• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.269-287
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• 2010

High-strength concrete (HSC) is becoming more popular in the construction of beams and columns of tall buildings because of its higher stiffness and strength-to-weight ratio. However, as HSC is more brittle than normal-strength concrete (NSC), it may adversely affect the flexural ductility and deformability of concrete members. Extended from a series of theoretical study conducted on flexural ductility of concrete beams, the authors would in this paper investigate the effects of some critical factors including the degree of reinforcement, confining pressure, concrete and steel yield strength on the flexural deformability of NSC and HSC beams. The deformability, expressed herein in terms of normalised rotation capacity defined as the product of ultimate curvature and effective depth, is investigated by a parametric study using nonlinear moment-curvature analysis. From the results, it is evident that the deformability of concrete beams increases as the degree of reinforcement decreases and/or confining pressure increases. However, the effects of concrete and steel yield strength are more complicated and dependent on other factors. Quantitative analysis of all these effects on deformability of beams has been carried out and formulas for direct deformability evaluation are developed. Lastly, the proposed formulas are compared with available test results to verify its applicability.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.2
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• pp.239-251
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• 2022

The use of lateral reinforcement in confined concrete columns can improve bearing capacity and deformability. The lateral responses of lateral reinforcement significantly influence the effective confining pressure on core concrete. However, lateral strain-axial strain model of concrete columns confined by lateral reinforcement has not received enough attention. In this paper, based on experimental results of 85 concrete columns confined by lateral reinforcement under axial compression, the effect of unconfined concrete compressive strength, volumetric ratio, lateral reinforcement yield strength, and confinement type on lateral strain-axial strain curves was investigated. Through parameter analysis, it indicated that with the same level of axial strain, the lateral strain slightly increased with the increase in the unconfined concrete compressive strength, but decreased with the increase in volumetric ratio significantly. The lateral reinforcement yield strength had slight influence on lateral strain-axial strain curves. At the same level of lateral strain, the axial strain of specimen with spiral was larger than that of specimen with stirrup. Furthermore, a lateral strain-axial strain model for concrete columns confined by lateral reinforcement under axial compression was proposed by introducing the effects of unconfined concrete compressive strength, volumetric ratio, confinement type and effective confining pressure, which showed good agreement with the experimental results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.415-428
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• 2010

Proper material constitutive models for concrete-filled tube (CFT) columns of circular cross section and subjected to pure bending moment are proposed. These material models are implemented into the Abaqus finite element program and verified against experimental data. It has been shown that the steel tube does not provide good confining effect to the concrete core when the CFT columns is subjected to pure bending moment. When the diameter-to-thickness ratio of the CFT columns is small, the behavior of the CFT column is the same as the steel tube without a concrete core.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 2013

This paper presents an actual microstructure-based numerical method to investigate the mechanical properties of concrete at mesoscopic level. Digital image processing technique is used to capture the concrete surface image and generate the actual 3-phase microstructure of the concrete, which consists of aggregate, matrix and interfacial transition zones. The microstructure so generated is then transformed into a mesh or grid for numerical analysis. A finite difference code FLAC2D is used for the numerical analysis to simulate the mechanical responses and failure patterns of the concrete. Several cases of concrete with different degrees of material heterogeneity and under different compression loading conditions have been analysed. From the numerical results, the effects of the internal material heterogeneities as well as the external confining stresses are studied. It is shown that the material heterogeneities arising from the presence of different phases and the existence of interfacial transition zones have great influence on the overall mechanical behaviour of concrete and that the numerically simulated behaviour of concrete with or without confining stresses applied agrees quite well with the general observations reported in the literature.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.587-606
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• 2012

Concrete-filled-steel-tubular (CFST) columns have been well proven to improve effectively the strength, stiffness and ductility of concrete members. However, the central part of concrete in CFST columns is not fully utilised under uni-axial compression, bending and torsion. It has small contribution to both flexural and torsion strength, while it can be replaced effectively by steel with smaller area to give similar load-carrying capacity. Also, the confining pressure in CFST columns builds up slowly because the initial elastic dilation of concrete is small before micro-crackings of concrete are developed. From these observations, it is convinced that the central concrete can be effectively replaced by another hollow steel tube with smaller area to form double-skinned concrete-filled-steel-tubular (CFDST) columns. In this study, a series of uni-axial compression tests were carried out on CFDST and CFST columns with and without external steel rings. From the test results, it was observed that on average that the stiffness and elastic strength of CFDST columns are about 25.8% and 33.4% respectively larger than CFST columns with similar equivalent area. The averaged axial load-carrying capacity of CFDST columns is 7.8% higher than CFST columns. Lastly, a theoretical model that takes into account the confining effects of steel tube and external rings for predicting the uni-axial load-carrying capacity of CFDST columns is developed.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.155-163
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• 2013

This study explores the structural behavior of module joints in floating concrete structures subjected to shear. Crack patterns, shear behavior and shear capacity of shear keys in joints of concrete module were investigated. Test parameters included shear key shape, or inclination of shear keys, confining stress levels and compressive strength of concrete. Test results showed that shear strength of joints increased as shear key inclination increased. Test results also showed that shear strength of concrete module joints increased with the increase of confining stress levels. The equation for predicting shear strength of joints was suggested, which was based on the test results. Shear strength prediction by using the equation suggested in this study showed good agreement with test results.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.201-204
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• 2008

The proposed method, capable of predicting various stress-strain responses in axially loaded concrete confined with FRP (Fiber Reinforced Polymers) composites in a rational manner, is based on the fact that the volumetric expansion due to progressive microcracking in mechanically loaded concrete is an important measure of the extent of damage in the material microstructure. The elastic modulus expressed as a function of area strain and concrete porosity, the energy-balance equation relating the dilating concrete to the confining device interactively, the varying confining pressure, and an incremental calculation algorithm are included in the solution procedure. This procedure enables the evaluation of lateral strains consecutively according to the related mechanical model and the energy-balance equation, rather than using an empirically derived equation for Poisson's ratio or dilation rate as in other analytical methods.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.469-481
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• 2017

This paper aims to analytically investigate the effect of shear stress at the concrete-steel interface on the mechanical behavior of the circular steel tube-confined concrete (STCC) stub columns with active and passive confinement subjected to axial compression. Nonlinear 3D finite element models divided into the four groups, i.e. circumferential-grooved, talc-coated, lubricated, and normal groups, with active and passive confinement were developed. An innovative method was used to simulate the actively-confined specimens, and then, the results of the finite element models were compared with those of the experiments previously conducted by the authors. It was revealed that both the predicted peak compressive strength and stress-strain curves have good agreement with the corresponding values measured for the confined columns. Then, the mechanical properties of the active and passive specimens such as the concrete-steel interaction, longitudinal and hoop stresses of the steel tube, confining pressure applied to the concrete core, and compressive stress-strain curves were analyzed. Furthermore, a parametric study was performed to explore the effects of the concrete compressive strength, steel tube diameter-to-wall thickness ratio, and prestressing level on the compressive behavior of the STCC columns. The results indicate that reducing or removing the interfacial shear stress in the active and passive specimens leads to an increase in the hoop stress and confining pressure, while the longitudinal stress along the steel tube height experiences a decrease. Moreover, prestressing via the presented method is capable of improving the compressive behavior of STCC columns.

• Architectural research
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.27-35
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• 2008

Because of several advantages of mortar-filled sleeve splice in reinforced concrete buildings, this method is being applied increasingly at construction sites and various methods of the splice have been developed in Korea and other countries. In order to apply this system in the field, studies on mortar-filled sleeve splice have been mainly experimental research focused on overall structural performance. However, for understanding the structural characteristics of this splice more accurately, we need to study the confining effect of sleeve, which is known to affect bond strength between filling mortar and reinforcing bar, the most important structural elements of the bar splice. Thus, in order to examine the confinement effect of mortar-filled steel pipe sleeve splice, the present study prepared actual-size specimens of steel pipe sleeve splice, and conducted a loading. Using the test results, we analyzed how the confining effect of steel pipe sleeve affects the bond strength of this splice and obtained data for developing more reasonable methods of designing the splice of reinforcement.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.409-414
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• 2003

This paper develops a relatively comprehensive and sophisticated constitutive model of concrete for finite element analysis of concrete structures. The present model accounts for the hydrostatic pressure sensitivity and Lode angle dependence behavior of concrete, not only in its strength criterion, but also in its hardening characteristics. The implementation is carried out through incorporating the developed concrete model in User Subroutine Material(UMAT) of the general-purpose FE program ABAQUS(v.5.8). It is found that the model can sufficiently predict the hardening as well as the softening behaviour of concrete under high confining pressure.