• Computers and Concrete
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.153-159
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• 2017

In this study, the strength properties of alkali-activated silica fume (SF) mortars were investigated. The crushed limestone sand with maximum size of 0-5 mm and the sodium meta silicate ($Na_2SiO_3$) used to activate the binders were kept constant in the mortar mixtures. The mortar specimens using the replacement ratios of 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% SF by weight of cement together with $Na_2SiO_3$ at a constant rate were produced in addition to the control mortar produced by only cement. Moreover, the mortar specimens using the replacement ratio of 4% titanium dioxide ($TiO_2$) by weight of cement in the same mixture proportions were produced. The prismatic specimens produced from eleven different mixtures were de-moulded after a day, and the wet or dry cure was applied on the produced specimens at laboratory condition until the specimens were used for flexural strength ($f_{fs}$) and compressive strength ($f_c$) measurement at the ages of 7, 28 and 56 days. The $f_{fs}$ and $f_c$ values of mortars applied the wet or dry cure were compared with the results of control mortar. The findings revealed that the $f_c$ results of the alkali activated 50% SF mortars were higher than that of mortar produced with Portland cement only. It was found that the $f_{fs}$ and $f_c$ of alkali-activated SF mortars cured in dry condition was averagely 4% lower than that of alkali-activated SF mortars cured in wet condition.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.625-638
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• 2016

This paper presents field study and numerical modeling results for a single-cell low-fill concrete box culvert under a flexible pavement subjected to traffic loading. The culvert in the field test was instrumented with displacement transducers to capture the deformations resulting from different combinations of static and traffic loads. A low-boy truck with a known axle configuration and loads was used to apply seven static load combinations and traffic loads at different speeds. Deflections under the culvert roof were measured during loading. Soil and pavement samples were obtained by drilling operation on the test site. The properties of the soil and pavement layers were determined in the laboratory. A 3-D numerical model of the culvert was developed using a finite difference program FLAC3D. Linear elastic models were used for the pavement layers and soil. The numerical results with the material properties determined in the laboratory were compared with the field test results. The observed deflections in the field test were generally smaller under moving loads than static loads. The maximum deflections measured during the static and traffic loads were 0.6 mm and 0.41 mm respectively. The deflections computed by the numerical method were in good agreement with those observed in the field test. The deflection profiles obtained from the field test and the numerical simulation suggest that the traffic load acted more like a concentrated load distributed over a limited area on the culvert. Elastic models for culverts, pavement layers, and surrounding soil are appropriate for numerical modeling of box culverts under loading for load rating purposes.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.1
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• pp.15-25
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• 2018

Post-construction subgrade settlement especially differential settlement, has become a key issue in construction and operation of non-ballasted track on high-speed railway soil subgrade, which may also affect the dynamic performance of passing trains. To estimate the effect of differential subgrade settlement on the mechanical behaviors of the vehicle-slab track system, a detailed model considering nonlinear subgrade support and initial track state due to track self-weight is developed. Accordingly, analysis aiming at a typical high-speed vehicle coupled with a deteriorated slab track owing to differential subgrade settlement is carried out, in terms of two aspects: (i) determination of an initial mapping relationship between subgrade settlement and track deflections as well as contact state between track and subgrade based on a semi-analytical method; (ii) simulation of dynamic performance of the coupled system by employing a time integration approach. The investigation indicates that subgrade settlement results in additional track irregularity, and locally, the contact between the concrete track and the soil subgrade is prone to failure. Moreover, wheel-rail interaction is significantly exacerbated by the track degradation and abnormal responses occur as a result of the unsupported areas. Distributions of interlaminar contact forces in track system vary dramatically due to the combined effect of track deterioration and dynamic load. These may not only intensify the dynamic responses of the coupled system, but also have impacts on the long-term behavior of the track components.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.413-424
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• 2018

The factors affecting the shear strength of the angle shear connectors in the steel-concrete composite beams can play an important role to estimate the efficacy of a composite beam. Therefore, the current study has aimed to verify the output of shear capacity of angle shear connector according to the input provided by Support Vector Machine (SVM) coupled with Firefly Algorithm (FFA). SVM parameters have been optimized through the use of FFA, while genetic programming (GP) and artificial neural networks (ANN) have been applied to estimate and predict the SVM-FFA models' results. Following these results, GP and ANN have been applied to develop the prediction accuracy and generalization capability of SVM-FFA. Therefore, SVM-FFA could be performed as a novel model with predictive strategy in the shear capacity estimation of angle shear connectors. According to the results, the Firefly algorithm has produced a generalized performance and be learnt faster than the conventional learning algorithms.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.751-764
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• 2020

Real-time monitoring of stiffness and strength in cement based system has received significant attention in past few decades owing to the development of advanced techniques. Also, use of environment friendly supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) in cement, though gaining huge interest, severely affect the strength gain especially in early ages. Continuous monitoring of strength- and stiffness- gain using an efficient technique will systematically facilitate to choose the suitable time of removal of formwork for structures made with SCM incorporated concrete. This paper presents a technique for monitoring the strength and stiffness evolution in hydrating fly ash blended cement systems using electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) based technique. It is important to observe that the slower pozzolanic reactivity of fly ash blended cement systems could be effectively tracked using the evolution of equivalent local stiffness of the hydrating medium. Strength prediction models are proposed for estimating the strength and stiffness of the fly ash cement system, where curing age (in terms of hours/days) and the percentage replacement of cement by fly ash are the parameters. Evaluation of strength as obtained from EMI characteristics is validated with the results from destructive compression test and also compared with the same obtained from commonly used ultrasonic wave velocity (UPV). Statistical error indices indicate that the EMI technique is capable of predicting the strength of fly ash blended cement system more accurate than that from UPV. Further, the correlations between stiffness- and strength- gain over the time of hydration are also established. From the study, it is found that EMI based method can be effectively used for monitoring of strength gain in the fly ash incorporated cement system during hardening.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 2020

Population concentration in urban areas has led traffic management a central issue. To mitigate traffic congestions, the government has planned to construct large-cross-section tunnels deep underground. This study focuses on estimating the damage caused to frame structures owing to tunnel excavation. When constructing a tunnel network deep underground, it is necessary to divide the main tunnel and connect the divergence tunnel to the ground surface. Ground settlement is caused by excavation of the adjacent divergence tunnel. Therefore, predicting ground settlement using diverse variables is necessary before performing damage estimation. We used the volume loss and cover-tunnel diameter ratio as the variables in this study. Applying the ground settlement values to the settlement induction device, we measured the extent of damage to frame structures due to displacement at specific points. The vertical and horizontal displacements that occur at these points were measured using preattached LVDT (Linear variable differential transformer), and the lateral strain and angular distortion were calculated using these displacements. The lateral strain and angular distortion are key parameters for structural damage estimation. A damage assessment chart comprises the "Negligible", "Very Slight Damage", "Slight Damage", "Moderate to Severe Damage", and "Severe to Very Severe Damage" categories was developed. This table was applied to steel frame and concrete frame structures for comparison.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.149-165
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• 2016

Floods have been known to be one of the main causes of bridge collapse. Contrary to earthquakes, flood events tend to occur repeatedly and more frequently in rainfall areas; flood-induced damage and collapse account for a significant portion of disasters in many countries. Nevertheless, in contrast to extensive research on the seismic fragility analysis for civil infrastructure, relatively little attention has been devoted to the flood-related fragility. The present study proposes a novel methodology for deriving flood fragility curves for bridges. Fragility curves are generally derived by means of structural reliability analysis, and structural failure modes are defined as excessive demands of the displacement ductility of a bridge under increased water pressure resulting from debris accumulation and structural deterioration, which are known to be the primary causes of bridge failures during flood events. Since these bridge failure modes need to be analyzed through sophisticated structural analysis, flood fragility curve derivation that would require repeated finite element analyses may take a long time. To calculate the probability of flood-induced failure of bridges efficiently, in the proposed framework, the first order reliability method (FORM) is employed for reducing the required number of finite element analyses. In addition, two software packages specialized for reliability analysis and finite element analysis, FERUM (Finite Element Reliability Using MATLAB) and ABAQUS, are coupled so that they can exchange their inputs and outputs during structural reliability analysis, and a Python-based interface for FERUM and ABAQUS is newly developed to effectively coordinate the fragility analysis. The proposed framework of flood fragility analysis is applied to an actual reinforced concrete bridge in South Korea to demonstrate the detailed procedure of the approach.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.765-784
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• 2015

Connections are usually designed either as pinned usually associated with simple construction or rigid normally is associated with continuous construction. However, the actual behaviour falls in between these two extreme cases. The use of partial strength or semi-rigid connections has been encouraged by Euro-code 3 and studies on semi-continuous construction have shown substantial savings in steel weight of the overall construction. Composite connections are proposed in this paper as partial or full strength connections. Standardized connection tables are developed based on checking on all possible failure modes as suggested by "component method" for beam-to-column composite connection on major axis. Four experimental tests were carried out to validate the proposed standardised connection table. The test results showed good agreement between experimental and theoretical values with the ratio in the range between 1.06 to 1.50. All tested specimens of the composite connections showed ductile type of failure with the formation of cracks occurred on concrete slab at maximum load. No failure occurred on the Trapezoidal Web Profiled Steel Section as beam and on the British Section as column.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.651-669
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• 2016

The behavior of shear connectors plays a significant role in maintaining the required strength of a composite beam in normal and hazardous conditions. Various types of shear connectors are available and being utilized in the construction industry according to their use. Channel connectors are a suitable replacement for conventional shear connectors. These connectors have been tested under different types of loading at ambient temperature; however, the behavior of these connectors at elevated temperatures has not been studied. This investigation proposes a numerical analysis approach to estimate the behavior of channel connectors under fire and compare it with the numerical analysis performed in headed stud and Perfobond shear connectors subjected to fire. This paper first reviews the mechanism of various types of shear connectors and then proposes a non-linear thermo-mechanical finite element (FE) model of channel shear connectors embedded in high-strength concrete (HSC) subjected to fire. Initially, an accurate nonlinear FE model of the specimens tested at ambient temperature was developed to investigate the strength of the channel-type connectors embedded in an HSC slab. The outcomes were verified with the experimental study performed on the testing of channel connectors at ambient temperature by Shariati et al. (2012). The FE model at ambient temperature was extended to identify the behavior of channel connectors subjected to fire. A comparative study is performed to evaluate the performance of channel connectors against headed stud and Perfobond shear connectors. The channel connectors were found to be a more economical and easy-to-apply alternative to conventional shear connectors.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.369-380
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• 2017

The effects of the vertical component of a ground motion on the earthquake performances of semi-ductile high-rise R/C structures were investigated in the present study. Linear and non-linear time-history analyses were conducted on an existing in-service R/C building for the loading scenarios including and excluding the vertical component of the ground motion. The ratio of the vertical peak acceleration to the horizontal peak acceleration (V/H) of the ground motion was adopted as the main parameter of the study. Three different near-source earthquake records with varying V/H ratio were used in the analyses. The linear time-history analyses indicated that the incorporation of the vertical component of a ground motion into analyses greatly influences the vertical deflections of a structure and the overturning moments at its base. The lateral deflections, the angles of rotation and the base shear forces were influenced to a lesser extent. Considering the key indicators of vertical deflection and overturning moments determined from the linear time-history analysis, the non-linear analyses revealed that the changes in the forces and deformations of the structure with the inclusion of the vertical ground motion are resisted by the shear-walls. The performances and damage states of the beams were not affected by the vertical ground motion. The vertical ground motion component of earthquakes is markedly concluded to be considered for design and damage estimation of the vertical load-bearing elements of the shear-walls and columns.