• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.277-285
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• 2017

Single-storey industrial buildings are one of the most often type of structures built among various skeletal framed steel constructions. These metallic buildings offer an exceptional opportunity to minimise the material employed, contributing to a more sustainable construction. In particular, the mansard portal frame is a typology made up of broken beams that involves different lengths and discontinuous slopes. This study aims the weight reduction of the standard mansard portal frame with design purposes by means of varying four parameters: the kink position, the eaves-apex slope, the span and the columns height. In this work, we suggest some guidelines that can improve the economical competitive capabilities of their structural design. In all the cases analysed, the joints of the portal frame are placed over the theoretical non-funicular shape to uniform loads. This allows reducing the bending moment and the shear force, but increasing the axial force. In addition, the performance of mansard and typical pitched portal frames submitted to the same boundary conditions is compared in terms of efficiency in the use of steel. In the large majority of the cases, mansard typologies are lighter than the common pitched frames and, hence, more economical.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.215-221
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• 2014

Ultra-high strength concrete and high tensile steel are becoming very attractive materials for high-rise buildings because of the need to reduce member size and structural self-weight. However, limited test data and design guidelines are available to support the applications of high strength materials for building constructions. This paper presents significant findings from comprehensive experimental investigations on the behaviour of tubular columns in-filled with ultra-high strength concrete at ambient and elevated temperatures. A series of tests was conducted to investigate the basic mechanical properties of the high strength materials, and structural behaviour of stub columns under concentric compression, beams under moment and slender beam-columns under concentric and eccentric compression. High tensile steel with yield strength up to 780 MPa and ultra-high strength concrete with compressive cylinder strength up to 180 MPa were used to construct the test specimens. The test results were compared with the predictions using a modified Eurocode 4 approach. In addition, more than 2000 test data samples collected from literature on concrete filled steel tubes with normal and high strength materials were also analysed to formulate the design guide for implementation in practice.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2007

This paper discusses the failure mode of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with composite materials based on six experimental set-ups to determine the FRP-to-concrete bond strength. Interfacial bond behavior between concrete and CFRP plates was discussed. Shear test were performed with different concrete compressive strengths (21 MPa and 28 MPa) and different bonding length (100 mm, 150 mm, 200 mm, and 250 mm). Shear test results indicate that the effective bond length (the bond length beyond which the ultimate load does not increase) was estimated as $196{\sim}204\;mm$ through linear regression analysis. Failure mode of specimens occurred due to debonding between concrete and CFRP plates. Maximum bond stress is calculated as about $3.0{\sim}3.3\;MPa$ from the relationships between bond stress and slip. Finally, the interfacial bond-slip model between CFRP plates and concrete, which is governed debonding failure, has been estimated from shear tests. Average bond stress was about $1.86{\sim}2.04\;MPa$, the volume of slip between CFRP plate and concrete was about $1.45{\sim}1.72\;mm$, and the fracture energy was found to be about $1.35{\sim}1.71\;N/mm$.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.479-500
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• 2016

Seismic design criteria allow enhancing the structural ductility and controlling the damage distribution. Therefore, detailing rules and design requirements given by current seismic codes might be also beneficial to improve the structural robustness. In this paper a comprehensive parametric study devoted to quantifying the effectiveness of seismic detailing for steel Moment Resisting Frames (MRF) in limiting the progressive collapse under column loss scenarios is presented and discussed. The overall structural performance was analysed through nonlinear static and dynamic analyses. With this regard the following cases were examined: (i) MRF structures designed for wind actions according to Eurocode 1; (ii) MRF structures designed for seismic actions according to Eurocode 8. The investigated parameters were (i) the number of storeys; (ii) the interstorey height; (iii) the span length; (iv) the building plan layout; and (v) the column loss scenario. Results show that structures designed according to capacity design principles are less robust than wind designed ones, provided that the connections have the same capacity threshold in both cases. In addition, the numerical outcomes show that both the number of elements above the removed column and stiffness of beams are the key parameters in arresting progressive collapse.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.457-473
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• 2008

Yielding of the internal steel reinforcement is an important mechanism that influences the Intermediate Crack-induced debonding (IC debonding) behavior in FRP-strengthened RC members since the FRP is required to carry additional forces beyond the condition of steel yielding. However, rational design practice dictates an appropriate limit state is defined when steel yielding is assured prior to FRP debonding. This paper proposes a criterion which correlates the occurrence of IC debonding to the formulation of a critical steel yielding length. Once this length is exceeded the average bond stress in the FRP/concrete interface exceeds its threshold value, which proves to correlate with the average bond resistance in an FRP/concrete joint under simple shear loading. This proposed IC debonding concept is based on traditional sections analysis which is conventionally applied in design practice. Hence complex bond stress-slip analyses are avoided. Furthermore, the proposed model incorporates not only the bond properties of FRP/concrete interface but also the beam geometry, and properties of steel and FRP reinforcement in the analysis of IC debonding strength. Based upon a solid database, the validity of the proposed simple IC debonding criterion is demonstrated.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.145-158
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• 2008

In slender sections there is a substantial post-buckling strength provided after the formation of local buckling waves. These waves happened due to normal stresses or shear stresses or both. In this study, a numerical investigation of the behavior of slender I-section beams in combined pure bending and shear has been described. The studied cases were assumed to be prevented from lateral torsional buckling. To achieve this aim, a finite element model that simulates the geometric and material nonlinear nature of the problem has been developed. Moreover, the initial geometric imperfections were included in the model. Different flange and web width-thickness ratios as well as web panel aspect ratios have been considered to draw complete set of interaction diagrams. Results reflect the interaction behavior between flange and web in resisting the combined action of moments and shear. In addition, the web panel aspect ratio will not significantly affect the combined ultimate shear-bending strength as well as the post local buckling strength gained by the section. Results are compared with that predicted by both the Eurocode 3 and the American Iron and Steel specifications, AISI-2001. Finally, an empirical interaction equation has been proposed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.371-388
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• 2018

In this paper, a new model based on nonlocal high order theory is proposed to study the size effect on the bending of nano-sandwich beams with a compliance core. In this model, in contrast to most of the available sandwich theories, no prior assumptions are made with respect to the displacement field in the core. Herein the displacement and the stress fields of the core are obtained through an elasticity solution. Equations of motion and boundary conditions for nano-sandwich beam are derived by using Hamilton's principle and an analytical solution is presented for simply supported nano-sandwich beam. The results are validated with previous studies in the literature. These results can be utilized in the study of nano-sensors and nano-actuators. The effect of nonlocal parameter, Young's modulus of the core and aspect ratio on the deflection of the nano-sandwich beam is investigated. It is concluded that by including the small-scale effects, the deflection of the skins is increased and by increasing the nonlocal parameter, the influence of small-scale effects on the deflections is increased.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.443-456
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• 2017

Many authors have established the usefulness of concrete filled steel tubular (CFST) sections as compression members while few have proved their utility as flexural members. To explore their prospective as part of CFST frame structures, two types of connections using extended end plate and seat angle are proposed for exterior joints of CFST beams and CFST columns. To investigate the performance and failure modes of the proposed bolted connections subjected to static loads, an experimental program has been executed involving ten specimens of exterior beam-to-column joints subjected to monotonically increasing load applied at the tip of beam, the performance is appraised in terms of load deformation behaviour of joints. The test parameters varied are the beam section type, type and diameter of bolts. To validate the experimental behaviour of the proposed connections in CFST beam-column joints, finite element analysis for the applied load has been performed using software ATENA-3D and the results of the proposed models are compared with experimental results. The experimental results obtained agree that the proposed CFST beam-column connections perform in a semi-rigid and partial strength mode as per specification of EC3.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.273-291
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• 2020

Two-storey X-bracings are currently very popular in European practice, as respect to chevron and simple X bracings, owing to the advantages of reducing the bending demand in the brace-intercepted beams in V and inverted-V configurations and optimizing the design of gusset plate connections. However, rules for two-storey X braced frames are not clearly specified within current version of EN1998-1, thus leading to different interpretations of the code by designers. The research presented in this paper is addressed at investigating the seismic behaviour of two-storey X concentrically braced frames in order to revise the design rules within EN1998-1. Therefore, five different design criteria are discussed, and their effectiveness is investigated. With this aim, a comprehensive numerical parametric study is carried out considering a set of planar frames extracted from a set of structural archetypes that are representative of regular low, medium and high-rise buildings. The obtained results show that the proposed design criteria ensure satisfactory seismic performance.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.405-422
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• 2007

A new hybrid damping technique for vibration reduction in flexible structures, wherein a combination of layers of hard passive damping alloys and active (smart) magnetostrictive material is used to reduce vibrations, is proposed. While most conventional vibration control treatments are based exclusively on either passive or active based systems, this technique aims to combine the advantages of these systems and simultaneously, to overcome the inherent disadvantages in the individual systems. Two types of combined damping systems are idealized and studied here, viz., the Noninteractive system and the Interactive system. Frequency domain studies are carried out to investigate their performance. Finite element simulations using previously developed smart beam elements are carried out on typical metallic and laminated composite cantilever beams treated with hybrid damping. The influence of various parameters like excitation levels, frequency (mode) and control gain on the damping performance is investigated. It is shown that the proposed system could be used effectively to dampen the structural vibration over a wide frequency range. The interaction between the active and passive damping layers is brought out by a comparative study of the combined systems. Illustrative comparisons with 'only passive' and 'only active' damping schemes are also made. The influence and the mode dependence of control gain in a hybrid system is clearly illustrated. This study also demonstrates the significance and the exploitation of strain dependency of passive damping on the overall damping of the hybrid system. Further, the influence of the depthwise location of damping layers in laminated structures is also investigated.