• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.635-647
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• 2018

In order to improve the efficiency of the Reinforced Concrete, RC, structures against progressive collapse, this paper proposes a procedure using alternate path and specific local resistance method to resist progressive collapse in intermediate RC frame structures. Cap truss consists of multiple trusses above a suddenly removed structural element to restrain excessive collapse and provide an alternate path. Steel strut is used as a brace to resist compressive axial forces. It is similar to knee braces in the geometry, responsible for enhancing ductility and preventing shear force localization around the column. In this paper, column removals in the critical position at the first story of two 5 and 10-story regular buildings strengthened using steel strut or cap truss are studied. Based on nonlinear dynamic analysis results, steel strut can only decrease vertical displacement due to sudden removal of the column at the first story about 23%. Cap truss can reduce the average vertical displacement and column axial force transferred to adjacent columns for the studied buildings about 56% and 61%, respectively due to sudden removal of the column. In other words, using cap truss, the axial force in the removed column transfers through an alternate path to adjacent columns to prevent local or general failure or to delay the progressive collapse occurrence.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.6
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• pp.677-691
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• 2019

In recent years, interest is growing in the engineering community on the experimental assessment and the theoretical prediction of the out-of-plane (OOP) seismic response of unreinforced masonry (URM) infills, which are widespread in Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings in Europe and in the Mediterranean area. In the literature, some mechanical-based models for the prediction of the entire OOP force-displacement response have been formulated and proposed. However, the small number of experimental tests currently available has not allowed, up to current times, a robust and reliable evaluation of the predictive capacity of such response models. To enrich the currently available experimental database, six pure OOP tests on URM infills in RC frames were carried out at the Department of Structures for Engineering and Architecture of the University of Naples Federico II. Test specimens were built with the same materials and were different only for the thickness of the infill walls and for the number of their edges mortared to the confining elements of the RC frames. In this paper, the results of these experimental tests are briefly recalled. The main aim of this study is comparing the experimental response of test specimens with the prediction of mechanical models presented in the literature, in order to assess their effectiveness and contribute to the definition of a robust and reliable model for the evaluation of the OOP seismic response of URM infill walls.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2014

The SC structure can have relatively liberal sectional surfaces, and allows modularization for pre-forming in factories and structural stability. It can be used for the shear walls in the core of general buildings or the structural members for parking buildings. In the future, it could be applied to moving large bus terminals, and widely used for general industrial structures as it can expedite the process compared to other methods. This study examined the applicability of SC structures to the retaining walls of a parking building and reviewed its economic value by comparing its construction term, quality control benefits, and cost compared to RC structures. It was found that SC structures are about 1.6-1.7 times more expensive than RC structures in terms of the cost of fabrication and installation. However, the construction term can be reduced by 27% to save indirect costs for constructors, as well as the cost of removing molds and material loss required when installing RC structures.

• Magazine of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.36-43
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• 2001

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.60-66
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• 2011

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.18 no.3 s.69
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• pp.15-23
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• 2005

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.459-473
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• 2016

Various vague and unstructured problems encountered the civil engineering/designers that persuaded by their experiences. One of these problems is the structural failure of the reinforced concrete (RC) building determination. Typically, using the traditional Limit state method is time consuming and complex in designing structures that are optimized in terms of one/many parameters. Recent research has revealed the Artificial Neural Networks potentiality in solving various real life problems. Thus, the current work employed the Multilayer Perceptron Feed-Forward Network (MLP-FFN) classifier to tackle the problem of predicting structural failure of multistoried reinforced concrete buildings via detecting the failure possibility of the multistoried RC building structure in the future. In order to evaluate the proposed method performance, a database of 257 multistoried buildings RC structures has been constructed by professional engineers, from which 150 RC structures were used. From the structural design, fifteen features have been extracted, where nine features of them have been selected to perform the classification process. Various performance measures have been calculated to evaluate the proposed model. The experimental results established satisfactory performance of the proposed model.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.253-267
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• 2015

Corrosion has significant adverse effects on the durability of reinforced concrete (RC) structures, especially those exposed to a marine environment and subjected to mechanical stress, such as bridges, jetties, piers and wharfs. Previous studies have been carried out to investigate the corrosion behaviour of steel rebar in various concrete structures, however, few studies have focused on the corrosion monitoring of RC structures that are subjected to both mechanical stress and environmental effects. This paper presents an exploratory study on the development of corrosion monitoring and detection techniques for RC structures under the combined effects of external loadings and corrosive media. Four RC beams were tested in 3% NaCl solutions under different levels of point loads. Corrosion processes occurring on steel bars under different loads and under alternative wetting - drying cycle conditions were monitored. Electrochemical and microscopic methods were utilised to measure corrosion potentials of steel bars; to monitor galvanic currents flowing between different steel bars in each beam; and to observe corrosion patterns, respectively. The results indicated that steel corrosion in RC beams was affected by local stress. The point load caused the increase of galvanic currents, corrosion rates and corrosion areas. Pitting corrosion was found to be the main form of corrosion on the surface of the steel bars for most of the beams, probably due to the local concentration of chloride ions. In addition, visual observation of the samples confirmed that the localities of corrosion were related to the locations of steel bars in beams. It was also demonstrated that electrochemical devices are useful for the detection of RC beam corrosion.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.331-340
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• 2021

The blast damage behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) structures exposed to unexpected extreme loading was investigated. To enhance the accuracy of numerical simulation for blast loading on RC structures with seven blast points, the calculation of blast loads using the Euler-flux-corrected-transport method, the proposed Euler-Lagrange coupling method for fluid-structure interaction, and the concrete dynamic damage constitutive model including the strain rate-dependent strength and failure models was implemented in the ANSYS-AUTODYN solver. In the analysis results, in the case of 20 kg TNT, only the slab member at three blast points showed moderate and light damage. In the case of 100 kg TNT, the slab and girder members at three blast points showed moderate damage, while the slab member at two blast points showed severe damage.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.153-167
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• 2022

The interaction between blast load and structures, as well as the interaction among structural members may well affect the structural response and damages. Therefore, it is necessary to analyse more realistic reinforced concrete structures in order to gain an extensive knowledge on the possible structural response under blast load effect. Among all the civilian structures, columns are considered to be the most vulnerable to terrorist threat and hence detailed investigation in the dynamic response of these structures is essential. Therefore, current research examines the effect of blast loads on the reinforced concrete columns via development of Pressure- Impulse (P-I) diagrams. In the finite element analysis, the level of damage on each of the aforementioned RC column will be assessed and the response of the RC columns when subjected to explosive loads will also be identified. Numerical models carried out using LS-DYNA were compared with experimental results. It was shown that the model yields a reliable prediction of damage on all RC columns. Validation study is conducted based on the experimental test to investigate the accuracy of finite element models to represent the behaviour of the models. The blast load application in the current research is determined based on the Lagrangian approach. To develop the designated P-I curves, damage assessment criteria are used based on the residual capacity of column. Intensive investigations are implemented to assess the effect of column dimension, concrete and steel properties and reinforcement ratio on the P-I diagram of RC columns. The produced P-I models can be applied by designers to predict the damage of new columns and to assess existing columns subjected to different blast load conditions.