• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.347-356
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• 2019

Most of the recent studies have improved the efficiency of FRP jackets for increasing the compressive strength, shear strength, and ductility of reinforced concrete columns; however, the influence of FRP jackets on the flexural capacity is slight. Although new methods such as NSM (near surface mounted) are utilized to solve this problem, yet practical difficulties, behavior dependency on adhesives, and brittle failure necessitate finding better methods. This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the application of fiber-reinforced polymer fastened mechanically to the concrete columns to improve the flexural capacity of RC columns. For this purpose, mechanical fasteners were used to achieve the composite behavior of FRP and concrete columns. The experimental program included five reinforced concrete columns retrofitted by different methods using FRP subjected to constant axial compression and lateral cyclic loading. The experimental results showed that the use of the new method proposed in this paper increased the flexural strength and lateral load capacity of the columns significantly, and good composite action of FRP and RC column was achieved. Moreover, the experimental results were compared with the results obtained from the analytical study based on strain compatibility, and good proximity was reached.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.403-417
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• 2022

Reinforced concrete (RC) structures with low-strength RC columns are rampant in several countries, especially those constructed during the early 1960s and 1970s. The weakness of these structures due to overloading or some natural disasters such as earthquakes and building age effects are some of the main reasons to collapse, particularly with the scarcity of data on the impact of aspect ratio and corner radius on the confinement effectiveness. Hence, it is crucial to investigate if these columns (with different aspect ratios) can be made safe by strengthening them with carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP) sheets. Therefore, experimental and numerical studies of CFRP-strengthened low-strength reinforced concrete short rectangular, square, and circular columns were studied. In this investigation, a total of 6 columns divided into three sets were evaluated. The first set had two circular cross-sectional columns, the second set had two square cross-section columns, and the third set has two rectangular cross-section columns. Furthermore, FEM validation has been conducted for some of the experimental results obtained from the literature. The experimental results revealed that the confinement equations for RC columns as per both CSA and ACI codes could give incorrect results for low-strength concrete. The control specimen (unstrengthened ones) displayed that both ACI and CSA equations overestimate the ultimate strength of low-strength RC columns by order of extent. For strengthened columns with CFRP, the code equations of CSA and ACI code overestimate the maximum strength by around 6 to 13% and 23 to 29%, respectively, depending on the cross-section of the column (i.e., square, rectangular, or circular). Results of finite element models (FEMs) showed that increasing the layer number of new commonly CFRP type (B) from one to 3 for circular columns can increase the column's ultimate loads by around eight times compared to unjacketed columns. However, in the case of strengthened square and rectangular columns with CFRP, the increase of the ultimate loads of columns can reach up to six times and two times, respectively.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.539-561
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• 2017

In this study, the effects of initial damage of concrete columns on the post-repair performance of reinforced concrete (RC) columns strengthened with carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite are investigated experimentally. Four kinds of compression-damaged RC cylinders were reinforced using external CFRP composite wraps, and the stress-strain behavior of the composite/concrete system was investigated. These concrete cylinders were compressed to four pre-damaged states including low -level, medium -level, high -level and total damage states. The percentages of the stress levels of pre-damage were, respectively, 40, 60, 80, and 100% of that of the control RC cylinder. These damaged concrete cylinders simulate bridge piers or building columns subjected to different magnitudes of stress, or at various stages in long-term behavior. Experimental data, as well as a stress-strain model proposed for the behavior of damaged and undamaged concrete strengthened by external CFRP composite sheets are presented. The experimental data shows that external confinement of concrete by CFRP composite wrap significantly improves both compressive strength and ductility of concrete, though the improvement is inversely proportional to the initial degree of damage to the concrete. The failure modes of the composite/damaged concrete systems were examined to evaluate the benefit of this reinforcing methodology. Results predicted by the model showed very good agreement with those of the current experimental program.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.237-250
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• 2014

This paper experimentally investigates the seismic performance of RC columns retrofitted with Super Reinforcement with Flexibility (SRF), which is a polyester fiber reinforced polymer. A total of three specimens with a scale factor of 1/2 were constructed and tested in order to assess the structural behavior of the retrofitted RC columns. One specimen was a non-seismically designed column without any retrofit, while others were retrofitted with either one or two layers of the polyester belt with urethane as the adhesive. Static cyclic testing with a constant axial load was conducted to assess the seismic performance of the retrofitted RC columns. It is concluded that the SRF retrofitting method increases the strength and ductility of the RC columns and can also impact on the failure mode of the columns.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.321-335
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• 2015

To be able to understand the behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) members, cross sectional behavior should be known well. Cross sectional behavior can be best evaluated by moment-curvature relationship. On a reinforced concrete cross section moment-curvature relationship can be best determined by both experimentally or numerically with some complicated iteration methods. Making these experiments or iterations manually is very difficult and not practical. The aim of this study is to research the efficiency of Neural Networks (NN) as a more secure and robust method to obtain the moment-curvature relationship of circular RC columns. It is demonstrated that the NN based model is highly successful to determine the moment-curvature relationship of circular reinforced concrete columns.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.29-37
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• 2022

The collapse of reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings is mainly caused by the failure of columns. To prevent brittle failure of RC column, numerous studies have been conducted on the seismic performance of strengthened RC columns. Concrete jacketing method, which is one of the retrofitting method of RC members, can enhance strength and stiffness of original RC column with enlarged section and provide uniformly distributed lateral load capacity throughout the structure. The experimental studies have been conducted by many researchers to analyze seismic performance of seismic strengthened RC column. However, structures which have plan and vertical irregularities shows torsional behavior, and therefore it causes large deformation on RC column when subjected to seismic load. Thus, test results from concentric cyclic loading can be overestimated comparing to eccentric cyclic test results, In this paper, two kinds of eccentric loading pattern was suggested to analyze structural performance of RC columns, which are strengthened by concrete jacketing method with new details in jacketed section. Based on the results, it is concluded that specimens strengthened with new concrete jacketing method increased 830% of maximum load, 150% of maximum displacement and changed the failure modes of non-strengthened RC columns.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.513-525
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• 2023

Recently, research on predicting the behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) columns using machine learning methods has been actively conducted. However, most studies have focused on predicting the ultimate strength of RC columns using a regression algorithm. Therefore, this study develops a successive machine learning process for predicting multiple nonlinear behaviors of rectangular RC columns. This process consists of three stages: single machine learning, bagging ensemble, and stacking ensemble. In the case of strength prediction, sufficient prediction accuracy is confirmed even in the first stage. In the case of displacement, although sufficient accuracy is not achieved in the first and second stages, the stacking ensemble model in the third stage performs better than the machine learning models in the first and second stages. In addition, the performance of the final prediction models is verified by comparing the backbone curves and hysteresis loops obtained from predicted outputs with actual experimental data.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.295-304
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• 2019

The lateral displacement or drift may be the cause of the damage in the reinforced concrete (RC) columns under the seismic load. In many regulations, lateral displacement was limited according to the properties of columns. The design displacement limits may be represented indirectly through the material strain limits and the mechanical properties of columns. EUROCODE-8 and FEMA356 calculate displacement limits by taking into account the mechanical properties of columns. However, Turkey Building Earthquake Code (TBEC) determine displacement limits by taking into account the material strain limits. The aim of this study is to assess the seismic design codes for RC columns through an experimental study. The estimates of seismic design codes have been compared with the experimental results. It is observed that the lateral displacement capacities of columns estimated according to some seismic codes are not in agreement with the experimental results. Also, it is observed that TBEC is conservative in the context of the performance indicator of RC columns, compared to EUROCODE-8 and FEMA356. Moreover, in this study, plastic hinge length and effective stiffness of test elements were investigated.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.185-193
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• 2020

An analytical model is developed in this paper to predict the shear capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) columns with corroded transverse reinforcements. The shear strength model for corroded RC columns is proposed based on modifying the existing strut-and-tie model, which considers the deformational compatibility between truss and arch mechanisms. The contributions to the shear strength from both truss and arch mechanisms are incorporated in the proposed model. The effects of corrosion level of transverse reinforcements are considered in the proposed model through the minimum residual cross-sectional area of transverse reinforcements and the reduction of concrete compressive strength for the cover area. The shear strengths calculated from the developed model are compared with the experimental results from Vu's study (2017), which consisted of RC columns with corroded transverse reinforcements showing shear failure under the cyclic loading. The comparison results indicate satisfactory correlations. Parametric studies are conducted based on the developed shear strength model to explore the effects of column axial loading, aspect ratios, transverse reinforcements and the corrosion levels in transverse reinforcements to the shear strength of RC columns with corroded transverse reinforcements.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.527-536
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• 2023

Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) bar has emerged as a viable and sustainable replacement to steel in reinforced concrete (RC) under severe corrosive environment. The behavior of concrete columns reinforced with FRP bars, spirals, and hoops is an ongoing area of research. In this study, 3D nonlinear numerical modelling of circular concrete columns reinforced with Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) bars and transversely confined with GFRP spirals were conducted using fracture-plastic model. The numerical models and experimental results are found to be in good agreement. The effectiveness of confinement was accessed through von-mises stresses, and it was found that the stresses in the concrete's core are higher with a 30 mm pitch (46 MPa) compared to a 60 mm pitch (36 MPa). The validated models are used to conduct parametric studies. In terms of axial load carrying capacity and member ductility, the effect of concrete strength, spiral pitch, and longitudinal reinforcement ratio are thoroughly investigated. The confinement effect and member ductility of a GFRP RC column increases as the spiral pitch decreases. It is also found that the confinement effect and member ductility decreased with increase in strength of concrete.