• Computers and Concrete
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.607-642
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• 2015

The stress-strain relationship of concrete in flexure is one of the essential parameters in assessing the flexural strength and ductility of reinforced concrete (RC) columns. An overview of previous research studies revealed that the presence of strain gradient would affect the maximum concrete stress developed in flexure. However, no quantitative model was available to evaluate the strain gradient effect on concrete under flexure. Previously, the authors have conducted experimental studies to investigate the strain gradient effect on maximum concrete stress and respective strain and developed two strain-gradient-dependent factors k3 and ko for modifying the flexural concrete stress-strain curve. As a continued study, the authors herein will extend the investigation of strain gradient effects on flexural strength and ductility of RC columns to concrete strength up to 100 MPa by employing the strain-gradient-dependent concrete stress-strain curve using nonlinear moment-curvature analysis. It was evident from the results that both the flexural strength and ductility of RC columns are improved under strain gradient effect. Lastly, for practical engineering design purpose, a new equivalent rectangular concrete stress block incorporating the combined effects of strain gradient and concrete strength was proposed and validated. Design formulas and charts have also been presented for flexural strength and ductility of RC columns.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.210-217
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• 2010

The effects of cooling rate and onset time of fatigue test on hot ductility of plain carbon steels containing 0.06$\sim$0.8 wt.% carbon were investigated at various temperatures. The tensile tested specimen after fatigue strain during cooling showed higher hot ductility than the specimen fatigued and tensile-strained after cooling. With a decreasing cooling rate from solutionizing temperature to test temperature, hot ductility was increased in all temperature ranges, typically in the trough region, and the minimum point of ductility moved to a lower temperature. Also, the depth and width of the trough decreased with lowering the cooling rate.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.343-362
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• 2018

A simplified spring connection modelling approach for steel flush endplate beam-to-column connections in fire has been developed to enable realistic behaviour of connections to be incorporated into full-scale frame analyses at elevated temperature. Due to its simplicity and reliability, the proposed approach permits full-scale high-temperature frame analysis to be conducted without high computational cost. The proposed simplified spring connection modelling approach has been used to investigate the influence of connection ductility (both axial and rotational) on frame behaviour in fire. 2D steel and 3D composite frames with a range of beam spans were modelled to aid the understanding of the differences in frame response in fire where the beam-to-column connections have different axial and rotational ductility assumptions. The modelling results highlight that adopting the conventional rigid or pinned connection assumptions does not permit the axial forces acting on the connections to be accurately predicted, since the axial ductility of the connection is completely neglected when the rotational ductility is either fully restrained or free. By accounting for realistic axial and rotational ductilities of beam-to-column connections, the frame response in fire can be predicted more accurately, which is advantageous in performance-based structural fire engineering design.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.97-107
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• 2019

The frame structures investigated in this paper is composed of Concrete encased columns with L-shaped steel section and steel beams. The seismic behavior of this structural system is studied through experimental and numerical studies. A 2-bay, 3-story and 1/3 scaled frame specimen is tested under constant axial loading and cyclic lateral loading applied on the column top. The load-displacement hysteretic loops, ductility, energy dissipation, stiffness and strength degradation are investigated. A typical failure mode is observed in the test, and the experimental results show that this type of framed structure exhibit a high strength with good ductility and energy dissipation capacity. Furthermore, finite element analysis software Perform-3D was conducted to simulate the behavior of the frame. The calculating results agreed with the test ones well. Further analysis is conducted to investigate the effects of parameters including concrete strength, column axial compressive force and steel ratio on the seismic performance indexes, such as the elastic stiffness, the maximum strength, the ductility coefficient, the strength and stiffness degradation, and the equivalent viscous damping ratio. It can be concluded that with the axial compression ratio increasing, the load carrying capacity and ductility decreased. The load carrying capacity and ductility increased when increasing the steel ratio. Increasing the concrete grade can improve the ultimate bearing capacity of the structure, but the ductility of structure decreases slightly.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.217-222
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• 2009

Cu as a tramp element has been reported to encourage transverse cracking upon straightening operation during continuous casting or mini-mill processing. Therefore, the hot workability of steels containing Cu should be investigated. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of Cu contents on the hot ductility of low carbon steels by using hot compression test. Hot compression test was carried out using a Gleeble. The specimens were heated to $1300^{\circ}C$ for solution treatment and then held for 300s before cooling at a rate of $1^{\circ}C/s$ to test temperatures in the range of $650{\sim}1150^{\circ}C$ ($50^{\circ}C$ intervals) with strain rate of $5{\times}10^{-3}/s$. In Cu containing steels, the hot ductility was decreased with increasing Cu content at high temperature region which is to be attributed to copper enriched phase formed at scale/steel interface, and low hot ductility with increasing Cu content at low temperature region is attributable to the strengthening of matrix by the formation of ${\varepsilon}-Cu$. The width of ductility trough region was decreased with increasing Cu content.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.197-206
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• 2022

Recently, steel-timber hybrid buildings have become prevalent worldwide because several advantages of both steel and timber structures are maintained in the hybrid system. In Taiwan, seismic design specification related to steel-timber hybrid buildings remains void. In this study, the ductility capacity of steel-timber hybrid buildings in Taiwanese seismic design specification is first proposed and evaluated using nonlinear incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). Three non-linear structural models, 12-story, 8-story, and 6-story steel-timer hybrid buildings were constructed using OpenSees. In each model, Douglas-fir was adopted to assemble the upper 4 stories as a timber structure while a conventional steel moment-resisting frame was designated in the lower part of the model. FEMA P-695 methodology was employed to perform IDAs considering 44 earthquakes to assess if the ductility capacity of steel-timber hybrid building is appropriate. The analytical results indicate that the current ductility capacity of steel moment-resisting frames can be directly applied to steel-timber hybrid buildings if the drift ratio of each story under the seismic design force for buildings in Taiwan is less than 0.3%. As a result, engineers are able to design a steel-timber hybrid building straightforwardly by following current design specification. Otherwise, the ductility capacity of steel-timber hybrid buildings must be modified which depends on further studies in the future.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.483-493
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• 2013

The high strength materials have been more widely used in a large reinforced concrete structures. It is known that the use of high strength material in RC structures give the benefits of the mechanical and durable properties, but the ductility decreases with an increase in the strength of the materials. In the design of a reinforced concrete beam, both the flexural strength and ductility need to be considered. So, it is necessary to assess accurately the ductility of the beam with high strength materials in order to ensure the ductility requirement in design. In this study, the effects of the material strength on the flexural behavior and curvature ductility factor of reinforcement concrete beam sections with various reinforcement conditions have been evaluated and a newly prediction formula for curvature ductility factor of RC beam has been developed considering the stress of compression reinforcement at ultimate state. The proposed predictions for the curvature ductility factor which is applicable to both singly and doubly reinforced concrete beam are verified by comparisons with other prediction formulas and the proposed formula offers fairly accurate within 9% error and consistent predictions for curvature ductility factor of reinforced concrete beam.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.193-202
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• 2008

Seismic design for bridge columns of the current Korea Highway Bridge Design Specifications which adopt full ductility design concept results in reinforcement congestion problems in construction site. It is due to large amount of confining steel is required even for small ductility demand which is a normal case in low and moderate seismicity regions like Korean peninsular. Therefore a new seismic design method based on limited ductility concept was proposed, which is called ductility demand based design method. It uses the new confining steel design equation considering ductility demand and aspect ratio of the column as well as material strength. The purpose of this study is to verify safety of the ductility demand based design method by the confining steel design equation. Eighty nine circular column test results are selected and investigated in terms of ductility factor and its safety. The safety factor for the circular column test results ranges between 1.11 and 3.98, and the average is 1.90. In this paper, the basic concept and detailed design procedure of the ductility demand based design method are also introduced as well as the investigation of the safety with respect to the major variables in confining steel design.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.73 no.3
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• pp.239-257
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• 2020

In the present study, an innovative steel bracket and haunch hybrid scheme is devised, for retrofitting of earthquake damaged deficient beam-column sub-assemblages. Formulations are presented for evaluating haunch force factor under combined load case of lateral and gravity loads for the design of double haunch retrofit. The strength hierarchies of control and retrofitted beam-column sub-assemblages are established to showcase the efficacy of the retrofit in reversing the undesirable strength hierarchy. Further, the efficacy of the proposed retrofit scheme is demonstrated through experimental investigations carried out on gravity load designed (GLD), non-ductile and ductile detailed beam-column sub-assemblages which were damaged under reverse cyclic loading. The maximum load carried by repaired and retrofitted GLD specimen in positive and negative cycle is 12% and 28% respectively higher than that of the control GLD specimen. Further, the retrofitted GLD specimen sustained load up to drift ratio of 5.88% compared with 2.94% drift sustained by control GLD specimen. Repaired and retrofitted non-ductile specimen, could attain the displacement ductility of three during positive cycle of loading and showed improved ductility well above the expected displacement ductility of three during negative cycle. The hybrid haunch retrofit restored the load carrying capacity of damaged ductile specimen to the original level of control specimen and improved the ductility closer to the expected displacement ductility of five. The total cumulative energy dissipated by repaired and retrofitted GLD, non-ductile and ductile specimens are respectively 6.5 times, 2.31 times, 1.21 times that of the corresponding undamaged control specimens. Further, the damage indices of the repaired and retrofitted specimens are found to be lower than that of the corresponding control specimens. The novel and innovative steel bracket and haunch hybrid retrofit scheme proposed in the present study demonstrated its effectiveness by attaining the required displacement ductility and load carrying capacity and would be an excellent candidate for post-earthquake retrofit of damaged existing RC structures designed according to different design evolutions.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.391-402
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• 1994

One of the most important design concept for reinforced concrete structures is to achieve a ductile failure mode, and also moment redistribution for economic design is possible in case that adequate ductility is provided. Flexural ductility index is, therefore, used as a reference for possibility of moment redistribution as well as for prediction of flexural behavior of designed R.C. structures. Ductility index equations, however, provide approximate values due to the linear concrete compressive stress assumption at the tension steel yielding state. Theoretically more exact ductility index is calculated by a numerical analysis with the realistic stress-strain curves for concrete and steel to be compared with the result from tire ductility index equations. Variation of ductility index for the selected variables and the reasonable maximum tension steel ratio for doubly reinforced section are investigated. A moment-curvature curve model is also proposed for future research on moment redistribution.