• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.217-232
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• 2019

Modular steel buildings consist of prefabricated room-sized structural units that are manufactured offsite and installed onsite. The inter-module connections must fulfill the assembly construction requirements and soundly transfer the external loads. This work proposes an innovative assembled connection suitable for modular buildings with concrete-filled steel tube columns. The connection uses pretensioned strands and plugin bars to vertically connect the adjacent modular columns. The moment-transferring performance of this inter-module connection was studied through monotonic and cyclic loading tests. The results showed that because of the assembly construction, the connected sections were separated under lateral bending, and the prestressed inter-module connection performed as a weak semirigid connection. The moment strength at the early loading stage originated primarily from the contact bonding mechanism with the infilled concrete, and the postyield strength depended mainly on the tensioned strands. The connection displayed a self-centering-like behavior that the induced deformation was reversed during unloading. The energy dissipation originated primarily from frictional slipping of the plugin bars and steel strands. The moment transferring ability was closely related to the section dimension and the arrangements of the plugin bars and steel strands. A simplified strength calculation and evaluation method was also proposed, and the effectiveness was validated with the test data.

• International journal of steel structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1297-1305
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• 2018

The corrugated steel plate shear walls have recently been proposed to address the seismic issues associated with simple steel plate shear walls; however, stiffness, strength, and ductility of the corrugated shear walls are significantly affected by varying the corrugation geometry under seismic loading. The present study investigates steel shear walls' models with corrugated or simple infill plates subjected to monotonic and cyclic loads. The performance of the corrugated steel plate is evaluated and then compared to that of the simple steel plates by evaluating the damping ratios and energy dissipation capability. The effect of corrugation profile angle, the existence of an opening, and the corrugation subpanel length are numerically investigated after validation of the finite element modeling methodology. The results demonstrate that incorporating corrugated plates would lead to better seismic damping ratios, specifically in the case of opening existence inside of the infill plate. Specifically, the corrugation angle of $30^{\circ}$ decreases the ultimate strength, while increasing the initial stiffness and ductility. In addition, the subpanel length of 100 mm is found to be able to improve the overall performance of shear wall by providing each subpanel appropriate support for the adjacent subpanel, leading to a sufficient buckling resistance performance.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.633-647
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• 2020

This paper aims to study the seismic performance of external diaphragm connection between SST (square steel tube) column and H-shaped beam through experimental and analytical study involving finite element (FE) method and theoretical analysis. In the experimental study, three external diaphragm connection specimens with weak panel zone were tested under axial pressure on the top of the column and antisymmetric cyclic loads at the beam end to investigate the seismic performance of the panel zone. The hysteretic behavior, failure mode, stiffness and ductility of the specimens were discussed. Key point to be explored was the influence of the thickness of the steel tube flange on the shear capacity of the specimens. In the analytical study, three simplified FE models were developed to simulate the seismic behavior of the specimens for further analysis on the influence of steel tube flange. Finally, four existing calculation formulas for the shear capacity of the external diaphragm connection were evaluated through comparisons with the results of experiments and FE analysis, and application suggestions were put forward.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.6
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• pp.799-810
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• 2022

This study investigated the effect of the strengthening efficiency of unbonded steel-bar truss system on the out-of-plane behavior of perforated masonry walls. Four full-scale unreinforced masonry (URM) walls with two different planes were prepared using the unbonded steel-bar truss system and a URM walls without strengthening. All masonry walls were tested under constant axial and cyclic lateral loads. The obtained test results indicated that the pinching effect in the out-plane behavior of masonry walls tends to decrease in the in- and out-of-plane strengthened URM walls using the unbonded steel-bar truss system with the higher prestressing force ratio (R_p) of vertical reinforcing bars in the unbonded steel-bar truss system, regardless of the perforated type of the masonry wall. Consequently, the highest maximum shear resistance and cumulative dissipated energy at peak load in the post-peak behavior were observed in the in- and out-plane strengthened URM walls with the highest R_p values, which are 2.7 and 6.0 times higher than those of URM. In particular, the strengthening efficiency of the unbonded steel-bar truss system was primarily attributed to the vertical prestressed steel-bars rather than the diagonal steel-bars, which indicates that the strains in the vertical prestressed steel-bars at the peak load were approximately 1.6 times higher than those in the diagonal steel-bars.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.553-564
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• 2022

Many existing reinforced concrete (RC) structures need to be strengthening for reason such as poor construction quality, low ductility or designing without considering seismic effects. One of the strengthening methods is strengthening technique with eccentrically braced frames (EBFs). The characteristic element of these systems is the link element and its length is very important in terms of seismic behavior. The link element of Y shaped EBF systems (YEBFs) is designed as a short shear element. Different limits are suggested in the literature for the link length. This study to aim experimentally investigate the effect of the link length for the suggested limits on the behavior of the RC frame system and efficiency of strengthening technique. For this purpose, a total of 5 single story, single span RC frame specimens were produced. The design of the RC frames was made considering seismic design deficiencies. Four of the produced specimens were strengthened and one of them remained as bare specimen. The steel YEBFs were used in strengthening the RC frame and the link was designed as a shear element that have different length with respect to suggested limits in literature. The length of links was determined as 50mm, 100mm, 150mm and 200mm. All of the specimens were tested under cyclic loads. The obtained results show that the strengthening technique improved the energy consumption and lateral load bearing capacities of the bare RC specimen. Moreover, it is concluded that the specimens YB-2 and YB-3 showed better performance than the other specimens, especially in energy consumption and ductility.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.289-296
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• 2023

The failure of a thin-walled tube was studied in this paper based on three failure models. Both proportional and non-proportional loading paths were applied. Proportional loading consisted of combined tension-torsion. Cyclic non-proportional loading was also applied. It was a circular out-of-phase axial-shear stress loading path. The third loading path was a combination of a constant internal pressure and a bending moment. The failure models under study were equivalent plastic strain, modified Mohr-Coulomb (Bai-Wierzbicki) and Tearing parameter models. The elasto-plastic analysis was conducted using J2 criterion and nonlinear kinematic hardening. The return mapping algorithm was employed to numerically solve the plastic flow relations. The effects of the hydrostatic stress on the plastic flow and the stress triaxiality parameter on the failure were discussed. Each failure model under study was utilized to predict failure. The failure loads obtained from each model were compared with each other. The equivalent plastic strain model was independent from the stress triaxiality parameter, and it predicted the highest failure load in the bending problem. The modified Mohr-Coulomb failure model predicted the lowest failure load for the range of the stress triaxiality parameter and Lode's angle.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.181-196
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• 2023

Marine structures including offshore wind turbines (OWTs) always work under cyclic loads, which arouses much attention on the fatigue design. The tripod substructure is one of the typical foundation forms for fixed OWTs. The three-planar tubular Y-joint (3Y joint) is one of the important components in fatigue design as it is most likely to have cracks. With the existence of the multiplanar interaction effect, calculating the hot spot stress (HSS) of 3Y joints is complicated. To assist with fatigue design, the distributions of stress concentration factor (SCF) and multiplanar interaction factor (MIF) along weld toe curves induced by the out-of-plane bending moment are explored in this study. An FE analysis method was first developed and verified against experimental results. This method was applied to build a numerical database including 1920 FE models covering common ranges of geometric parameters. A parametric study has been carried out to reveal the distribution patterns of SCF and MIF. After multidimensional nonlinear fittings, SCF and MIF distribution formulas have been proposed. Accuracy and reliability checking prove that the proposed formulas are suitable for calculating the HSS of 3Y joints.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.285-299
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• 2024

Recently, many engineering computations have realized their digital transformation to Machine Learning (ML)-based systems. Predicting the behavior of a structure, which is mainly computed with structural analysis software, is an essential step before construction for efficient structural analysis. Especially in the seismic-based design procedure of the structures, predicting the lateral load capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) columns is a vital factor. In this study, a novel ML-based model is proposed to predict the maximum lateral load capacity of RC columns under varying axial loads or cyclic loadings. The proposed model is generated with a Deep Neural Network (DNN) and compared with traditional ML techniques as well as a popular commercial structural analysis software. In the design and test phases of the proposed model, 319 columns with rectangular and square cross-sections are incorporated. In this study, 33 parameters are used to predict the maximum lateral load capacity of each RC column. While some traditional ML techniques perform better prediction than the compared commercial software, the proposed DNN model provides the best prediction results within the analysis. The experimental results reveal the fact that the performance of the proposed DNN model can definitely be used for other engineering purposes as well.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.90 no.5
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• pp.447-458
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• 2024

This study investigated the influence of scale ratio and vertical load on the seismic performance of Puzuo joints in traditional Chinese timber structures. Three low-cyclic reversed loading tests were conducted on three scaled specimens of Bujian Puzuo in Yingxian Wooden Pagoda. This study focused on the deformation patterns and analyzed seismic performance under varying scale ratios and vertical loads. The results indicated that the slip and rotational deformations of Bujian Puzuo were the primary deformations. The scale of the specimen did not affect the layer where the maximum interlayer slip occurred, but it did decrease the proportion of slip deformation. Conversely, the reducing vertical load caused the layer with the maximum slippage and the position of the damaged Dou components to shift upward, and the proportion of slip deformation increased. When the vertical load was decreased by 3.7 times, the maximum horizontal bearing capacity under positive and negative loadings, initial stiffness, and energy dissipation of the specimen decreased by approximately 60%, 58.79%, 69.62%, and 57.93%, respectively. The horizontal bearing capacity under positive loading and energy dissipation of the specimen increased by 35.63% and 131.54%, when the specimen scale was doubled and the vertical load was increased by 15 times.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.711-722
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• 2011

Beam-column gravity or Intermediate Moment frames subjected to unexpected large displacements are vulnerable when no seismic details are provided, which is typical. Conversely, economic efficiency of those frames is decreased if unnecessary special detailing is applied as the beam and column size becomes quite large and steel congestion is caused by joint transverse reinforcement in beam-column connections. Moderate seismic design is used in Korea for beam-column connections of buildings with structural walls, which are to be destroyed when the unexpected large earthquake occurs. Nonetheless, performance of such beamcolumn connections may be substantially improved by the addition of steel fibers. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of steel fibers in reinforced concrete exterior beam-column connections and possibility for the replacement of some joint transverse reinforcement. Ten half-scale beam-column connections with non-seismic details were tested under cyclic loads with two cycles at each drift up to 19 cycles. Main test parameters used were the volume ratio of steel fibers (0%, 1%, 1.5%) and joint transverse reinforcement amount. The test results show that maximum capacity, energy dissipation capacity, shear strength and bond condition are improved with the application of steel fibers to substitute transverse reinforcement of beam-column connections. Furthermore, several shear strength equations for exterior connections were examined, including the proposed equation for steel fiber-reinforced concrete exterior connections with non-seismic details.