• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.73 no.5
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• pp.487-500
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• 2020

Stiffeners can be utilised to enhance the strength of thin-walled wind turbine towers in engineering practise, thus, structural performance of wind turbine towers by means of different stiffening schemes should be compared to explore the optimal structural enhancement method. In this paper two alternative stiffening methods, employing horizontal or vertical stiffeners, for steel tubular wind turbine towers have been studied. In particular, two groups of three wind turbine towers of 50m, 150m and 250m in height, stiffened by horizontal rings and vertical strips respectively, were analysed by using FEM software of ABAQUS. For each height level tower, the mass of the stiffening rings is equal to that of vertical stiffeners each other. The maximum von Mises stresses and horizontal sways of these towers with vertical stiffeners is compared with the corresponding ring-stiffened towers. A linear buckling analysis is conducted to study the buckling modes and critical buckling loads of the three height levels of tower. The buckling modes and eigenvalues of the 50m, 150m and 250m vertically stiffened towers were also compared with those of the horizontally stiffened towers. The numbers and central angles of the vertical stiffeners are considered as design variables to study the effect of vertical stiffeners on the structural performance of wind turbine towers. Following an extensive parametric study, these strengthening techniques were compared with each other and it is obtained that the use of vertical stiffeners is a more efficient approach to enhance the stability and strength of intermediate and high towers than the use of horizontal rings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.449-458
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• 2012

Finite element buckling analysis of insulated transition flue ducts is carried out to determine the critical buckling load multipliers when subjected to axial compression for design process. Through this investigation, the results of numerical computations to examine the buckling strength for different possible duct shapes (cylinder, and circular-to-square) are presented. The load multipliers are determined through detailed buckling analysis taking into account the effects of geometrical construction and duct plate thickness which have great influence on the buckling load. Enhancement in the buckling capacity of such ducts by the addition of horizontal and vertical stiffeners is also investigated. Several models with varying dimensions and plate thicknesses are examined to obtain the linear buckling capacities against duct dimensions. The percentage improvement in the buckling capacity due to the addition of vertical stiffeners and horizontal Stiffeners is shown to be as high as three times for some cases. The study suggests that the best location of the horizontal stiffener is at 0.25 of duct depth from the bottom to achieve the maximum buckling capacity. A design equation estimating the buckling strength of geometrically perfect cylindrical-to-square shell is developed by using regression analysis accurately with approximately 4% errors.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.121-130
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• 2002

This paper presents the tensile behavior of a Concrete-Filled Square Steel Tubular (CFT) column to H-beam welded connections. These connections were externally reinforced with T-shaped stiffeners at the junction of CFT column and beam. The tensile loading tests of eighteen tee-joint connections and finite element analysis using ANSYS were carried out. The main parameters of tests are as follows: 1) the thickness of Square Steel Tubular Column : 6 mm, 9 mm, 2) the strength ratios of tensile strength of horizontal stiffeners to tensile strength of beam flange : 70 %, 100 %, 150 %, 3) the strength ratios of shear strength of vertical stiffeners to tensile strength of beam flange : 80 %, 115 %, 160 %. The results of the tests demonstrate that overall behavior and failure modes of all the specimens are governed mainly by the horizontal stiffeners rather than the vertical stiffeners, and the vertical stiffener played only a role in transferring load introduced from beam to column.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.187-192
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• 2023

In piping systems, trapeze hangers are subjected to vertical and horizontal seismic loads and stiffeners are used. In this study, monotonic compression tests were conducted with the removable stiffeners using three variables: stiffener clamp fixing position, section length, and installation direction. The maximum load reinforced with stiffeners could withstand a compressive load of 11kN by applying a safety factor of 10%. It could be estimated that the fixing clamp spacing or the length of shape and load had a proportional relationship. And the stiffener must be fixed in the direction of the strong axis on hinge parts. Also the stiffener buckiling load design proposes to use a method of calculate the flexural buckling compressive strength of and unreinforced full threaded bolt.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.297-313
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• 2022

Composite steel plate shear wall (CSPSW) is a relatively novel structural system proposed to improve the performance of steel plate shear walls by adding one or two layers of concrete walls to the infill plate. In addition, the buckling of the infill steel plate has a significant negative effect on the shear strength and energy dissipation capacity of the overall systems. Accordingly, in this study, using the finite element (FE) method, the performance and behavior of composite steel shear walls using T-shaped stiffeners to prevent buckling of the infill steel plate and increase the capacity of CSPSW systems have been investigated. In this paper, after modeling composite steel plate shear walls with and without steel plates with finite element methods and calibration the models with experimental results, effects of parameters such as several stiffeners, vertical, horizontal, diagonal, and a combination of T-shaped stiffeners located in the composite wall have been investigated on the ultimate capacity, web-plate buckling, von-Mises stress, and failure modes. The results showed that the arrangement of stiffeners has no significant effect on the capacity and performance of the CSPSW so that the use of vertical or horizontal stiffeners did not have a significant effect on the capacity and performance of the CSPSW. On the other hand, the use of diagonal hardeners has potentially affected the performance of CSPSWs, increasing the capacity of steel shear walls by up to 25%.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.183-201
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• 2016

Perforated steel beams can be optimised by increased beam depth and the moment of inertia combined with a reduced web thickness, favouring the use of original I-section beams. The designers are often confronted with situations where optimisation cannot be carried out effectively, taking account of the buckling risk at web posts, moment-shear transfers and local plastic deformations on the transverse holes of the openings. The purpose of this study is to suggest solutions for reducing these failure risks of tested optimal designed beams under applying loads in a self-reacting frame. The design method for the beams is the hunting search optimisation technique, and the design constraints are implemented from BS 5950 provisions. Therefore, I have aimed to explore the strengthening effects of reinforced openings with ring stiffeners, welded vertical simple plates on the web posts and horizontal plates around the openings on the ultimate load carrying capacities of optimally designed perforated steel beams. Test results have shown that compared to lateral stiffeners, ring and vertical stiffeners significantly increase the loadcarrying capacity of perforated steel beams.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.715-723
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• 2001

This paper represents the behavior of CFT column to H-beam full-scale connection with external T-stiffener. 6 specimens whose T-stiffeners which are compounded of vertical element and horizontal element were made under the parameter of the strength ratio of each elements(vertical element and horizontal element in T-stiffener) to the beam full plastic moment. The analysis-parameters demonstrated in the base of the data that we get in experiment are strength stiffness, and plastic rotational capacity. All of specimen showed stable hysteretic behavior, and the horizontal element is more critical than vertical element in strength and stiffness. The mean beam plastic rotation of all specimen except the TS-2 specimen is 2.97% rad.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.16 no.2 s.69
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• pp.275-284
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• 2004

The behavior of the connection for beam-to-column weak axis connection and its details should be identified. Thus, each element is considered a panel zone, and the horizontal stiffener's presence or absence and position in bracket-type welding connection are used as variables to compare the behavior of strong axis connection and weak axis connection. In this study, the strength of connection is calculated by substituting the simple beam-strengthened vertical stiffeners for connection in the presence of horizontal stiffeners. In the absence of horizontal stiffeners, the strength of connection can be calculated using local flange bending strength considering local web yielding strength, web crippling, and web buckling strength. The results of the theoretical analysis and experiments are compared.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.601-613
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• 2007

It is reported that factors affecting the behavior of reinforced earth retaining walls built on soft ground are not only basic physical properties but also the increase of load by the reinforced earth retaining walls, consolidation period, pore water pressure, etc. This study analyzed the behavior of reinforced earth retaining walls and soft ground using SAGE CRISP, a ground analysis program. First, we examined the effect of the replacement method, which was to prevent the excessive displacement of reinforced earth retaining walls, in improving the behavior of the walls. Second, we compared and analyzed how the behavior of ground is affected by the vertical interval of stiffeners on the back of reinforced earth retaining walls after the application of the replacement method. Lastly, we proposed the optimal replacement width and depth in the application of the replacement method. The results of this study proved that the replacement method is considerably effective in improving the behavior of reinforced earth retaining walls. In addition, the vertical interval of stiffeners on the back of reinforced earth retaining walls appeared effective in improving the horizontal displacement of the top of retaining walls but not much effective in improving the vertical displacement of the back of retaining walls. In addition, improvement in horizontal-vertical displacement resulting from the increase in replacement width was not significant and this suggests that the increase of replacement width is not necessary. With regard to an adequate replacement depth, we proposed the ratio of replacement depth to the height of retaining walls(D/H) according to the ratio of the thickness of the soft layer to the height of retaining walls(H/T).

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.793-803
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• 2019

Concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) beam-columns are widely used owing to their good performance. They have high strength, ductility, large energy absorption capacity and low costs. Externally stiffened CFST beam-columns are not used widely due to insufficient design equations that consider all parameters affecting their behavior. Therefore, effect of various parameters (global, local slenderness ratio and adding hoop stiffeners) on the behavior of CFST columns is studied. An experimental study that includes twenty seven specimens is conducted to determine the effect of those parameters. Load capacities, vertical deflections, vertical strains and horizontal strains are all recorded for every specimen. Ratio between outer diameter (D) of pipes and thickness (t) is chosen to avoid local buckling according to different limits set by codes for the maximum D/t ratio. The study includes two loading methods on composite sections: steel only and steel with concrete. The case of loading on steel only, occurs in the connection zone, while the other load case occurs in steel beam connecting externally with the steel column wall. Two failure mechanisms of CFST columns are observed: yielding and global buckling. At early loading stages, steel wall in composite specimens dilated more than concrete so no full bond was achieved which weakened strength and stiffness of specimens. Adding stiffeners to the specimens increases the ultimate load by up to 25% due to redistribution of stresses between stiffener and steel column wall. Finally, design equations previously prepared are verified and found to be only applicable for medium and long columns.