• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.81-100
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• 2006

To calculate the shear capacity of concrete beams reinforced with fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP), current shear design provisions use slightly modified versions of existing semi-empirical shear design equations that were primarily derived from experimental data generated on concrete beams having steel reinforcement. However, FRP materials have different mechanical properties and mode of failure than steel, and extending existing shear design equations for steel reinforced beams to cover concrete beams reinforced with FRP is questionable. This paper investigates the feasibility of using artificial neural networks (ANNs) to estimate the nominal shear capacity, Vn of concrete beams reinforced with FRP bars. Experimental data on 150 FRP-reinforced beams were retrieved from published literature. The resulting database was used to evaluate the validity of several existing shear design methods for FRP reinforced beams, namely the ACI 440-03, CSA S806-02, JSCE-97, and ISIS Canada-01. The database was also used to develop an ANN model to predict the shear capacity of FRP reinforced concrete beams. Results show that current guidelines are either inadequate or very conservative in estimating the shear strength of FRP reinforced concrete beams. Based on ANN predictions, modified equations are proposed for the shear design of FRP reinforced concrete beams and proved to be more accurate than existing equations.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.265-282
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• 2010

The shear contribution of transverse steel in reinforced concrete beams is generally assumed as independent of the concrete strength by most of the building codes. The shear strength of RC beams with web reinforcement is worked out by adding the individual contributions of concrete and stirrups. In this research 70 beams of medium strength concrete in the range of 52-54 MPa, compressive strength were tested in two sets of 35 beams each. In one set of 35 beams no web reinforcement was used, whereas in second set of 35 beams web reinforcement was used to check the contribution of stirrups. The values have also been compared with the provisions of ACI, Eurocode and Japanese Code building codes. The results of two sets of beams, when compared mutually and provisions of the building codes, showed that the shear strength of beams has been increased with the addition of stirrups for all the beams, but the increase is non uniform and irregular. The comparison of observed values with the provisions of selected codes has shown that EC-02 is relatively less conservative for low values of longitudinal steel, whereas ACI-318 overestimates the shear strength of RC beams at higher values of longitudinal steel. The Japanese code of JSCE has given relatively good results for the beams studied.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.1
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• pp.63-76
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• 2022

Major engineering requirements and technological developments in the steel construction industry are discussed to support a new innovative system, namely corrugated web beams, for future structural projections. These new-generation steel beams, fabricated as welded plate girders with corrugated webs, are designed to combine large spans with very low weight. In the present study, the flexural capacity of optimally designed trapezoidal and sinusoidal corrugated web beams was aimed at. For this purpose, the new metaheuristic methods, specifically hunting search and firefly algorithms, were used for the minimum weight design of both beams according to the rules of Eurocode EN 1193 15 and DASt-Ri 015. In addition, the strengthening effects of the corrugation geometry at the web posts on the load capacity of fabricated steel beams were tested in a reaction frame. The experimental tests displayed that the lateral capacity of trapezoidal web beams is more durable under flexural loads compared to sinusoidal web beams. These thin-walled beams were also simulated using a 3-D finite element model with plane strain to validate test results and describe the effectiveness of the ABAQUS software.

• KCI Concrete Journal
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.51-60
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• 2002

Strengthening of existing concrete structures is a major concern in recent years as the number of degraded structures increases. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the static and fatigue behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened with steel plates. To this end, a comprehensive test program has been set up and many series of strengthened beams have been tested. The major test variables include the plate thickness, adhesive thickness, and the shear-span to depth ratio. The test results indicate that the separation of plates is the dominant failure mechanism even for the full-span-length strengthened beams with steel plate. The theoretical ultimate load capacities for strengthened beams based on the full composite action of concrete beam and steel plate are found to be larger than the actual measured load capacities. The strengthened beams exhibit more dominant shear cracking as the shear-span to depth ratio decreases. The ultimate capacity of strengthened beams increases slightly with the increase of adhesive thickness, which may be caused by the late initiation of plate separation in the beams with thicker adhesive. A realistic concept of ductility for plate-strengthened beams is proposed in this study. It is seen that the strengthened beams show relatively low ductility compared with unstrengthened beams. The present study indicates that the strengthened beams exhibit much higher fatigue resistance than the unstrengthened beams. The increase of deflections of strengthened beams according to the number of load cycles is much smaller than that of unstrengthened beams. The present study provides very useful results for the realistic application of plate-strengthening method in reinforced concrete structures.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.457-468
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• 2007

Analytical and experimental investigation on dynamic properties of extra lightweight concrete sandwich beams reinforced with various lay ups of carbon reinforced epoxy polymer composites (CFRP) are discussed. The lightweight concrete used in the core of the sandwich beams was made up of extra lightweight aggregate, Lica. The density of concrete was half of that of the ordinary concrete and its compressive strength was about $100Kg/cm^2$. Two extra lightweight unreinforced (control) beams and six extra lightweight sandwich beams with various lay ups of CFRP were clamped in one end and tested under an impact load. The dimension of the beams without considering any reinforcement was 20 cm ${\times}$ 10 cm ${\times}$ 1.4 m. These were selected to ensure that the effect of shear during the bending test would be minimized. Three other beams, made up of ordinary concrete reinforced with steel bars, were tested in the same conditions. For measuring the damping capacity of sandwich beams three methods, Logarithmic Decrement Analysis (LDA), Hilbert Transform Analysis (HTA) and Moving Block Analysis (MBA) were applied. The first two methods are in time domain and the last one is in frequency domain. A comparison between the damping capacity of the beams obtained from all three methods, shows that the damping capacity of the extra lightweight concrete decreases by adding the composite reinforced layers to the upper and lower sides of the beams, and becomes most similar to the damping of the ordinary beams. Also the results show that the stiffness of the extra lightweight concrete beams increases by adding the composite reinforced layer to their both sides and become similar to the ordinary beams.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1993.10a
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• pp.175-180
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• 1993

A new method for the vibration analysis of arbitrarily-shaped beams is proposed on the assumption of imaginary seperation of the beams into prismatic beams and the remaining portions. The stiffness and mass of the beams are devided into two portions according to the seperation. Applying the mode shapes of prismatic beams and Lagrange's equations give new characteristics equation. This equation has a low dimension of matrix with the coupling terms showing the effect of remaining portions on the vibration of arbitrarily-shaped beams

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.211-226
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• 2000

A procedure has been developed for bolting steel plates to the sides of existing reinforced concrete beams which can be used to increase the shear strength of beams, increase the flexural strength of beams with enhanced ductility or with only a small loss of ductility, and increase the stiffness of beams in order to reduce deflections and crack widths. It will be shown in this paper, through a qualitative analysis and through the results of testing eight large scale beams, that standard rigid plastic analysis techniques which are commonly used in the design of reinforced-concrete, steel, and composite steel and concrete beams cannot be used directly to design composite bolted-plated reinforced-concrete beams. In the companion paper, quantitative procedures will be used to adapt the standard rigid plastic analysis techniques for this relatively new form of retrofitting.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.565-583
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• 2013

Existing numerical models for strain-hardening cement-based composites (SHCC) are short of providing sufficiently accurate solutions to the failure patterns of coupling beams of different designs. The objective of this study is to develop an effective model that is capable of simulating the nonlinear behavior of SHCC coupling beams subjected to cyclic loading. The beam model proposed in this study is a macro-scale plane stress model. The effects of cracks on the macro-scale behavior of SHCC coupling beams are smeared in an anisotropic model. In particular, the influence of the defined crack orientations on the simulation accuracy is explored. Extensive experimental data from coupling beams with different failure patterns are employed to evaluate the validity of the proposed SHCC coupling beam models. The results show that the use of the suggested shear stiffness retention factor for damaged SHCC coupling beams is able to effectively enhance the simulation accuracy, especially for shear-critical SHCC coupling beams. In addition, the definition of crack orientation for damaged coupling beams is found to be a critical factor influencing the simulation accuracy.

• 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.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.149-166
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• 2012

This paper presents an experimental investigation on the performance of 2.5 m long reinforced concrete (RC) T-beams strengthened in shear using epoxy bonded glass fibre fabric. Eighteen (18) full scale, simply supported RC T-beams are tested. Nine beams are used as control beam specimens with three different stirrups spacing without glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) sheet and rest nine beams are strengthened in shear with one, two, and three layers of GFRP sheet in the form of U-jacket around the web of T-beams for each type of stirrup spacing. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness, the cracking pattern and modes of failure of the GFRP strengthened RC T-beams. The test result indicates that for RC T-beams strengthened in shear with U-jacketed GFRP sheets, increase the load carrying capacity by 10-46%.