• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.926-939
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• 2022

The area of this study will cover the location-wise seismic response variation of an electrical cabinet in nuclear power point (NPP) based on classical reliability analysis. The location-based seismic ground motion (GM) selection is carried out with the help of probabilistic seismic hazard analysis using PSHRisktool, where the variation of reliability analysis can be understood from the relation between the reliability index and intensity measure. Two different approaches such as the first-order second moment method (FOSM) and Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) are helped to evaluate and compare the reliability assessment of the cabinet. The cabinet is modeled with material uncertainty utilizing Steel01 as the material model and the fiber section modeling approach is considered to characterize the section's nonlinear reaction behavior. To verify the modal frequency, this study compares the FEM result with recorded data using Least-Squares Complex Exponential (LSCE) method from the impact hammer test. In spite of a few investigations, the main novelty of this study is to introduce the reader to check and compare the seismic reliability assessment variation in different seismic locations and for different earthquake levels. Alongside, the betterment can be found by comparing the result between two considered reliability estimation methods.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.9
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• pp.3293-3298
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• 2022

Removing radioactive contaminated metal materials is a vital task during the decommissioning of nuclear power plants to reduce the cost of the post-dismantling process. The laser decontamination technique has been recognized as a key tool for a successful dismantling process as it enables a remote operation in radioactive facilities. It also minimizes exposure of workers to hazardous materials and reduces secondary waste, increasing the environmental friendless of the post-dismantling processing. In this work, we present a thorough and efficient laser decontamination approach using a single-mode continuous-wave (CW) laser. We subjected stainless steels to a surface-removal process that repetitively exposes the laser to a confined region of ~75 ㎛ at a high scanning rate of 10 m/s. We evaluate the decontamination performance by measuring the removal depth with a 3D scanning microscope and further investigate optimal removal conditions given practical parameters such as the laser power and scan properties. We successfully removed the metal surface to a depth of more than 40 ㎛ with laser power of 300 W and ten scans, showing the potential to achieve an extremely high DF more than 1000 by simply increasing the number of scans and the laser power for the decontamination of primary circuits.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.151-159
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• 2022

This study discusses a hypothetical method for tracking the propagation damage of Carbon Reinforced Fiber Plastic (CRFP) components underneath vibration fatigue. The High Cycle Fatigue (HCF) behavior of composite materials was generally not as severe as this of admixture alloys. Each fissure initiation in metal alloys may quickly lead to the opposite. The HCF behavior of composite materials is usually an extended state of continuous degradation between resin and fibers. The increase is that any layer-to-layer contact conditions during delamination opening will cause a dynamic complex response, which may be non-linear and dependent on temperature. Usually resulted from major deformations, it could be properly surveyed by a non-contact investigation system. Here, this article discusses the scanning laser application of that vibrometer to track the propagation damage of CRFP components underneath fatigue vibration loading. Thus, the study purpose is to demonstrate that the investigation method can implement systematically a series of hypothetical means and dynamic characteristics. The application of the relaxation method based on numerical simulation in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Evolved Bat (EB) strategy to reduce the dynamic response is proved by numerical simulation. Thermal imaging cameras are also measurement parts of the chain and provide information in qualitative about the temperature location of the evolution and hot spots of damage.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.229-240
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• 2022

The main objective of this work is presenting a mathematical model for the concrete slab with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) layer under the impact load. Impacts are assumed to occur normally over the top slab and the interaction between the impactor and the structure is simulated using a new equivalent three-degree-of-freedom (TDOF) spring-mass-damper (SMD) model. The structure is assumed viscoelastic based on Kelvin-Voigt model. Based on the sinusoidal shear deformation theory (SSDT), energy method and Hamilton's principle, the motion equations are derived. Applying DQM, the dynamic deflection and contact force of the structure is calculated numerically so that the effects of mass, velocity and height of impactor, boundary conditions, FRP layer, structural damping and geometrical parameters of structure are shown on the dynamic deflection and contact force of system. Results show that considering structural damping leads to lower dynamic deflection and contact force. In addition, increasing the impact velocity of impactor yields to increases in the maximum contact force and deflection while the contact duration is decreased. The result shows that the contact force and the central deflection of the structure decreases and the contact time decreases with assuming FRP layer.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.85 no.6
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• pp.755-764
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• 2023

The article examines the impact response of the sandwich beam furnished by a novel bilayer core as inspired by the woodpecker's head architecture under different repeatedly exerted low-velocity impact loadings by employing the finite element package, ABAQUS. The sandwich beam forms four essential parts comprising bottom and top carbon fiber reinforced polymer laminates encasing bilayer core made of laterally arched solid hot melt adhesive material and aluminum honeycomb. Impact loadings are implemented repeatedly with a steel hemisphere impactor for various impact energies, 7.28 J, 9.74 J, and 12.63 J. Essentially, the commonly concentrated stresses at the impact region are regulated away by the arched core in all considered cases thus reducing the threat of failure. The sandwich beam can resist up to 5 continual impacts at 7.28 J and 9.74 J but only up to 3 times repeated loads at 12.63 J before visible failure is noticed. In the examination of several key impact performance indicators under numerous loading cases, the proposed beam demonstrates favorably up to 1.3-11.2 higher impact resistance efficacies compared to existing designs, therefore displaying an improvement in repeated impact resistance of the new design.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.467-482
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• 2022

One of the major failure modes in composite sandwich structures is the separation between skins and core. In this study, the effect of employing foam filled composite corrugated core on the skin/core debonding (resistance to separation between skin and core) is investigated both experimentally and numerically. To this aim, triangular corrugated core specimens are manufactured and compared with reference specimens only made of PVC foam core in terms of skin/core debonding under bending loading. The corrugated composite laminates are fabricated using the hand layup method. Also, the Vacuumed Infusion Process (VIP) is employed to join the skins to the core with greater quality. Utilizing an End Notched Shear (ENS) fixture, three point bending tests are performed on the manufactured sandwich composite panels. The results reveal that the resistance to separation capacity and flexural stiffness of sandwich composite has been increased about 170% and 76%, respectively by using a triangular corrugated core. The Cohesive Zone Model (CZM) with appropriate cohesive law in ABAQUS finite element software is used to model the progressive face/core interfaces debonding the difference between experimental and numerical results in predicting the maximum born load before the skin/core separation is about 6 % in simple core specimens and 3% in triangular corrugated core specimens.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.183-196
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• 2022

Reduced beam section (RBS) moment connections used in special moment resisting frames are currently limited to beam sections that are not larger than nominal depths of 920 mm, weight of 447 kg/m and flange thickness of 44 mm. Due to the higher demand for structural components with jumbo sections, which can potentially be applied in the transfer girders in long-span building structures, the newly available steel heavy members are promising. To address this issue, advanced numerical models are developed to fully evaluate the distribution of stresses and concentrations of plastic strains for such jumbo RBS connections. This paper first presents a brief overview of an experimental study on four specimens with large beam and column sections. Then, a numerical model that includes initial imperfections, residual stresses, geometric nonlinearity, and explicitly modeled welds is presented. The model is used to further explore the behavior of the test specimens, including distribution of stresses, distribution of plastic strains, stress triaxiality and potential for fracture. The results reveal that the stresses are highly non-uniform across the beam flange and, similarly, the plastic strains concentrate at the extreme fiber of the bottom flange. However, neither of these phenomena, which are primarily a function of beam flange thickness, is reflected in current design procedures.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.153-162
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• 2022

Prefabricated exterior wall panel is the main non-load-bearing component of assembly building, which affects the comprehensive performance of thermal insulation and durability of the building. It is of great significance to develop new prefabricated exterior wall panel with durable and lightweight characteristics for the development of energy-saving and assembly building. In the prefabricated sandwich insulation hanging wall panel, the selection of material for the outer layer and the arrangement of the connector of the inner and outer wall layers affect the mechanical performance and durability of the wall panels. In this paper, high performance cement-based composites (HPFRC) are used in the outer layer of the new type wall panel. FRP bars are used as the interface connector. Through experiments and analysis, the influence of the arrangement of connectors on the mechanical behaviors of thin-walled composite wall panel and the panel with window openings under two working conditions are investigated. The failure modes and the role of connectors of thin-walled composite wallboard are analyzed. The influence of the thickness of the wall layer and their combination on the strain growth of the control section, the initial crack resistance, the ultimate bearing capacity and the deformation of the wall panels are analyzed. The research work provides a technical reference for the engineering design of the light-weight thin-walled and durable composite sandwich wall panel.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.115-132
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• 2023

The present study experimentally and analytically investigates the effect of tensile reinforcement ratio and arrangement on the behavior of FRP strengthened reinforced concrete (RC) beams. The experimental part of the program was comprised of 8 RC beams that were tested under four-point bending. Results have shown that by keeping the total cross-section area of tensile reinforcing bars constant, in specimens with a low reinforcement ratio, increasing the number and decreasing the diameter of bars in the section lead to 21% and 29% increase in the load-carrying capacity of specimens made with normal and high compressive strength, respectively. In specimens with high reinforcement ratio, a different behavior was observed. Furthermore, the accuracy of the existing code provisions and analytical models in predicting the load-carrying capacity of the FRP strengthened beams failed by premature debonding mode were evaluated. Herein, a model is proposed which considers the tensile reinforcement ratio (as opposed to code provisions) to achieve more accurate results for calculating the load carrying capacity of FRP strengthened RC beams.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.193-204
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• 2022

The need for establishing the contribution of pultruded FRP encasements and additional FRP wraps around these encasements to the shear strength and load-deflection behavior of reinforced concrete beams is the main motivation of the present study. This paper primarily focuses on the effect of additional wrapping around the composite beam on the flexural and shear behavior of the pultruded GFRP (Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer) beams infilled with reinforced concrete, taking into account different types of failure according to av/H ratio (arch action, shear-tension, shear-compression and pure bending). For this purpose, nine hybrid beams with variable shear span-to-depth ratio (av/H) were tested. Hybrid beams with 500 mm, 1000 mm, and 1500 mm lengths and cross-sections of 150x100 mm and 100x100 mm were tested under three-point and four-point loading. Based on the testing load-displacement relationship, ductility ratio, energy dissipation capacity of the beams were evaluated with comprehensive macro damage analysis on pultruded GFRP profile and GFRP wrapping. The GFRP wraps were established to have a major contribution to the composite beam ductility (90-125%) and strength (40-75%) in all ranges of beam behavior (shear-dominated or dominated by the coupling of shear and flexure). The composite beams with wraps were showns to reach ductilities and strength values of their counterparts with much greater beam depth.