• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.6
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• pp.705-720
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• 2021

Reinforced concrete (RC) columns are the primary type of vertical support used in building structures that sustain vertical loads. However, their strength may be insufficient due to fire, earthquake or volatile environments. The load demand may be increased due to new functional usages of the structure. The deformability of concrete columns can be greatly reduced under high axial load conditions. In response, a novel steel encasement that distinguishes from the traditional steel jacketing that is assembled by welding or bolt is developed. This novel strengthening method features easy installation and quick strengthening because direct fastening is used to connect the four steel plates surrounding the column. This new connection method is usually used to quickly and stably connect two steel components by driving high strength fastener into the steel components. The connections together with the steel plates behave like transverse reinforcement, which can provide passive confinement to the concrete. The confined column along with the steel plates resist the axial load. By this way, the axial load capacity and deformability of the column can be enhanced. Eight columns are tested to examine the reliability and effectiveness of the proposed method. The effects of the vertical spacing between adjacent connections, thickness of the steel plate and number of fasteners in each connection are studied to identify the critical parameters which affect the load bearing performance and deformation behavior. Lastly, a theoretical model is proposed for predicting the axial load capacity of the strengthened RC columns.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.88 no.2
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• pp.169-178
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• 2023

Lightweight aggregate concrete (LWAC) has various advantages, but it has limitations in ensuring sufficient ductility as structural members such as reinforced concrete (RC) columns due to its low confinement effect of core concrete. In particular, the confinement effect significantly decreases as the axial load increases, but studies on evaluating the ductility of RC columns at high axial loads are very limited. Therefore, this study examined the effects of concrete unit weight on the seismic performance of RC columns subjected to constant axial loads applied with different values for each specimen. The column specimens were classified into all-lightweight aggregate concrete (ALWAC), sand-lightweight aggregate concrete (SLWAC), and normal-weight concrete (NWC). The amount of transverse reinforcement was specified for all the columns to satisfy twice the minimum amount specified in the ACI 318-19 provision. Test results showed that the normalized moment capacity of the columns decreased slightly with the concrete unit weight, whereas the moment capacity of LWAC columns could be conservatively estimated based on the procedure stipulated in ACI 318-19 using an equivalent rectangular stress block. Additionally, by applying the section lamina method, the axial load level corresponding to the balanced failure decreased with the concrete unit weight. The ductility of the columns also decreased with the concrete unit weight, indicating a higher level of decline under a higher axial load level. Thus, the LWAC columns required more transverse reinforcement than their counterpart NWC columns to achieve the same ductility level. Ultimately, in order to achieve high ductility in LWAC columns subjected to an axial load of 0.5, it is recommended to design the transverse reinforcement with twice the minimum amount specified in the ACI 318-19 provision.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.279-288
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• 2016

The present study simplified the moment-curvature relationship to straightforwardly determine the flexural behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) columns. For the idealized column section, moments and neutral axis depths at different stages(first flexural crack, yielding of tensile reinforcing bar, maximum strength, and 80% of the maximum strength at the descending branch) were derived on the basis of the equilibrium condition of forces and compatibility condition. Concrete strains at the extreme compression fiber beyond the maximum strength were determined using the stress-strain relationship of confined concrete, proposed by Kim et al. The lateral load-displacement curves converted from the simplified moment-curvature relationship of columns are well consistent with test results obtained from column specimens under various parameters. The moments and the corresponding neutral axis depth at different stages were formulated as a function of longitudinal reinforcement and transverse reinforcement indices and/or applied axial load index. Overall, curvature ductility of columns was significantly affected by the axial load level as well as concrete compressive strength and the amount of longitudinal and transverse reinforcing bars.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.68 no.3
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• pp.277-287
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• 2018

This paper presents the experimental study of nine pieces of reinforced concrete (RC) short columns. RC short columns were tested with cyclic loading with displacement control under the influence of constant axial load with load index of 0.2. Three columns within the tested nine columns are reference columns which have the details of the reinforcement given in the modern regulations and six of them are 150 mm and 100 mm externally collared columns. In addition to the parameter of the collar spacing, aspect ratio (as=2-1.5-1) is also considered as a parameter. The data obtained from experimental results have shown that externally collar contributes significantly to increasing the shear resistance of RC short columns and limiting the shear dominant behavior. It has been observed that the effectiveness of the externally collar increases with the decrease of the aspect ratio.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2017

The effectiveness of the repair scheme for the damaged captive-columns with CFRPs (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer) was investigated in terms of response quantities such as strength, ductility, dissipated energy and stiffness degradation. Two 1/3 scale, one-story one-bay RC (Reinforced Concrete) frames were designed to represent the substandard RC buildings in Turkish building stock. The first one, which is the reference specimen, is the bare frame without infill wall. Partial infill wall with opening was constructed between the columns of the second frame and this caused captive column defect. Severe damage was observed with the concentration of shear cracks in the second specimen columns. Then, the damaged members were repaired by CFRP wrapping and retested. For the three test series, similar reversed cyclic lateral displacement under combined effect of axial load was applied to the top of the columns. Overall response of the bare frame was dominated by flexural cracks. Brittle type of shear failure in the column top ends was observed in the specimen with partial infill wall. It was observed that former capacity of damaged members of the second frame was recovered by the applied repair scheme. Moreover, ultimate displacement capacity of the damaged frame was improved considerably by CFRP wrapping.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.5 s.45
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• pp.63-74
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to assess the seismic performance of reinforced concrete bridge columns using inelastic finite element analysis. The accuracy and objectivity of the assessment process may be enhanced by the use of sophisticated nonlinear finite element analysis program. A computer program, named RCAHEST (Reinforced Concrete Analysis in Higher Evaluation System Technology), for the analysis of reinforced concrete structures was used. Damage index aims to provide a means of quantifying numerically the damage in reinforced concrete bridge columns sustained under earthquake loading. The proposed numerical method for the seismic performance assessment of reinforced concrete bridge columns is verified by comparison with reliable experimental results.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.173-183
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• 2015

Most of the diffusion models of chloride ions in reinforced concrete (RC) elements proposed in literature are related to an isotropic homogeneous semi-infinite medium. This assumption reduces the mathematical complexity, but it is correct only for plane RC elements. This work proposes a comparison between the diffusion model of chloride ions in RC circular columns and in RC slab elements. The durability of RC cylindric elements estimated with the circular model instead of the plane model is shown to be shorter. Finally, a guideline is formulated to properly use the standard and more simple plane model instead of the circular one to estimate the time to corrosion initiation of cylindrical RC elements.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.73-88
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• 2015

Following previous studies, the current paper describes the results of an experimental program concerning the repair of reinforced concrete columns by thixotropic pseudo plastic mortar, preformed to analyze and quantify the influence of initial construction damage to the behavior of the repaired element. Five columns (section scale 1:2) were designed according to the minimum requirements of reinforcement of ductility orientated codes' design with variables the percentages of initial construction damages. All were tested in axial compression with repeated cycles up to failure. For comparison reasons, another one of the same characteristics, yet healthy, was constructed and tested as a reference specimen. A numerical study (Finite Element Analysis) was conducted for further investigation of the behavior of the thixotropic mortar as repair material. The results indicate that: a) surpassing a specific amount of damage, columns even suitably repaired present lower strain capacity, b) finite element analysis present the same way of deboning of the repaired material taking into consideration the buckling of the reinforcement bars.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.4
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• pp.477-490
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• 2018

Reinforced concrete (RC) columns, as the primary load-bearing structural components in buildings, may need to be strengthened due to material deteriorations, changes in usage, new building codes or new design requirements. The use of post compressed plates (PCP) to strengthen existing RC columns has been proven experimentally and practically to be effective in solving stress-lagging effects between the original column and the new strengthening jacket caused by the pre-existing loads. This paper presents a comprehensive summary and review of PCP strengthening techniques to strengthen preloaded RC columns. The failure mode, deformability, and ductility of the strengthened RC columns are reviewed.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.625-637
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• 2023

The application of ML approaches in determining the resisting capacity of fire damaged RC columns is introduced in this paper, on the basis of analysis data driven ML modeling. Considering the characteristics of the structural behavior of fire damaged RC columns, the representative five approaches of Kernel SVM, ANN, RF, XGB and LGBM are adopted and applied. Additional partial monotonic constraints are adopted in modelling, to ensure the monotone decrease of resisting capacity in RC column with fire exposure time. Furthermore, additional suggestions are also added to mitigate the heterogeneous composition of the training data. Since the use of ML approaches will significantly reduce the computation time in determining the resisting capacity of fire damaged RC columns, which requires many complex solution procedures from the heat transfer analysis to the rigorous nonlinear analyses and their repetition with time, the introduced ML approach can more effectively be used in large complex structures with many RC members. Because of the very small amount of experimental data, the training data are analytically determined from a heat transfer analysis and a subsequent nonlinear finite element (FE) analysis, and their accuracy was previously verified through a correlation study between the numerical results and experimental data. The results obtained from the application of ML approaches show that the resisting capacity of fire damaged RC columns can effectively be predicted by ML approaches.