• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.517-532
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• 2020

This paper firstly developed a new type of Double Skin Composite (DSC) beams using novel enhanced C-channels (ECs). The shear behaviour of novel ECs was firstly studied through two push-out tests. Eleven full-scale DSC beams with ECs (DSCB-ECs) were tested under four-point loading to study their ultimate strength behaviours, and the studied parameters were thickness of steel faceplate, spacing of ECs, shear span, and strength of concrete core. Test results showed that all the DSCB-ECs failed in flexure-governed mode, which confirmed the effective bonding of ECs. The working mechanisms of DSCB-ECs with different parameters were reported, analysed and discussed. The load-deflection (or strain) behaviour of DSCB-ECs were also detailed reported. The effects of studied parameters on ultimate strength behaviour of DSCB-ECs have been discussed and analysed. Including the experimental studies, this paper also developed theoretical models to predict the initial stiffness, elastic stiffness, cracking, yielding, and ultimate loads of DSCB-ECs. Validations of predictions against 11 test results proved the reasonable estimations of the developed theoretical models on those stiffness and strength indexes. Finally, conclusions were given based on these tests and analysis.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.441-452
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• 2020

Within the French CIFRE research project COMINO, an innovative type of composite beam was developed for buildings that need fire resistance with no additional supports in construction stage. The developed solution is composed of a steel U-shaped beam acting as a formwork in construction stage for a reinforced concrete part that provides the fire resistance. In the exploitation stage, the steel and the reinforced concrete are acting together as a composite beam. This paper presents the investigation made on the load bearing capacity of this new developed steel-concrete composite section. A full-scale test has been carried out at the Laboratory of Structural Engineering of the University of Luxembourg. The paper presents the configuration of the specimen, the fabrication process and the obtained test results. The beam behaved compositely and exhibited high ductility and bending resistance. The shear connection in the tension zone was effective. The beam failed by a separation between the slab and the beam at high deformations, excessive shear forces conducted to a failure of the stirrups in this zone. The test results are then compared with good agreement to analytical methods of design based on EN 1994 and design guidelines are given.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.16 no.2 s.69
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• pp.235-245
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• 2004

The advantages of composite construction are now well understood in terms of structural economy, good performance in service, and ease of construction. However, these conventional composite construction systems have some problems in application to steel framed buildings due to their large depth. So, in this study we executed an experimental test with the "Slim Floor"system which could reduce the overall depth of composite beam. Slim Floor system is a method of steel frame multi-story building construction in which the structural depth of each floor is minimized by incorporating the steel floor beams within the depth of the concrete floor slab. Presented herein is an experimental study that focuses on the flexural behaviour of the partially connected slim floor system with asymmetric steel beams encased in composite concrete slabs. Eight full-scale specimens were constructed and tested in this study with different steel beam height, slab width, with or without shear connection and concrete topping thickness. Observations from experiments indicated that the degree of shear connection without additional shear connection was $0.53{\sim}0.95$ times that of the full shear connection due to inherent mechnical and chemical bond stress.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.115-122
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• 2008

Ductility is important in the design of reinforced concrete structures. In seismic design of reinforced concrete members, it is necessary to allow for relatively large ductility so that the seismic energy is absorbed to avoid shear failure or significant degradation of strength even after yielding of reinforcing steels in the concrete member occurs. Therefore, prediction of the ductility should be as accurate as possible. The principal aim of this paper is to present the basic data for the ductility evaluation of reinforced high-strength concrete beams. Accordingly, 23 flexural tests were conducted on full-scale structural concrete beam specimens having concrete compressive strength of 40, 60, and 70MPa. The test results were then reviewed in terms of flexural capacity and ductility. The effect of concrete compressive strength, web reinforcement ratio, tension steel ratio, and shear span to beam depth ratio on ductility were investigated experimentally.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.03a
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• pp.1147-1153
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• 2009

The failure modes of rock anchors subjected to tension can be defined as follows: tensile failure of tendon, shear failure on tendon-grout interface, shear failure on grout-rock interface and tensile failure of rock. This study proposes a design method to induce the rock anchor systems to avoid the brittle failure by ensuring the minimum embedded length of rock anchors. Pull-out test results of full-scale rock anchors show that the proposed method is effective in predicting the design conditions expecting the ductile tendon failure.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.129-145
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• 2006

This paper provides an insight into the response of non-seismic reinforced concrete (RC) building frames to excitations of different frequencies through experimental investigation. The results of cyclic loading tests of six full-scale RC beam-column sub-assemblies are presented. The tested specimens did not have any transverse reinforcement inside the joint core, and they were subjected to quasi-static and dynamic loading with frequencies as high as 20 Hz. Some important differences between the cyclic responses of non-seismic and ductile RC frames are highlighted. The effect of excitation frequency on the behavior of non-seismic joints is also discussed. In the quasi-static tests, shear deformation of the joint panel accounted for more than 50% of the applied story drift. The test results also showed that higher-frequency excitations are less detrimental than quasi-static cyclic loads, and non-seismic frames can withstand a higher load and a larger deformation when they are applied faster.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.55-65
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• 2010

The purpose of this experimental study is to evaluate the seismic performance of a 2 story RC shear wall system by the static reversal loading test. The lower 2 stories of the prototype structure were selected, and the specimens of this study were comprised of a T-type wall with an opening. The specimens were reduced to about 60% of the full scale size and were constructed to measure the result of the experimental variable regarding the existence of a lintel beam. To perform this study, the static repeated loading test was performed. According to the existence or absence of a lintel beam, the structural capacities and behavioral differences of the shear wall system were compared. The test results of this study showed that the specimen with a lintel beam underwent the seismic performance with an ultimate strength and ductility capacity better than the specimen without a lintel beam.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.73 no.2
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• pp.123-132
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• 2020

Steel spherical hinged bearings have high loading capacity, reliable load transfer, flexible rotation with universal hinge and allowance of large displacement and rotation angle. However, bearings are in complex forced states subject to various load combinations, which lead to the significant influence on integral structural safety. Taking the large-tonnage complex steel spherical hinged bearings of Terminal 2 of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport as an example, full-scale rotation and shear behaviour tests of the bearings subject to axial tensile load are carried out, and the corresponding finite element simulation analyses are conducted. The results of experiments and finite element simulations are in good agreement with the coincident development tendency of stress and deformation. In addition, the measured rotational moment is less than the calculated moment prescriptive by the code, and the relationship between horizontal displacement and horizontal shear force is linear. Finally, based on these results, the rotation and shear stiffness models of bearings subject to axial tensile load are proposed for the refinement analysis of integral structure.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1031-1054
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• 2014

Real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS) of a stacked wood shear wall retrofitted with a rate-dependent seismic energy dissipation device (viscous damper) was conducted at the newly constructed Structural Engineering Laboratory at the University of Alabama. This paper describes the implementation process of the RTHS focusing on the controller scheme development. An incremental approach was adopted starting from a controller for the conventional slow pseudodynamic hybrid simulation and evolving to the one applicable for RTHS. Both benchmark-scale and full-scale tests are discussed to provide a roadmap for future RTHS implementation at different laboratories and/or on different structural systems. The developed RTHS controller was applied to study the effect of a rate-dependent energy dissipation device on the seismic performance of a multi-story wood shear wall system. The test specimen, setup, program and results are presented with emphasis given to inter-story drift response. At 100% DBE the RTHS showed that the multi-story shear wall with the damper had 32% less inter-story drift and was noticeably less damaged than its un-damped specimen counterpart.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.15-34
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• 2011

Three wind-tunnel simulations of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) flow in suburban country exposure were generated for length scale factors 1:400, 1:250 and 1:220 to investigate scale effects in wind-tunnel simulations of the suburban ABL, to address recommended wind characteristics for suburban exposures reported in international standards, and to test redesigned experimental hardware. Investigated parameters are mean velocity, turbulence intensity, turbulent Reynolds shear stress, integral length scale of turbulence and power spectral density of velocity fluctuations. Experimental results indicate it is possible to reproduce suburban natural winds in the wind tunnel at different length scales without significant influence of the simulation length scale on airflow characteristics. However, in the wind tunnel it was not possible to reproduce two characteristic phenomena observed in full-scale: dependence of integral length scales on reference wind velocity and a linear increase in integral length scales with height. Furthermore, in international standards there is a considerable scatter of recommended values for suburban wind characteristics. In particular, recommended integral length scales in ESDU 85020 (1985) are significantly larger than in other international standards. Truncated vortex generators applied in this study proved to be successful in part-depth suburban ABL wind-tunnel simulation that yield a novel methodology in studies on wind effects on structures and air pollution dispersion.