• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.101-112
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• 1999

Structural walls have been mostly used for the design of reinforced concrete buildings in seismic areas because they play a role as an efficient bracing system and offer great potential for lateral load resistance and drift control. The lateral resistance system for the earthquake load should be designed to have enough ductility and stable hysteretic response in the critical regions where plastic deformation occurred beyond yielding. The behavior of the reinforced concrete element to experience large deformation in the critical areas by a major earthquake is affected by the performance of the confined core concrete. Thus, the confinement of concrete by suitable arrangements of transverse reinforcement results in a significant increase in both the strength and ductility of compressed concrete. This paper reports the experimental results of reinforced concrete structural walls for wall-type apartment structure under axial loads and cyclic reversal of lateral loads with different confinement of the boundary elements. The results show that confinement of the boundary element by open 'U'-bar and cross tie is effective. The shear strength capacity is not increased by the confinement but deformation capacity is improve.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.389-392
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• 1999

Fatigue is a process of progressive permanent internal structural change in a material subjected to repeitive stresses. These change may be damaging and result in progressive growth of cracks and complete fracture if the stress repetitins are sufficiently large. For structural members subjected to cyclic loads, the continuous and irrecoverable damage processes are taking place. These processes are referred as the cumulative damage processes due to fatigue loading. Moreover, increased use of high strength concrete makes the fatigue problem more important because the cross-section and dead weight are reduced by using high strength concrete. The purpose of this study is to investigate the shear fatigue behavior of reinforced concrete beams according to shear reinforcement ratio and concrete compressive strength under repeated loadings. For this purpose, comprehensive static and fatigue tests of reinforced concrete beams were conducted. The major test variables for the fatigue teats are the concrete strength and the amount of shear reinforcements. The increase of deflections and steel strains according to load repetition has been plotted and analyzed to explore the damage accumulation phenomena of reinforced concrete beams. An analytical model for shear fatigue behavior has been introduced to analyze the damage accumulation under fatigue loads. The failure mode and fatigue lives have been also studied in the present study. The comparisons between analytical results and experimental data show good correlation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.443-457
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• 2011

The loss of strength in a structure as a result of cyclic loads over a period of life time is an important phenomenon for the life-cycle analysis. Service loads are accentuated at the areas of stress concentration, mainly at the connection of components. Structural components unavoidably are affected by defects such as surface scratches, surface roughness and weld defects of random sizes, which usually occur during the manufacturing and handling process. These defects are shown to have an important effect on the fatigue life of the structural components by promoting crack initiation sites. The value of equivalent initial flaw size (EIFS) is calculated by using the back extrapolation technique and the Paris law of fatigue crack growth from results of fatigue tests. We try to analyze the effect of EIFS distribution in a multiple site damage (MSD) specimen by using the extended finite element method (XFEM). For the analysis, fatigue tests were conducted on the centrally-cracked specimens and MSD specimens.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.225-246
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• 2017

Excessive dynamic-tension variations on the top-tensioned risers (TTRs) deteriorate the structural integrity and cause potential safety hazards. This phenomenon has become more remarkable in the development of deep-water fields with harsher environmental loads. The conventional prediction method of tension variations in hydro-pneumatic tensioner (HPT) has the disadvantage to underestimate the magnitude of cyclic loads. The actual excessive dynamic tension variations are larger when considering the viscous frictional fluid effects. In this paper, a suppression method of tension variations in HPT is modeled by incorporating the magneto-rheological (MR) damper and linear-force actuator. The mathematical models of the combined HPT and MR damper are developed and a force-control scheme is introduced to compensate the excessive tension variations on the riser tensioner ring. Numerical simulations and analyses are conducted to evaluate the suppression of tension variations in HPT under both regular- and irregular-wave conditions for a drilling riser of a tensioned-leg platform (TLP). The results show that significant reduction of tension variations can be achieved by introducing the proposed system. This research has provided a theoretical foundation for the HPT tension control and related structural protection.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1581-1598
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• 2015

A concentric braced steel frame is a very efficient structural system because it requires relatively smaller amount of materials to resist lateral forces. However, primarily developed as a structural system to resist wind loads based on an assumption that the structure behaves elastically, a concentric braced frame possibly experiences the deterioration in energy dissipation after brace buckling and the brittle failure of braces and connections when earthquake loads cause inelastic behavior. Consequently, plastic deformation is concentrated in the floor where brace buckling occurs first, which can lead to the rupture of the structure. This study suggests reinforcing H-shaped braces with non-welded cold-formed stiffeners to restrain flexure and buckling and resist tensile force and compressive force equally. Weak-axis reinforcing members (2 pieces) developed from those suggested in previous studies (4 pieces) were used to reinforce the H-shaped braces in an inverted V-type braced frame. Monotonic loading tests, finite element analysis and cyclic loading tests were carried out to evaluate the structural performance of the reinforced braces and frames. The reinforced braces satisfied the AISC requirement. The reinforcement suggested in this study is expected to prevent the rupture of beams caused by the unbalanced resistance of the braces.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.141-158
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• 2005

A new design of distributed crack sensors based on the topological change of transmission line cables is presented for the condition assessment of reinforced concrete (RC) structures during and immediately after an earthquake event. This study is primarily focused on the performance of cable sensors under dynamic loading, particularly a feature that allows for some "memory" of the crack history of an RC member. This feature enables the post-earthquake condition assessment of structural members such as RC columns, in which the earthquake-induced cracks are closed immediately after an earthquake event due to gravity loads, and are visually undetectable. Factors affecting the onset of the feature were investigated experimentally with small-scale RC beams under cyclic loading. Test results indicated that both crack width and the number of loading cycles were instrumental in the onset of the memory feature of cable sensors. Practical issues related to dynamic acquisition with the sensors are discussed. The sensors were proven to be fatigue resistant from shake table tests of RC columns. The sensors continued to show useful performance after the columns can no longer support additional loads.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.441-453
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• 2017

In Y-shaped eccentrically braced frame fabricated with high strength steel (Y-HSS-EBF), link uses conventional steel while other structural members use high strength steel. Cyclic test for a 1:2 length scaled one-bay and one-story Y-HSS-EBF specimen and shake table test for a 1:2 length scaled three-story Y-HSS-EBF specimen were carried out to research the seismic performance of Y-HSS-EBF. These include the failure mode, load-bearing capacity, ductility, energy dissipation capacity, dynamic properties, acceleration responses, displacement responses, and dynamic strain responses. The test results indicated that the one-bay and one-story Y-HSS-EBF specimen had good load-bearing capacity and ductility capacity. The three-story specimen cumulative structural damage and deformation increased, while its stiffness decreased. There was no plastic deformation observed in the braces, beams, or columns in the three-story Y-HSS-EBF specimen, and there was no danger of collapse during the seismic loads. The designed shear link dissipated the energy via shear deformation during the seismic loads. When the specimen was fractured, the maximum link plastic rotation angle was higher than 0.08 rad for the shear link in AISC341-10. The Y-HSS-EBF is a safe dual system with reliable hysteretic behaviors and seismic performance.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.139-147
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• 2018

Moment frames have considerable ductility against cyclic lateral loads and displacements; however, sometimes this feature causes the relative displacement to exceed the permissible limits. This issue can bring unfavorable hysteretic behavior on the frame due to the reduction in the stiffness and resistance against lateral loads. Most of common bracing systems usually control lateral displacements through increasing stiffness while result in decreasing the capacity for energy absorption. This has direct effect on hysteresis curves of moment frames. Therefore, a system that is capable of both having the capacity of energy absorption as well as controlling the displacements without a considerable increase in the stiffness is quite important. This paper investigates retrofitting of a single-storey steel moment frame using a delayed wire-rope bracing system equipped with the ductile middle steel plate. The steel plate is considered at the middle intersection of wire ropes, where it causes cables to be continuously in tension. This integrated system has the advantage of reducing considerable stiffness of the frame compared to cross bracing systems as a result of which it could also preserve the frame's energy absorption capacity. In this paper, FEM models of a delayed wire-rope bracing system equipped by steel plates with different geometries have been studied, validated, and compared with other researchers' laboratory test results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.207-230
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• 2012

Nowadays CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer) became widely used materials for the strengthening and retrofitting of structures. Many experimental and analytical studies are encountered at literature about strengthening beams by using this kind of materials against static loads and cyclic loads such as earthquake or wind loading for investigating their behavior. But authors did not found any study about strengthening of RC beams by using CFRP against low velocity impact and investigating their behavior. For these reasons an experimental study is conducted on totally ten strengthened RC beams. Impact loading is applied on to specimens by using an impact loading system that is designed by authors. Investigated parameters were concrete compression strength and drop height. Two different sets of specimens with different concrete compression strength tested under the impact loading that are applied by dropping constant weight hammer from five different heights. The acceleration arises from the impact loading is measured against time. The change of velocity, displacement and energy are calculated for all specimens. The failure modes of the specimens with normal and high concrete compression strength are observed under the loading of constant weight impact hammer that are dropped from different heights. Impact behaviors of beams are positively affected from the strengthening with CFRP. Measured accelerations, the number of drops up to failure and dissipated energy are increased. Finite element analysis that are made by using ABAQUS software is used for the simulation of experiments, and model gave compatible results with experiments.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.459-469
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• 2020

An external prestressed steel-bar truss unit was developed as a new strengthening technology to enhance the seismic performance of an in-plane masonry wall structure while taking advantage of the benefits of a prestressed system. The presented method consists of six steel bars: two prestressed vertical bars to introduce a prestressing force on the masonry wall, two diagonal bars to resist shear deformation, and two horizontal bars to maintain the configuration. To evaluate the effects of this new technique, four full-scale specimens, including a control specimen, were tested under combined loadings that included constant-gravity axial loads and cyclic lateral loads. The experimental results were analyzed in terms of the shear strength, initial stiffness, dissipated energy, and strain history. The efficiency of the external prestressed steel-bar truss unit was validated. In particular, a retrofitted specimen with an axial load level of 0.024 exhibited a more stable post behavior and higher energy dissipation than a control specimen with an observed complete sliding failure. The four vertical bars of the adjacent retrofitting units created a virtual column, and their strain values did not change until they reached the peak shear strength. The shear capacity of the masonry wall structure with external prestressed steel-bar truss units could be predicted using the model suggested by Yang et al.