• Computers and Concrete
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.371-384
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• 2023

Precast roofing systems employing prestressed elements often serve as smart structural solutions for the construction of industrial buildings. The precast concrete elements usually employed are highly engineered, and often consist in thin-walled members, characterised by a complex behaviour in fire. The present study was carried out after a fire event damaged a precast industrial building made with prestressed beam and roof elements, and non-prestressed curved barrel vault elements interposed in between the spaced roof elements. As a consequence of the exposure to the fire, the main elements were found standing, although some locally damaged and distorted, and the local collapse of few curved barrel vault elements was observed in one edge row only. In order to understand and interpret the observed structural performance of the roof system under fire, a full fire safety engineering process was carried out according to the following steps: (a) realistic temperature-time curves acting on the structural elements were simulated through computational fluid dynamics, (b) temperature distribution within the concrete elements was obtained with non-linear thermal analysis in variable regime, (c) strength and deformation of the concrete elements were checked with non-linear thermal-mechanical analysis. The analysis of the results allowed to identify the causes of the local collapses occurred, attributable to the distortion caused by temperature to the elements causing loss of support in early fire stage rather than to the material strength reduction due to the progressive exposure of the elements to fire. Finally, practical hints are provided to avoid such a phenomenon to occur when designing similar structures.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.601-623
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• 2016

Precast concrete elements are widely used in the construction of buildings and civil infrastructures as they provide higher construction quality and requires less construction time. However, any abnormalities in precast concrete surfaces such as non-flatness or distortion, can influence the erection of the elements as well as the functional performance of the connections between elements. Thus, it is important to undertake surface flatness and distortion inspection (SFDI) on precast concrete elements before their delivery to the construction sites. The traditional methods of SFDI which are conducted manually or by contact-type devices are, however, time-consuming, labor-intensive and error-prone. To tackle these problems, this study proposes techniques for SFDI of precast concrete elements using laser scanning technology. The proposed techniques estimate the $F_F$ number to evaluate the surface flatness, and estimate three different measurements, warping, bowing, and differential elevation between adjacent elements, to evaluate the surface distortion. The proposed techniques were validated by experiments on four small scale test specimens manufactured by a 3D printer. The measured surface flatness and distortion from the laser scanned data were compared to the actual ones, which were obtained from the designed surface geometries of the specimens. The validation experiments show that the proposed techniques can evaluate the surface flatness and distortion effectively and accurately. Furthermore, scanning experiments on two actual precast concrete bridge deck panels were conducted and the proposed techniques were successfully applied to the scanned data of the panels.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.223-236
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• 2019

Experience of previous earthquakes shows that a considerable portion of concrete precast buildings sustain relatively large damages especially at the beam-column joints where the damages are mostly caused by bar slippage. Precast concrete buildings have a kind of discontinuity in their beam-column joints, so reinforcement details in this area is too important and have a significant effect on the seismic behavior of these structures. In this study, a relatively simple and efficient nonlinear model is proposed to simulate pre- and post-elastic behavior of the joints in usual practice of precast concrete building. In this model, beam and column components are represented by linear elastic elements, dimensions of the joint panel are defined by rigid elements, and effect of slip is taken into account by a nonlinear rotational spring at the end of the beam. The proposed method is validated by experimental results for both internal and external joints. In addition, the seismic behavior of the precast building damaged during Bojnord earthquake 13 May 2017, is investigated by using the proposed model for the beam-column joints. Damage unexpectedly inducing the precast building in the moderate Bojnord earthquake may confirm that bearing capacity of the precast building was underestimated without consideration of joint behavior effect.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.527-543
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• 2018

Crack control of precast members is crucial for durability. However, there is no clear provision to check the crack width of precast joints. This study presents an experimental investigation of loop joint details for use in a precast bridge deck system. High strength concrete of 130 MPa was chosen for durability and closer joint spacing. Static tests were conducted to investigate the cracking and ultimate behavior of test specimens. The experimental results indicate that current design codes provide reasonable estimation of the flexural strength and cracking load of precast elements with loop joint of high strength concrete. However, the crack width control of the loop joints with high strength concrete by the current design practices was not appropriate. Some recommendations to improve crack control of the loop joint were derived.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.235-248
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• 2020

Progressive collapse in a structure occurs when load bearing members are failed and the adjoining structural elements cannot resist the redistributed forces and fails subsequently, that leads to complete collapse of structure. Recently, construction using precast concrete technology is adopted increasingly because it offers many advantages like faster construction, less requirement of skilled labours at site, reduced formwork and scaffolding, massive production with reduced amount of construction waste, better quality and better surface finishing as compared to conventional reinforced concrete construction. Connections are the critical elements for any precast structure, because in past, major collapse of precast structure took place because of connection failure. In this study, behavior of four different precast wet connections with U shaped reinforcement bars provided at different locations is evaluated. Reduced 1/3^rd scale precast beam column assemblies having two span beam and three columns with removed middle column are constructed and examined by performing experiments. The response of precast connections is compared with monolithic connection, under column removal scenario. The connection region of test specimens are filled by cast-in-place micro concrete with and without polypropylene fibers. Performance of specimen is evaluated on the basis of ultimate load carrying capacity, maximum deflection at the location of removed middle column, crack formation and failure propagation. Further, Finite element (FE) analysis is carried out for validation of experimental studies and understanding the performance of structural components. Monolithic and precast beam column assemblies are modeled using non-linear Finite Element (FE) analysis based software ABAQUS. Actual experimental conditions are simulated using appropriate boundary and loading conditions. Finite Element simulation results in terms of load versus deflection are compared with that of experimental study. The nonlinear FE analysis results shows good agreement with experimental results.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.35 no.9
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• pp.151-158
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• 2019

A concrete core is used widely as lateral stability systems in high-rise modular buildings. As an alternative to traditional cast in-situ core, the precast concrete(PC) method can accelerate the construction of reinforced concrete cores. A core composed of precast elements differs from a in-situ core in having connections between the precast elements. The typical vertical connection between PC panels is consisted of shear keys, loop bars, lacer bars and grout. In this study, the effect of vertical connection components on shear strength is investigated experimentally. The test results show that the contribution to the shear strength is greater in order of grout strength, shear keys, lacer bars and loop bars. In addition, the numerical models to estimate the shear strength according to two crack patterns in the vertical joint of the PC panels are derived. The feasibility of the numerical models is evaluated by comparing the estimated shear strength and the test results.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 1999.05a
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• pp.434-441
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• 1999

The newly proposed Precast Segmental Mettled (PSM), which makes use of precast elements for election, is relatively new, efficient and fast mettled for the construction of prestressed box girder bridges. A precast segment of 25m long pretensioned in the fabrication yard is transported by a special trailer and a launching truss to its final position. The segments are then connected in the site by post-tensioning to make a continuous prestressed concrete box girder bridges. The purpose of this parer is to analyze and evaluate the design of precast prestressed concrete box girder bridges. The detailed analyses including time-dependent behavior of PSM bridges are conducted. The major results and findings, which have been obtained from finite element analysis of PSM bridge, are discussed in this paper and these results will be a good base for the design and analysis of a new precast bridges.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.261-273
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• 2017

The control of the deformative behaviour of pre-stressed concrete roof elements for a satisfactory service performance is a main issue of their structural design. Slender light-weight wing-shaped roof elements, typical of the European heritage, are particularly sensitive to this problem. The paper presents the results of deformation measurements during storage and of both torsional-flexural and purely flexural load tests carried out on a full-scale 40.5 m long innovative wing-shaped roof element. An element-based simplified integral procedure that de-couples the evolution of the deflection profile with the progressive shortening of the beam is adopted to catch the experimental visco-elastic behaviour of the element and the predictions are compared with normative close-form solutions. A linear 3D fem model is developed to investigate the torsional-flexural behaviour of the member. A mechanical non-linear beam model is used to predict the purely flexural behaviour of the roof member in the pre- and post-cracking phases and to validate the loss prediction of the adopted procedure. Both experimental and numerical results highlight that the adopted analysis method is viable and sound for an accurate simulation of the service behaviour of precast roof elements.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.131-138
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• 2014

The steel structure fabrication plant certification program was enacted as a part of the construction technology management act, article 24-3, to improve the quality of steel construction after the decay falling accident of Seongsu Bridge in 1994. However, the national certification program for structural precast concrete that is a prefabricated construction products produced by casting concrete in plant is not implemented yet. So, to introduce the proper certification system for precast concrete, the quality certification programs of North America, Europe and Japan are surveyed. In North America, the organizations that manage the plant certification programs are PCI, NPCA, CPCI and so on. Sales of precast concrete elements in Europe are governed by the construction products regulation 305/2011. Therefore, CE marking is mandatory from July 2013 for all construction products including precast concrete. In Japan, precast concrete products used in civil engineering are certificated by JIS mark, product certification system and plants for manufacturing precast concrete building elements are audited by Japan Prefabricated Construction Suppliers and Manufacturers Association. Based on these survey studies, in this paper is described an adaptation of precast concrete plant certification to comport with the certification system in Korea.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.229-245
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• 2017

Post-earthquake observations revealed that seismic performance of beam-column connections in precast concrete structures affect the overall response extensively. Seismic design of precast reinforced concrete structures requires improved beam-column connections to transfer reversed load effects between structural elements. In Turkey, hybrid beam-column connections with welded components have been applied extensively in precast concrete industry for decades. Beam bottom longitudinal rebars are welded to beam end plates while top longitudinal rebars are placed to designated gaps in joint panels before casting of topping concrete in this type of connections. The paper presents the major findings of an experimental test programme including one monolithic and five precast hybrid half scale specimens representing interior beam-column connections of a moment frame of high ductility level. The required welding area between beam bottom longitudinal rebars and beam-end plates were calculated based on welding coefficients considered as a test parameter. It is observed that the maximum strain developed in the beam bottom flexural reinforcement plays an important role in the overall behavior of the connections. Two additional specimens which include unbonded lengths on the longitudinal rebars to reduce that strain demands were also tested. Strength, stiffness and energy dissipation characteristics of test specimens were investigated with respect to test variables. Seismic performances of test specimens were evaluated by obtaining damage indices.