• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.589-604
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• 2016

Kenya has recently experienced worrying collapse of buildings during construction largely attributable to the poor quality of in-situ concrete and poor workmanship. The situation in the country is further compounded by rapid deterioration of infrastructure, hence necessitating the development of alternative structural systems such as concrete filled unplasticized poly vinyl chloride (UPVC) tubes as columns. The work herein adds on to the very limited and scanty work on use of UPVC tubes in construction. This study presents the findings of experimental and analytical work which investigated the structural response of composite concrete filled UPVC tubes under compressive load regime. UPVC pipes are cheaper than steel tubes and can be used as formwork during construction and thereafter as an integral part of column. Key variables in this study included the strength of infill concrete, the length to diameter ratio (L/D) of the plastic tube, as well as the diameter to thickness ratio (D/2t) of the plastic tube. Plastic tubes having varying diameters and heights were used to confine concrete of different strengths. Results obtained in the study clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of UPVC tubes as a confining medium for infill concrete, attributable to enhanced composite interaction between the UPVC tube and infill concrete medium. It was determined that compressive strength of the composite column specimens increased with increased concrete strength while the same decreased with increased column height, albeit by a small margin since all the columns considered were short columns. Most importantly, the experimental confined concrete strength increased significantly when compared to unconfined concrete strength; the strength increased between 1.18 to 3.65 times the unconfined strength. It was noted that lower strength infill concrete had the highest confined strength possibly due to enhanced composite interaction with the confining UPVC tube. The study further proposes an analytical model for the determination of confined strength of concrete.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.205-212
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• 1999

Recently, unexpected cracks in the concrete deck slab of composite steel bridges have been widely reported at an early age of concrete placing due to the concrete placing sequence and methods. Accordingly, the analytical research was carried out to verify the negative moment at an internal supports due to the several concrete pouring sequence and to determine the reasonable concrete placing method on the deck slab of composite steel bridge. The results show that the conventional concrete-placing method, which pours concrete first on the positive moment regions and then negative regions, leads to the minimum moment at an internal supports. However, the conventional method produces two impractical construction joints on every spans and makes field engineer to pour concrete continuously. In conclusion, this concrete-placing method was verified to be reasonable only when the construction joint was placed at the $\frac{5}{8}l{\sim}\frac{6}{8}l$ location of the middle span.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.1307-1325
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• 2016

Nonlinear behavior of two-span, continuous composite steel-concrete girders strengthened with Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) bonded to the top of concrete slab over the negative moment region was evaluated using a non-linear Finite Element (FE) model in this paper. A three-dimensional FE model of continuous composite girder using commercial software ABAQUS simulated and validated with experimental results. The interfacial regions of the composite girder components were modeled using suitable interface elements. Validation of the proposed numerical model with experimental data confirmed the applicability of this model to predict the loading history, strain level for the different components and concrete-steel relative slip. The FE model captured the different modes of failure for the continuous composite girder either in the concrete slab or at the interfacial region between CFRP sheet and concrete slab. Through a parametric study, the thickness of CFRP sheet and shear connection required to develop full capacity of the continuous composite girder at negative moment zone have been investigated. The FE results showed that the proper thickness of CFRP sheet at negative moment region is a function of the adhesive strength and the positive moment capacity of the composite section. The shear connection required at the negative moment zone depends on CFRP sheet's tensile stress level at ultimate load.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.529-542
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• 2021

Shear connectors are required to build composite (concrete and steel) beams. They are placed at the interface of concrete and steel to transfer shear and normal forces between two structural components. Such composite beams are sensitive to provide structural integrity when exposed to fire as they loss strength, stiffness, and ductility at elevated temperature. The present study is designed to investigate the shear resistance and the failure modes of the headed stud shear connectors at fire exposure and post-fire exposure. The study includes ordinary concrete and concrete with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to build composite (concrete-steel) beams with structural steel. Experimental push tests were conducted on composite beams at ambient and elevated temperatures, such as 200, 400 & 600℃. Moreover, push tests were performed on the composite beams after being exposed to 200, 400 & 600℃. Push test results illustrated the reduction of ultimate shear capacity and stiffness of headed stud shear connectors as the temperature increased. Although similar values of ultimate shear were obtained for the headed stud connectors in both ordinary and CNT concrete, the CNT modified concrete reduced the concrete spalling and cracking compared to ordinary concrete and was observed to be effective at temperatures greater than 400℃. All specimens showed a lower shear resistance at fire exposures compared to the corresponding post-fire exposures. Moreover, numerical simulation by Finite Element (FE) analyses were carried out at ambient temperature and at fire conditions. The FE analysis results show a good agreement with the experimental results. In the experimental studies, failure of all specimens occurred due to shear failure of headed stud, which was later validated by FE analyses using ABAQUS.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.111-123
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• 2010

The steel pipe of steel-concrete composite drilled shafts increases the pile strength and induces the ductile failure by constraining the deformation of the inner concrete. In this research, pile loading tests were performed to analyze the field applicability of a steel-concrete composite drilled shafts. The test ground consisted of 5~7 m thick soil underlying rock mass. The test piles consisted of two steel-concrete composite drilled shafts, which were the concrete filled steel pipe piles with the diameter of 0.508 m, and a concrete pile with the same diameter. The test results showed that the boundary between the upper steel composite section and the lower concrete section was structurally weak and needs to be reinforced by using a inner steel cage. If the boundary is located in deep depth, which is not influenced by lateral load, the allowable strength of the lower concrete section increases, so an economical design can be performed by increasing the design load of steel-concrete composite drilled shafts.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.21-35
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• 2019

This study investigates the flexural behavior of steel-concrete composite beams strengthened with prestressed carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) plates. An innovative mechanical anchorage system was developed. The components of the system can be easily assembled on site before applying a prestressing force, and removed from the structures after strengthening is completed. A total of seven steel-concrete composite specimens including four simply supported beams strengthened at the positive moment region and three continuous beams strengthened at the negative moment region were tested statically until failure. Experimental results showed that the use of prestressed CFRP plates enhanced the flexural capacity and reduced the mid-span deflection of the beams. Furthermore, by prestressing the CFRP laminates, the material was used more efficiently, and the crack resistance of the continuous composite specimens at the central support was significantly improved after strengthening. Overall, the anchorage system proved to be practical and feasible for the strengthening of steel-concrete composite beams. The theoretical analysis of ultimate bearing capacity is reported, and good agreement between analytical values and experimental results is achieved.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.121-134
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• 2023

This paper tested 11 concrete-encased concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) composite columns and one reinforced concrete column under combined axial compression and lateral loads. The primary parameters, including the loading system, axial compression ratio, volume stirrup ratio, diameter-to-thickness ratio of the steel tube, and stirrup form, were varied. The influence of the parameters on the failure mode, strength, ductility, energy dissipation, strength degradation, and damage evolution of the composite columns were revealed. Moreover, a two-parameter nonlinear seismic damage model for composite columns was established, which can reflect the degree and development process of the seismic damage. In addition, the relationships among the inter-story drift ratio, damage index and seismic performance level of composite columns were established to provide a theoretical basis for seismic performance design and damage assessments.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.295-316
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• 2015

A bridge widening technology using steel-concrete composite system was developed and is presented in this paper. The widened superstructure system consists of a newly built composite steel-concrete girder with concrete deck and steel diaphragms attached to the existing concrete girders. This method has been applied in several bridge widening projects in China, and one of those projects is presented in detail. Due to the higher stiffness-to-weight ratio and the rapid erection of composite girders, this widening method reveals benefits in both mechanical performance and construction. As only a few methods for the design of bridges with different types of girders are recommended in current design codes, a more accurate analytical method of estimating live load distribution on girder bridges was developed. In the analytical model, the effects of span length, girder pacing, diaphragms, concrete decks were considered, as well as the torsional and flexural stiffness of both composite box girders and concrete T girders. The study shows that the AASHTO LRFD specification procedures and the analytical models proposed in this paper closely approximate the live load distribution factors determined by finite element analysis. A parametric study was also conducted using the finite element method to evaluate the potential load carrying capacities of the existing concrete girders after widening.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.393-410
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• 2001

In an experimental and analytical study on the structural behavior of slender circular steel-concrete composite columns, eleven specimens were tested to investigate the effects of three ways to apply a load to a column. The load was applied eccentrically to the concrete section, to the steel section or to the entire section. Three-dimensional nonlinear finite element models were established and verified with the experimental results. The analytical models were also used to study how the behavior of the column was influenced by the bond strength between the steel tube and the concrete core and the by confinement of the concrete core offered by the steel tube. The results obtained from the tests and the finite element analyses showed that the behavior of the column was greatly influenced by the method used to apply a load to the column section. When relying on just the natural bond, full composite action was achieved only when the load was applied to the entire section of the column. Furthermore, because of the slenderness effects the columns did not exhibit the beneficial effects of composite behavior in terms of increased concrete strength due to the confinement.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Advanced Composite Structures
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.13-21
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• 2013

In this study, uniaxial compression tests were performed to investigates the stress-strain relations of Double Skinned Composite Tubular Columns reinforced with steel tube. The confined concrete has been known as the strength of concrete increases significantly. Specimens reinforced with outer and inner steel tube were tested by uniaxial compression test. To investigate the influence of concrete strength increase by confining conditions in steel tubes, 8 specimens with different thickness of tube, hollowness ratio and concrete strength were tested and compared with other researcher's concrete material model.