• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.177-186
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• 2023

Reinforced concrete frames with a masonry infill panel is a structural typology frequently used worldwide. In seismic cases, the interaction between the masonry infill and the RC frames constitutes one of the most complex subjects in earthquake engineering. In this work, an enhancement of an existing numerical model is proposed to improve the estimation of lateral strength and stiffness of masonry-infilled frame structures and predict their probable failure modes. The proposed improvement is based on attributing corrective coefficients to the shear strength of each diagonal shear spring of the macro element, which simulates the masonry infill. The improved numerical model is validated by comparing the results with those of the original numerical model and with experimental results available in the literature. The enhanced macro element model can be used as a powerful, accessible tool for assessing the capacity and stiffness of masonry-infilled frame structures and predicting their probable failure modes.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.337-345
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• 2024

This research proposed a particle swarm optimization (PSO) based seismic retrofit design of moment frame structures using a steel frame assembly. Two full scale specimens of the steel frame assembly with different corner details were attached to one-story RC frames for seismic retrofit, and the lateral load resisting capacities of the retrofitted frames subjected to cyclic loads were compared with those of a bare RC frame. The open source software framework Opensees was used to develop an analytical model for validating the experimental results. The developed analytical model and the optimization scheme were applied to a case study structure for economic seismic retrofit design, and its seismic performance was assessed before and after the retrofit. The results show that the developed steel frame assembly was effective in increasing seismic load resisting capability of the structure, and the PSO algorithm could be applied as convenient optimization tool for seismic retrofit design of structures.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.29-36
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• 2023

Reinforcement learning (RL) is widely applied to various engineering fields. Especially, RL has shown successful performance for control problems, such as vehicles, robotics, and active structural control system. However, little research on application of RL to optimal structural design has conducted to date. In this study, the possibility of application of RL to structural design of reinforced concrete (RC) beam was investigated. The example of RC beam structural design problem introduced in previous study was used for comparative study. Deep q-network (DQN) is a famous RL algorithm presenting good performance in the discrete action space and thus it was used in this study. The action of DQN agent is required to represent design variables of RC beam. However, the number of design variables of RC beam is too many to represent by the action of conventional DQN. To solve this problem, multi-agent DQN was used in this study. For more effective reinforcement learning process, DDQN (Double Q-Learning) that is an advanced version of a conventional DQN was employed. The multi-agent of DDQN was trained for optimal structural design of RC beam to satisfy American Concrete Institute (318) without any hand-labeled dataset. Five agents of DDQN provides actions for beam with, beam depth, main rebar size, number of main rebar, and shear stirrup size, respectively. Five agents of DDQN were trained for 10,000 episodes and the performance of the multi-agent of DDQN was evaluated with 100 test design cases. This study shows that the multi-agent DDQN algorithm can provide successfully structural design results of RC beam.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.409-436
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• 2014

Although it is widely accepted that the interaction -between masonry infill and structural members significantly affects the seismic response of reinforced concrete (RC) frames, this interaction is generally neglected in current design-oriented seismic analyses of structures. Moreover, the role of masonry infill is expected to be even more relevant in the case of existing frames designed only for gravitational loads, as infill walls can significantly modify both lateral strength and stiffness. However, the additional contribution to both strength and stiffness is often coupled to a modification of the global collapse mechanisms possibly resulting in brittle failure modes, generally related to irregular distributions of masonry walls throughout the frame. As a matter of principle, accurate modelling of masonry infill should be at least carried out by adopting nonlinear 2D elements. However, several practice-oriented proposals are currently available for modelling masonry infill through equivalent (nonlinear) strut elements. The present paper firstly outlines some of the well-established models currently available in the scientific literature for modelling infill panels in seismic analyses of RC frames. Then, a parametric analysis is carried out in order to demonstrate the consequences of considering such models in nonlinear static and dynamic analyses of existing RC structures. Two bay-frames with two-, three- and four-storeys are considered for performing nonlinear analyses aimed at investigating some critical aspects of modelling masonry infill and their effects on the structural response. Particularly, sensitivity analyses about specific parameters involved in the definition of the equivalent strut models, such as the constitutive force-displacement law of the panel, are proposed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.3
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• pp.291-302
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• 2018

Rigid body spring method (RBSM) is an effective tool to simulate the cracking process of structures, and has been successfully applied to investigate the behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) members. However, the theoretical researches and engineering applications of this method mainly focus on two-dimensional problems as yet, which greatly limits its applications in actual engineering projects. In this study, a three-dimensional (3-D) RBSM for RC structures is proposed. In the proposed model, concrete, reinforcing steels, and their interfaces are represented as discrete entities. Concrete is partitioned into a collection of rigid blocks and a uniform distribution of normal and tangential springs is defined along their boundaries to reflect its material properties. Reinforcement is modeled as a series of bar elements which can be freely positioned in the structural domain and irrespective of the mesh geometry of concrete. The bond-slip characteristics between reinforcing steel and concrete are also considered by introducing special linkage elements. The applicability and effectiveness of the proposed method is firstly confirmed by an elastic T-shape beam, and then it is applied to analyze the failure processes of a Z-type component under direct shear loading and a RC beam under two-point loading.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.7 no.1 s.23
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• pp.79-85
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• 2007

Steel plate bonding method with epoxy is common applied to repair and strengthen RC structures, but Steel is apt to corrode quickly, hard to manufacture and heavy. To overcome these defects, it is carried out research on strengthening RC structures with FRP(Fibre Reinforced Polyrner/Plastic) FRP is generally used in the shape of Plate or Sheet, but it has weak point such as premature failure, difficult work. To cope with these problem, NSMR(Near Surface Mounted Reinforcement) which uses CFRP in the shape of Rod is proposed and carried out active research on strengthening effect of variables such as quantity, anchorage length and space of CFRP-Rod. Strengthening with CFRP-Rod is carried out under loading to some degree in fact, and so the amount of pre-loading is selected as variable in this research. The amount of pre-loading is chosen in proportion to nominal strength of non-strengthened specimen with CFRP-Rod.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.191-199
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• 2003

The inelastic response of many structural steel and reinforced concrete structures subject to extreme loadings can be characterized by elastoplastic behaviors. Although excursion beyond the elastic range is usually not permitted under normal conditions of service, the extent of permanent damage a structure may sustain when subjected to extreme conditions, such as severe blast or earthquake loading, is frequently of interest to the engineer. A blast is usually the result of an explosion defined as a "sudden expansion". This paper discusses the basic concept that defines blast loadings on structures and corresponding elastoplastic structural response (displacement, velocity, and acceleration) and try to explain a crack propagation of concrete in sudden expansion. According to nonlinear finite element analysis, the crack forms of static and dynamic states displayed different in RC structural members. This paper also provides useful data for the dynamic fracture analysis of RC frame structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.215-224
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• 2021

The carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere is one of the main reasons for the corrosion of bridges, buildings, tunnels, and other reinforced concrete (RC) structures in most industrialized countries. With the growing use of fossil fuels in the world since the Industrial Revolution, the amount of carbon dioxide in urban and industrial areas of the world has grown significantly, which increases the chance of corrosion caused by carbonation. The process of corrosion leads to a change in mechanical properties of rebars and concrete, and consequently, detrimentally impacting load-bearing capacity and seismic behavior of RC structures. Neglecting this phenomenon can trigger misleading results in the form of underestimating the seismic performance metrics. Therefore, studying the carbonation corrosion influence on the seismic behavior of RC structures in urban and industrial areas is of great significance. In this study, a 2D modern RC moment frame is developed to study and assess the effect of carbonation corrosion, in 5-year intervals, for a 50 years lifetime under two different environmental conditions. This is achieved using the nonlinear static and incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) to evaluate the reinforcement corrosion effects. The reduction in the seismic capacity and performance of the reinforced concrete frame, as well as the collapse probability over the lifetime for different corrosion scenarios, is examined through the capacity curves obtained from nonlinear static analysis and the fragility curves obtained from IDA.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.205-216
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• 2023

Concrete structures may become vulnerable during their lifetime due to several reasons such as degradation of their material properties; design or construction errors; and environmental damage due to earthquake. These structures should be repaired or strengthened to ensure proper performance for the current service load demands. Several methods have been investigated and applied for the strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) structures using various materials. Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforcement is one of the most recent type of material for the strengthening purpose of RC structures. The main objective of the present research is to identify the behavior of reinforced concrete slabs strengthened with FRP bars by using near surface mounted (NSM) technique. Validation study is conducted based on the experimental test available in the literature to investigate the accuracy of finite element models using LS-DYNA to present the behavior of the models. A parametric analysis is conducted on the effect of FRP bar diameters, number of grooves, groove intervals as well as width and height of the grooves on the flexural behavior of strengthened reinforced slabs. Performance of strengthening RC slabs with NSM FRP bars was confirmed by comparing the results of strengthening reinforced slabs with control slab. The numerical results of mid-span deflection and stress time histories were reported. According to the numerical analysis results, the model with three grooves, FRP bar diameter of 10 mm and grooves distances of 100 mm is the most ideal and desirable model in this research. The results demonstrated that strengthening of reinforced concrete slabs using FRP by NSM method will have a significant effect on the performance of the slabs.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.475-484
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• 1999

압력절점은 요소의 균등한 압력증분을 1개의 자유도로 갖는 절점이며, 유한요소의 하중-변위 평형방정식에 체적과 압력의 관계를 추가하여 한계압력 이후에서도 체적변화에 따른 압력증분을 직접적으로 제저할 수 있는 절점이다. 본 연구에서는 철근콘크리트의 평면 구성 방정식과 적층정식화에 적용한 쉘 요소에 압력절점을 추가하고 해석시 체적을 제어함으로써 철근콘크리트 원통형 구조에 대해 파괴까지의 극한내압 능력을 해석할 수 있는 체적제어 비선형 해석기법을 개발하였다. 본 논문에서 제안한 해석기법을 이용하여 철근콘크리트 원통형 구조물에 대하여 비선형 해석을 수행하여 한계압력과 한계압력 이후의 구조물의 거동을 예측하였으며 실험결과와 비교 검증하였다.