• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.111-127
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• 2013

This paper describes effects of infill walls on behavior of RC frame with low strength, including numerical modeling, modal testing and finite-element model updating. For this purpose full scaled, one bay and one story RC frame is produced and tested for plane and brick in-filled conditions. Ambient-vibration testis applied to identify dynamic characteristics under natural excitations. Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition and Stochastic Subspace Identification methods are used to obtain experimental dynamic characteristics. A numerical modal analysis is performed on the developed two-dimensional finite element model of the frames using SAP2000 software to provide numerical frequencies and mode shapes. Dynamic characteristics obtained by numerical and experimental are compared with each other and finite element model of the frames are updated by changing some uncertain modeling parameters such as material properties and boundary conditions to reduce the differences between the results. At the end of the study, maximum differences in the natural frequencies are reduced on average from 34% to 9% and a good agreement is found between numerical and experimental dynamic characteristics after finite-element model updating. In addition, it is seen material properties are more effective parameters in the finite element model updating of plane frame. However, for brick in-filled frame changes in boundary conditions determine the model updating process.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.5
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• pp.673-689
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• 2021

This paper addresses the efficiency of thermal insulation layers applied to protect structural elements strengthened by fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) in the case of fire event. The paper presents numerical modeling and nonlinear analysis of reinforced concrete (RC) columns externally strengthened by FRP and protected by thermal insulation layers when subjected to elevated temperature specified by standard fire tests, in order to predict their residual capacity and fire endurance. The adopted numerical approach uses commercial software includes heat transfer, variation of thermal and mechanical properties of concrete, steel reinforcement, FRP and insulation material with elevated temperature. The numerical results show good agreement with published results of full-scale fire tests. A parametric study was conducted to investigate the influence of several variables on the structural response and residual capacity of insulated FRP-confined columns loaded by service loads when exposed to fire. The residual capacity of FRP-confined RC column was affected by concrete grade and insulation material and was shown to improve substantially by increasing the concrete cover and insulation layer thickness. By increasing the VG insulation layer thickness 15, 32, 44, 57 mm, the loss in column capacity after 5 hours of fire was 30%, 13%, 7% and 5%, respectively. The obtained results demonstrate the validity of the presented approach for estimation of fire endurance and residual strength, as an alternative for fire testing, and for design of fire protection layers for FRP-confined RC columns.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.625-637
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• 2023

The application of ML approaches in determining the resisting capacity of fire damaged RC columns is introduced in this paper, on the basis of analysis data driven ML modeling. Considering the characteristics of the structural behavior of fire damaged RC columns, the representative five approaches of Kernel SVM, ANN, RF, XGB and LGBM are adopted and applied. Additional partial monotonic constraints are adopted in modelling, to ensure the monotone decrease of resisting capacity in RC column with fire exposure time. Furthermore, additional suggestions are also added to mitigate the heterogeneous composition of the training data. Since the use of ML approaches will significantly reduce the computation time in determining the resisting capacity of fire damaged RC columns, which requires many complex solution procedures from the heat transfer analysis to the rigorous nonlinear analyses and their repetition with time, the introduced ML approach can more effectively be used in large complex structures with many RC members. Because of the very small amount of experimental data, the training data are analytically determined from a heat transfer analysis and a subsequent nonlinear finite element (FE) analysis, and their accuracy was previously verified through a correlation study between the numerical results and experimental data. The results obtained from the application of ML approaches show that the resisting capacity of fire damaged RC columns can effectively be predicted by ML approaches.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.417-423
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• 2019

In this investigation, a set of seismic fragility curves for RC bridges in Korea is derived by considering variations of the representative analytical model. The dimensions and specifications of the model are determined, based on statistical analysis of the inventory of RC bridges in Korea. Variations of important modeling parameters such as material properties, size of structural members, and dimension of the bridge are defined based on statistical studies of the bridges. The OpenSees program is utilized for the analysis to represent the inelastic behavior of RC members. A systematic approach is developed to perform a large volume of inelastic dynamic analysis, in which continuous variation of the modeling parameters are programmed to appropriately represent the characteristics of RC bridges in Korea.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.8 no.1 s.14
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• pp.136-144
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• 2004

From the AC analysis results utilizing a two dimensional device simulator, the ac equivalent-circuit modeling of the ESD protection devices is executed. It is explained that the ac equivalent circuit of the NMOS protection transistor is modeled by a rather complicated form and that, depending on the frequency range, the error can be large if it is modeled by a simple RC serial circuit. It is also shown that the ac equivalent circuit of the thyristor-type pnpn protection device can be modeled by a simple RC serial circuit. Based on the circuit simulations utilizing the extracted equivalent circuits, the effects of the parasitics in the protection device on the characteristics of LNA are examined when the LNA, which is one of the important RF circuits, is equipped with the protection device. It is explained that a large error can result in estimating the circuit characteristics if the NMOS protection transistor is modeled by a simple capacitor. It is also confirmed that the degradation of the LNA characteristics by incorporating the ESD protection device can be reduced a lot by adopting the suggested pnpn device.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.4
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• pp.475-493
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• 2022

The results of research focusing on the experimental and numerical performance of ferrocement RC beams with openings reinforced with welded steel mesh, expanded steel mesh, fiber glass mesh, and polyethylene mesh independently are presented in this article. Casting and testing of fourteen reinforced concrete beams with dimensions of 200×100×2000 mm under concentric compression loadings were part of the research program. The type of reinforcing materials, the volume fraction of reinforcement, the number of mesh layers, and the number of stirrups are the major parameters that change. The main goal is to understand the impact of using new appealing materials in reinforcing RC beams with openings. Using ANSYS-16.0 Software, nonlinear finite element analysis (NLFEA) was used to demonstrate the behavior of composite RC beams with openings. A parametric study is also conducted to discuss the variables that can have the greatest impact on the mechanical behavior of the proposed model, such as the number of openings. The obtained experimental and numerical results demonstrated the FE simulations' acceptable accuracy in estimating experimental values. Furthermore, demonstrating that the strength gained of specimens reinforced with fiber glass meshes was reduced by approximately 38% when compared to specimens reinforced with expanded or welded steel meshes is significant. In addition, when compared to welded steel meshes, using expanded steel meshes in reinforcing RC beams with openings results in a 16 percent increase in strength. In general, when ferrocement beams with openings are tested under concentric loadings, they show higher-level ultimate loads and energy-absorbing capacity than traditional RC beams.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.121-136
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• 2024

In recent times, there has been a growing need to retrofit and strengthen reinforced concrete (RC) structures that have been damaged. Numerous studies have explored various methods for strengthening RC beams. However, there is a significant dearth of research investigating the utilization of ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) for retrofitting damaged RC beams within a concrete frame. This study aims to develop a finite element (FE) model capable of accurately simulating the nonlinear behavior of RC beams and subsequently implementing it in an RC concrete frame. The RC frame is subjected to loading until failure at two distinct degrees, followed by retrofitting and strengthening using Ultra high performance shotcrete (UHPS) through two different methods. The results indicate the successful simulation of the load-displacement curve and crack patterns by the FE model, aligning well with experimental observations. Novel techniques for reinforcing deteriorated concrete frame structures through ABAQUS are introduced. The second strengthening method notably improves both the load-carrying capacity and initial stiffness of the load-displacement curve. By incorporating embedded rebars in the frame's columns, the beam's load-carrying capacity is enhanced by up to 31% compared to cases without embedding. These findings indicate the potential for improving the design of strengthening methods for damaged RC beams and utilizing the FE model to predict the strengthening capacity of UHPS for damaged concrete structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.41-54
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• 2019

Reinforced Concrete (RC) shear walls are widely used in Nuclear power plants as effective lateral force resisting elements of the structure and these may experience nonlinear behavior for higher earthquake demand. Short shear walls of aspect ratio less than 1.5 generally experience combined shear flexure interaction. This paper presents the results of the displacement-controlled experiments performed on six RC short shear walls with varying aspect ratios (1, 1.25 and 1.5) for monotonic and reversed quasi-static cyclic loading. Simulation of the shear walls is then carried out by Finite element modeling and also by macro modeling considering the coupled shear and flexure behaviour. The shear response is estimated by softened truss theory using the concrete model given by Vecchio and Collins (1994) with a modification in softening part of the model and flexure response is estimated using moment curvature relationship. The accuracy of modeling is validated by comparing the simulated response with experimental one. Moreover, based on the experimental work a multi-linear hysteretic model is proposed for short shear walls. Finally ultimate load, drift, ductility, stiffness reduction and failure pattern of the shear walls are studied in details and hysteretic energy dissipation along with damage index are evaluated.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.755-772
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• 2014

A simplistic approach towards evaluation of complete load deflection response of Reinforced Concrete (RC) flexural members under post fire (residual) scenario is presented in this paper. The cross-section of the RC flexural member is divided into a number of sectors. Thermal analysis is performed to determine the temperature distribution across the section, for given fire duration. Temperature-dependent stress-strain curves for concrete and steel are then utilized to perform a moment-curvature analysis. The moment-curvature relationships are obtained for beams exposed to different fire durations. These are then utilized to obtain the load-deflection plots following pushover analysis. Moreover one of the important issues of modeling the initial stiffness giving due consideration to stiffness degradation due to material degradation and thermal cracking has also been addressed in a rational manner. The approach is straightforward and can be easily programmed in spreadsheets. The presented approach has been validated against the experiments, available in literature, on RC beam subjected to different fire durations viz. 1hr, 1.5hrs and 2hrs. Complete load-deflection curves have been obtained and compared with experimentally reported counterparts. The results also show a good match with the results obtained using more complicated approaches such as those involving Finite element (FE) modeling and conducting a transient thermal stress analysis. Further evaluation of the beams during fire (at elevated temperatures) was performed and a comparison of the mechanical behavior of RC beams under post fire and during fire scenarios is made. Detailed formulations, assumptions and step by step approach are reported in the paper. Due to the simplicity and ease of implementation, this approach can be used for evaluation of global performance of fire affected structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.403-417
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• 2022

Reinforced concrete (RC) structures with low-strength RC columns are rampant in several countries, especially those constructed during the early 1960s and 1970s. The weakness of these structures due to overloading or some natural disasters such as earthquakes and building age effects are some of the main reasons to collapse, particularly with the scarcity of data on the impact of aspect ratio and corner radius on the confinement effectiveness. Hence, it is crucial to investigate if these columns (with different aspect ratios) can be made safe by strengthening them with carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP) sheets. Therefore, experimental and numerical studies of CFRP-strengthened low-strength reinforced concrete short rectangular, square, and circular columns were studied. In this investigation, a total of 6 columns divided into three sets were evaluated. The first set had two circular cross-sectional columns, the second set had two square cross-section columns, and the third set has two rectangular cross-section columns. Furthermore, FEM validation has been conducted for some of the experimental results obtained from the literature. The experimental results revealed that the confinement equations for RC columns as per both CSA and ACI codes could give incorrect results for low-strength concrete. The control specimen (unstrengthened ones) displayed that both ACI and CSA equations overestimate the ultimate strength of low-strength RC columns by order of extent. For strengthened columns with CFRP, the code equations of CSA and ACI code overestimate the maximum strength by around 6 to 13% and 23 to 29%, respectively, depending on the cross-section of the column (i.e., square, rectangular, or circular). Results of finite element models (FEMs) showed that increasing the layer number of new commonly CFRP type (B) from one to 3 for circular columns can increase the column's ultimate loads by around eight times compared to unjacketed columns. However, in the case of strengthened square and rectangular columns with CFRP, the increase of the ultimate loads of columns can reach up to six times and two times, respectively.