• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.321-332
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• 2020

The loss of composite action at the hogging moment zone for a continuous composite girder reduces the girder stiffness and strength. This paper presents an experimental investigation of the use of an ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) slab at the hogging moment zone and a normal concrete (NC) slab at the sagging moment zone. The testing was conducted to verify the level of loading at which composite action is maintained at the hogging moment zone. Four two-span continuous composite girders were tested. The thickness of the UHPC varied between a half and a full depth of slab. The degree of shear connection at the hogging moment zone varied between full and partial. The experimental results confirmed the effectiveness of the UHPC slab to enhance the girder stiffness and maintain the composite action at the hogging moment zone at a load level much higher than the upper service load limit. To a lesser degree enhanced performance was also noted for the smaller thickness of the UHPC slab and partial shear connection at the hogging moment zone. Plastic analysis was conducted to evaluate the ultimate capacity of the girder which yielded a conservative estimation. Finite element (FE) modeling evaluated the girder performance numerically and yielded satisfactory results. The results indicated that composite action at the hogging moment zone is maintained for the degree of shear connection taken as 50% of the full composite action and use of UHPC as half depth of slab thickness.

• Composites Research
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.135-140
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• 2013

The static test was performed to verify the effect of the joint in the UHPC bridge deck slab and the minimum lap-spliced length was presented. A total of six test members was fabricated to estimate the static behavior of the steam curing UHPC bridge deck slab joint by the four points bending test method. The lap-spliced joint type was expected to be not only simple but also efficient in UHPC structure because of the high bond stress of UHPC. Test results show that the decrease of maximum flexural strength was about 30% and the minimum lap-spliced length which behaved similar to the continued reinforcement in strength and ductility was 150 mm.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.95-103
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• 2015

UHPC(Ultra High Performance Concrete) is used widely with its remarkable performance, such as strength, ductility and durability. Since the fibers in the UHPC can control the tensile crack, the punching shear capacity of UHPC is higher than that of the conventional concrete. In this paper, seven slabs with different thickness and fiber volume ratio were tested. The ultimate punching shear strength was increased with the fiber volume ratio up to 1%. The shear capacity of specimens with the fiber content 1% and 1.5% do not have big differences. The thicker slab has higher punching shear strength and lower deformation capacity. The critical sections of punching shear failure were similar regardless of the fiber volume ratio, but it were larger in thicker slab.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.381-392
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• 2023

This study experimentally investigates the flexural behavior of steel-UHPC composite slabs composed of an innovative negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) steel plate and Ultra High Performance Concrete (UHPC) slab connected via demountable high-strength bolt shear connectors. Eight demountable composite slab specimens were fabricated and tested under traditional four-point bending method. The effects of loading histories (positive and negative bending moment), types of steel plate (NPR steel plate and Q355 steel plate) and spacings of high-strength bolts (150 mm, 200 mm and 250 mm) on the flexural behavior of demountable composite slab, including failure mode, load-deflection curve, interface relative slip, crack width and sectional strain distribution, were evaluated. The results revealed that under positive bending moment, the failure mode of composite slabs employing NPR steel plate was distinct from that with Q355 steel plate, which exhibited that part of high-strength bolts was cut off, part of pre-embedded padded extension nuts was pulled out, and UHPC collapsed due to instantaneous instability and etc. Besides, under the same spacing of high-strength bolts, NPR steel plate availably delayed and restrained the relative slip between steel plate and UHPC plate, thus significantly enhanced the cooperative deformation capacity, flexural stiffness and load capacity for composite slabs further. While under negative bending moment, NPR steel plate effectively improved the flexural capacity and deformation characteristics of composite slabs, but it has no obvious effect on the initial flexural stiffness of composite slabs. Meanwhile, the excellent crack-width control ability for UHPC endowed composite members with better durability. Furthermore, according to the sectional strain distribution analysis, due to the negative Poisson's ratio effect and high yield strength of NPR steel plate, the tensile strain between NPR steel plate and UHPC layer held strain compatibility during the whole loading process, and the magnitude of upward movement for sectional plastic neutral axis could be ignored with the increase of positive bending moment.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.677-685
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• 2015

In a will to subdue the brittleness as well as the low tensile and flexural strengths of ordinary concrete, researches are being actively watched worldwide on steel fiber-reinforced Ultra High Performance Concrete (UHPC) obtained by admixing steel fibers in ultra high strength concrete. For the purpose of maximizing advantage of UHPC, this study removes the upper flange of the steel girder to apply an inverted T-shape girder for the formation of the composite beam. This paper intends to evaluate the behavior of the shear connectors and the flexural characteristics of the composite beam made of the inverted T-shape girder and UHPC slab using 16 specimens considering the compressive strength of concrete, the mixing ratio of steel fiber, the spacing of shear connectors and the thickness of the slab as variables. In view of the test results, it seemed that the appropriate stud spacing should range between 100 mm and 2 or 4 times the thickness of the slab. Moreover, the relative displacement observed in the specimens showed that ductile behavior was secured to a certain extent with reference to the criteria for ductile behavior suggested in Eurocode-4. The specimens with large stud spacing exhibited larger values than given by the design formula and revealed that the shear connectors developed larger ultimate strength than predicted owing to the action of UHPC and steel after non-composite behavior. Besides, the specimens with narrow stud spacing failed suddenly through compression at the upper chord of UHPC before reaching the full capacity of the shear connectors.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.761-769
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• 2014

Ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) has been developed to overcome the low strengths and brittleness of conventional concrete. Considering that UHPC, owing to its composition and the use of steel fibers, develops a compressive strength of 180 MPa as well as high stiffness, the top flange of the steel girder may be superfluous in the composite beam combining a slab made of UHPC and the steel girder. In such composite beam, the steel girder takes the form of an inverted-T shaped structure without top flange in which the studs needed for the composition of the steel girder with the UHPC slab are disposed in the web of the steel girder. This study investigates experimentally and analytically the flexural behavior of this new type of composite beam to propose details like stud spacing and slab thickness for further design recommendations. To that goal, eight composite beams with varying stud spacing and slab thickness were fabricated and tested. The test results indicated that stud spacing running from 100 mm to 2 to 3 times the slab thickness can be recommended. In view of the relative characteristic slip limit of Eurocode-4, the results showed that the composite beam developed ductile behavior. Moreover, except for the members with thin slab and large stud spacing, most of the specimens exhibited results different to those predicted by AASHTO LRFD and Eurocode-4 because of the high performance developed by UHPC.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.185-193
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• 2015

Ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) has been developed to overcome the low tensile strengths and brittleness of conventional concrete. Considering that UHPC, owing to its composition and the use of steel fibers, develops a compressive strength of 180 MPa as well as high stiffness, the top flange of the steel girder may be superfluous in the composite beam combining a slab made of UHPC and the steel girder. In such composite beam, the steel girder takes the form of an inverted-T shaped structure without top flange in which the studs needed for the composition of the steel girder with the UHPC slab are disposed in the web of the steel girder. This study investigates experimentally and analytically the flexural behavior of this new type of composite beam to propose details like stud spacing and slab thickness for further design recommendations. To that goal, eight composite beams with varying stud spacing and slab thickness were fabricated and tested. The test results indicated that stud spacing running from 100 mm to 2 to 3 times the slab thickness can be recommended. In view of the relative characteristic slip limit of Eurocode-4, the results showed that the composite beam developed ductile behavior. Moreover, except for the members with thin slab and large stud spacing, most of the specimens exhibited results different to those predicted by AASHTO LRFD and Eurocode-4 because of the high performance developed by UHPC.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.161-170
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• 2023

Ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) is produced using high amount of cementitious materials, very low water/cementitious materials ratio, fine-sized fillers, and steel fibers. Due to the dense microstructure of UHPC, it possesses very high strength, elasticity, and durability. Besides that, the UHPC exhibits high ductility and fracture toughness due to presence of fibers in its matrix. While the high ductility of UHPC allows it to undergo high strain/deflection before failure, the high fracture toughness of UHPC greatly enhances its capacity to absorb impact energy without allowing the formation of severe cracking or penetration by the impactor. These advantages with UHPC make it a suitable material for construction of the structural members subjected to special loading conditions. In this research work, the UHPC mixtures having three different dosages of steel fibers (2%, 4% and 6% by weight corresponding to 0.67%, 1.33% and 2% by volume) were characterized in terms of their mechanical properties including facture toughness, before using these concrete mixtures for casting the slab specimens, which were tested under high-energy impact loading with the help of a drop-weight impact test setup. The effect of fiber content on the impact energy absorption capacity and central deflection of the slab specimens were investigated and the equations correlating fiber content with the energy absorption capacity and central deflection were obtained with high degrees of fit. Finite element modeling (FEM) was performed to simulate the behavior of the slabs under impact loading. The FEM results were found to be in good agreement with their corresponding experimentally generated results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.103-118
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• 2020

The static behavior of grouped large-headed studs (d = 30 mm) embedded in ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) was investigated by conducting push-out tests and numerical analysis. In the push-out test, no splitting cracks were found in the UHPC slab, and the shank failure control the shear capacity, indicating the large-headed stud matches well with the mechanical properties of UHPC. Besides, it is found that the shear resistance of the stud embedded in UHPC is 11.4% higher than that embedded in normal strength concrete, indicating that the shear resistance was improved. Regarding the numerical analysis, the parametric study was conducted to investigate the influence of the concrete strength, aspect ratio of stud, stud diameter, and the spacing of stud in the direction of shear force on the shear performance of the large-headed stud. It is found that the stud diameter and stud spacing have an obvious influence on the shear resistance. Based on the test and numerical analysis results, a formula was established to predict the load-slip relationship. The comparison indicates that the predicted results agree well with the test results. To accurately predict the shear resistance of the stud embedded in UHPC, a design equation for shear strength is proposed. The ratio of the calculation results to the test results is 0.99.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.74 no.5
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• pp.657-670
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• 2020

Due to the high compressive and tensile strength of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC), UHPC used in steel concrete composite structures provided thinner concrete layer compared to ordinary concrete. This leaded to the headed stud shear connectors embedded in UHPC had a low aspect ratio. In order to systematic investigate the effect of headed stud with low aspect ratio on the structural behaviors of steel UHPC composite structure s this paper firstly carried out a test program consisted of twelve push out specimens. The effects of stud height, aspect ratio and reinforcement bars in UHPC on the structural behaviors of headed studs were investigated. The push out test results shows that the increasing of stud height did not obviously influence the structural behaviors of headed studs and the aspect ratio of 2.16 was proved enough to take full advantage of the headed stud strength. Based on the test results, the equation considering the contribution of weld collar was modified to predict the shear strength of headed stud embedded in UHPC. The modified equation could accurately predict the shear strength of headed stud by comparing with the experimental results. On the basis of push out test results, bending tests consisted of three steel UHPC composite slabs were conducted to investigate the effect of shear connection degree on the structural behaviors of composite slabs. The bending test results revealed that the shear connection degree had a significantly influence on the failure modes and ultimate resistance of composite slabs and composite slab with connection degree of 96% in s hear span exhibited a ductile failure accompanied by the tensile yield of steel plate and crushing of UHPC. Finally, analytical model based on the failure mode of composite slabs was proposed to predict the ultimate resistance of steel UHPC composite slabs with different shear connection degrees at the interface.