• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.35-47
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• 2018

This paper investigates the mechanisms of tunnel spalling and massive tunnel failures using fracture mechanics principles. The study starts with examining the fracture propagation due to tensile and shear failure mechanisms. It was found that, fundamentally, in rock masses with high compressive stresses, tensile fracture propagation is often a stable process which leads to a gradual failure. Shear fracture propagation tends to be an unstable process. Several real case observations of spalling failures and massive shear failures in boreholes, tunnels and underground roadways are shown in the paper. A number of numerical models were used to investigate the fracture mechanisms and extents in the roof/wall of a deep tunnel and in an underground coal mine roadway. The modelling was done using a unique fracture mechanics code FRACOD which simulates explicitly the fracture initiation and propagation process. The study has demonstrated that both tensile and shear fracturing may occur in the vicinity of an underground opening. Shallow spalling in the tunnel wall is believed to be caused by tensile fracturing from extensional strain although no tensile stress exists there. Massive large scale failure however is most likely to be caused by shear fracturing under high compressive stresses. The observation that tunnel spalling often starts when the hoop stress reaches $0.4^*UCS$ has been explained in this paper by using the extension strain criterion. At this uniaxial compressive stress level, the lateral extensional strain is equivalent to the critical strain under uniaxial tension. Scale effect on UCS commonly believed by many is unlikely the dominant factor in this phenomenon.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.33-52
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• 2015

Based on the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion, a gradient-dependent plastic model that considers the strain-softening behavior is presented in this study. Both triaxial shear tests on conventional specimen and precut-specimen, which were obtained from an ancient landslide, are performed to plot the post-peak stress-strain entire-process curves. According to the test results of the soil strength, which reduces from peak to residual strength, the Mohr-Coulomb criterion that considers strain-softening under gradient plastic theory is deduced, where strength reduction depends on the hardening parameter and the Laplacian thereof. The validity of the model is evaluated by the simulation of the results of triaxial shear test, and the computed and measured curves are consistent and independent of the adopted mesh. Finally, a progressive failure of the ancient landslide, which was triggered by slide of the toe, is simulated using this model, and the effects of the strain-softening process on the landslide stability are discussed.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.92-100
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• 2011

The main goal of this paper is to provide the theoretical background for the fracture phenomena in marine structural steels. In this paper, various fracture criteria are theoretically investigated: shear failure criteria with constant failure strain and stress triaxiality-dependent failure strain (piecewise failure and Johnson-Cook criteria), forming limit curve failure criterion, micromechanical porosity failure criterion, and continuum damage mechanics failure criterion. It is obvious that stress triaxiality is a very important index to determine the failure phenomenon for ductile materials. Assuming a piecewise failure strain curve as a function of stress triaxiality, the numerical results coincide well with the test results for smooth and notched specimens, where low and high stress triaxialities are observed. Therefore, it is proved that a failure criterion with reliable material constants presents a plastic deformation process, as well as fracture initiation and evolution.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.233-250
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• 2011

An experimental study has been carried out to reveal the shear-bond failure mechanism of composite deck slabs. Thirteen full scale simply supported composite slabs are studied experimentally, with the influence parameters like span length, slab depth, shear span length and end anchorage provided by steel headed studs. A dozen of strain gauges and LVDTs are monitored to capture the strain distribution and variation of the composite slabs. Before the onset of shear-bond slip, the longitudinal shear forces along the span are deduced and found to be proportional to the vertical shear force in terms of the shear-bond strength in the m-k method. The test results are appraised using the current design procedures. Based on the partial shear-bond connection at the ultimate state, an improved method is proposed by introducing two reduction factors to assess the moment resistance of a composite deck slab. The new method has been validated and the results predicted by the revised method agree well with the test results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.1071-1084
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• 2022

The present study aims to investigate the dynamic properties of a novel isolation system composed of separate rubber and wire isolators. The testing program comprised pure compressive, pure-shear, compressive-stress dependence, and shear-strain dependence tests that used full-scale test specimens according to ISO 22762-1. A total of 22 test specimens were fabricated and investigated. Among the tests, the pure compressive test was a destructive test that reached up to the failure stage, whereas the others were nondestructive tests before the failure stage. Similar to the pure-shear test, at each compressive-stress level in the compressive dependence test or at each shear-strain level in the shear-strain dependence test, the cyclic loading was conducted for three cycles. In the nondestructive tests, examination of the dynamic shear properties in the X-direction was independent of the Y-direction. The test results revealed that the increase in the shear strain increased the energy dissipation but decreased the damping ratio, whereas the increase in the compressive stress increased the damping ratio. In addition, a macro model was developed to simulate the load-displacement response of the isolation systems, and the prediction results were consistent with the experimental results.

• Advanced Composite Materials
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.167-180
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• 2007

The tensile strength of unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced plastics under a high strain rate was experimentally investigated. A high-strain-rate test was performed using the tension-type split Hopkinson bar technique. In order to obtain the tensile stress-strain relations, a special fixture was used for the impact tensile specimen. The experimental results demonstrated that the tensile modulus and strength in the longitudinal direction are independent of the strain rate. In contrast, the tensile properties in the transverse direction and the shear properties increase with the strain rate. Moreover, it was observed that the strain-rate dependence of the shear strength is much stronger than that of the transverse strength. The tensile strength of off-axis specimens was measured using an oblique tab, and the experimental results were compared with the tensile strength predicted based on the Tsai-Hill failure criterion. It was concluded that the tensile strength can be characterized quite well using the above failure criterion under dynamic loading conditions.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.5-16
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• 1996

Based on many experimental results on fine silica sands, the strength relation between triaxial and plane strain tests is expressed as a function of both density and mean effective principal stress at failure. Stress ratio of mean normal stress to deviatoric stress at failure is a well defined function of shear angle of friction, This ratio decreases with increasing shear angle of friction. Intermediate principal stress is also expressed in terms of major and minor principal stresses and a relatively good agreement between theoretical and observed angles of failure plane in plane strain test is confirmed.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.169-181
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• 2019

Seismic performance of ordinary reinforced concrete shear wall systems commonly used in high-rise residential buildings is evaluated. Three types of shear walls exceeding 60m in height are designed by performance-based seismic design. Then, incremental dynamic analysis is performed collapse probability is assessed in accordance with the procedure of FEMA P695. As a result, story drift, plastic rotation, and compressive strain are observed to be major failure modes, but shear failure occur little. Collapse probability and collapse margin ratio of performance groups do not meet requirement of FEMA P695. It is observed that critical wall elements fail due to excessive compressive strain. Therefore, the compressive strain of concrete at the boundary area of the shear wall needs to be evaluated with more conservative acceptance criteria.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.735-755
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• 2011

The capability of a multi-directional fixed smeared crack constitutive model to simulate the flexural/punching failure modes of fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) laminar structures is discussed. The constitutive model is implemented in a computer program based on the finite element method, where the FRC laminar structures were simulated according to the Reissner-Mindlin shell theory. The shell is discretized into layers for the simulation of the membrane, bending and out-of-plane shear nonlinear behavior. A stress-strain softening diagram is proposed to reproduce, after crack initiation, the evolution of the normal crack component. The in-plane shear crack component is obtained using the concept of shear retention factor, defined by a crack-strain dependent law. To capture the punching failure mode, a softening diagram is proposed to simulate the decrease of the out-of-plane shear stress components with the increase of the corresponding shear strain components, after crack initiation. With this relatively simple approach, accurate predictions of the behavior of FRC structures failing in bending and in shear can be obtained. To assess the predictive performance of the model, a punching experimental test of a module of a façade panel fabricated with steel fiber reinforced self-compacting concrete is numerically simulated. The influence of some parameters defining the softening diagrams is discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.49-60
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• 2016

Soil failure is initiated and preceded by forming and progressing of shear band, defined as the localization of deformation into thin zones of soil mass. To understand the failure mechanism of normally consolidated cohesive soil, the spatial distribution and evolution of deformation within the entire specimen need to be evaluated. In this study, vertical compression tests under plane strain condition were performed on reconstituted kaolinite specimens, while capturing digital images of the specimen at regular intervals during shearing. Overall stress-strain behavior from initial to post peak has been analyzed together with spatial distributions of deformations and shear band characteristics from digital images at 4 stages.