• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2001.03a
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• pp.239-244
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• 2001

Natural clayey soils or improved grounds are in a overconsolidated conditions due to changes in vertical stress and pore pressures, desiccation, ageing and so on. These grounds show inelastic stress-strain behaviour characteristics within all range of strain except very small strain (${\gamma}$$\_$s/$\leq$10￣$^3$∼10￣$^4$%) when construction, such as excavations and retaining walls, is performed. Also it strongly depends on loading rate of current stress path and recent stress path. This study carried out drained stress path tests by varying loading rate of current and recent stress path. Test results indicated that stress-strain behaviour of overconsolidated clay depends on loading rate, especially loading rate of current stress path.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.261-284
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• 2006

The flexural behaviour of symmetrically reinforced concrete (RC) columns cast of normal- and high-strength concrete under both monotonic and cyclic loading is studied based on an analytical procedure, which employs the actual stress-strain curves and takes into account the stress-path dependence of concrete and steel reinforcement. The analysis is particularly extended into the post-peak stage with large inelastic deformation at various applied axial load level. The effect of axial load on their complete flexural behaviour is then identified based on the results obtained. The axial load is found to have fairly large effect on the flexural behaviour of RC columns under both monotonic and cyclic loading. Such effects are discussed through examination of various aspects including the moment-curvature relationship, moment capacity, flexural ductility, variation of neutral axis depth and steel stress.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.49-74
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• 2018

Generally, beam-column joints are taken into account as rigid in assessment of seismic performance of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. Experimental and numerical studies have proved that ignoring nonlinearities in the joint core might crucially affect seismic performance of RC structures. On the other hand, to improve seismic behaviour of such structures, several strengthening techniques of beam-column joints have been studied and adopted in practical applications. Among these strengthening techniques, the application of FRP materials has extensively increased, especially in case of exterior RC beam-column joints. In current paper, to simulate the inelastic response in the core of RC beam-column joints strengthened by FRP sheets, a practical joint model has been proposed so that the effect of FRP sheets on characteristics of an RC joint were considered in principal tensile stress-joint rotation relations. To determine these relations, a combination of experimental results and a mechanically-based model has been developed. To verify the proposed model, it was applied to experimental specimens available in the literature. Results revealed that the model could predict inelastic response of as-built and FRP strengthened joints with reasonable precision. The simple analytic procedure and the use of experimentally computed parameters would make the model sufficiently suitable for practical applications.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.125-145
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• 2011

Pushover analysis has gained significant popularity as an analytical tool for realistic determination of the inelastic behaviour of RC structures. Though significant work has been done to evaluate the demands realistically, the evaluation of capacity and realistic failure modes has taken a back seat. In order to throw light on the inelastic behaviour and capacity evaluation for the RC framed structures, a 3D Reinforced concrete frame structure was tested under monotonically increasing lateral pushover loads, in a parabolic pattern, till failure. The structure consisted of three storeys and had 2 bays along the two orthogonal directions. The structure was gradually pushed in small increments of load and the corresponding displacements were monitored continuously, leading to a pushover curve for the structure as a result of the test along with other relevant information such as strains on reinforcement bars at critical locations, failure modes etc. The major failure modes were observed as flexural failure of beams and columns, torsional failure of transverse beams and joint shear failure. The analysis of the structure was by considering all these failure modes. In order to have a comparison, the analysis was performed as three different cases. In one case, only the flexural hinges were modelled for critical locations in beams and columns; in second the torsional hinges for transverse beams were included in the analysis and in the third case, joint shear hinges were also included in the analysis. It is shown that modelling and capturing all the failure modes is practically possible and such an analysis can provide the realistic insight into the behaviour of the structure.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.319-341
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• 2009

A new formulation based on lumped plasticity and inelastic hinges is presented in this paper for nonlinear analysis of Reinforced Concrete (RC) frame structures. Inelastic hinge behaviour is described using the principles of Continuum Damage Mechanics (CDM). Member formulation contains provisions to model stiffness degradation due to cracking of concrete and yielding of reinforcing steel. Depending on its nature, cracking is classified as concentrated or distributed. Concentrated cracking is accounted through a damage variable and its growth is defined based on strain energy principles. Presence of distributed flexural cracks in a member is taken care of by modelling it as non-prismatic. Plasticity theory supported by effective stress concept of CDM is applied to describe the post-yield response. Nonlinear quasi-static analysis is carried out on a RC column and a wide two-storey RC frame to verify the formulation. The column is subjected to constant axial load and monotonic lateral load while the frame is subjected to only lateral load. Computed results are compared with those due to experiments or other numerical methods to validate the performance of the formulation and also to highlight the contribution of distributed cracking on global response.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.29-38
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• 2017

Stone masonry is one of the oldest construction types due to the natural and free availability of stones and the relatively easy construction. Since stone masonry is brittle, it is also very vulnerable and in the case of earthquakes damage, collapses and causalities are very likely to occur, as it has been seen during the last Italian earthquake in Amatrice in 2016. In the recent years, some researchers have performed experimental tests to improve the knowledge of the behaviour of stone masonry. Concurrently, there is the need to reproduce the seismic behaviour of these structures by numerical approaches, also in consideration of the high cost of experimental tests. In this work, an alternative simplified procedure to numerically reproduce the diagonal compression and shear compression tests on a rubble stone masonry is proposed within the finite element method. The proposed procedure represents the stone units as rigid bodies and the mortar as a plastic material with compression and tension inelastic behaviour calibrated based on parametric studies. The validation of the proposed model was verified by comparison with experimental data. The advantage of this simplified methodology is the use of a limited number of degrees of freedom which allows the reduction of the computational time, which leaves the possibility to carry out parametric studies that consider different wall configurations.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.433-439
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• 2000

Reinforced concrete beams show increased ductile behavior when the compressive concrete is confined with transverse steel. In the inelastic range, the most variations of ductile behaviour are defined the equivalent length of the plastic hinge and the plastic hinge rotation. In an investigation to study the influence of such confinement, sixteen reinforced concrete beams were tested in flexure and the deflections noted at all stages of loading. For all the beams tested, the plastic hinge rotation have been computed and the effect of confinement on the same examined. The conclusions are summarized as follows: The equivalent lengths of the plastic hinge are ranged within the effective depth comparatively. The ability of the plastic hinge rotation of the reinforced concrete beams confined with transverse steel are enlarged when transverse reinforcement content are increased, but the spaces are more important as the shear force are largely increased.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.809-827
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• 2015

In this paper, seismic energy response of inelastic steel structures under earthquake excitations is investigated. For this purpose, a numerical procedure based on nonlinear dynamic analysis is developed by considering material, geometric and connection nonlinearities. Material nonlinearity is modeled by the inversion of Ramberg-Osgood equation. Nonlinearity caused by the interaction between the axial force and bending moment is also defined considering stability functions, while the geometric nonlinearity caused by axial forces is described using geometric stiffness matrix. Cyclic behaviour of steel connections is taken into account by employing independent hardening model. Dynamic equation of motion is solved by Newmark's constant acceleration method in the time history domain. Energy response analysis of space frames is performed by using this proposed numerical method. Finally, for the first time, the distribution of the different energy types versus time at the duration of the earthquake ground motion is obtained where in addition error analysis for the numerical solutions is carried out and plotted depending on the relative error calculated as a function of energy balance versus time.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.627-650
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• 2013

This paper deals with application of a non-linear continuum model for reinforced concrete affected by alkali-aggregate reaction (AAR) to analysis of some nuclear structures. The macroscopic behaviour of the material affected by AAR is described by incorporating a homogenization/averaging procedure. The formulation addresses the main stages of the deformation process, i.e., a homogeneous deformation mode as well as that involving localized deformation, associated with formation of macrocracks. The formulation is applied to examine the mechanical behaviour of some reinforced concrete structures in nuclear power facilities located in Quebec (Canada). First, a containment structure is analyzed subjected to 45 years of continuing AAR. Later, an inelastic analysis is carried out for the spent fuel pool taking into account the interaction with the adjacent jointed rock mass foundation. In the latter case, the structure is said to be subjected to continuing AAR that is followed by a seismic event.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.3_4
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• pp.231-248
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• 2012

In this study, a systematic investigation is carried out on the seismic behaviour of plane moment resisting steel frames (MRF) to repeated strong ground motions. Such a sequence of earthquakes results in a significant damage accumulation in a structure because any rehabilitation action between any two successive seismic motions cannot be practically materialised due to lack of time. In this work, thirty-six MRF which have been designed for seismic and vertical loads according to European codes are first subjected to five real seismic sequences which are recorded at the same station, in the same direction and in a short period of time, up to three days. Furthermore, the examined frames are also subjected to sixty artificial seismic sequences. This investigation shows that the sequences of ground motions have a significant effect on the response and, hence, on the design of MRF. Additionally, it is concluded that ductility demands, behaviour factor and seismic damage of the repeated ground motions can be satisfactorily estimated using appropriate combinations of the corresponding demands of single ground motions.