantify the material characterization of GFRP laminates. It is shown that the critical flange local buckling stresses of pultruded GFRP box beams can be predicted with reliable accuracy using the expressions promulgated by ASCE (1984) (in which the flange plates are considered simply-supported at web-flange junction) and EUR 27666. The expressions stipulated in ASCE (2010) highly overestimates the critical flange local buckling stresses of GFRP box beams resulting in unconservative predictions.