• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.18 no.6
• /
• pp.1369-1389
• /
• 2015

In order to investigate the behaviour of lying multi-stud connectors in cable-pylon anchorage zone, twenty-four push-out tests are carried out with different stud numbers and diameters. The effect of concrete block width and tensile force on shear strength is investigated using the developed and verified finite element model. The results show that the shear strength of the lying multi-stud connectors is reduced in comparison with the lying single-stud connector. The reduction increases with the increasing of the number of studs in the vertical direction. The influence of the stud number on the strength reduction of the lying multi-stud connectors is decreased under combined shear and tension loads compared with under pure shear. Yet, due to multi-stud effect, they still can't be ignored. The concrete block width has a non-negligible effect on the shear strength of the lying multi-stud connectors and therefore should be chosen properly when designing push-out specimens. No obvious difference is observed between the strength reductions of the studs with 22 mm and 25 mm diameters. The shear strengths obtained from the tests are compared with those predicted by AASHTO LRFD and Eurocode 4. Eurocode 4 generally gives conservative predictions of the shear strength, while AASHTO LRFD overestimates the shear strength. In addition, the lying multi-stud connectors with the diameters of 22 m and 25 mm both exhibit adequate ductility according to Eurocode 4. An expression of load-slip curve is proposed for the lying multi-stud connectors and shows good agreement with the test results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.497-516
• /
• 2014

The ultimate carrying capacity of axially loaded welded square box section members made of medium and high strength steels (nominal yield stresses varying from 345 MPa to 460 MPa), with large width-to-thickness ratios ranging from 35 to 70, is analyzed by finite element method (FEM). At the same time, the numerical results are compared with the predicted results using Direct Strength Method (DSM), modified DSM and Effective Yield Strength Method (EYSM). It shows that curve a, rather than curve b recommended in Code for design of steel structures GB50017-2003, should be used to check the local-overall interaction buckling strength of welded square section columns fabricated from medium and high strength steels when using DSM, modified DSM and EYSM. Despite all this, EYSM is conservative. Compared to EYSM and modified DSM, DSM provides a better prediction of the ultimate capacities of welded square box compression members with large width-thickness ratios over a wide range of width-thickness ratios, slenderness ratios and steel grades. However, for high strength steels (nominal yield strength greater than 460 MPa), the numerical and existent experimental results indicate that DSM overestimates the load-carrying capacities of the columns with width-thickness ratio smaller than 45 and slenderness ratio less than 80. Further, for the purpose of making it suitable for a wider scope, DSM has been modified (called proposed modified DSM). The proposed modified DSM is in excellent agreement with the numerical and existing experimental results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.27 no.5
• /
• pp.577-598
• /
• 2018

The imperfect steel-concrete interface bonding is an important deficiency of the concrete-filled double skin tubular (CFDST) columns that led to separating concrete and steel surfaces under lateral loads and triggering buckling failure of the columns. To improve this issue, it is proposed in this study to use longitudinal and transverse steel stiffeners in CFDST columns. CFDST columns with different patterns of stiffeners embedded in the interior or exterior surfaces of the inner or outer tubes were analyzed under constant axial force and reversed cyclic loading. In the finite element modeling, the confinement effects of both inner and outer tubes on the compressive strength of concrete as well as the effect of discrete crack for concrete fracture were incorporated which give a realistic prediction of the seismic behavior of CFDST columns. Lateral strength, stiffness, ductility and energy absorption are evaluated based on the hysteresis loops. The results indicated that the stiffeners had determinant role on improving pinching behavior resulting from the outer tube's local buckling and opening/closing of the major tensile crack of concrete. The lateral strength, initial stiffness and energy absorption capacity of longitudinally stiffened columns with fixed-free end condition were increased by as much as 17%, 20% and 70%, respectively. The energy dissipation was accentuated up to 107% for fixed-guided end condition. The use of transverse stiffeners at the base of columns increased energy dissipation up to 35%. Axial load ratio, hollow ratio and concrete strength affecting the initial stiffness and lateral strength, had negligible effect of the energy dissipation of the columns. It was also found that the longitudinal stiffeners and transverse stiffeners have, respectively, negative and positive effects on ductility of CFDST columns. The conclusions, drawn from this study, can in turn, lead to the suggestion of some guidelines for the design of CFDST columns.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.439-447
• /
• 2018

The structural behaviors of cylindrical barns as a specific engineering structure have been considered as a complicated computing process. The structure design against the earthquake load, to protect by using the code, is an urgency avoiding unexpected damages. The situation has been subjected to the applied design method if there would be no failure across the construction procedures. The purpose of the current study is to clarify the behaviors of cylindrical reinforced concrete barns through the analytic methods across the mass and Lagrangian approaches through the whole outcomes comparison indicating that the isoparametric element obtained from the Lagrangian approach has been successfully applied in the barns earthquake analysis when the slosh effects have been discarded. The form of stress distributions is equal with $s_z$ closed distributions to one another.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.335-340
• /
• 2018

The behavior of concrete slabs in composite beam with C and L shaped angle shear connectors has been studied in this paper. These two types of angle shear connectors' instalment have been commonly utilized. In this study, the finite element (FE) analysis and soft computing method have been used both to present the shear connectors' push out tests and providing data results used later in soft computing method. The current study has been performed to present the aforementioned shear connectors' behavior based on the variable factors aiming the study of diverse factors' effects on C and L shaped angle in shear connectors. ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System), has been manipulated in providing the effective parameters in shear strength forecasting by providing input-data comprising: height, length, thickness of shear connectors together with concrete strength and the respective slip of shear connectors. ANFIS has been also used to identify the predominant parameters influencing the shear strength forecast in C and L formed angle shear connectors.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.625-641
• /
• 2020

The realistic modeling of the beam-column semi-rigid connection in steel frames attracted the attention of many researchers in the past for the seismic analysis of semi-rigid frames. Comparatively less studies have been made to investigate the behavior of steel frames with semi-rigid connections under different types of earthquake. Herein, the seismic behavior of semi-rigid steel frames is investigated under both far and near-field earthquakes. The semi-rigid connection is modeled by the multilinear plastic link element consisting of rotational springs. The kinematic hysteresis model is used to define the dynamic behavior of the rotational spring, describing the nonlinearity of the semi-rigid connection as defined in SAP2000. The nonlinear time history analysis (NTHA) is performed to obtain response time histories of the frame under scaled earthquakes at three PGA levels denoting the low, medium and high-level earthquakes. The other important parameters varied are the stiffness and strength parameters of the connections, defining the degree of semi-rigidity. For studying the behavior of the semi-rigid frame, a large number of seismic demand parameters are considered. The benchmark for comparison is taken as those of the corresponding rigid frame. Two different frames, namely, a five-story frame and a ten-story frame are considered as the numerical examples. It is shown that semi-rigid frames prove to be effective and beneficial in resisting the seismic forces for near-field earthquakes (PGA ≈ 0.2g), especially in reducing the base shear to a considerable extent for the moderate level of earthquake. Further, the semi-rigid frame with a relatively weaker beam and less connection stiffness may withstand a moderately strong earthquake without having much damage in the beams.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
• /
• v.28 no.9A
• /
• pp.694-701
• /
• 2003

In this paper, we present a hardware structure and new features of a smart antenna BTS (Base Transceiver Station) for CDMA2000 1X system. The proposed smart antenna BTS is a composite system consisting of many subsystems, i.e., array antenna element, frequency up/down converters, AD (Analog-to-Digital) and DA (Digital-to-Analog) converters, spreading/despreading units, convolutional encoder/Viterbi decoder, searcher, tracker, beamformer, calibration unit etc. Through the experimental tests, we found that the desired beam-pattern in both uplink and downlink communications is provided through the calibration procedure. Also it has been confirmed that the adaptive beamforming algorithm adopted to our smart antenna BTS is fast and accurate enough to support 4 fingers to each user. In our experiments, commercial mobile terminals operating PCS (Personal Communication System) band have been used. It has been confirmed that the smart antenna BTS tremendously improves the FER (Frame Error Rate) performance compared to the conventional 2-antenna diversity system.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.135-147
• /
• 2012

At mesoscale, concrete is considered as a three-phase composite material consisting of the aggregate particles, the cement matrix and the interfacial transition zone (ITZ). The reconstruction of the internal structures for concrete composites requires the identification of the boundary of the aggregate particles and the cement matrix using digital imaging technology followed by post-processing through MATLAB. A parameter study covers the subsection transformation, median filter, and open and close operation of the digital image sample to obtain the optimal parameter for performing the image processing technology. The subsection transformation is performed using a grey histogram of the digital image samples with a threshold value of [120, 210] followed by median filtering with a $16{\times}16$ square module based on the dimensions of the aggregate particles and their internal impurity. We then select a "disk" tectonic structure with a specific radius, which performs open and close operations on the images. The edges of the aggregate particles (similar to the original digital images) are obtained using the canny edge detection method. The finite element model at mesoscale can be established using the proposed image processing technology. The location of the crack determined through the numerical method is identical to the experimental result, and the load-displacement curve determined through the numerical method is in close agreement with the experimental results. Comparisons of the numerical and experimental results show that the proposed image processing technology is highly effective in reconstructing the internal structures of concrete composites.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.32-40
• /
• 1998

The polymeric porous materials which consist of polypropylene(PP) and polyethylene(PE) powder were prepared to apply to the air purification systems by extrusion sintering method. SEM analysis showed that a composite polymeric porous structure made up of PP and PE was obtained, where PE was melted and adhered to PP because the melting temperature of PE was lower than that of PP. The filtration characteristics and mechanical properties of polymeric porous materials were investigated by varying the head die temperature of the extruder, extrusion velocity, and the melt index and quantity of PE. The filtration efficiency was proportional to the quantity of PE but inversely proportional to the melt index of PE. The polymeric porous materials composed of PP and PE, which was made by extrusion sintering method, was found to be suitable for the filter element of the air purification system.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.1-18
• /
• 2006

Strengthening of existing old structures has traditionally been accomplished by using conventional materials and techniques, viz., externally bonded steel plates, steel or concrete jackets, etc. Alternatively, fibre reinforced polymer composite (FRPC) products started being used to overcome problems associated with conventional materials in the mid 1950s because of their favourable engineering properties. Effectiveness of FRPC materials has been demonstrated through extensive experimental research throughout the world in the last two decades. However there is a need to use refined analytical tools to simulate response of strengthened system. In this paper, an attempt has been made to develop a numerical model of strengthened reinforced concrete (RC) beams with FRPC laminates. Material models for RC beams strengthened with FRPC laminates are described and verified through a nonlinear finite element (FE) commercial code, with the help of available experimental data. Three dimensional (3D) FE analysis has been performed by assuming perfect bonding between concrete and FRPC laminate. A parametric study has also been performed to examine effects of various parameters like fibre type, stirrup's spacing, etc. on the strengthening system. Through numerical simulation, it has been shown that it is possible to predict accurately the flexural response of RC beams strengthened with FRPC laminates by selecting an appropriate material constitutive model. Comparisons are made between the available experimental results in literature and FE analysis results obtained by the present investigators using load-deflection and load-strain plots as well as ultimate load of the strengthened beams. Furthermore, evaluation of crack patterns from FE analysis and experimental failure modes are discussed at the end.