• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.317-328
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• 2016

This research intends to understand the impact of super-absorbent polymer (SAP) as an internal curing agent in Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC). Two different types of SAPs of acrylic acid (SAP_AA) and acrylic acid-co-acrylamide (SAP_AM) were examined with UHPC formulation. Isothermal calorimetry and x-ray diffraction experiments revealed the impact of polymers with the different chemical bonds on cement hydration. To test its feasibility as a shrinkage reducing admixture for UHPC, a series of experiments including flowability, compressive strength, rapid chloride permeability and autogenous shrinkage profile was performed. While both SAPs showed a reduction in autogenous shrinkage, it has been concluded that the SAP size and chemical form significantly affect the performance as an internal curing agent in UHPC by controlling cement hydration and porosity modification. Between the tested SAPs, SAP_AM which absorbs more water in UHPC than SAP_AA, shows better mechanical and durability performance.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.70 no.1
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• pp.13-31
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• 2019

A nonlinear finite element model (FEM) using ATENA-3D software to simulate the axially compressive behavior of circular steel tube confined concrete (CSTCC) columns infilled with ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) was presented in this paper. Some modifications to the material type "CC3DNonlinCementitious2User" of UHPC without and with the incorporation of steel fibers (UHPFRC) in compression and tension were adopted in FEM. The predictions of utimate strength and axial load versus axial strain curves obtained from FEM were in a good agreement with the test results of eighteen tested columns. Based on the results of FEM, the load distribution on the steel tube and the concrete core was derived for each modeled column. Furthermore, the effect of bonding between the steel tube and the concrete core was clarified by the change of friction coefficient in the material type "CC3DInterface" in FEM. The numerical results revealed that the increase in the friction coefficient leads to a greater contribution from the steel tube, a decrease in the ultimate load and an increase in the magnitude of the loss of load capacity. By comparing the results of FEM with experimental results, the appropriate friction coefficient between the steel tube and the concrete core was defined as 0.3 to 0.6. In addition to the numerical evaluation, eighteen analytical models for confined concrete in the literature were used to predict the peak confined strength to assess their suitability. To cope with CSTCC stub and intermediate columns, the equations for estimating the lateral confining stress and the equations for considering the slenderness in the selected models were proposed. It was found that all selected models except for EC2 (2004) gave a very good prediction. Among them, the model of Bing et al. (2001) was the best predictor.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.6
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• pp.643-657
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• 2020

This study presents experimental and numerical investigations on circular steel tube confined ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) columns under axial compression. The plain UHPC without fibers was designed to achieve a compressive strength ranged between 150 MPa and 200 MPa. Test results revealed that loading on only the UHPC core can generate a significant confinement effect for the UHPC core, thus leading to an increase in both strength and ductility of columns, and restricting the inherent brittleness of unconfined UHPC. All tested columns failed by shear plane failure of the UHPC core, this causes a softening stage in the axial load versus axial strain curves. In addition, an increase in the steel tube thickness or the confinement index was found to increase the strength and ductility enhancement and to reduce the magnitude of the loss of load capacity. Besides, steel tube with higher yield strength can improve the post-peak behavior. Based on the test results, the load contribution of the steel tube and the concrete core to the total load was examined. It was found that no significant confinement effect can be developed before the peak load, while the ductility of post-peak stage is mainly affected by the degree of the confinement effect. A finite element model (FEM) was also constructed in ABAQUS software to validate the test results. The effect of bond strength between the steel tube and the UHPC core was also investigated through the change of friction coefficient in FEM. Furthermore, the mechanism of circular steel tube confined UHPC columns was examined using the established FEM. Based on the results of FEM, the confining pressures along the height of each modeled column were shown. Furthermore, the interaction between the steel tube and the UHPC core was displayed through the slip length and shear stresses between two surfaces of two materials.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.7910-7916
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• 2015

This paper examines the mechanical and autogenous shrinkage characteristics per curing condition of Ultra High Performance Concrete (UHPC) according to the change in the quantities of expansive admixture and shrinkage-reducing agent. In view of the mechanical properties according to the curing condition, all the UHPC specimens that experienced steam curing at $90^{\circ}C$ developed compressive strength higher than 190 MPa, and the specimens that experienced water curing at $20^{\circ}C$ developed compressive strength comparable to that developed at 91 days by the steam-cured specimens. The specimens steam-cured at $90^{\circ}C$ showed high tensile strength of 23.4 MPa whereas slight loss of the tensile strength was observed in those water-cured at 20. Besides, in view of the autogenous shrinkage according to the curing condition, no particular change could be found in the final shrinkage. The compressive strength developed by UHPC according to the use of expansive and shrinkage-reducing agents reached values higher than 190 MPa in case of steam curing at $90^{\circ}C$. Shrinkage reduced by about 45% when using both expansive and shrinkage-reducing agents without difference according to the curing condition.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2021.05a
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• pp.209-210
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• 2021

This study aims to develop ultra-low-shrinkage high-quality concrete. Therefore, the concrete drying shrinkage characteristics according to the type and amount of the shrinkage reducing agent were reviewed. As a result, the performance of Hexylene Glycol(HG) and Polyol was superior to that of PolyEthylene Glycol(PEG), which is most widely used in Korea. In addition, the shrinkage reduction effect was improved as the amount of PEG was increased, but the disadvantage of the strength reduction when excessive use was confirmed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.797-818
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• 2022

Steel-precast ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) composite beams with demountable high-strength friction-grip bolt (HSFGB) shear connectors can be used for accelerated bridge construction (ABC) and achieve excellent structural performance, which is expected to be dismantled and recycled at the end of the service life. However, no investigation focuses on the demountability and reusability of such composite beams, as well as the installation difficulties during construction. To address this issue, this study conducted twelve push-out tests to investigate the effects of assembly condition, bolt grade, bolt-hole clearance, infilling grout and pretension on the crack pattern, failure mode, load-slip/uplift relationship, and the structural performance in terms of ultimate shear strength, friction resistance, shear stiffness and slip capacity. The experimental results demonstrated that the presented composite beams exhibited favorable demountability and reusability, in which no significant reduction in strength (less than 3%) and stiffness (less than 5%), but a slight improvement in ductility was observed for the reassembled specimens. Employing oversized preformed holes could ease the fabrication and installation process, yet led to a considerable degradation in both strength and stiffness. With filling the oversized holes with grout, an effective enhancement of the strength and stiffness can be achieved, while causing a difficulty in the demounting of shear connectors. On the basis of the experimental results, more accurate formulations, which considered the effect of bolt-hole clearance, were proposed to predict the shear strength as well as the load-slip relationship of HSFGBs in steel-precast UHPC composite beams.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.151-157
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• 2014

Since recently developed Ultra-High-Performance-Concrete (UHPC) provides very high strength, stiffness, and durability, many studies have been made on the application of the UHPC to bridge decks. Due to high strength and stiffness of UHPC bridge deck, the structural contribution of top flange of steel girder composite to UHPC deck would be much lower than that of conventional concrete deck. At this point of view, this study proposes a inverted-T shaped steel girder composite to UHPC deck. This girder requires a new type of shear connector because conventional shear connectors are welded on top flange. This study also proposes three different types of shear connectors, and evaluate their ultimate strength via push-out static test. The first one is a stud shear connector welded directly to the web of the girder in the transverse direction. The second one is a puzzle-strip type shear connector developed by the European Commission, and the last one is the combination of the stud and the puzzle-strip shear connectors. Experimental results showed that the ultimate strength of the transverse stud was 26% larger than that given in the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications, but a splitting crack observed in the UHPC deck was so severe that another measure needs to be developed to prevent the splitting crack. The ultimate strength of the puzzle-strip specimen was 40% larger than that evaluated by the equation of European Commission. The specimens combined with stud and puzzle-strip shear connectors provided less strength than arithmetical sum of those. Based on the experimental observations, there appears to be no advantage of combining transverse stud and puzzle-strip shear connectors.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.765-768
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• 2008

Silica fume is a very important gradient in UHPC(Ultra High Performance Concrete) and its amount is normally over 25% of cement(wt.%). But we surely need to comprehend the influence of the amount of silica fume on the UHPC. In this paper, it was investigated how the amount of silica fume influence on the properties such as fluidity, compressive strength, elastic modulus, and flexural strength. Furthermore, it was examined the internal micro structure on UHPC through the test of SEM and MIP. In results, If we properly use silica fume in UHPC, fluidity and strength of UHPC was increased. It can be ascertained through the test of MIP that silica fume effectively increased density of UHPC by posolanic reaction and acting as filler. Especially, In case of Cement to silica fume ratio$0.1{\sim}0.25%$, we can be concluded that UHPC has similar to mechanical property.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.175-181
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is evaluating the characteristics of tensile strength of UHPC and examining tensile performance of notched specimens by direct tensile test. For test variables, 120, 150, and 180MPa of target design standard strength were aimed at. With general water curing and $90^{\circ}C$ high temperature steam as curing conditions, the properties were reviewed. Overall, it was represented that the specimens of notch-type direct tensile strength concrete was effective in inducing central cracks compared with existing direct tension specimens. Through this, it was judged that data construction with high reliability was possible. Above all, in a graph of direct tensile strength and strain, in the case of steam curing at high temperature, there was great difference of initial tensile strength compared with water curing. As passing of ages, an aspect that the difference gradually decreased was shown. Maximum tensile strength was found to increase steadily with increasing age for all target design strengths in water curing, in the case of steam curing, the tendency to increase significantly due to the initial strength development effect at 7 days of age. The initial crack strength increases with age in case of underwater curing, in the case of steam curing, it was higher than that of water curing in 7 days, while the strength of 28 days was lowered. In this part, it is considered necessary to examine the arrangement condition of the steel fiber.