• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.35-53
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• 2013

In this study, a hybrid floating structure with cylinder was introduced to reduce the hydrodynamic motions of the pontoon type. The hybrid floating structure is composed of cylinders and semi-opened side sections to penetrate the wave impact energy. In order to exactly investigate the hydrodynamic motions and structural behavior of the hybrid floating structure under the wave loadings, integrated analysis of hydrodynamic and structural behavior were carried out on the hybrid floating structure. Firstly, the hydrodynamic analyses were performed on the hybrid and pontoon models. Then, the wave-induced hydrodynamic pressures resulting from hydrodynamic analysis were directly mapped to the structural analysis model. And, finally, the structural analyses were carried out on the hybrid and pontoon models. As a result of this study, it was learned that the hybrid model of this study was showed to have more favorable hydrodynamic motions than the pontoon model. The surge motion was indicated even smaller motion at all over wave periods from 4.0 to 10.0 sec, and the heave and pitch motions indicated smaller motions beyond its wave period of 6.5 sec. However, the hybrid model was shown more unfavorable structural behavior than the pontoon model. High concentrated stress occurred at the bottom slab of the bow and stern part where the cylinder wall was connected to the bottom slab. Also, the hybrid model behaved with the elastic body motion due to weak stiffness of floating body and caused a large stress variation at the pure slab section between the cylinder walls. Hence, in order to overcome these problems, some alternatives which could be easily obtained from the simple modification of structural details were proposed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.1085-1114
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• 2016

This paper investigates the transverse impact response for ultra lightweight cement composite (ULCC) filled pipe-in-pipe structures through a parametric study using both a validated finite element procedure and a validated theoretical model. The parametric study explores the effect of the impact loading conditions (including the impact velocity and the indenter shape), the geometric properties (including the pipe length and the dimensions of the three material layers) as well as the material properties (including the material properties of the steel pipes and the filler materials) on the impact response of the pipe-in-pipe composite structures. The global impact responses predicted by the FE procedure and by the theoretical model agree with each other closely. The parametric study using the theoretical approach indicates the close relationships among the global impact responses (including the maximum impact force and the maximum global displacement) in specimens with the equivalent thicknesses, proposed in the theoretical model, for the pipe-in-pipe composite structures. In the pipe-in-pipe composite structure, the inner steel pipe, together with the outer steel pipe, imposes a strong confinement on the infilled cement composite and enhances significantly the composite action, leading to improved impact resistance, small global and local deformations.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.419-427
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• 2017

With the rising global environmental awareness on energy saving and carbon reduction, as well as the environmental transition and natural disasters resulted from the greenhouse effect, waste resources should be efficiently used to save environmental space and achieve environmental protection principle of "sustainable development and recycling". This study used recycled cement mortar and adopted the volumetric method for experimental design, which replaced cement (0%, 10%, 20%, 30%) with recycled materials (fly ash, slag, glass powder) to test compressive strength and ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV). The hyperbolic function for nonlinear multivariate regression analysis was used to build prediction models, in order to study the effect of different recycled material addition levels (the function of $R_m$(F, S, G) was used and be a representative of the content of recycled materials, such as fly ash, slag and glass) on the compressive strength and UPV of cement mortar. The calculated results are in accordance with laboratory-measured data, which are the mortar compressive strength and UPV of various mix proportions. From the comparison between the prediction analysis values and test results, the coefficient of determination $R^2$ and MAPE (mean absolute percentage error) value of compressive strength are 0.970-0.988 and 5.57-8.84%, respectively. Furthermore, the $R^2$ and MAPE values for UPV are 0.960-0.987 and 1.52-1.74%, respectively. All of the $R^2$ and MAPE values are closely to 1.0 and less than 10%, respectively. Thus, the prediction models established in this study have excellent predictive ability of compressive strength and UPV for recycled materials applied in cement mortar.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.64 no.5
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• pp.543-555
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• 2017

The non-linear behaviour of integral infilled frames (in which the infill and the frame are bonded together with help of various interface materials) is studied both experimentally and numerically. The experiments were carried out on one-sixth scale two-bay and three-storey reinforced concrete frames with and without infill against static cyclic loading. Three interface materials - cement mortar, cork and foam have been used in between the infill and the frame. The infill, interface and the frame are bonded together is called integral frame. The linear and non-linear behaviors of two dimensional bare frame and integral infilled frame have been studied numerically using the commercial finite element software SAP 2000. Linear finite element analysis has been carried out to quantify the effect of various interface materials on the infilled frames with various combinations of 21 cases and the results compared. The modified configuration that used all three interface materials offered better resistance above others. Therefore, the experiments were limited to this modified infilled frame case configuration, in addition to conventional (A1-integral infilled frame with cement mortar as interface) and bare frame (A0-No infill). The results have been compared with the numerical results done initially. It is found that stiffness of bare frame increased by infilling and the strength of modified frame increased by 20% compare to bare frame. The ductility ratio of modified infilled frame was 42% more than that of the conventional infilled frame. In general, the numerical result was found to be in good agreement with experimental results for initial crack load, ultimate load and deformed pattern of infill.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.539-544
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• 2017

Shear walls have high stiffness and strength; however, they lack energy dissipation and repairability. In this study, an innovative slotted shear wall featuring vertical slots and steel energy dissipation connectors was developed. The ductility and energy dissipation of the shear wall were improved, while sufficient bearing capacity and structural stiffness were retained. Furthermore, the slotted shear wall does not support vertical forces, and thus it does not have to be arranged continuously along the height of the structure, leading to a much free arrangement of the shear wall. A frame-slotted shear wall structure that combines the conventional frame structure and the innovative shear wall was developed. To investigate the ductility and hysteretic behavior of the slotted shear wall, finite element models of two walls with different steel connectors were built, and pushover and quasi-static analyses were conducted. Numerical analysis results indicated that the deformability and energy dissipation were guaranteed only if the steel connectors yielded before plastic hinges in the wall limbs were formed. Finally, a modified D-value method was proposed to estimate the bearing capacity and stiffness of the slotted shear wall. In this method, the wall limbs are analogous to columns and the connectors are analogous to beams. Results obtained from the modified D-value method were compared with those obtained from the finite element analysis. It was found that the internal force and stiffness estimated with the modified D-value method agreed well with those obtained from the finite element analysis.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.545-553
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• 2017

A pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD) can be considered as a passive device, which combines the merits of a traditional tuned mass damper (TMD) and a collision damper. A recent analytical study by the authors demonstrated that the PTMD base on the energy dissipation during impact is able to achieve better control effectiveness over the traditional TMD. In this paper, a PTMD prototype is manufactured and applied for seismic response reduction to examine its efficacy. A series of shaking table tests is conducted in a three-story building frame model under single-dimensional and two-dimensional broadband earthquake excitations with different excitation intensities. The ability of the PTMD to reduce the structural responses is experimentally investigated. The results show that the traditional TMD is sensitive to input excitations, while the PTMD mostly has improved control performance over the TMD to remarkably reduce both the peak and root-mean-square (RMS) structural responses under single-dimensional earthquake excitation. Unlike the TMD, the PTMD is found to have the merit of maintaining a stable performance when subjected to different earthquake loadings. In addition, it is also indicated that the performance of the PTMD can be enhanced by adjusting the initial gap value, and the control effectiveness improves with the increasing excitation intensity. Under two-dimensional earthquake inputs, the PTMD controls remain outperform the TMD controls; however, the oscillation of the added mass is observed during the test, which may induce torsional vibration modes of the structure, and hence, result in poor control performance especially after a strong earthquake period.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.267-277
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• 2017

Base-isolation is now being adopted as a retrofitting strategy to improve seismic behaviour of reinforced concrete (r.c.) framed structures subjected to far-fault earthquakes. However, the increase in deformability of a base-isolated framed building may lead to amplification in the structural response under the long-duration horizontal pulses of high-magnitude near-fault earthquakes, which can become critical once the strength level of a fire-weakened r.c. superstructure is reduced. The aim of the present work is to investigate the nonlinear seismic response of fire-damaged r.c. framed structures retrofitted by base-isolation. For this purpose, a five-storey r.c. framed building primarily designed (as fixed-base) in compliance with a former Italian seismic code for a medium-risk zone, is to be retrofitted by the insertion of elastomeric bearings to meet the requirements of the current Italian code in a high-risk seismic zone. The nonlinear seismic response of the original (fixed-base) and retrofitted (base-isolated) test structures in a no fire situation are compared with those in the event of fire in the superstructure, where parametric temperature-time curves are defined at the first level, the first two and the upper levels. A lumped plasticity model describes the inelastic behaviour of the fire-damaged r.c. frame members, while a nonlinear force-displacement law is adopted for the elastomeric bearings. The average root-mean-square deviation of the observed spectrum from the target design spectrum together with a suitable intensity measure are chosen to select and scale near- and far-fault earthquakes on the basis of the design hypotheses adopted.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.449-457
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• 2020

The influence of subsequent curing on the performance of fly ash contained mortar under steam curing was studied. Mortar samples incorporated with different content (0%, 20%, 50% and 70%) of Class F fly ash under five typical subsequent curing conditions, including standard curing (ZS), water curing(ZW) under 25℃, oven-dry curing (ZD) under 60℃, frozen curing (ZF) under -10℃, and nature curing (ZN) exposed to outdoor environment were implemented. The unsteady chloride diffusion coefficient was measured by rapid chloride migration test (RCM) to analyze the influence of subsequent curing condition on the resistance to chloride penetration of fly ash contained mortar under steam curing. The compressive strength was measured to analyze the mechanical properties. Furthermore, the open porosity, mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP), x-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were examined to investigate the pore characteristics and phase composition of mortar. The results indicate that the resistance to chloride ingress and compressive strength of steam-cured mortar decline with the increase of fly ash incorporated, regardless of the subsequent curing condition. Compared to ZS, ZD and ZF lead to poor resistance to chloride penetration, while ZW and ZN show better performance. Interestingly, under different fly ash contents, the declining order of compressive strength remains ZS>ZW>ZN>ZD>ZF. When the fly ash content is blow 50%, the open porosity grows with increase of fly ash, regardless of the curing conditions are diverse. However, if the replacement amount of fly ash exceeds a certain high proportion (70%), the value of open porosity tends to decrease. Moreover, the main phase composition of the mortar hydration products is similar under different curing conditions, but the declining order of the C-S-H gels and ettringite content is ZS>ZD>ZF. The addition of fly ash could increase the amount of harmless pores at early age.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.537-545
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• 2020

In order to reduce the usage of cement slurry in grouting engineering and consume the tunnel excavation waste soil, a new geopolymeric grouting material (GGM) was prepared by combine completely weathered granite (CWG) and blast-furnace slag (BFS), which can be applied to in-situ grouting treatment of completely weathered granite strata. The results showed CWG could participate in the geopolymerization process, and GGM slurry has the characteristics of short setting time, high flowability, low viscosity, high stone rate and high mechanical strength, and a design method of grouting pressure based on viscosity evolution was proposed. By adjusted the content of completely weathered granite and alkali activator concentration, the setting time of GGM were ranged from 5 to 30 minutes, the flowability was more than 23.5 cm, the stone rate was higher than 90%, the compressive strength of 28 days were 7.8-16.9 MPa, the porosity were below 30%. This provides a novel grouting treatment and utilizing excavated soil of tunnels in the similar strata.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.547-556
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• 2020

This study aimed to develop reference materials (RMs) that are chemically stable and can simulate the flow characteristics of cement paste. To this end, the candidate components of RMs were selected considering the currently required properties of RMs. Limestone, slag, silica, and kaolin were selected as substitutes for cement, while glycerol and corn syrup were selected as matrix fluids. Moreover, distilled water was used for mixing. To select the combinations of materials that meet all the required properties of RMs, flow characteristics were first analyzed. The results revealed that silica and kaolin exhibited bilateral nonlinearity. When an analysis was conducted over time, slag exhibited chemical reactions, including strength development. Moreover, fungi were observed in all mixtures with corn syrup. On the other hand, the combination of limestone, glycerol, and water exhibited a performance that met all the required properties of RMs. Thus, limestone, glycerol, and water were selected as the components of the RMs. When the influence of each component of the RMs on flow characteristics was analyzed, it was found that limestone affects the yield value, while the ratio of water and glycerol affects the plastic viscosity. Based on this, it was possible to select the mixing ratios for the RMs that can simulate the flow characteristics of cement paste under each mixing ratio. This relationship was established as an equation, which was verified under various mixing ratios. Finally, when the flow characteristics were analyzed under various temperature conditions, cement paste and the RMs exhibited similar tendencies in terms of flow characteristics. This indicated that the combinations of the selected materials could be used as RMs that can simulate the flow characteristics of cement paste with constant quality under various mixing ratio conditions and construction environment conditions.