• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제20권6호
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• pp.1275-1303
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• 2016

Steel plates and carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates or plates bonded to concrete substrates have been widely used for concrete strengthening. However, this technique cause plate debonding, which makes the strengthening system inefficient. The main objective of this study is to enhance the bond strength of externally bonded steel plates and CFRP laminates to the concrete surface by proposing new embedded adhesive and steel connectors. The effects of these new embedded connectors were investigated through the tests on 36 prism specimens. Parameters such as interfacial shear stress, fracture energy and the maximum strains in plates were also determined in this study and compared with the maximum value of debonding stresses using a relevant failure criterion by means of pullout test. The study indicates that the interfacial bond strength between the externally bonded plates and concrete can be increased remarkably by using these connectors. The investigation verifies that steel connectors increase the shear bond strength by 48% compared to 38% for the adhesive connectors. Thus, steel connectors are more effective than adhesive connectors in increasing shear bond strength. Results also show that the use of double connectors significantly increases interfacial shear stress and decrease debonding failure. Finally, a new proposed formula is modified to predict the maximum bond strength of steel plates and CFRP laminates adhesively glued to concrete in the presence of the embedded connectors.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제42권3호
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• pp.409-424
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• 2012

Since relatively low elasticity modulus of the FRP materials results in lower natural frequencies, it is necessary to study the free vibration of FRP transmission poles. In this paper, the free vibration of tapered FRP transmission poles with thin-walled circular cross-section is investigated by a tapered beam element. To model the flexible joints of the modular poles, a rotational spring model is used. Modal analysis is performed for typical FRP poles with/without joint and they are also modeled by ANSYS commercial finite element software. There is a good correlation between the results of the tapered beam finite element model and those obtained from ANSYS as well as the existing experimental results. The effects of different geometries, material lay-ups, concentrated masses at the pole tip, and joint flexibilities are evaluated. Moreover, it is concluded that using tougher fibres at the inner and outer layers of the cross-section, results in higher natural frequencies, significantly.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제12권5호
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• pp.483-499
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• 2013

A new piezoceramic $d_{15}$ shear-induced torsion actuation mechanism representative benchmark is proposed and its experimentations and corresponding 3D finite element (FE) simulations are conducted. For this purpose, a long and thin smart sandwich cantilever beam is dimensioned and built so that it can be used later for either validating analytical Saint Venant-type solutions or for analyzing arm or blade-based smart structures and systems applications. The sandwich beam core is formed by two adjacent rows of 8 oppositely axially polarized d15 shear piezoceramic patches, and its faces are dimensionally identical and made of the same glass fiber reinforced polymer composite material. Quasi-static and static experimentations were made using a point laser sensor and a scanning laser vibrometer, while the 3D FE simulations were conducted using the commercial software $ABAQUS^{(R)}$. The measured transverse deflection by both sensors showed strong nonlinear and hysteretic (static only) variation with the actuation voltage, which cannot be caught by the linear 3D FE simulations.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.21-32
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• 2018

Due to the escalation in hydrocarbon consumption, the offshore industry is now looking for advanced technology to be employed for deep sea exploration. Riser system is an integral part of floating structure used for such oil and gas extraction from deep water offering a system of drill twines and production tubing to spread the exploration well towards the ocean bed. Thus, the marine risers need to be precisely employed. The incorporation of the strengthening material, fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) for deep and ultra-deep water riser has drawn extensive curiosity in offshore engineering as it might offer potential weight savings and improved durability. The design for FRP strengthening involves the local design for critical loads along with the global analysis under all possible nonlinearities and imposed loadings such as platform motion, gravity, buoyancy, wave force, hydrostatic pressure, current etc. for computing and evaluating critical situations. Finite element package, ABAQUS/AQUA is the competent tool to analyze the static and dynamic responses under the offshore hydrodynamic loads. The necessities in design and operating conditions are studied. The study includes describing the methodology, procedure of analysis and the local design of composite riser. The responses and fatigue damage characteristics of the risers are explored for the effects of FRP strengthening. A detail assessment on the technical expansion of strengthening riser has been outlined comprising the inquiry on its behavior. The enquiry exemplifies the strengthening of riser as very potential idea and suitable in marine structures to explore oil and gas in deep sea.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제28권2호
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• pp.195-207
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• 2018

First-order reliability method (FORM) is enhanced based on the search direction using relaxed conjugate reliability (RCR) approach for the embedded nanocomposite beam under buckling failure mode. The RCR method is formulated using discrete conjugate map with a limited scalar factor. A dynamical relaxed factor is proposed to control instability of proposed RCR, which is adjusted using sufficient descent condition. The characteristic of equivalent materials for nanocomposite beam are obtained by micro-electro-mechanical model. The probabilistic model of nanocomposite beam is simulated using the sinusoidal shear deformation theory (SSDT). The beam is subjected to external applied voltage in thickness direction and the surrounding elastic medium is modeled by Pasternak foundation. The governing equations are derived in terms of energy method and Hamilton's principal. Using exact solution, the implicit buckling limit state function of nanocomposite beam is proposed, which is involved various random variables including thickness of beam, length of beam, spring constant of foundation, shear constant of foundation, applied voltage, and volume fraction of ZnO nanoparticles in polymer. The robustness, accuracy and efficiency of proposed RCR method are evaluated for this engineering structural reliability problem. The results demonstrate that proposed RCR method is more accurate and robust than the excising reliability methods-based FORM. The volume fraction of ZnO nanoparticles and the applied voltage are the sensitive variables on the reliable levels of the nanocomposite beams.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제74권2호
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• pp.243-254
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• 2020

Devastating RC structural failures in the past have identified that the behavior of beam-column joints is more critical and significantly governs the global structural response under seismic loading. The congestion of reinforcement at the beam-column joints with other constructional difficulties has escalated the attention required for strengthening RC beam-column joints. In this context, numerous studies have been carried out in the past, which mainly focused on jacketing the joints with different materials. However, there is no comparative study of different approaches used to strengthen RC beam-column joints, from efficiency and cost perspective. This paper presents a detailed investigation carried out to study the various strengthening schemes of exterior RC beam-column joints, viz., steel fiber reinforcement, carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strengthening, steel haunch strengthening, and confining joint reinforcement. The effectiveness of each scheme was evaluated experimentally. These specimens were tested under horizontal loading that produced opening moments on the joints and their behavior was studied with emphasis on strength, displacement ductility, stiffness, and failure mechanism. Special attention was given to the study of crack-width.

• 반도체디스플레이기술학회지
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.75-80
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• 2012

Polymer composites which have electrical properties have been studied in various industries. The Multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) are thought to be reinforcements for polymers because of their high aspect ratio and specially mechanical, thermal and electrical properties. We introduced MWCNT and impact modifier in order to improve thermal and mechanical properties of Polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) and give electric characteristic to PPS. The thermal properties were investigated by Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The morphology, mechanical properties and electrical characteristic were performed by Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Izod impact tester and surface resistance meter. As a result, we could find that the PPS/MWCNT composites have high conductivity and good mechanical properties than neat PPS resin.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제9권5호
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• pp.1069-1089
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• 2015

This paper investigates the limits and efficacies of the Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) material for strengthening mid-rise RC buildings against seismic actions. Turkey, the region of the highest seismic risk in Europe, is chosen as the case-study country, the building stock of which consists in its vast majority of mid-rise RC residential and/or commercial buildings. Strengthening with traditional methods is usually applied in most projects, as ordinary construction materials and no specialized workmanship are required. However, in cases of tight time constraints, architectural limitations, durability issues or higher demand for ductile performance, FRP material is often opted for since the most recent Turkish Earthquake Code allows engineers to employ this advanced-technology product to overcome issues of inadequate ductility or shear capacity of existing RC buildings. The paper compares strengthening of a characteristically typical mid-rise Turkish RC building by two methods, i.e., traditional column jacketing and FRP strengthening, evaluating their effectiveness with respect to the requirements of the Turkish Earthquake Code. The effect of FRP confinement is explicitly taken into account in the numerical model, unlike the common procedure followed according to which the demand on un-strengthened members is established and then mere section analyses are employed to meet the additional demands.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제12권3호
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• pp.207-230
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• 2012

Nowadays CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer) became widely used materials for the strengthening and retrofitting of structures. Many experimental and analytical studies are encountered at literature about strengthening beams by using this kind of materials against static loads and cyclic loads such as earthquake or wind loading for investigating their behavior. But authors did not found any study about strengthening of RC beams by using CFRP against low velocity impact and investigating their behavior. For these reasons an experimental study is conducted on totally ten strengthened RC beams. Impact loading is applied on to specimens by using an impact loading system that is designed by authors. Investigated parameters were concrete compression strength and drop height. Two different sets of specimens with different concrete compression strength tested under the impact loading that are applied by dropping constant weight hammer from five different heights. The acceleration arises from the impact loading is measured against time. The change of velocity, displacement and energy are calculated for all specimens. The failure modes of the specimens with normal and high concrete compression strength are observed under the loading of constant weight impact hammer that are dropped from different heights. Impact behaviors of beams are positively affected from the strengthening with CFRP. Measured accelerations, the number of drops up to failure and dissipated energy are increased. Finite element analysis that are made by using ABAQUS software is used for the simulation of experiments, and model gave compatible results with experiments.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제6권4호
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• pp.305-318
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• 2009

Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) is widely used for retrofitting concrete structures for various purposes. Especially, for the retrofitting of concrete structures subjected to blast loads, FRP is proven to be a very effective retrofitting material. However, a systematic design procedure to implement FRP for concrete structure retrofitting against blast loads does not exist currently. In addition, in case of concrete structures with inarticulate geometrical boundary conditions such as arch structures, an effective analysis technique is needed to obtain reliable results based on minimal analytical assumptions. Therefore, in this study, a systematic and efficient blast analysis procedure for FRP retrofitting design of concrete arch structure is suggested. The procedure is composed of three sequential parts of preliminary analysis, breach and debris analysis, and retrofit-material analysis. Based on the suggested procedure, blast analyses are carried out by using explicit code, LS-DYNA. The study results are discussed in detail.