• Computers and Concrete
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• 제6권5호
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• pp.421-435
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• 2009

Chloride induced corrosion is a concern that governs the durability of concrete structures in marine environments, especially in tidal environments. During the service lives of concrete structures, internal cracks in the concrete cover may appear due to imposed loads, accelerating chloride penetration because of the simultaneous action of environmental and service structural loads. This paper investigated the effects of cyclic flexural loads on chloride diffusion characteristics of plain concretes, and proposed a model to predict the chloride penetration into plain concretes subjected to both tidal environments and different cyclic flexural load levels. Further, a new experiment was performed to verify the model. Results of the model using Finite Difference Method (FDM) showed that the durability of concretes in tidal environments was reduced as cyclic flexural load levels, SR, increased, and the modeling results fitted well with the experimental results.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제7권4호
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• pp.331-346
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• 2010

We present a quadrilateral finite element with an embedded crack that can be used to model tensile fracture in two-dimensional concrete solids and the crack growth. The element has kinematics that can represent linear jumps in both normal and tangential displacements along the crack line. The cohesive law in the crack is based on rigid-plasticity with softening. The required material data for the concrete failure analysis are the constants of isotropic elasticity and the mode I softening curve. The results of two well known tests are presented in order to illustrate very satisfying performance of the presented approach to simulate failure of concrete solids.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제18권5호
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• pp.951-968
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• 2016

In this study, pullout capacities of post-installed deformed bars anchored in low strength concrete using different bonding materials are investigated experimentally. The experimental study was conducted under outdoor and indoor conditions; on the beams of an actual reinforced concrete building and on concrete bases constructed at Istanbul Technical University (ITU). Ready-mixed cement based anchorage mortar with modified polymers (M1), ordinary cement with modified polymer admixture (M2), and epoxy based anchorage mortar with two components (E) were used as bonding material. Furthermore, test results are compared with the predictions of current analytical models. Findings of the study showed that properly designed cement based mortars can be efficiently used for anchoring deformed bars in low quality concrete. It is important to note that the cost of cement based mortar is much lower with respect to conventional epoxy based anchorage materials.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제12권6호
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• pp.591-601
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• 2017

To prevent or limit the damage caused by earthquakes on existing buildings, several retrofitting techniques are possible. In this work, an ultra high performance concrete based on sand dune has been formulated for use in the reinforcement of a multifunctional tower in the city of Skikda in Algeria. Tests on the formulated ultra high performance concrete are performed to determine its characteristics. A nonlinear dynamic analysis, based on the "Pushover" method was conducted. The analysis allowed an optimization of the width of reinforced concrete walls used in seismic strengthening. Two types of concrete are studied, the ordinary concrete and the ultra high performance concrete. Both alternatives are compared with the reinforcement with carbon fibers and by base isolation retrofit design.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제10권4호
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• pp.333-343
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• 2020

In the architectural design process, the selection and configuration of the structural system significantly affect the earthquake behaviours of the reinforced concrete buildings. The main purpose of this study, the effects on the earthquake performances and the rough construction cost of the buildings of the slab type in reinforced concrete buildings are to examine comparatively for different local soil classes. The results obtained from this study have been determined that the building model having slabs with beams is safer compared to other types of slabs, especially when considering the vertical bearing structural elements (columns). It also shows that other types of slab, except for slab with beams, reduce the earthquake performances of reinforced concrete buildings, increase the displacement values, 1st natural vibration period values and the cost of rough construction. This matter reveals that slab type is quite important and the preference of beamed slabs in reinforced concrete buildings to be constructed in earthquake zones would be more appropriate in terms of safety and cost.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제18권1호
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• pp.91-112
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• 2004

Concrete is a composite material and at meso-level, may be assumed to be composed of three phases: aggregate, mortar-matrix and aggregate-matrix interface. It is postulated herein that although non-linear material parameters are generally used to model this composite structure by finite element method, linear elastic fracture mechanics principles can be used for modelling at the meso level, if the properties of all three phases are known. For this reason, a novel meso-mechanical approach for concrete fracture which uses the composite material model with distributed-phase for elastic properties of phases and considers the size effect according to linear elastic fracture mechanics for strength properties of phases is presented in this paper. Consequently, the developed model needs two parameters such as compressive strength and maximum grain size of concrete. The model is applied to three most popular fracture mechanics approaches for concrete namely the two-parameter model, the effective crack model and the size effect model. It is concluded that the developed model well agrees with considered approaches.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제8권5호
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• pp.1171-1190
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• 2015

Enhancement of strength and ductility is the main reason for the extensive use of FRP jackets to provide external confinement to reinforced concrete columns especially in seismic areas. Therefore, numerous researches have been carried out in order to provide a better description of the behavior of FRP-confined concrete for practical design purposes. This study presents a new approach to obtain strength enhancement of CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced polymer) confined concrete cylinders by applying artificial neural networks (ANNs). The proposed ANN model is based on experimental results collected from literature. It represents the ultimate strength of concrete cylinders after CFRP confinement which is also given in explicit form in terms of geometrical and mechanical parameters. The accuracy of the proposed ANN model is quite satisfactory when compared to experimental results. Moreover, the results of the proposed ANN model are compared with five important theoretical models proposed by researchers so far and considered to be in good agreement.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제18권3호
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• pp.367-388
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• 2016

In this paper, a simple practical method is introduced in which a simple weight measurement of concrete and finite element numerical analysis are used to determine the moisture transfer coefficient of concrete with a satisfactory accuracy. Six concrete mixtures with different water-to-cementitious material (w/cm) ratios and two pozzolanic materials including silica fume and zeolite were examined to validate the proposed method. The comparison between the distribution of the moisture content obtained from the model and the one from the experimental data during both the wetting and drying process properly validated the performance of the method.With the proposed method, it was also shown that the concrete moisture transfer coefficient considerably depends on the pore water saturation degree. The use of pozzolanic materials and also lowering w/cm ratio increased the moisture transfer coefficient during the initial sorption, and then, it significantly decreased with an increase in the water saturation degree.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제19권4호
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• pp.953-966
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• 2015

Carbonation depth was verified in 40 points of two 57 years old concrete viaducts. Field testing (phenolphthalein spraying) was performed on the structures. Data obtained were statistically analyzed by the Kolmogrov-Smirnov's test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA's test), and Fisher's method. The results revealed significant differences between maximum carbonation depths of different elements of the same concrete structure. Significant differences were also found in the carbonation of different concrete structures inserted in the same macroclimate. Microclimatic factors such as temperature and local humidity, sunshine, wind, wetting and drying cycles, among others, may have been responsible by the behavior of carbonation in concrete.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제10권6호
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• pp.517-539
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• 2010

This paper presents the axial compressive behaviour of stub concrete-filled columns with elliptical stainless steel and carbon steel hollow sections. The finite element method developed via ABAQUS/Standard solver was used to carry out the simulations. The accuracy of the FE modelling and the proposed confined concrete stress-strain model were verified against experimental results. A parametric study on stub concrete-filled columns with various elliptical hollow sections made with stainless steel and carbon steel was conducted. The comparisons and analyses presented in this paper outline the effect of hollow sectional configurations to the axial compressive behaviour of elliptical concrete-filled steel tubular columns, especially the merits of using stainless steel hollow sections is highlighted.