• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.517-536
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• 2016

Thick steel plate is commonly found with mega steel structures but its properties have not been fully explored. Grade Q345GJ-C steel plate with thickness ranging from 60 mm to 120 mm are studied in this paper. Both the static and cyclic performance of material in different directions (horizontal and through-thickness directions) and locations (outer surface, 1/4 thickness and mid-depth) are experimentally obtained. The accumulative damage during cyclic loading is also calculated by using bilinear mixed hardening (BMH) constitutive relationship together with the Lemaitre's damage model. Results show that the static properties are better at the outer surface of thick steel plates than those at mid-depth. Properties in through-thickness direction are similar to those at mid-depth in the horizontal direction. The cyclic performance at different locations of a given plate is similar within the range of strain amplitude studied. However, when damage parameters identified from monotonic tensile tests are included in the numerical simulation of cyclic loading tests, damage is found accumulating faster at mid-depth than close to outer surface.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.263-281
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• 2013

Geotextiles and geogrids have been in use for several decades in variety of geo-structure applications including foundation of embankments, retaining walls, pavements. Geocells is one such variant in geosynthetic reinforcement of recent years, which provides a three dimensional confinement to the infill material. Although extensive research has been carried on geocell reinforced sand, clay and layered soil subgrades, limited research has been reported on the aggregates/ballast reinforced with geocells. This paper presents the behavior of a railway sleeper subjected to monotonic loading on geocell reinforced aggregates, of size ranging from 20 to 75 mm, overlying soft clay subgrades. Series of tests were conducted in a steel test tank of dimensions $700mm{\times}300mm{\times}700mm$. In addition to the laboratory model tests, numerical simulations were performed using a finite difference code to predict the behavior of geocell reinforced ballast. The results from numerical simulations were compared with the experimental data. The numerical and experimental results manifested the importance that the geocell reinforcement has a significant effect on the ballast behaviour. The results depicted that the stiffness of underlying soft clay subgrade has a significant influence on the behavior of the geocell-aggregate composite material in redistributing the loading system.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.887-904
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• 2016

An efficient, economical and practical strengthening method for hollow brick infill walls was proposed and investigated in the present study, experimentally and numerically. This method aims at increasing the overall lateral strength and stiffness of the structure by increasing the contribution of the infill walls and providing the non-bearing components of the structure with the capability of absorbing earthquake-induced energy to minimize structural damage during seismic excitations. A total of eleven full-scale infill walls strengthened with expanded mild steel plates were tested under diagonal monotonic loading to simulate the loading condition of the non-bearing walls during an earthquake. The contact surface between the plates and the wall was increased with the help of plaster. Thickness of the plates bonded to both faces of the wall and the spacing of the bolts were adopted as test parameters. The experiments indicated that the plates were able to carry a major portion of the tensile stresses induced by the diagonal loads and provided the walls walls with a considerable confining effect. The composite action attained by the plates and the wall until yielding of the bolts increased the load capacities, rigidities, ductilities and energy-absorption capacities of the walls, considerably.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.379-393
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• 2012

Of the various methods of splicing reinforcing bar in reinforced concrete structure, mortar-filled sleeve reinforcement splice offers diverse benefits, not only in terms of structural performance but also for the construction process. Consequently, after the mortar-filled sleeve splices have been developed in recent years, research and development on these splices has been actively carried out, in order to evaluate its macro structural performance, such as its strength and stiffness, with the aim of enabling this system to be applied to construction in the field as early as possible. However, to make a proper evaluation on the overall structural performance of the mortar-filled sleeve reinforcing bar splice, it is of critical importance to understand the lateral confining action of the sleeve, which is known to affect the bond strength between the embedded bar and mortar in the sleeve. Accordingly, in this study, an experiment of monotonic loading and cyclic loading was conducted with a full-sized mortar-filled sleeve splice attaching strain gauges on the sleeve surface with experimental variables such as development length of bar, etc. Based on the test results, the effect of the lateral confining action of the sleeve was analyzed and considered in terms of the bond strength between the bar and mortar in this splice.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.217-232
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• 2019

Modular steel buildings consist of prefabricated room-sized structural units that are manufactured offsite and installed onsite. The inter-module connections must fulfill the assembly construction requirements and soundly transfer the external loads. This work proposes an innovative assembled connection suitable for modular buildings with concrete-filled steel tube columns. The connection uses pretensioned strands and plugin bars to vertically connect the adjacent modular columns. The moment-transferring performance of this inter-module connection was studied through monotonic and cyclic loading tests. The results showed that because of the assembly construction, the connected sections were separated under lateral bending, and the prestressed inter-module connection performed as a weak semirigid connection. The moment strength at the early loading stage originated primarily from the contact bonding mechanism with the infilled concrete, and the postyield strength depended mainly on the tensioned strands. The connection displayed a self-centering-like behavior that the induced deformation was reversed during unloading. The energy dissipation originated primarily from frictional slipping of the plugin bars and steel strands. The moment transferring ability was closely related to the section dimension and the arrangements of the plugin bars and steel strands. A simplified strength calculation and evaluation method was also proposed, and the effectiveness was validated with the test data.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.419-431
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• 2021

Construction of retaining walls with geocell has been gaining in popularity because of its easy and fast installation compared to conventional methods. In this study, model tests were conducted by constructing the geocell retaining wall (GRW) at a constant height (i.e., 90 cm) and using aggregate as an infill material at four different configurations and two different surface angles. In these tests, a circular footing was placed behind the walls at different lateral distances from the wall surface and loaded monotonically. Subsequent to this vertical loading being applied to the footing, horizontal displacements on the GRW surface were measured at three different points. The performance of Type 4 GRW exceeded the other three types of GRW, with the highest lateral displacement occurring in Type 4 GRW at approximately 0.67 % of wall height. In addition, the results of these tests were compared with theoretical approaches widely accepted in the literature. The stress levels reached beneath the footing were found to be compatible with theoretical results.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.251-260
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• 2001

Damage Profess of CFRP laminates under monotonic tensile test was characterized by the correlation between Acoustic Emission(AE) and Ultrasonic Test(UT). The amplitude distribution of AE signal from a specimens is an aid to the determination of the extent of the different fracture mechanism such as matrix crack, debonding, fiber pullout and fiber fracture as load is increased. In addtion, the characteristics of ultrasonic amplitude attenuation are useful lot analysis of the different type of fracture mechanism. Different orientation of carbon fiber reinforced plastic specimens were used to investigate the AE amplitude range and ultrasonic amplitude attenuation. Finally, loading-unloading tests were carried out to check Felicity effect. During the tests, ultrasonic amplitude attenuation was investigated at the same time and compared with AE parameters. The result showed that two parameters of both AE and UT could be effectively used for analysis of fracture mechanism in CFRP laminates.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.17-24
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• 2003

One of the reasons for brittle failure in reinforced concrete structures subjected to severe earthquake is due to large local bond-slippage of bars resulting in fast bond degradation between reinforcing bars and concrete. This study aims to evaluate effects of bar deformation height on bond performance, specially, bond degradation under cyclic loading. Bond test specimens were constructed with machined bars with high relative rib areas. The degree of confinement by transverse bars is also another key parameters in this bond test. From test results, amounts of energy dissipation are calculated and compared for each parameter. Test results show that bond strength and stiffness drops significantly as cycles increases. The confinement and high relative rib area are effective to delay bond degradation, as the reduction of bond strength of cyclic loading compared to monotonic loading decreased for bars with large confinement and high relative rib areas. The energy dissipation also increases as the degree of confinement and relative rib area increases. However, tested bars with very high rib areas show that the bond may be damaged at relatively small slip because of high stiffness. The study will help to understand the bond degradation mechanism due to bar deformation height under cyclic loading and be useful to develop new deformed bars with high relative rib areas.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.385-388
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• 1999

This study is to investigate experimentally the shear capacity of high-strength reinforced concrete beams subjected to monotonic loading. Nine reinforced concrete beams using high strength concrete $(f'c=380kg/\textrm{cm}^2)$ are tested to determine their diagonal cracking and ultimate shear capacity. The main variables are shear span-depth ratio a/d=1.5, 2.5, 3.5, and shear reinforcement ratio. All specimens are 170mm wide and have a total depth of 300mm. The test results indicate that ACI 318-95(b) Code for shear capacity gave closest agrement with the exsprimental results. The beams with a shear spear-depth ratio 1.5 and 2.5. ACI 318-95 Code underestimates shear strength carried by vertical shear reinforcements.

• Magazine of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.93-99
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• 1990

The object of this study was to investigate the flexural stress blocks of High Strength Concrete Members under monotonic loading. Such a stress block should be clearly idealized before High Strength Concrete can be used with confidence in Structural Members. The principal test variables were the Compressive Strength of Concrete, the percentage of longitudinal reinforcement and the spacing of confinement reinforcement. The rectangular stress block of the present ACI Building Code was found to give acceptably conservative flexural strength predictions over the entire range of concrete strength from 280kg/crd (4Ksi)to 1050kg/crd( 15Ksi)