• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.71-79
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• 2020

Ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) is recognized as a promising material in future civil engineering projects due to its outstanding mechanical and durability properties. However, the lack of local UHPC materials and official standards, especially for prestressed UHPC structures, has limited the application of UHPC. In this research, a large-scale prestressed bridge girder composed of nonproprietary UHPC is produced and investigated. This work has two objectives to develop the mixing procedure required to create UHPC in large batches and to study the flexural behavior of the prestressed girder. The results demonstrate that a sizeable batch of UHPC can be produced by using a conventional concrete mixing system at any precast factory. In addition, incorporating local aggregates and using conventional mixing systems enables regional widespread use. The flexural behavior of a girder made by this UHPC is investigated including flexural strength, cracking pattern and development, load-deflection curve, and strain and neutral axis behaviors through a comprehensive bending test. The experimental data is similar to the theoretical results from analytical methods based on several standards and recommendations of UHPC design.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.75-81
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• 2016

Tendon corrosion reliability in KICT-ultra high performance concrete (K-UHPC) bridges is assessed and predicted considering uncertainties in flexural bending capacity and corrosion occurrence. In post-tensioning bridge systems, corrosion is a one of most critical failure mechanisms due to strength reduction by it. During the entire service life, those bridges may experience lifetime corrosion deterioration initiated and propagated in tendons which are embedded not only in normal concrete but also in K-UHPC. For this reason, the time-variant corrosion performance has to be assessed. In the absence of in-depth researches associated with K-UHPC tendon corrosion, a reliability-based prediction model is developed to evaluate lifetime corrosion performance of tendon in K-UHPC bridges. In 2015, KICT built a K-UHPC pilot bridge at 168/5~168/6 milestone on Yangon-Mandalay Expressway in Myanmar, by using locally produced tendons which post-tensioned in longitudinal and lateral ways of K-UHPC girders. For an illustrative purpose, this K-UHPC bridge is used to identify the time-variant corrosion performance.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.737-744
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• 2009

In this study, the flexural behavior of steel fiber reinforced ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) was investigated. It presents experimental results of steel fiber reinforced UHPC with steel fiber content of 2% by volume and steel reinforcement ratio of less than 0.02. This study aims at providing more information about UHPC beams in bending in order to establish a reasonable prediction model for flexural resistance and deflection in structural code in the future. The experimental results show that UHPC is in favor of cracking behavior and ductility of beams, and that the ductility indices range from 6.29 to 10.44, which means high ductility of UHPC. Also, the flexural rigidity of beam whose cast is begun from end of beam is larger than that of beam whose cast is begun from midspan of beam. This result represents that the flexural rigidity is affected by the placing method of UHPC.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.389-397
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• 2010

Concrete has excellent mechanical properties, high durability, and economical advantages over other construction materials. Nevertheless, it is not an easy task to apply concrete to long span bridges. That's because concrete has a low strength to weight ratio. Ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) has a very high strength and hence it allows use of relatively small section for the same design load. Thus UHPC is a promising material to be utilized in the construction of long span bridges. However, there is a possibility of crack generation during the curing process due to the high binder ratio of UHPC and a consequent large amount of hydration heat. In this study, adiabatic temperature rise and mechanical properties were modeled for the stress analysis due to hydration heat. Adiabatic temperature rise curve of UHPC was modeled superposing 2-parameter model and S-shaped function, and the Arrhenius constant was determined using the concept of equivalent time. The results are verified by the mock-up test measuring the temperature development due to the hydration of UHPC. In addition, models for mechanical properties such as elastic modulus, tensile strength and compressive strength were developed based on the test results from conventional load test and ultrasonic pulse velocity measurement.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.295-301
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• 2011

Recently, the use of UHPC made of superplasticizers, silica fume, and steel fibers has been increasing worldwide. Although UHPC has a very high strength as well as an excellent durability performance due to its dense microstructures, earlyage cracks may occur due to the high heat of hydration and autogenous shrinkage caused by low W/B and high unit cement content. The early-age shrinkage cracking of UHPC can be controlled by using the shrinkage reducers and expansive admixtures having autogenous shrinkage compensation effect. In this paper, ultrasonic pulse velocity of UHPC containing shrinkage reducers and expansive agents was measured to predict its stiffness change. Also, the effect of shrinkage reducers and expansive agents on the autogenous shinkage of UHPC was investigated through the shrinkage test of UHPC specimens. Furthermore, the material coefficients of autogenous shrinkage prediction model were determined using the autogenous shrinkage values of UHPC with age. Consequently, the test results showed that, by adding shrinkage reducers and expansive agents, the stiffness of UHPC was rapidly developed at early-ages and the autogenous shrinkage was considerably reduced.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.777-786
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• 2010

This paper examines the flexural behavior of full-scale prestressed concrete girders that were constructed of steel fiber reinforced ultra high performance concrete (UHPC). This study is designed to provide more information about the bending characteristics of UHPC girders in order to establish a reasonable prediction model for flexural resistance and deflection for future structural design codes. Short steel fibers have been introduced into prestressed concrete T-girders in order to study their effects under flexural loads. Round straight high strength steel fibers were used at volume fraction of 2%. The girders were cast using 150~190 MPa steel fiber reinforced UHPC and were designed to assess the ability of steel fiber reinforced UHPC to carry flexural loads in prestressed girders. The experimental results show that steel fiber reinforced UHPC enhances the cracking behavior and ductility of beams. Moreover, when ultimate failure did occur, the failure of girders composed of steel fiber reinforced UHPC was observed to be precipitated by the pullout of steel fibers that were bridging tension cracks in the concrete. Flexural failure of girders occurred when the UHPC at a particular cross section began to lose tensile capacity due to steel fiber pullout. In addition, it was determined that the level of prestressing force influenced the ultimate load capacity.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.1
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• pp.49-57
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• 2020

This paper presents a full-scale experimental test to investigate the flexural behavior of an innovative dovetail ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) joint designed for the 5^th Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge. The test specimen had a dimension of 3600 × 1600 × 170 mm, in accordance with the real bridge. The failure mode, crack pattern and structural response were presented. The ductility and stiffness degradation of the tested specimens were explicitly discussed. Test results indicated that different from conventional reinforced concrete slabs, well-distributed cracks with small spacing were observed for UHPC joint slabs at failure. The average nominal flexural cracking strength of the test specimens was 7.7 MPa, signifying good crack resistance of the proposed dovetail UHPC joint. It is recommended that high grade reinforcement be cooperatively used to take full advantage of the superior mechanical property of UHPC. A new ductility index, expressed by dividing the ultimate deflection by flexural cracking deflection, was introduced to evaluate the post-cracking ductility capacity. Finally, a strut-and-tie (STM) model was developed to predict the ultimate strength of the proposed UHPC joint.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.177-185
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• 2016

This paper concerns the flexural behavior of steel fiber-reinforced ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) beams with compressive strength of 150 MPa. It presents experimental research results of hybrid steel fiber-reinforced UHPC beams with steel fiber content of 1.5% by volume and steel reinforcement ratio of less than 0.02. This study aims at investigating of compressive and tensile behavior of UHPC to perform a reasonable prediction for flexural capacity of UHPC beams. Tensile behavior modeling was performed using load-crack mouth opening displacement relationship obtained from bending test. The experimental results show that steel fiber-reinforced UHPC is in favor of cracking resistance and ductility of beams. The ductility indices range from 1.6 to 3.0, which means high ductility of hybrid steel fiber-reinforced UHPC. Test results and numerical analysis results for the moment-curvature relationship are compared. Though the numerical analysis results for the bending capacity of the UHPC beam without rebar is larger than test result, the overall comparative results show that the bending capacity of steel fiber-reinforced UHPC beams with compressive strength of 150 MPa can be predicted by using the established method in this paper.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.413-421
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• 2020

For steel-concrete girders made composite using shear studs, initial damage on studs induced by weld defect, unexpected overloading, fatigue and others might degrade the service performance and even threaten the structural safety. This paper conducted a numerical study to investigate the static behavior of damaged stud shear connectors that were embedded in ultra high performance concrete (UHPC). Parameters included damage degree and damage location. The material nonlinear behavior was characterized by multi-linear stress-strain relationship and damage plasticity model. The results indicated that the shear strength was not sensitive to the damage degree when the damage occurred at 2/3d (d is the stud diameter) from the stud root. An increased stud area would be engaged in resisting shear force as the distance of damage location from stud root increased and the failure section becomes inclined, resulting in a less reduction in the shear strength and shear stiffness. The reduction factor was proposed to consider the degradation of the shear strength of the damaged stud. The reduction factor can be calculated using two approaches: a linear relationship and a square relationship with the damage degree corresponding to the shear strength dominated by the section area and the nominal diameter of the damaged stud. It was found that the proposed method is preferred to predict the shear strength of a stud with initial damage.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.553-568
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• 2020

Steel-concrete composite structures have been extensively used in building, bridges, and other civil engineering infrastructure. Shear stud connectors between steel and concrete are essential in composite members to guarantee the effectiveness of their behavior in terms of strength and deformability. This study focuses on investigating the shear stiffness of headed studs embedded in several types of concrete with wide range of compressive strength, and their effects on the elastic behavior of steel-concrete composite girders were evaluated. Firstly, totally 206 monotonic push-out tests from the literature were reviewed to investigate the shear stiffness of headed studs embedded in various types of concrete (NC, HPC, UHPC etc.). Shear stiffness of studs is defined as the secant stiffness of the load-slip curve at 0.5V_u, and a formulation for predicting defined shear stiffness in elastic state was proposed, indicating that the stud diameter and the elastic modulus of steel and concrete are the main factors. And the shear stiffness predicted by the new formula agree well with test results for studs with a diameter ranging from 10 to 30 mm in the concrete with compressive strength ranging from 22.0 to 200.0MPa. Then, the effects of shear stiffness on the elastic behaviors of composite girders with different sizes and under different loading conditions were analyzed, the equations for calculating the stress and deformation of simply supported composite girders considering the influence of connection's shear stiffness were derived under different loading conditions using classical linear partial-interaction theory. As the increasing of shear stiffness, the stress and deflection at the most unfavorable section under partial connected condition tend to be those under full connected condition, but the approaching speed decreases gradually. Finally, the connector's shear stiffness was recommended for fully connection in composite girders with different dimensions under different loading conditions. The findings from present study may provide a reference for the prediction of shear stiffness for headed studs and the elastic design of steel-concrete composite girder.