• Computers and Concrete
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.305-319
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• 2015

On mesoscopic level, concrete can be treated as a three-phase composite material consisting of mortar, aggregates and interfacial transition zone (ITZ) between mortar and aggregate. A lot of research has confirmed that ITZ plays a crucial role in the mechanical fracture process of concrete. The aim of the present study is to propose a numerical method on mesoscale to analyze the failure mechanism of reinforced concrete (RC) structures under mechanical loading, and then it will help precisely predict the damage or the cracking initiation and propagation of concrete. Concrete is meshed by means of the Rigid Body Spring Model (RBSM) concept, while the reinforcing steel bars are modeled as beam-type elements. Two kinds of RC members, i.e. subjected to uniaxial tension and beams under bending, the fracture process of concrete and the distribution of cracks, as well as the load-deflection relationships are investigated and compared with the available test results. It is found that the numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental observations, indicating that the model can successfully simulate the failure process of the RC members.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.693-696
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• 1999

Reinforced concrete is, in general, known as high durability construction material under normal environments due to strong alkalinity of cement. It is , however, well known that moderate or minor cracks in reinforced concrete should be most serious causes to deteriorate the durability of RC structures. Furthermore, chloride contents penetrating through unexpected cracks in reinforced concrete bridges get to weaken corrosion resistance of reinforcement steel in concrete and than to accelerate the deterioration of concrete durability. The objective of this experimental research is 1) to evaluate the effect of various corrosion protection system for reinforced concrete specimens with moderate or minor cracks which are exposed to cyclic wet and dry seawater, and then 2) to develop effective corrosion protection system for reinforced concrete bridges under the exposure of various detrimental environments such as seawater, deicing and etc.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.329-334
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• 2001

In this paper, the crack properties of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) structures for environment by experimental and analytical methods are discussed. The major role played by the steel fiber occurs in the post-cracking zone, in which the fibers bridge across the cracked matrix. Because of its improved ability to break crack, SFRC has better crack properties than that of reinforced concrete (RC). Crack properties are influenced by longitudinal reinforcement ratio, volume and type of steel fiber, strength of concrete.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.199-213
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• 2017

Chloride penetration is among the main causes of corrosion initiation in reinforced concrete (RC) structures producing premature degradations. Weather and exposure conditions directly affect chloride ingress mechanisms and therefore the operational service life and safety of RC structures. Consequently, comprehensive chloride ingress models are useful tools to estimate corrosion initiation risks and minimize maintenance costs for RC structures placed under chloride-contaminated environments. This paper first presents a coupled thermo-hydro-chemical model for predicting chloride penetration into concrete that accounts for realistic weather conditions. This complete numerical model takes into account multiple factors affecting chloride ingress such as diffusion, convection, chloride binding, ionic interaction, and concrete aging. Since the complete model could be computationally expensive for long-term assessment, this study also proposes model simplifications in order to reduce the computational cost. Long-term chloride assessments of complete and reduced models are compared for three locations in France (Brest, Strasbourg and Nice) characterized by different weather and exposure conditions (tidal zone, de-icing salts and salt spray). The comparative study indicates that the reduced model is computationally efficient and accurate for long-term chloride ingress modeling in comparison to the complete one. Given that long-term assessment requires larger climate databases, this research also studies how climate models may affect chloride ingress assessment. The results indicate that the selection of climate models as well as the considered training periods introduce significant errors for mid- and long- term chloride ingress assessment.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.311-324
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to investigate experimentally the fatigue performance of reinforced concrete (RC) beams with hot-rolled ribbed fine-grained steel bars of yielding strength 500MPa (HRBF500). Three rectangular and three T-section RC beams with HRBF500 bars were constructed and tested under static and constant-amplitude cyclic loading. Prior to the application of repeated loading, all beams were initially cracked under static loading. The major test variables were the steel ratio, cross-sectional shape and stress range. The stress evolution of HRBF500 bars, the information about crack growth and the deflection developments of test beams were presented and analyzed. Rapid increases in deflections and tension steel stress occured in the early stages of fatigue loading, and were followed by a relatively stable period. Test results indicate that, the concrete beams reinforced with appropriate amount of HRBF500 bars can survive 2.5 million cycles of constant-amplitude cyclic loading with no apparent signs of damage, on condition that the initial extreme tensile stress in HRBF500 steel bars was controlled less than 150 MPa. It was also found that, the initial extreme tension steel stress, stress range, and steel ratio were the main factors that affected the fatigue properties of RC beams with HRBF500 bars, whose effects on fatigue properties were fully discussed in this paper, while the cross-sectional shape had no significant influence in fatigue properties. The results provide important guidance for the fatigue design of concrete beams reinforced with HRBF500 steel bars.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.18 no.2 s.92
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• pp.293-298
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• 2006

The reinforced concrete(RC) structures strengthened with fiber reinforced plastic(FRP) has been accepted by the construction engineering community for rehabilitation. FRP composites can present many advantages like a corrosion resistance, strength-weight ratio, relatively short application time, and cost effectiveness. The beams under design load, however, are cracked and result in degrading the strength. It is difficult to recognize cracks and deflections on the surface of the concrete members retrofitted with FRP through the life cycle. For these reasons, if they result in the effects, which were below the expected strength, we must monitor the state of concrete structures all the time in order to take an appropriate measure. Fiber Bragg Grating(FBG) sensor excel as monitoring of investigating the stress state of the retrofitted beams with FRP. The main objective of this study is to measure strain by experiment and analyze the behavior of RC beams retrofitted with FRP using FBG sensor. The kinds of FRP which were used in research are carbon, glass and improved hybrid FRP(IFRP) that has capacity than any other FRP. Other variables are the length of FRP, the number of sheet.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.319-341
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• 2009

A new formulation based on lumped plasticity and inelastic hinges is presented in this paper for nonlinear analysis of Reinforced Concrete (RC) frame structures. Inelastic hinge behaviour is described using the principles of Continuum Damage Mechanics (CDM). Member formulation contains provisions to model stiffness degradation due to cracking of concrete and yielding of reinforcing steel. Depending on its nature, cracking is classified as concentrated or distributed. Concentrated cracking is accounted through a damage variable and its growth is defined based on strain energy principles. Presence of distributed flexural cracks in a member is taken care of by modelling it as non-prismatic. Plasticity theory supported by effective stress concept of CDM is applied to describe the post-yield response. Nonlinear quasi-static analysis is carried out on a RC column and a wide two-storey RC frame to verify the formulation. The column is subjected to constant axial load and monotonic lateral load while the frame is subjected to only lateral load. Computed results are compared with those due to experiments or other numerical methods to validate the performance of the formulation and also to highlight the contribution of distributed cracking on global response.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.718-723
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• 2000

Reinforced concrete is in general, known as high durability construction material under normal environments due to strong alkalinity of cement. It is, however, well known that moderate or minor cracks in reinforced concrete should be most serious causes to deteriorate the durability of RC structures. Futhermore, chloride contents penetrating through unexpected cracks in reinforced concrete bridges get to weaken corrosion resistance of reinforcement steel in concrete and then to accelerate the deterioration of concrete durability. The objective of this experimental research is 1) to evaluate the effect of various corrosion protection systems for reinforced concrete specimens with moderate or minor cracks which are exposed to cyclic wet and dry seawater, and then 2) to develop effective corrosion protection systems for reinforced concrete bridges under the exposure of various detrimental environments such as seawater, deicing and etc.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.583-592
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• 2018

Today, buildings are exposed to the effects such as explosion and impact loads. Usually, explosion and impact loads that act on the buildings such as nuclear power plants, airports, defense industry and military facilities, can occur occasionally on the normal buildings because of some reasons like drop weight impacts, natural gas system explosions, and terrorist attacks. Therefore, it has become important to examine the behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) structures under impact loading. Development of computational mechanics has facilitated the modeling of such load conditions. In this study, three kinds of RC walls that have different geometric forms (square, ellipse, and circle) and used in guardhouses with same usage area were modeled with Abaqus finite element software. The three configurations were subjected to the same impact energy to determine the geometric form that gives the best behavior under the impact loading. As a result of the analyses, the transverse impact forces and failure modes of RC walls under impact loading were obtained. Circular formed (CF) reinforced concrete wall which has same impact resistance in each direction had more advantages. Nonetheless, in the case of the impact loading occurring in the major axis direction of the ellipse (EF-1), the elliptical formed reinforced concrete wall has higher impact resistance.