• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.403-417
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• 2022

Recently, there has been an increasing demand for buildings that allow rapid assembly of construction elements, have ample open space areas and are flexible in their final intended use. Accordingly, researchers have developed new competitive structures in terms of cost and efficiency, such as cold-formed steel and timber composite floors, to satisfy these requirements. Cold-formed steel and timber composite floors are light floors with relatively high stiffness, which allow for longer spans. As a result, they inherently have lower fundamental natural frequency and lower damping. Therefore, they are likely to undergo unwanted vibrations under the action of human activities such as walking. It is also quite expensive and complex to implement vibration control measures on problematic floors. In this study, a finite element model of a composite floor reported in the literature was developed and validated against four-point bending test results. The validated FE model was then utilised to examine the vibration behaviour of the investigated composite floor. Predictions obtained from the numerical model were compared against predictions from analytical formulas reported in the literature. Finally, the influence of various parameters on the vibration behaviour of the composite floor was studied and discussed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.64 no.4
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• pp.437-447
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• 2017

Explicit expressions for rapid prediction of inelastic design quantities (considering cracking of concrete) from corresponding elastic quantities, are presented for multi-storey composite frames (with steel columns and steel-concrete composite beams) subjected to service load. These expressions have been developed from weights and biases of the trained neural networks considering concrete stress, relative stiffness of beams and columns including effects of cracking in the floors below and above. Large amount of data sets required for training of neural networks have been generated using an analytical-numerical procedure developed by the authors. The neural networks have been developed for moments and deflections, for first floor, intermediate floors (second floor to ante-penultimate floor), penultimate floor and topmost floor. In the case of moments, expressions have been proposed for exterior end of exterior beam, interior end of exterior beam and both interior ends of interior beams, for each type of floor with a total of twelve expressions. Similarly, in the case of deflections, expressions have been proposed for exterior beam and interior beam of each type of floor with a total of eight expressions. The proposed expressions have been verified by comparison of the results with those obtained from the analytical-numerical procedure. This methodology helps to obtain the inelastic design quantities from the elastic quantities with simple calculations and thus would be very useful in preliminary design.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.497-506
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• 2021

Steel-concrete composite structures and precast concrete elements have a common prefabrication process and allow fast construction. The use of hollow-core slabs associated with composite floors can be advantageous. However, there are few studies on the subject, impeding the application of such systems. In this paper, a numerical model representing the considered system using the FE (finite element)-based software DIANA is developed. The results of an experimental test were also presented in Souza (2016) and were used to validate the model. Comparisons between the numerical and test results were performed in terms of the load versus displacement, load versus slip, and load versus strain curves, showing satisfactory agreement. In addition, a wide parametric study was performed, evaluating the influence of several parameters on the behaviour of the composite system: The strength of the steel beam, thickness of the web, thickness and width of the bottom flange of the steel beam and concrete cover thickness on top of the beam. The results indicated a great influence of the steel strength and the thickness of the bottom flange of the steel beam on the capacity of the composite floor. The remaining parameters had limited influences on the results.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.467-478
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• 2019

Composite floor structures formed by continuous slab panels may be susceptible to excessive vibrations, even when properly designed in terms of ultimate limit state criteria. This is due to the inherent vibration characteristics of continuous floor slabs composed by precast orthotropic reinforced concrete panels supported by steel beams. These floor structures display close spaced multimode vibration frequencies and this dynamic characteristic results in a non-trivial vibration problem. Structural stiffening and/or insertion of struts between floors are the usual tentative solution applied to existing vibrating floor structures. Such structural alterations are in general expensive and unsuitable. In this paper, this vibration problem is analyzed on the basis of results obtained from experimental measurements in typical composite floors and their theoretical counterpart obtained with computational modeling simulations. A passive control system composed by multiple synchronized dynamic attenuators (MSDA) was designed and installed in these floor structures and its efficiency was evaluated both experimentally and through numerical simulations. The results obtained from experimental tests of the continuous slab panels under human walking dynamic action proved the effectiveness of this control system in reducing vibrations amplitudes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2013.05a
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• pp.10-11
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• 2013

Green Frame is a column-beam system formed by composite precast concrete column and beam connected with steel buried in both members. During the installation of Green columns, the columns of Green Frame, covering 3 floors per each piece and beams, the eccentricity can be observed due to the construction error and the weight of beam itself. Such eccentricity may have a little influence on a single frame, yet, it can develop critical issues to the installation of subsequent beams or beams on the upper floors in the context of a building as a whole that has multiple frames. These issues lead to delay in frame installation, decrease of productivity and increase of cost, etc. Therefore, this study presents a steel-joint connection method in order to solve the issues. The steel-joint connection method exists on slope plane and reinforcing plate in steel frame buried in composite PC members. Through this method, the issues can be resolved without requiring additional equipment or manpower.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.277-300
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• 2016

Cold-formed steel (CFS) sections are becoming an increasingly popular solution for constructing floors in residential, healthcare and education buildings. Their reduced weight, however, makes them prone to excessive vibrations, increasing the need for accurate prediction of CFS floor modal properties. By combining experimental modal analysis of a full-scale CFS framed building and its floors and their numerical finite element (FE) modelling this paper demonstrates that the existing methods (based on the best engineering judgement) for predicting CFS floor modal properties are unreliable. They can yield over 40% difference between the predicted and measured natural frequencies for important modes of vibration. This is because the methods were adopted from other floor types (e.g., timber or standard steel-concrete composite floors) and do not take into account specific features of CFS floors. Using the adjusted and then updated FE model, featuring semi-rigid connections led to markedly improved results. The first four measured and calculated CFS floor natural frequencies matched exactly and all relevant modal assurance criterion (MAC) values were above 90%. The introduction of flexible supports and more realistic modelling of the floor boundary conditions, as well as non-structural $fa{\c{c}}ade$ walls, proved to be crucial in the development of the new more successful modelling strategy. The process used to develop 10 identified and experimentally verified FE modelling parameters is based on published information and parameter adjustment resulting from FE model updating. This can be utilised for future design of similar lightweight steel floors in prefabricated buildings when checking their vibration serviceability, likely to be their governing design criterion.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.599-608
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• 2010

Steel trusses that act compositely with concrete slabs have proven to be an economical system for long-span floors. The composite action is generally achieved by providing shear connections between the steel top chord and the concrete topping. The composite sections have greater stiffness than the sum of the individual stiffnesses of the slab and truss. Therefore, steel trusses that act compositely with concrete slabs can carry larger loads and are stifferand less prone to transient vibration. During the tests that were performed in this study, the crack pattern and deflection of the beam of the composte truss were investigated. The test results were compared with the results for the noncomposite trusses.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.1237-1257
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• 2016

The paper concerns analysis of effects of shrinkage of slab concrete in a steel-concrete composite deck of a through truss bridge span. Attention is paid to the shrinkage alongside the span, i.e., transverse to steel-concrete composite cross-beams. So far this aspect has not been given much attention in spite of the fact that it affects not only steel-concrete decks of bridges but also steel-concrete floors of steel frame building structures. For the problem analysis a two-dimensional model is created. An analytical method is presented in detail. A set of linear equations is built to compute axial forces in members of truss girder flange and transverse shear forces in steel-concrete composite beams. Finally a case study is shown: test loading of twin railway truss bridge spans is described, verified FEM model of the spans is presented and computational results of FEM and the analytical method are compared. Conclusions concerning applicability of the presented analytical method to practical design are drawn. The presented analytical method provides satisfactory accuracy of results in comparison with the verified FEM model.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.141-147
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• 2019

Fire is one of the environmental parameters affecting the structure causing element internal forces to change, as well as reducing the strength of the materials. One of the common types of floors in tall steel structures is the steel concrete composite slab. Shear connectors are used in steel and concrete composite beam in various shapes also has played significant role in a burning fire event of building with a steel concrete composite beam. The current study has reviewed the effects of temperature raising on the angle connector behavior through the use of push out tests and monotonic static force. The results have shown (1) the ductility of the samples is acceptable based on EC4 standard; (2) temperature raising has reduced the stiffness; (3) the shear ductility increment; and (4) the shear capacity reduction. Also, the amount of angle shear connector resistance has been decreased from 18.5% to 41% at ambient temperature up to $850^{\circ}C$.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.895-905
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• 2022

Composite flooring systems consisting of cold-formed steel joists and reinforced concrete slabs offer an efficient, lightweight solution. However, utilisation of composite action to achieve enhanced strength and economical design has been limited. In this study, finite element modelling was utilised to create a three-dimensional model which was then validated against experimental results for a composite flooring system consisting of cold-formed steel joists, reinforced concrete slab and steel bolt shear connectors. This validated numerical model was then utilised to perform parametric studies on the performance of the structural system. The results from the parametric study demonstrate that increased thickness of the concrete slab and increased thickness of the cold formed steel beam resulted in higher moment capacity and stiffness of the composite flooring system. In addition, reducing the spacing of bolts and spacing of the cold formed steel beams both resulted in enhanced load capacity of the composite system. Increasing the concrete grade was also found to increase the moment capacity of the composite flooring system. Overall, the results show that an efficient, lightweight composite flooring system can be achieved and optimised by selecting suitable concrete slab thickness, cold formed beam thickness, bolt spacing, cold formed beam spacing and concrete grade.