• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.378-389
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• 2010

Submarine tunnels are affected by the surrounding environments more than regular tunnels. Especially, they are often vulnerable to damage by salt in seawater. Seawater is more likely to affect reinforcing rods and steel fibers than concrete. Recently the usage of anti-corrosive fibers increases in the tunnel which is subject to the possibility of damage. By comparing the capability of polypropylene fibers with that of steel fibers, the proper mixture ratio is decided and the supporting capability of polypropylene fibers was tested using round panel and beam specimens. The results of this study can be of great use in selecting the fiber material and designing of fiber reinforced shotcrete of submarine tunnels.

• Advances in materials Research
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.245-255
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• 2017

High energy ball milling is employed to produce iron matrix- multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) reinforced composite. The damage caused to MWCNT due to harsh ball milling condition and its influence on interfacial bonding is studied. Different amount of MWCNT is used to find the optimal percentage of MWCNT for avoidance of the formation of chemical reaction product at the matrix - reinforcement interface. Effect of process control agent is assessed by the use of different materials for the purpose. It is observed that ethanol as a process control agent (PCA) causes degradation of MWCNT reinforcements after milling for two hours whereas solid stearic acid used as process control agent, allows satisfactory conservation of MWCNT structure. It is further noted that at a high MWCNT content (~ 2wt.%), high energy ball milling leads to reaction of iron and carbon and forms iron carbide (cementite) at the iron-MWCNT interface. At low percentage of MWCNT, dissolution of carbon in iron takes place and the amount of reinforcement in iron matrix composite becomes negligibly small. However, under the present ball milling condition (ball to metal ratio~ 6:1 and 200 rpm vial speed) iron-1wt.% MWCNT composite of good interfacial bonding can retain the tubular structure of reinforcing MWCNT.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.483-491
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• 2017

This paper presents an experimental study on the behavior of concrete-encased composite columns with multiseparate steel sections subjected to axial and eccentric loads. Six 1/4-scaled concrete-encased composite columns were tested under static loads. The specimens were identical in geometric dimensions and configurations, and the parameter of this experiment was the eccentricity ratio of the applied load. Each two of the specimens were loaded with 0, 10%, and 15% eccentricity ratios. The capacity, deformation pattern, and failure mode of the specimens were carefully examined. Test results indicate that full composite action between the concrete and the steel sections can be realized even though the steel sections do not connect with one another. The concrete-encased composite columns can develop stable behavior and sufficient deformation capacity by providing enough transverse reinforcing bars. Capacities of the specimens were evaluated based on both the Plain Section Assumption (PSA) method and the superimposition method. Results show that U.S. and Chinese codes can be accurate and safe in terms of bending capacities. Test results also indicate that the ACI 318 and Mirza methods give the best predictions on the flexural stiffness of this kind of composite columns.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.205-219
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• 2019

In Peru, construction of dwellings using confined masonry walls (CM) has a high percentage of acceptance within many sectors of the population. It is estimated that only in Lima, 80% of the constructions use CM and at least 70% of these are informal constructions. This mean that they are built without proper technical advice and generally have a high seismic vulnerability. One way to reduce this vulnerability is by reinforcing the walls. However, despite the existence of some reinforcement methods in the market, not all of them can be applied massively because there are other parameters to take into account, as economical, criteria for seismic improvement, reinforcement ratio, etc. Therefore, in this paper the feasibility of using five reinforcement techniques has been studied and compared. These reinforcements are: welded mesh (WM), glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP), carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP), steel bar wire mesh (CSM), steel reinforced grout (SRG). The Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method can be useful to evaluate the most optimal strengthening technique for a fast, effective and massive use plan in Peru. The results of using MCDM with 10 criteria indicate that the Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) and Steel Reinforced Grout (SRG) methods are the most suitable for a massive reinforcement application in Lima.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.249-262
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• 2019

In this study, high strength aluminum alloys (AA) plates are proposed as a new construction material for strengthening reinforced concrete (RC) beams. The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate AA plate's suitability as externally bonded reinforcing (EBR) materials for retrofitting shear deficient beams. A total of twenty RC beams designed to fail in shear were strengthened with different spacing and orientations. The specimens were loaded with four-points loading till failure. The considered outcome parameters included load carrying capacity, deflection, strain in plates, and failure modes. The results of all tested beams showed an increase up to 37% in the load carrying capacity and also an increase in deflection compared to the control un-strengthened beams. This demonstrated the potential of adopting AA plates as EBR material. Finally, the shear contribution from the AA plates was predicted using the models available in the ACI440-08, TR55 and FIB14 design code for fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) plates. The predicted results were compared to experimental testing data with the ratio of the experimentally measured ultimate load to predicted load, range on the average, between 93% and 97%.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.125-132
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• 2019

Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) has high compressive and tensile strengths due to the particle packing, and its ductile behavior can be ensured by utilizing steel fibers. However, since the UHPC members exhibit different characteristics of crack behavior and tensile behavior from normal concrete, the tension stiffening and cracking characteristics of the UHPC should be accurately modeled for the design and analysis of the UHPC members. In this study, uniaxial tension tests was conducted on the UHPC members with strands, where the test variables were diameter and reinforcing ratio of strands. Detailed analyses were also conducted to identify the tensile characteristics and crack behavior of the UHPC members. By comparing the test results with current code provisions and other models proposed by existing researchers, their applicability for estimation of crack behavior of the UHPC members was examined.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.47-50
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• 2021

Human hearing sensitivity is frequency-dependent. The sensitivity is low at both ends of the audible frequency, and the sensitivity is the highest in the middle band at 3000 Hz. The heart sound of a healthy person is concentrated at a low frequency of 200 Hz or less, and despite using a stethoscope, the hearing sensitivity of the human body is low, and the stethoscope sound is low. Amplifying the sound of the stethoscope is not effective in distinguishing heart sounds in noisy environments because it maintains the same signal-to-noise ratio. In this study, a method of enhancing auditory stimulation was developed by applying a method of moving the spectrum of auscultation sounds into a high-frequency region where the human body is highly sensitive to hearing. The spectrum of the auscultation sound was moved up by 500 Hz in the frequency domain, and an inverse fast Fourier transform (FFT) was performed to reconstruct the auscultation sound. The heart sounds reconstructed by moving the spectra were divided into the first heart and second heart sound components, as in the original heart sound, and it was confirmed that the intensity was large in the cochleagram representing auditory stimulation. Therefore, this study suggested that spectral shift is a method to enhance auditory stimulation during auscultation without increasing the intensity of the auscultation sound.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.6
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• pp.799-810
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• 2022

This study investigated the effect of the strengthening efficiency of unbonded steel-bar truss system on the out-of-plane behavior of perforated masonry walls. Four full-scale unreinforced masonry (URM) walls with two different planes were prepared using the unbonded steel-bar truss system and a URM walls without strengthening. All masonry walls were tested under constant axial and cyclic lateral loads. The obtained test results indicated that the pinching effect in the out-plane behavior of masonry walls tends to decrease in the in- and out-of-plane strengthened URM walls using the unbonded steel-bar truss system with the higher prestressing force ratio (R_p) of vertical reinforcing bars in the unbonded steel-bar truss system, regardless of the perforated type of the masonry wall. Consequently, the highest maximum shear resistance and cumulative dissipated energy at peak load in the post-peak behavior were observed in the in- and out-plane strengthened URM walls with the highest R_p values, which are 2.7 and 6.0 times higher than those of URM. In particular, the strengthening efficiency of the unbonded steel-bar truss system was primarily attributed to the vertical prestressed steel-bars rather than the diagonal steel-bars, which indicates that the strains in the vertical prestressed steel-bars at the peak load were approximately 1.6 times higher than those in the diagonal steel-bars.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.407-421
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• 2022

Prefabricated hybrid wind turbine towers (WTTs) are promising due to height increase. This study proposes the use of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) to develop a new type of WTT without the need to use reinforcement. It is demonstrated that the UHPC WTT structure without reinforcing bars could achieve performance similar to that of reinforced concrete WTTs. To simplify the design of WTT, a design approach for the calculation of stresses at the horizontal joints of a WTT is proposed. The stress distribution near the region of the horizontal joint of the WTT structure under normal operating conditions and different load actions is studied using the proposed approach, which is validated by the finite element method. A further parametric study shows that the degree of prestressing and the bending moment both significantly affect the principal stress. The shear-to-torsion ratio also shows a significant influence on the principal tensile stress.

• Composites Research
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.359-364
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• 2022

Polymers are inherently vulnerable to flame, which limits their application to various high-tech industries. In addition, environmental regulations restrict the use of halogen-based flame retardants which has best flame-retardant effect. There are inorganic flame retardants and phosphorous flame retardants as representative non-halogen-based flame retardants. However, high content of flame retardants is required to impart high flame retardancy of the polymers, and this leads to a decrease in mechanical properties. In this research, a new approach for inorganic flame retardant-based polymer composites with high mechanical properties and flame retardancy was suggested. Inorganic flame retardants called as magnesium oxysulfate whisker (MOSw) were used in this research. MOSw can extinguish fire by releasing water and non-combustible gases when exposed to flame. In addition, they have reinforcing effect when added into the polymer with its high aspect ratio. Expandable graphite (EG) was used as a flame-retardant supplement by helping to form a more dense char layer. Through this research, it is expected that it can be applied to various industries requiring flame retardancy such as automobile, and architecture by replacing halogen-based flame polymer composites.