• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.485-496
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• 2017

The behavior of 8 steel reinforced high-strength concrete (SRHSC) columns, which comprised of four identical columns with cross-shaped steel and other four identical columns with square steel tube, was investigated experimentally under cyclic uniaxial and biaxial loading independently. The influence of steel configuration and loading path on the global behavior of SRHSC columns in terms of failure process, hysteretic characteristics, stiffness degradation and ductility were investigated and discussed, as well as stress level of the longitudinal and transverse reinforcing bars and steel. The research results indicate that with a same steel ratio deformation capacity of steel reinforced concrete columns with a square steel tube is better than the one with a cross-shaped steel. Loading path affects hysteretic characteristics of the specimens significantly. Under asymmetrical loading path, hysteretic characteristics of the specimens are also asymmetry. Compared with specimens under unidirectional loading, specimens subjected to bidirectional loading have poor carrying capacity, fast stiffness degradation, small yielding displacement, poor ductility and small ultimate failure drift. It also demonstrates that loading paths affect the deformation capacity or deformation performance significantly. Longitudinal reinforcement yielding occurs before the peak load is attained, while steel yielding occurs at the peak load. During later displacement loading, strain of longitudinal and transverse reinforcing bars and steel of specimens under biaxial loading increased faster than those of specimens subjected to unidirectional loading. Therefore, the bidirectional loading path has great influence on the seismic performance such as carrying capacity and deformation performance, which should be paid more attentions in structure design.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.633-641
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• 1998

Finite element solutions are presented for the optimal design of symmetrically laminated rectangular plates with various types of internal line supports. These plates are subject to a combination of simply supported, clamped and free boundary conditions. The design objective is the maximisation of the biaxial buckling load. This is achieved by determining the fibre orientations optimally with the effects of bending-twisting coupling taken into account. The finite element method coupled with an optimisation routine is employed in analysing and optimising the laminated plate designs. The effect of internal line support type and boundary conditions on the optimal ply angles and the buckling load are numerically studied. The laminate behavior with respect to fibre orientation changes significantly in the presence of internal line supports as compared to that of a laminate where there is no internal supporting. This change in behavior has significant implications for design optimisation as the optimal values of design variables with or without internal supporting differ substantially.