• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.429-442
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• 2017

Dry bridges have been widely applied in the Qinghai-Tibet Railway (QTR) to minimize the thermal disturbance of engineering to the permafrost. However, because the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is an area with a high potential occurrence of earthquakes, seismic action can easily destroy the dry bridges. Therefore, a three-dimensional numerical model, with consideration of the soil-pile interactions, is established to investigate the thermal characteristics and their impact on the seismic response of the dry bridge in permafrost region along the QTR. The numerical results indicate that there exist significant differences in the lateral displacement, shear force, and bending moment of the piles in different thermal conditions under seismic action. When the active layer become from unfrozen to frozen state, the maximum displacement of the bridge pile reduces, and the locations of the zero and peak values of the shear force and bending moment also change. It is found that although the higher stiffness of frozen soil confines the lateral displacement of the pile, compared with unfrozen soil, it has an adverse effect on the earthquake energy dissipation capacity.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.1417-1443
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• 2016

Cellular and castellated steel beams are used to obtain higher stiffness and bending capacity using the same weight of steel. In addition, the beam openings may be used as a pass for different mechanical fixtures such as ducts and pipes. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of different parameters on both elastic and inelastic critical buckling stresses of steel web plates with openings. These parameters are plate aspect ratio; opening shape (circular or rectangular); end distance to the first opening; opening spacing; opening size; plate slenderness ratio; steel grade; and initial web imperfection. The web/flange interaction has been simplified by web edge restraints representing simply supported boundary conditions. A numerical parametric study has been performed through linear and nonlinear finite element (FE) models, where the FE results have been verified against both experimental and numerical results in the literature. The web plates are subject to in-plane linearly varying compression with different loading patterns, ranging from uniform compression to pure bending. A buckling stress modification factor (${\beta}$-factor) has been introduced as a ratio of buckling stress of web plate with openings to buckling stress of the corresponding solid web plate. The variation of ${\beta}$-factor against the aforementioned parameters has been reported. Furthermore, the critical plate slenderness ratio separating elastic buckling and yielding has been identified and discussed for two steel grades of DIN-17100, namely: ST-37/2 and ST-52/3. The FE results revealed that the minimum ${\beta}$-factor is 0.9 for web plates under uniform compression and 0.7 for those under both compression and tension.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.117-126
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• 2017

The component method is an analytical approach for investigating the moment-rotation relationship of steel connections. In this study, the component method was improved from two aspects: (i) load analysis of mechanical model; and (ii) combination of spring elements. An optimized component method with more reasonable component models, spring arrangement position, and boundary conditions was developed using finite element analysis. An experimental testing program in two major-axis and two minor-axis connections under symmetrically loading was carried out to verify this method. The initial rotational stiffness obtained from the optimized component method was consistent with the experimental results. It can be concluded that (i) The coupling stiffness between column and beam flanges significantly affects the effective height of the tensile-column web. (ii) The mechanical properties of the bending components were obtained using an equivalent t-stub model considering the bending capacity of bolts. (iii) Using the optimized mechanical components, the initial rotational stiffness was accurately calculated using the spring system. (iv) The characteristics of moment-rotation relationship for beam to column connections were effectively expressed by the SPRING element analysis model using ABAQUS. The calculations are simpler, and the results are accurate.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.165-178
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• 2013

This paper presents a research work for the evaluation of the nominal flexural strength of composite girders in positive bending region. Current predicting equations for the nominal flexural strength of composite girders in the 2012 version of the Korea Bridge Design Codes based on Limit State Design Method are able to apply for the composite girders with conventional structural steels. For applying composite girders with high yield strength steels of HSB800 as well as HSB600, there is a need for improving the current predicting equations. In order to investigate the nominal flexural strength of composite girders, previous research works are carefully reviewed and parametric study using a moment-curvature analysis program is conducted to evaluate the ultimate moment capacity and the ductility of a wide range of composite girders. Based on the results of the parametric study, less conservative nominal flexural strength design equations are proposed for conventional composite girders. In addition, new design equations for predicting the nominal flexural strength of composite girders with HSB600 and HSB800 high-performance steels are provided.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.79-90
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• 2019

This study introduces new connections that connect the beam to the column with slit dampers. Plastic deformations and damages concentrate on slit dampers. The slit dampers prevent plastic damages of column, beam, welds and panel zone and act as fuses. The slit dampers were prepared with IPE profiles that had some holes in the webs. In this paper, two experimental specimens were made. In first specimen (SDC1), just one slit damper connected the beam to the column and one IPE profile with no holes connected the bottom flange of the beam to the column. The second specimen (SDC2) had two similar dampers which connected the top and bottom flange of the beam to the column. Cyclic loading was applied on Specimens. The cyclic displacements conditions continued until 0.06 radian rotation of connection. The experimental observations showed that the bending moment of specimen SDC2 increased until 0.04 story drift. In specimen SDC1, the bending moment decreases after 0.03 story drift. Test results indicate the high performance of the proposed connection. Based on the results, the specimen with two slit damper (SDC2) has higher seismic performance and dissipates more energy in loading process than specimen SDC1. Theoretical formulas were extended for the proposed connections. Numerical studies have been done by ABAQUS software. The theoretical and numerical results had good agreements with the experimental data. Based on the experimental and numerical investigations, the high ductility of connection is obtained from plastic damages of slit dampers. The most flexural moment of specimen SDC1 occurred at 3% story drift and this value was 1.4 times the plastic moment of the beam section. This parameter for SDC2 was 1.73 times the plastic moment of the beam section and occurred at 4% story drift. The dissipated energy ratio of SDC2 to SDC1 is equal to 1.51.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.175-183
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• 2022

To study the working mechanism and size effect of an innovative dovetail UHPC joint originated from the 5th Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, a large-scale testing subject to negative bending moment was conducted and compared with the previous scaled specimens. The static responses, i.e., the crack pattern, failure mode, ductility and stiffness degradation were analyzed. It was found that the scaled specimens presented similar working stages and working mechanism with the large-scale ones. However, the post-cracking ductility and relative stiffness degradation all decrease with the enlarged length/scale, apart from the relative stiffness after flexural cracking. The slab stiffness at the flexural cracking stage is 90% of the initial stiffness while only 24% of the initial stiffness reserved in the ultimate stage. Finite element model (FEM) was established and compared with the experiments to verify its effectiveness in exploring the working mechanism of the innovative joint. Based on this effective method, a series of FEMs were established to further study the influence of material strength, pre-stressing level and ratio of reinforcement on its deflection-load relationship. It is found that the ratio of reinforcement can significantly improve its load-carrying capacity among the three major-influenced factors.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.133-145
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• 2022

Steel fiber composite bar (SFCB) is a novel type of reinforcement, which has good ductility and durability performance. Due to the unique pseudo strain hardening tensile behavior of SFCB, different flexural behavior is expected of SFCB reinforced concrete (SFCB-RC) beams from traditional steel bar reinforced concrete (S-RC) beams and FRP bar reinforced concrete (F-RC) beams. To investigate the flexural behavior of SFCB-RC beam, four points bending tests were carried out and different flexural behaviors between S/F/SFCB-RC beams were discussed. An flexural analytical model of SFCB-RC beams is proposed and proved by the current and existing experimental results. Based on the proposed model, the influence of the fiber volume ratio R of the SFCB on the flexural behavior of SFCB-RC beams is discussed. The results show that the proposed model is effective for all S/F/SFCB-RC flexural members. Fiber volume ratio R is a key parameter affecting the flexural behavior of SFCB-RC. By controlling the fiber volume ratio of SFCB reinforcements, the flexural behavior of the SFCB-RC flexural members such as bearing capacity, bending stiffness, ductility and repairability of SFCB-RC structures can be designed.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.21-34
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• 2023

This work presents a complete optimal model for trapezoidal combined footings that support a concentric load and moments around of the "X" and "Y" axes in each column to obtain the minimum area and the minimum cost. The model presented in this article considers a pressure diagram that has a linear variation (real pressure) and the equations are not limited to some cases. The classic model takes into account a concentric load and the moment around of the "X" axis (transverse axis) that is applied due to each column, i.e., the resultant force is located at the geometric center of the footing on the "Y" axis (longitudinal axis), and when the concentric load and moments around of the "X" and "Y" axes act on the footing is considered the uniform pressure applied on the contact surface of the footing, and it is the maximum pressure. Four numerical problems are presented to find the optimal design of a trapezoidal combined footing under a concentric load and moments around of the "X" and "Y" axes due to the columns: Case 1 not limited in the direction of the Y axis; Case 2 limited in the direction of the Y axis in column 1; Case 3 limited in the direction of the Y axis in column 2; Case 4 limited in the direction of the Y axis in columns 1 an 2. The complete optimal design in terms of cost optimization for the trapezoidal combined footings can be used for the rectangular combined footings considering the uniform width of the footing in the transversal direction, and also for different reinforced concrete design codes, simply by modifying the resisting capacity equations for moment, for bending shear, and for the punching shear, according to each of the codes.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.111-118
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• 2020

In this paper, the flexural creep behavior of hooked-end steel fiber reinforced high-strength concrete was evaluated to investigate the steel fiber content influence on long-term behavior of flexural members. An experimental program consisted of nine prismatic beam specimens with dimensions of 150 × 150 × 600mm reinforced with different contents of steel fiber (0, 0.75 and 1.5% at the volume fraction). To introduce flexural creep loading to notched prismatic beam specimens, a four-point bending test setup was used. The sustained load with 40% of the flexural strength was applied by means of a lever system and controlled by a load cell for 90 days. During sustained loading, crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) was monitored. Conventional flexural test after creep tests were carried out to evaluate the residual capacity of each specimen. Test results showed that steel fiber content has a significant effect on the flexural creep behavior of high-strength concrete and long-term flexural load with 40% of flexural strength doesn't generate negative effects on the residual capacity of steel fiber reinforced high-strength concrete.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.61-69
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• 2011

Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP) sheets have been widely used to retrofit and rehabilitate RC structures, while in case of retrofitting steel structures, there are no codes and researches. It stems from configuration of member and characteristics of bonding behavior. This study focused on the static behavior of steel beams reinforcement by AFRP sheets. The main objective of the experimental programme was the evaluation of the force transfer mechanism, the increment of the beam load carrying capacity and the bending stiffness. A bending test was conducted on a H-shaped steel beam, with aramid FRP sheets bonded to its flanges. The mid-span deflection and the strain from three points along AFRP sheets were recorded Test results exhibit that the increment of the load-carrying capacity with reference to a mid-span deflection level of 15 mm(1/125mm of the clear span) was equal to 9.4% and for the two layers case, an elastic stiffness increment is slightly higher than one layer case.