• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.3 no.5
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• pp.475-495
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• 1995

In the past, physical models have been proposed, in compliance with the concept of the compressive-force path, for the realistic design of various statically determinate structural concrete members. The present work extends these models so as to encompass indeterminate RC structural forms. Pilot tests conducted on continuous beams and fixed-ended portal frames have revealed that designing such members to present-day concepts may lead to brittle types of failure. On the other hand, similar members designed on the basis of the proposed physical models attained very ductile failures. It appears that, unlike current design approaches, the compressive-force path concept is capable of identifying those areas where failure is most likely to be triggered, and ensures better load redistribution, thus improving ductility. The beneficial effect of proper detailing at the point of contraflexure in an indeterminate RC member is to be noted.

• International journal of steel structures
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1784-1800
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• 2018

Tension-shear loading is a common loading condition in steel structures during the earthquake shaking. To study ductile fracture in structural steel under multiple stress states, experimental investigations on the different fracture mechanisms in Chinese Q235 steel were conducted. Different tension-shear loading conditions achieved by using six groups of inclined notch butterfly configurations covering pure shear, tension-shear and pure tension cases. Numerical simulations were carried out for all the specimens to determine the stress and strain fields within the critical sections. Two tension-shear fracture models were calibrated based on the hybrid experimental-numerical procedure. The equivalent fracture strain obtained from the round bar under tensile loading was used for evaluating these two models. The results indicated that the tension-shear criterion as a function of the shear fracture parameter had better performance in predicting the fracture initiation of structural steel under different loading conditions.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.913-930
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• 2016

It is common practice to use Reduced Web Beam Sections (RWBS) in steel moment resisting frames. Perforation of beam web in these members may cause stress and strain concentration around the opening area and facilitate ductile fracture under cyclic loading. This paper presents a numerical study on the cyclic fracture of these structural components. The considered connections are configured as T-shaped assemblies with beams of elongated circular perforations. The failure of specimens under Ultra Low Cycle Fatigue (ULCF) condition is simulated using Cyclic Void Growth Model (CVGM) which is a micromechanics based fracture model. In each model, CVGM fracture index is calculated based on the stress and strain time histories and then models with different opening configurations are compared based on the calculated fracture index. In addition to the global models, sub-models with refined mesh are used to evaluate fracture index around the beam to column weldment. Modeling techniques are validated using data from previous experiments. Results show that as the perforation size increases, opening corners experience greater fracture index. This is while as the opening size increases the maximum observed fracture index at the connection welds decreases. However, the initiation of fracture at connection welds occurs at lower drift angles compared to opening corners. Finally, a probabilistic framework is applied to CVGM in order to account for the uncertainties existing in the prediction of ductile fracture and results are discussed.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.121-135
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• 2022

Many public buildings such as schools, hospitals, etc., where partial infill walls are present in reinforced concrete (RC) structures, have undergone undesirable damage/failure attributed to captive column effect during a moderate to severe earthquake shaking. Often, the situation gets worsened when these RC frames are non-ductile in nature, thus reducing the deformable capability of the frame. Also, in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, it is mandatory to use fly-ash bricks for construction so as to reduce the burden on the disposal of fly-ash produced at thermal power plants. In some scenario, when the non-ductile RC frame, partially infilled by fly-ash bricks, suffers major structural damage, the challenge remains on how to retrofit and restore it. Thus, in this study, two full-scale one-bay, one-story non-ductile RC frame models, namely, bare frame and RC partially infilled frame with fly-ash bricks in 50% of its opening area are considered. In the previous experiments, these models were subjected to slow-cyclic displacement-controlled loading to replicate damage due to a moderate earthquake. Now, in this study these damaged frames were retrofitted and an experimental investigation was performed on the retrofitted specimens to examine the effectiveness of the proposed retrofitting scheme. A hybrid retrofitting technique combining epoxy injection grouting with an innovative and easy-to-implement steel jacketing technique was proposed. This proposed retrofitting method has ensured proper confinement of damaged concrete. The retrofitted models were subjected to the same slow cyclic displacement-controlled loading which was used to damage the frames. The experimental study concluded that the hybrid retrofitting technique was quite effective in enhancing and regaining various seismic performance parameters such as, lateral strength and lateral stiffness of partially fly-ash brick infilled RC frame. Thus, the steel jacketing retrofitting scheme along with the epoxy injection grouting can be relied on for possible repair of the structural members which are damaged due to the captive column effect during the seismic shaking.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.577-580
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• 2004

Recently, DFRCCs (Ductile Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Composites), materials with remarkable ductility when compared to ordinary fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC), have been developed and studied actively in the US, Japan, and many European countries. The transformation of failure behavior from brittle to ductile is achieved by incorporating with fracture mechanics concept especially micro-mechanical models approach of cementitious composite materials in manufacturing ordinary fiber-reinforced composites. The purpose of this study is to accurately understand the shear behavior of DFRCC repaired RC beams. Using a four-point bending test, the shear strengths and shear stress-deflection relations of DFRCC repaired RC specimens are obtained. The results show that DFRCC can be effectively used for repairing materials for concrete structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.615-632
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• 2001

Ductility of open piled wharves under reversed cyclic loads has been investigated. Experimental testing of five wharf models having a scale of about 1:4 was conducted under the application of horizontal reversed cyclic loading. The experiments were designed to focus on the horizontal ultimate load, ductility and failure mode of the considered wharf models. Nonlinear numerical analyses using the finite element method were also performed on numerical models representing the experimentally tested wharves. The results of the experimental tests showed that open piled wharves possessed favourable ductile behaviour and that their load bearing capacity did not depreciate until a ductility factor of 3 to 4 was reached. The numerical analysis showed that the relative rotation that took place at the joints between the steel piles and the R.C. beam was responsible for a considerable portion of the total horizontal deformation of the wharves. Therefore, it was concluded that introducing the joint stiffness in calculating the deformations of open piled wharves was important to achieve reasonable accuracy.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.83-95
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• 2001

Scale model tests were performed to investigate the seismic behavior and capacity of reinforced concrete piers that were not detailed for seismic load. The prototype pier is of solid circular section. Additional lateral reinforcing bars were not provided that might be required for the confinement. Two kinds of reinforcement details are considered for the vertical longitudinal reinforcing bars: lap spliced and continuous. In the case of lap spliced model all the longitudinal bars were lap spliced at the same height in the bottom plastic hinge zone. Three specimens were constructed and subjected to quasi-static cyclic lateral loading while the vertical load held constant. Non-ductile failure modes were observed in the test of lap spliced models but limited ductile behavior was observed in the test of a continuous longitudinal reinforcement model.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.72 no.4
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• pp.469-477
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• 2019

The understanding of tool-rock interaction mechanism is of high essence for improving the rock breaking efficiency and optimizing the drilling parameters in mechanical rock breaking. In this study, the tool-rock interaction models of indentation and cutting are carried out by employing the discrete element method (DEM) to examine the rock failure modes of various brittleness rocks and critical indentation and cutting depths of the ductile to brittle failure mode transition. The results show that the cluster size and inter-cluster to intra-cluster bond strength ratio are the key factors which influence the UCS magnitude and the UCS to BTS ratio. The UCS to BTS strength ratio can be increased to a more realistic value using clustered rock model so that the characteristics of real rocks can be better represented. The critical indentation and cutting depth decrease with the brittleness of rock increases and the decreasing rate reduces dramatically against the brittleness value. This effort may lead to a better understanding of rock breaking mechanisms in mechanical excavation, and may contribute to the improvement in the design of rock excavation machines and the related parameters determination.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.80 no.6
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• pp.645-655
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• 2021

Performance-based reliability analysis is a practical approach to investigate the seismic performance and stochastic nonlinear response of structures considering a random process. This is significant due to the uncertainties involved in every aspect of the analysis. Therefore, the present study aims to evaluate the performance-based reliability within a stochastic finite element (FE) framework for reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls that are considered as one of the most essential elements of structures. To accomplish this purpose, deterministic FE analyses are conducted for both squat and slender shear walls to validate numerical models through experimental results. The presented numerical analysis is performed by using the ABAQUS FE program. Afterwards, a random-effects investigation is carried out to consider the influence of different random variables on the lateral load-top displacement behavior of RC members. Using these results and through utilizing the Monte-Carlo simulation method, stochastic nonlinear analyses are also performed to generate random FE models based on input parameters and their probabilistic distributions. In order to evaluate the reliability of RC walls, failure probabilities and corresponding reliability indices are calculated at life safety and collapse prevention levels of performance as suggested by FEMA 356. Moreover, based on reliability indices, capacity reduction factors are determined subjected to shear for all specimens that are designed according to the ACI 318 Building Code. Obtained results show that the lateral load and the compressive strength of concrete have the highest effects on load-displacement responses compared to those of other random variables. It is also found that the probability of shear failure for the squat wall is slightly lower than that for slender walls. This implies that 𝛽 values are higher in a non-ductile mode of failure. Besides, the reliability of both squat and slender shear walls does not change significantly in the case of varying capacity reduction factors.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.379-390
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• 2020

Four full-scaled partially confined and unconfined masonry panels were tested with monotonic lateral loads. To study the effects of vertical force and boundary columns, two specimens with no boundary columns were subjected to different vertical forces, while two wing-wall specimens had the column placed eccentrically and in the middle, respectively. The specimens with no boundary columns exhibited ductile rocking behavior, where the lateral strength increased with increasing vertical compression. The wing-wall specimens with columns behaved as strut-and-tie systems. The column-panel interaction resulted in greater strength, lower deformation capacity and differences in failure modes. A comparison with analytical models showed that rocking strength can be accurately estimated using vertical force and the panel aspect ratio for panels with no boundary columns. The estimation for lateral strength on the basis of a panel section area indicated scattered error for wing-wall specimens.