• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.313-326
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• 2020

Glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars have been introduced as an effective alternative for the conventional steel reinforcement in concrete structures to mitigate the costly consequences of steel corrosion. However, despite the superior performance of these composite materials in terms of corrosion, the effect of replacing steel reinforcement with GFRP on the seismic performance of concrete structures is not fully covered yet. To address some of the key parameters in the seismic behavior of GFRP-reinforced concrete (RC) structures, two full-scale beam-column joints reinforced with GFRP bars and stirrups were constructed and tested under two phases of loading, each simulating a severe ground motion. The objective was to investigate the effect of damage due to earthquakes on the service and ultimate behavior of GFRP-RC moment-resisting frames. The main parameters under investigation were geometrical configuration (interior or exterior beam-column joint) and joint shear stress. The performance of the specimens was measured in terms of lateral load-drift response, energy dissipation, mode of failure and stress distribution. Moreover, the effect of concrete damage due to earthquake loading on the performance of beam-column joints under service loading was investigated and a modified damage index was proposed to quantify the magnitude of damage in GFRP-RC beam-column joints under dynamic loading. Test results indicated that the geometrical configuration significantly affects the level of concrete damage and energy dissipation. Moreover, the level of residual damage in GFRP-RC beam-column joints after undergoing lateral displacements was related to reinforcement ratio of the main beams.

• 한국농공학회지
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• 제30권1호
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• pp.63-72
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• 1988

The primary objective of the study was to find the deformation characteristics of reinforced polymer concrete beams. A test program was carried out to compare the behavior in deformation of polyester and MMA concrete beams with cement concrete beams but with varying ratios of tensile reinforcement. From the results the following conclusions can be made. 1.The various strengths of polymer concrete ware very high compared to the strengths for cement concrete. Also, compared to conventional concrete beams, flexural strength of reinforced polymer concrete beams was distinctly higher for the same section and steel ratios. 2.The polymer concrete beams exhibit large deflections accompanied by relatively high strengths as compared to cement concrete beams. 3.The average ultimate strain at the extreme compression fiber of polymer concrete beams was 0.01 1 cm / cm, and this value was about three to four times as large as that of cement concrete beams, 4.The polymer concrete beams developed more cracks which were more wide crack distribution spacing than the cement concrete beams, and the beams failed in a more ductile manner. 5.The reinforcing steel ratio has a significant effect on the beam strength, load-deflection response, stress-strain curve, and crack pattern of polymer concrete beams.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제7권5호
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• pp.861-875
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• 2014

This paper studies the response of seismic behavior of reinforced concrete exterior beam-column joints under reversal loading with different anchorages and joint core details. The joint core was detailed without much confinement (group-I) and/or with proposed X-cross bars in the core (group-II). The beam longitudinal reinforcement's anchorages were designed as per ACI 352 (headed bars), ACI 318 (conventional $90^{\circ}$ bent hooks) and IS 456 ($90^{\circ}$ bent hooks with extended tails). The nonlinear finite element analysis response of the beam-column joints was studied, along with initial and progressive cracks up to failure. The experimental and analytical results were compared and presented in this paper to make more scientific conclusions.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제18권3호
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• pp.297-317
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• 2016

Current codes recommend large amounts of shear reinforcement for reinforced concrete beam-column joints that causes significant bar congestion. Increase in congestion of shear reinforcement in joint core (connection zone), leads to increase accomplishment problems. The congestion may also lead to diameter limitations on the beam bars relative to the joint dimensions. Using double headed studs instead of conventional closed hoops in reinforced concrete beam-column joints reduces congestion and ensures easier assembly of the reinforcing cage. The purpose of this research is evaluating the efficiency of the proposed reinforcement. In this way, 10 groups of exterior beam-column joints are modeled. Each group includes 7 specimens by different reinforcing details in their joint core. All specimens are modeled by using of ABAQUS and analyzed subjected to cyclic loading. After verification of analytical modeling with an experimental specimen, 3D nonlinear specimens are modeled and analyzed. Then, the effect of amount and arrangement of headed studs on ductility, performance, ultimate strength and energy absorption has been studied. Based on the results, all joints reinforced with double headed studs represent better performance compared with the joints without shear transverse reinforcement in joints core. The behavior of the former is close to joints reinforced with closed hoops and cross ties according to the seismic design codes. By adjusting the arrangement of double-headed studs, the decrease in ductility, performance, ultimate moment resistant and energy absorption reduce to 2.61%, 0.90%, 0.90% and 1.66% respectively compared with the joints reinforced by closed hoops on the average. Since the use of headed studs reduces accomplishment problems, these amounts are negligible. Therefore, use of double-headed studs has proved to be a viable option for reinforcing exterior beam-column joints.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.83-97
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• 2014

This paper presents the results of an investigation aimed at developing reinforced concrete beams consisting of precast permanent U-shaped reinforced mortar forms filled with different types of core materials to be used as a viable alternative to the conventional reinforced concrete beam. To accomplish this objective, an experimental program was conducted and theoretical model was adopted. The experimental program comprised casting and testing of thirty beams of total dimensions $300{\times}150{\times}2,000mm$ consisting of permanent precast U-shaped reinforced mortar forms of thickness 25 mm filled with the core material. Three additional typical reinforced concrete beams of the same total dimensions were also cast to serve as control specimens. Two types of single-layer and double-layers steel meshes were used to reinforce the permanent U-shaped forms; namely welded wire mesh and X8 expanded steel mesh. Three types of core materials were investigated: conventional concrete, autoclaved aerated lightweight concrete brick, and recycled concrete. Two types of shear connections between the precast permanent reinforced mortar form and the core material were investigated namely; adhesive bonding layer between the two surfaces, and mechanical shear connectors. The test specimens were tested as simple beams under three-point loadings on a span of 1,800 mm. The behavior of the beams incorporating the permanent forms was compared to that of the control beams. The experimental results showed that better crack resistance, high serviceability and ultimate loads, and good energy absorption could be achieved by using the proposed beams which verifies the validity of using the proposed system. The theoretical results compared well with the experimental ones.

• 한국공간구조학회논문집
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.29-36
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• 2023

Reinforcement learning (RL) is widely applied to various engineering fields. Especially, RL has shown successful performance for control problems, such as vehicles, robotics, and active structural control system. However, little research on application of RL to optimal structural design has conducted to date. In this study, the possibility of application of RL to structural design of reinforced concrete (RC) beam was investigated. The example of RC beam structural design problem introduced in previous study was used for comparative study. Deep q-network (DQN) is a famous RL algorithm presenting good performance in the discrete action space and thus it was used in this study. The action of DQN agent is required to represent design variables of RC beam. However, the number of design variables of RC beam is too many to represent by the action of conventional DQN. To solve this problem, multi-agent DQN was used in this study. For more effective reinforcement learning process, DDQN (Double Q-Learning) that is an advanced version of a conventional DQN was employed. The multi-agent of DDQN was trained for optimal structural design of RC beam to satisfy American Concrete Institute (318) without any hand-labeled dataset. Five agents of DDQN provides actions for beam with, beam depth, main rebar size, number of main rebar, and shear stirrup size, respectively. Five agents of DDQN were trained for 10,000 episodes and the performance of the multi-agent of DDQN was evaluated with 100 test design cases. This study shows that the multi-agent DDQN algorithm can provide successfully structural design results of RC beam.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제14권1호
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• pp.1-18
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• 2014

The addition of steel fibers in concrete mixture is recognized as a non-conventional mass reinforcement scheme that improves the torsional, flexural, and shear behavior of structural members. However, the analysis of fiber reinforced concrete beams under combined torsion, bending, and shear is limited because of the complicated nature of the problem. Therefore, nonlinear 3D finite element analysis was conducted using the "ANSYS CivilFEM" program to investigate the behavior of fiber reinforced concrete L-beams. These beams were tested at different reinforcement schemes and loading conditions. The reinforcement case parameters were set as follows: reinforced with longitudinal reinforcement only and reinforced with steel bars and stirrups. All beams were tested under two different combined loading conditions, namely, torsion-to-shear ratio (T/V) = 545 mm (high eccentricity) and T/V = 145 mm (low eccentricity). Eight intermediate L-beams were constructed and tested in a laboratory under combined torsion, bending, and shear to validate the finite element model. Comparisons with the experimental data reveal that the program can accurately predict the behavior of L-beams under different reinforcement cases and combined loading ratios. The ANSYS model accurately predicted the loads and deformations for various types of reinforcements in L-beams and captured the concrete strains of these beams.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.69-88
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• 2015

Self-consolidating concrete (SCC) is a stable and cohesive high consistency concrete mix with enhanced filling ability properties that reduce the need for mechanical compaction. Limited standards and specifications have been reported in the literature on the structural behavior of reinforced self-compacting concrete elements. The significance of the research presented in this paper stems from the need to investigate the effect of enhanced fluidity of SCC on the structural behavior of high strength self-consolidating reinforced concrete beams. To meet the objectives of this research, twelve reinforced concrete beams were prepared with two different generations of superplasticizers and designed to exhibit flexure, shear, or bond splitting failure. The compared beams were identical except for the type of superplasticizer being used (second generation sulphonated-based superplasticizer or third generation polycarboxylate-based superplasticizer). The outcomes of the experimental work revealed comparable resistance of beam specimens made with self-compacting (SCC) and conventional vibrated concrete (VC). The dissimilarities in the experimental values between the SCC and the control VC beams were not major, leading to the conclusion that the high flowability of SCC has little effect on the flexural, shear and bond strengths of concrete members.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제11권5호
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• pp.905-924
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• 2016

Several two-dimensional analytical beam column joint models with varying complexities have been proposed in quantifying joint flexibility during seismic vulnerability assessment of non-ductile reinforced concrete (RC) frames. Notable models are the single component rotational spring element and the super element joint model that can effectively capture the governing inelastic mechanisms under severe ground motions. Even though both models have been extensively calibrated and verified using quasi-static test of joint sub-assemblages, a comparative study of the inelastic seismic responses under nonlinear time history analysis (NTHA) of RC frames has not been thoroughly evaluated. This study employs three hypothetical case study RC frames subjected to increasing ground motion intensities to study their inherent variations. Results indicate that the super element joint model overestimates the transient drift ratio at the first story and becomes highly un-conservative by under-predicting the drift ratios at the roof level when compared to the single-component model and the conventional rigid joint assumption. In addition, between these story levels, a decline in the drift ratios is observed as the story level increased. However, from this limited study, there is no consistent evidence to suggest that care should be taken in selecting either a single or multi component joint model for seismic risk assessment of buildings when a global demand measure such as maximum inter-storey drift is employed in the seismic assessment framework.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제25권1호
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• pp.67-73
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• 2020

Traditionally used analytical approach to predict the fatigue failure of reinforced concrete (RC) structure is generally conservative and has certain limitations. The nonlinear finite element method (FEM) offers less expensive solution for fatigue analysis with sufficient accuracy. However, the conventional implicit dynamic analysis is very expensive for high level computation. Whereas, an explicit dynamic analysis approach offers a computationally operative modelling to predict true responses of a structural element under periodic loading and might be perfectly matched to accomplish long life fatigue computations. Hence, this study simulates the fatigue behaviour of RC beams with finite element (FE) assemblage presenting a simplified explicit dynamic numerical solution to show computer aided fatigue behaviour of RC beam. A commercial FEM package, ABAQUS has been chosen for this complex modelling. The concrete has been modelled as a 8-node solid element providing competent compression hardening and tension stiffening. The steel reinforcements are simulated as two-node truss elements comprising elasto-plastic stress-strain behaviour. All the possible nonlinearities are duly incorporated. Time domain analysis has been adopted through an automatic Newmark-β time incremental technique. The program consists of twelve RC beams to visualize the real behaviour during fatigue process and to obtain the reliability of the study. Both the numerical and experimental results indicate a redistribution of stresses along the time and damage accumulation of beam which severely affect the serviceability and ultimate capacity of RC beam. The output of the FEM analysis demonstrates good match with the experimental consequences which affirm the efficacy of the computer aided model. The controlled fatigue damage evolution at service fatigue load limits makes the FE model an efficient tool in predicting high cycle fatigue behaviour of RC structures.