• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.303-312
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• 2008

Multi-axial compression tests have been frequently adopted for the evaluation of material properties of rock cores and rock fracture model tests. Special care has to be applied on the boundary condition between the specimen and loading platen to draw the precise test results of the multi-axial compression tests. With the use of dry steel platen, the stress rotation will occur, due to the frictional restraint from the boundary between the specimen and loading platen. The restraint will deviate the expected test results under the conditions of the given external pressures. Various methods have been applied to reduce the side restraint along the specimen/loading platen interface. The steel brush type loading platen is one example of the attempts. In this paper, a new type of loading platen is introduced to overcome the limitation caused by the use of the brush type loading platen, which requires some internal space for the installation of the brushes. The new type of loading platen, roller supported steel piston type loading platen. is constituted of shot steel pistons which have sufficient stiffness to deliver the external pressure and the shaft type roller installed at the rear of the pistons. The pistons are designed to follow the local deformation of the specimens. In this paper, structural details of the loading platen are presented and frictional and biaxial compression tests results are shown to verify the required functions of the loading platen. Furthermore, calibration process is followed by a comparison between the test results and numerical analyses.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.165-176
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• 2017

Multi-Axial Testing System (MATS) is a 6-DOF loading system located at National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) in Taiwan for advanced seismic testing of structural components or sub-assemblages. MATS was designed and constructed for a large variety of structural testing, especially for the specimens that require to be subjected to vertical and longitudinal loading simultaneously, such as reinforced concrete columns and lead rubber bearings. Functionally, MATS consists of a high strength self-reacting frame, a rigid platen, and a large number of servo-hydraulic actuators. The high strength self-reacting frame is composed of two post-tensioned A-shape reinforced concrete frames interconnected by a steel-and-concrete composite cross beam and a reinforced concrete reacting base. The specimen can be anchored between the top cross beam and the bottom rigid platen within a 5-meter high and 3.25-meter wide clear space. In addition to the longitudinal horizontal actuators that can be installed for various configurations, a total number of 13 servo-hydraulic actuators are connected to the rigid platen. Degree-of-freedom control of the rigid platen can be achieved by driving these actuators commanded by a digital controller. The specification and information of MATS in detail are described in this paper, providing the users with a technical point of view on the design, application, and limitation of MATS. Finally, future potential application employing advanced experimental technology is also presented in this paper.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.351-359
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• 2007

Multi-axial compression tests have been frequently conducted to evaluate the in situ properties of rock masses and the mechanical behaviors of rock strata through the model tests. Without the proper boundary condition for the model tests, the mechanical behavior of rock mass would deviate, as can be expected, from the in situ conditions. The boundary condition will affect the internal stress distribution of the specimens and cause some distortion on the measurement. In this study, a design process regarding the steel brush, which has been employed for multi-axial compression test to reduce the frictional restraint along the specimen/loading platen interface, is introduced. The individual brushes are regarded as a simple column and beam to calculate the cross-sectional size and length of the brushes in consideration of the buckling capacity and the allowable deflection.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.78 no.3
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• pp.281-296
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• 2021

This article analyzed the modulus degradation of concrete subjected to multi-level compressive cyclic loading. The evolution of secant elastic modulus is investigated based on measurements from top loading platen and LVDT in the middle part of concrete. The difference value of the two secant elastic moduli is reduced when close to failure and could be used as a fatigue failure precursor. The fatigue hardening is observed for concrete during cyclic loading. When the maximum stress is smaller the fatigue hardening is more obvious. The slight increase of maximum stress will lead to the "periodic hardening". The tangent elastic modulus shows a specific "bowknot" shape during cyclic loading, which can characterize the hysteresis of stress-strain and is influenced by the cyclic loading stresses. The deterioration of secant elastic modulus acts a similar role with respect to the P-wave speed during cyclic loading, can both characterize the degradation of the concrete properties.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.215-224
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• 1998

In this study, total strain was measured by LVDTs and local strains on the surface of specimens were measured by strain gauges. And axi-symmetrically elastoplastic FEM analyses was carried out for cylindrical specimens. Considering the influence of the restraint induced by the loading platen, in the case of H/D=1, the strain distribution on the side of a specimen is obviously affected by the condition of platen contact. Furthermore, it is clear that the larger H/D ratio becomes, the smaller the influence to the strain distribution is. For the smooth contact condition, the strain on the side is not influenced by the stiffness of the specimen, the shape and the scale effect, the strain distribution coincides with the nominal total strain. Whereas, in the case of rough contact condition, the strain distribution is remarkably affected. It is made clear that strain responses of hard rock specimens may more sensitive than these of soft rock specimens as a results of interaction between loading platens and specimen and the uniaxial strength of specimens may strongly depends on this interaction and stress-strain relation is affected by the contact condition.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.65-73
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• 2020

Integrity evaluations on a platen superheater were conducted as per ASME Section VIII Division 2(hereafter 'ASME VIII(2)') which was originally used for design with implicit consideration of creep effects. A platen superheater subjected to severe loading conditions of high pressure and high temperature at creep regime in a supercritical thermal plant in Korea was chosen for present study. Additional evaluations were conducted as per nuclear-grade high-temperature design rule of RCC-MRx that takes creep effects into account explicitly. Comparisons of the two results from ASME VIII(2) and RCC-MRx were conducted to quantify the conservatism of ASME VIII(2). From present analyses, it was shown that the design evaluation results exceeded allowable limits of RCC-MRx for the plant design conditions although limits of ASME VIII(2) were satisfied regardless of operation time, which means that design as per ASME VIII(2) might be potentially non-conservative in case of operation in creep range. A high-temperature design evaluation program as per RCC-MRx, called 'HITEP_RCC-MRx' has been used and it was shown that pressure boundary components can be designed reliably with the program especially for the loading conditions of long-term creep conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.315-320
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• 2003

Two different strength types of plain concrete plate specimens (200$\times$200$\times$60mm) were tested under different biaxial load combinations. The specimens were subjected to biaxial combinations covering the three regions of compression-compression, compression-tension, and tension-tension. The loading platens with Teflon pads were used to reduce a confining effect in boundary surface between the concrete specimen and the solid platen. The principal deformations in the specimens were recorded, and the failure modes along with each stress ratio were examined. Based on the strength data, the failure envelops were developed for each type of plain concrete. The biaxial stress-strain responses of concrete plate specimens for three biaxial loading regions were also plotted. The test data indicated that the strength of concrete under biaxial compression ($f_2 / f_1$$_1$=-1/-1) is about 17 percent larger than under uniaxial compression.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.2 no.6
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• pp.499-516
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• 2005

A composite model is used to represent the heterogeneity of plain concrete consisting of coarse aggregates, mortar matrix and the mortar-aggregate interface. The composite elements of plain concrete are modeled using triangular finite element units which have six interface nodes along the sides. Fracture is captured through a constitutive single branch softening-fracture law at the interface nodes, which bounds the elastic domain inside each triangular unit. The inelastic displacement at an interface node represents the crack opening or sliding displacement and is conjugate to the internodal force. The path-dependent softening behaviour is developed within a quasi-prescribed displacement control formulation. The crack profile is restricted to the interface boundaries of the defined mesh. No re-meshing is carried out. Solutions to the rate formulation are obtained using a mathematical programming procedure in the form of a linear complementary problem. An event by event solution strategy is adopted to eliminate solutions with simultaneous formation of softening zones in symmetric problems. The composite plain concrete model is compared to experimental results for the tensile crack growth in a Brazilian test and three-point bending tests on different sized specimens. The model is also used to simulate wedge-type shear-compression failure directly under the loading platen of a Brazilian test.