• 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.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.547-569
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• 2013

In recent years there has been increasing international interest about designing structures that cost less to repair after they have been subjected to strong earthquakes. Considering this interest, an innovative repairable fuse device has been developed for dissipative beam-to-column connections in moment-resisting composite steel and concrete frames. The seismic performance of the device was assessed through an extensive experimental program comprising ten cyclic and two monotonic tests. These tests were conducted on a single beam-to-column specimen with different fuse devices for each test. The devices varied in terms of the chosen geometric and mechanical parameters. The tests showed that the devices were able to concentrate plasticity and to dissipate large amounts of energy through non-linear behavior. Numerical models were developed with Abaqus and simplified design models are also proposed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.705-716
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• 2017

The objective of this study is to investigate the actual behavior of studs in structures under earthquake load through laboratory tests and numerical simulation. A test program including eighteen specimens was devised with consideration of different concrete strengths and stud diameters. Six of specimens were subjected to monotonically increasing loading while the others were subjected to cyclic loading. Mechanical behavior including the failure mechanism, load-slip relationship, stiffness degradation, energy dissipation and the damage accumulation was obtained from the test results. An accurate numerical model based on the ABAQUS software was developed and validated against the test results. The results obtained from the finite element (FE) model matched well with the experimental results. Furthermore, based on the experimental and numerical data, the design formulas for expressing the skeleton curve were proposed and the simplified hysteretic model of load versus displacement was then established. It is demonstrated that the proposed formulas and simplified hysteretic model have a good match with the test results.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.311-322
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• 2020

This paper studies the influence of parameters of a novel SMA helical spring energy dissipation brace on the seismic resistance of a frame structure. The force-displacement relationship of the SMA springs is established mathematically based on a multilinear constitutive model of the SMA material. Four SMA helical springs are fabricated, and the force-displacement relationship curves of the SMA springs are obtained via tension tests. A numerical dynamic model of a two-floor frame with spring energy dissipation braces is constructed and evaluated via vibration table tests. Then, two spring parameters, namely, the ratio of the helical spring diameter to the wire diameter and the pre-stretch length, are selected to investigate their influences on the seismic responses of the frame structure. The simulation results demonstrate that the optimal ratio of the helical spring diameter to the wire diameter can be found to minimize the absolute acceleration and the relative displacement of the frame structure. Meanwhile, if the pre-stretch length is assigned a suitable value, excellent vibration reduction performance can be realized. Compared with the frame structure without braces, the frames with spring braces exhibit highly satisfactory seismic resistance performance under various earthquake waves. However, it is necessary to select an SMA spring with optimal parameters for realizing optimal vibration reduction performance.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.237-250
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• 2015

Beam-column joints are highly vulnerable locations which are to be designed for high ductility in order to take care of unexpected lateral forces such as wind and earthquake. Previous investigations reveal that the addition of steel fibres to concrete improves its ductility significantly. Also, due to presence of slab the strength and ductility of the beam increases considerably and ignoring the effect of slab can lead to underestimation of beam capacity and defiance of strong column weak beam concept. The influence of addition of steel fibres on the strength and behaviour of steel fibre reinforced high performance concrete (SFRHPC) interior beam-column-slab joints was investigated experimentally. The specimens were subjected to reverse cyclic loading. The variable considered was the volume fraction of crimped steel fibres i.e., 0%, 0.5% and 1.0%. The results show that the addition of steel fibres improves the first crack load, strength, ductility, energy absorption capacity and initial stiffness of the beam.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.699-716
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• 2016

Buckling-restrained braced frames (BRBFs) are commonly used as lateral force-resisting systems in the structures located in seismic-active regions. The nearly symmetric load-displacement behavior of buckling-restrained braces (BRBs) helps in dissipating the input seismic energy through metallic hysteresis. In this study, an experimental investigation has been conducted on the reduced-core length BRB (RCLBRB) specimens to evaluate their hysteretic and overall performance under gradually increased cyclic loading. Detachable casings are used for the concrete providing confinement to the steel core segments of all test specimens to facilitate the post-earthquake inspection of steel core elements. The influence of variable core clearance and the local detailing of casings on the cyclic performance of RCLBRB specimens has been studied. The RCLBRB specimen with the detachable casing system and a smaller core clearance at the end zone as compared to the central region exhibited excellent hysteretic behavior without any slip. Such RCLBRB showed balanced higher yielding deformed configuration up to a core strain of 4.2% without any premature instability. The strength-adjustment factors for the RCLBRB specimens are found to be nearly same as that of the conventional BRBs as noticed in the past studies. Simple expressions have been proposed based on the regression analysis to estimate the strength-adjustment factors and equivalent damping potential of the RCLBRB specimens.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.253-272
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• 2013

The use of steel bracing systems is a popular method for the strengthening of existing reinforced concrete (RC) frames and may lead to a substantial increase of both strength and stiffness. However, in most retrofitting cases, the main target is the increase of the energy dissipation capacity. This paper studies numerically the efficiency of a specific strengthening methodology which utilizes a steel link element having a cross-section of various shapes, connected to the RC frame through bracing elements. The energy is dissipated through the yielding of the steel link element. The case studied is a typical one bay, single-storey RC frame, constructed according to older code provisions, which is strengthened through two different types of link elements. The presented numerical models are based on tests which are simulated in order to gain a better insight of the behaviour of the strengthened structures, but also in order to study the effects of different configurations for the link element. The behaviour of the strengthened frames is studied with respect to the one of the original bare frame. Moreover, the numerically obtained results are compared to the experimentally obtained ones, in order to verify the effectiveness of the applied simulation methodology.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.515-525
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• 2019

The calculation of active earth pressure behind retaining wall is a typical three-dimensional (3D) problem with spatial effects. With the help of limit analysis, this paper firstly deduces the internal energy dissipation power equations and various external forces power equations of the 3D retaining wall under the nonlinear strength condition, such as to establish the work-energy balance equation. The pseudo-static method is used to consider the effect of earthquake on active earth pressure in horizontal state. The failure mode is a 3D curvilinear cone failure mechanism. For the different width of the retaining wall, the plane strain block is inserted in the symmetric plane. By optimizing all parameters, the maximum value of active earth pressure is calculated. In order to verify the validity of the new expressions obtained by the paper, the solutions are compared with previously published solutions. Agreement shows that the new expressions are effective. The results of different parameters are given in the forms of figures to analysis the influence caused by nonlinear strength parameters.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.533-546
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• 2019

This study presents an experimental investigation on six beam-column joint specimens under the lateral cyclic loading. The aim was to explore the effectiveness of steel fiber-reinforced concrete (SFRC) in reducing the transverse shear stirrups in beam-column joints of the reinforced concrete (RC) frames with strong-columns and weak-beams. Two RC and four SFRC specimens with different types of reinforcement detailing and steel fibers of volume fraction in the range of 0.75-1.5% were tested under gradually increasing cyclic displacements. The main parameters investigated were lateral load-resisting capacity, hysteresis response, energy dissipation capacity, stiffness degradation, viscous damping variation, and mode of failure. Test results showed that the diagonally bent configuration of beam longitudinal bars in the beam-column joints resulted in the shear failure at the joint region against the flexural failure of beams having straight bar configurations. However, all SFRC specimens exhibited similar lateral strength, energy dissipation potential and mode of failure even in the absence of transverse steel in the beam-column joints. Finally, a methodology has been proposed to compute the shear strength of SFRC beam-column joints under the lateral loading condition.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.561-572
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• 2019

In the design criterion for the nuclear power plant piping system, the limit state of the piping against an earthquake is assumed to be plastic collapse. The failure of a common piping system, however, means the leakage caused by the cracks. Therefore, for the seismic fragility analysis of a nuclear power plant, a method capable of quantitatively expressing the failure of an actual piping system is required. In this study, it was conducted to propose a quantitative failure criterion for piping system, which is required for the seismic fragility analysis of nuclear power plants against critical accidents. The in-plane cyclic loading test was conducted to propose a quantitative failure criterion for steel pipe elbows in the nuclear power plant piping system. Nonlinear analysis was conducted using a finite element model, and the results were compared with the test results to verify the effectiveness of the finite element model. The collapse load point derived from the experiment and analysis results and the damage index based on the stress-strain relationship were defined as failure criteria, and seismic fragility analysis was conducted for the piping system of the BNL (Brookhaven National Laboratory) - NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) benchmark model.