• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.15-26
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• 2023

It is of great importance to assess the residual displacement demand in the performance-based seismic design. In this paper, a hybrid deep learning model for predicting the residual displacement spectra under near-fault (NF) ground motions is proposed by combining the long short-term memory network (LSTM) and back-propagation (BP) network. The model is featured by its capacity of predicting the residual displacement spectrum under a given NF ground motion while considering the effects of structural parameters. To construct this model, 315 natural and artificial NF ground motions were employed to compute the residual displacement spectra through elastoplastic time history analysis considering different structural parameters. Based on the resulted dataset with a total of 9,450 samples, the proposed model was finally trained and tested. The results show that the proposed model has a satisfactory accuracy as well as a high efficiency in predicting residual displacement spectra under given NF ground motions while considering the impacts of structural parameters.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.61-69
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• 2013

This paper discusses the properties of RCA, the effects of RCA use on concrete material properties, and the large scale impact of RCA on structural members. The review study yielded the following findings in regards to concrete material properties: (1) replacing NA in concrete with RCA decreases the compressive strength, but yields comparable splitting tensile strength; (2) the modulus of rupture for RCA concrete was slightly less than that of conventional concrete, likely due to the weakened the interfacial transition zone from residual mortar; and (3) the modulus of elasticity is also lower than expected, caused by the more ductile aggregate. As far as the structural performance is concerned, beams with RCA did experience greater midspan deflections under a service load and smaller cracking moments. However, structural beams did not seem to be as affected by RCA content as materials tests. Most of all, the ultimate moment was moderately affected by RCA content. All in all, it is confirmed that the use of RCA is likely a viable option for structural use.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.4
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• pp.455-464
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• 2020

Reinforcement corrosion is one of the major problems in the durability of reinforced concrete structures exposed to aggressive environments. Deterioration caused by reinforcement corrosion reduces the durability and the safety margin of concrete structures, causing excessive costs in managing these structures safely. This paper aims to investigate the effects of reinforcement corrosion on the load bearing capacity deterioration of the corroded reinforced concrete structures. A new analytical method is proposed to predict the crack growth of cover concrete and evaluate the residual strength of concrete structures with corroded reinforcement failing in bond. The structural performance indicators, such as concrete crack growth and flexural strength deterioration rate, are assumed to be a stochastic process for lifetime distribution modelling of structural performance deterioration over time during the life cycle. The Weibull life evolution model is employed for analysing lifetime reliability and estimating remaining useful life of the corroded concrete structures. The results for the worked example show that the proposed approach can provide a reliable method for lifetime performance assessment of the corroded reinforced concrete structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.417-429
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• 2012

Taking the superficial temperature increment as the major fatigue damage indicator, the infrared thermography was used to predict fatigue parameters (fatigue strength and S-N curve) of welded joints subjected to fatigue loading with a high mean stress, showing good predictions. The fatigue damage status, related to safety evaluation, was tightly correlated with the temperature field evolution of the hot-spot zone on the specimen surface. An energetic damage model, based on the energy accumulation, was developed to evaluate the residual fatigue life of the welded specimens undergoing cyclic loading, and a good agreement was presented. It is concluded that the infrared thermography can not only well predict the fatigue behavior of welded joints, but also can play an important role in health detection of structures subjected to mechanical loading.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.1277-1297
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• 2015

Post-tensioned precast segmental bridge columns have shown high level of strength and ductility, and low residual displacement, which makes them suffer minor damage after earthquake loading; however, there is still lack of confidence on their lateral response against severe seismic loading due in part to their low energy dissipation capacity. This study investigates the influence of major design factors such as post-tensioning force level, strands position, columns aspect ratio, steel jacket and mild steel ratio on seismic performance of self-centring segmental bridge columns in terms of lateral strength, residual displacement and lateral peak displacement. Seismic analyses show that increasing the continuous mild steel ratio improves the lateral peak displacement of the self-centring columns at different levels of post-tensioning (PT) forces. Such an increase in steel ratio reduces the residual drift in segmental columns with higher aspect ratio more considerably. Suggestions are proposed for the design of self-centring segmental columns with various aspect ratios at different target drifts.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.383-393
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• 1994

The residual stress distribution in a unidirectional graphite/epoxy laminate induced during the fabrication process is investigated at the microstress level within the scope of linear viscoelasticity. To estimate the residual stresses, the fabrication process is divided into polymerization phase and cool-down phase, and strength of materials approach is employed. Large residual stresses are not generated during polymerization phase because the relaxation modulus is relatively small due to the relaxation ability at this temperature level. The residual stresses increase remarkably during cool-down process. The magnitude of final residual stress is about 80% of the ultimate strength of the matrix material at room temperature. This suggests that the residual stress can have a significant effect on the performance of composite structure.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.6
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• pp.819-830
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• 2021

To evaluate the performance of concrete load bearing walls in a structure under horizontal loads after being exposed to real fire, two steps were followed. In the first step, an experimental study was performed on the thermo-mechanical properties of concrete after heating to temperatures of 200-1000℃ with the purpose of determining the residual mechanical properties after cooling. The temperature was increased in line with natural fire curve in an electric furnace. The peak temperature was maintained for a period of 1.5 hour and then allowed to cool gradually in air at room temperature. All specimens were made from calcareous aggregate to be used for determining the residual properties: compressive strength, static and dynamic elasticity modulus by means of UPV test, including the mass loss. The concrete residual compressive strength and elastic modulus values were compared with those calculated from Eurocode and other analytical models from other studies, and were found to be satisfactory. In the second step, experimental analysis results were then implemented into structural numerical analysis to predict the post-fire load-bearing capacity response of the walls under vertical and horizontal loads. The parameters considered in this analysis were the effective height, the thickness of the wall, various support conditions and the residual strength of concrete. The results indicate that fire damage does not significantly affect the lateral capacity and stiffness of reinforced walls for temperature fires up to 400℃.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.85 no.4
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• pp.531-543
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• 2023

The existing concrete bridges are time-varying working systems, where the maintenance strategy should be planned according to the time-varying performance of the bridge. This work proposes a time-dependent residual capacity assessment procedure, which considers the non-stationary bridge load effects under growing traffic and non-stationary structural deterioration owing to material degradations. Lifetime bridge load effects under traffic growth are predicated by the non-stationary peaks-over-threshold (POT) method using time-dependent generalized Pareto distribution (GPD) models. The non-stationary structural resistance owing to material degradation is modeled by incorporating the Gamma deterioration process and field inspection data. A three-span continuous box-girder bridge is illustrated as an example to demonstrate the application of the proposed procedure, and the time-varying reliability indexes of the bridge girder are calculated. The accuracy of the proposed non-stationary POT method is verified through numerical examples, where the shape parameter of the time-varying GPD model is constant but the threshold and scale parameters are polynomial functions increasing with time. The case study illustrates that the residual flexural capacities show a degradation trend from a slow decrease to an accelerated decrease under traffic growth and material degradation. The reliability index for the mid-span cross-section reduces from 4.91 to 4.55 after being in service for 100 years, and the value is from 4.96 to 4.75 for the mid-support cross-section. The studied bridge shows no safety risk under traffic growth and structural deterioration owing to its high design safety reserve. However, applying the proposed numerical approach to analyze the degradation of residual bearing capacity for bridge structures with low safety reserves is of great significance for management and maintenance.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.331-336
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• 2008

An self-centering energy-dissipative (SCED) bracing system has recently been developed as a new seismic force resistant bracing system. The advantage of the SCED brace system is that, unlike other comparable advanced bracing systems that dissipate energy, such as the buckling restrained brace system, it has a self-centering capability that reduces or eliminates residual building deformations after major seismic events. In this study seismic performance of SCED braced frames is evaluated for a set of 20 design level earthquake records. According to analysis results the SCED systems showed more uniform interstory drift demand for buildings with 8 story or fewer. The residual deformation in SCED buildings turned out to be much less than that of moment-resisting frames.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.365-381
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• 2013

In this paper, a numerical simulation study was conducted on the seismic behavior and ductility demand of single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systems with partially self-centering hysteresis. Unlike fully self-centering systems, partially self-centering systems display noticeable residual displacement after unloading is completed. Such partially self-centering behavior has been observed in a number of recently researched self-centering structural systems with energy dissipation devices. It is thus of interest to examine the seismic performance such as ductility demand of partially self-centering systems. In this study, a modified flag-shaped hysteresis model with residual displacement is proposed to represent the hysteretic behavior of partially self-centering structural systems. A parametric study considering the effect of variations in post-yield stiffness ratio, energy dissipation coefficient, and residual displacement ratio on the displacement ductility demand of partially self-centering systems was conducted using a suite of 192 scaled ground motions. The results of this parametric study reveal that increasing the post-yield stiffness, energy dissipation coefficient or residual displacement ratio of the partially self-centering systems generally leads to reduced ductility demand, especially for systems with lower yield strength.