• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.8 no.5
• /
• pp.1017-1038
• /
• 2015

This paper presents a strengthening method that involves the use of ferrocement jackets and chamfers to relocate plastic hinge for non-seismically designed reinforced concrete exterior beam-column joints. An experimental study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of the proposed strengthening method. Four half-scale beam-column joints, including one control specimen and three strengthened specimens, were prepared and tested under quasi-static cyclic loading. Strengthening schemes include ferrocement jackets with or without skeleton reinforcements and one or two chamfers. Experimental results have indicated that the proposed strengthening method is effective to move plastic hinge from the joint to the beam and enhance seismic performance of beam-column joints. Shear stress and distortion within the joint region are also reduced significantly in strengthened specimens. Skeleton reinforcements in ferrocement provide limited improvement, except on crack control. Specimen strengthened by ferrocement jackets with one chamfer exhibits slight decrease in peak strength and energy dissipation but with increase in ductility as compared with that of two chamfers. Finally, a method for estimating moment capacity at beam-column interface for strengthened specimen is developed. The proposed method gives reasonable prediction and can ensure formation of plastic hinge at predetermined location in the beam.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2008.03a
• /
• pp.1166-1171
• /
• 2008

Despite of the increasing number of the application of drilled shaft piles in construction site, most studies on pile capacity have been focused on the side shear resistance. But it is common that the drilled shaft is socketed on the rock so as to use its bearing resistance. The prediction of the end movement and characteristics of the bearing capacity of the pile is great important as well. Therefore, a series of scaled model tests were carried out in order to study the characteristics of the bearing capacity on rock mass. The material of the test block was cement mortar which was mixed with sand, cement and water, and the size of a test block size was $240{\times}240{\times}240mm$. The axial load was applied by a miniaturized pile of 45mm in diameter and flat jacks and steel plate were used for confinement to simulate the real underground loading conditions. The relation of load-displacement was measured in various different conditions of rock mass such as strength, discontinuity of the rock mass and in-situ stress, so q-w curves of the end of the pile were presented for each condition.

• Composites Research
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.30-37
• /
• 2002

A stiffness model has been proposed to predict elastic constants of twisted yam composites. The model is based upon the unit cell structure, the coordinate transformation, and the volume averaging of compliance constants for constituent materials. For the correlation of analytic results with experiments, composite samples of various yam twist angles were tested, and strength and Young's modulus under tensile, compressive, and shear loading have been obtained. The sample was fabricated by the RTM process using glass yarns and epoxy resin. The correlations of elastic constants showed relatively good agreements. The model provides the predictions of the three-dimensional engineering constants, which are valuable input data for the analytic characterization of textile composites made of twisted yam.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.6 no.6
• /
• pp.627-646
• /
• 2014

Adobe is one of the oldest construction materials that is still used in many seismic countries, and different construction techniques are found around the world. The adobe material is characterized as a brittle material; it has acceptable compression strength but it has poor performance under tensile and shear loading conditions. Numerical modelling is an alternative approach for studying the nonlinear behaviour of masonry structures such as adobe. The lack of a comprehensive experimental database on the adobe material properties motivated the study developed here. A set of a reference material parameters for the adobe were obtained from a calibration of numerical models based on a quasi-static cyclic in-plane test on full-scale adobe wall representative of the typical Peruvian adobe constructions. The numerical modelling, within the micro and macro modelling approach, lead to a good prediction of the in-plane seismic capacity and of the damage evolution in the adobe wall considered.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.19 no.5
• /
• pp.315-329
• /
• 2020

Through bolt connections in Concrete Filled Steel Tubes (CFSTs) has been proved to be good in terms of seismic performance and constructability. Stiffened extended end plate connection with full through type bolt helps to avoid field weld altogether, and hence to improve the quality of joints. An experimental study was conducted on the hysteretic performance of square interior beam-column connections using flat extended end plates with through bolt. The study focuses on the effect of the bond between the tie rod and the core concrete on the cyclic performance of the joint. The study also quantifies how much the interior joint is getting strengthened due to the confinement effect induced by bi-directional bolting, which is widely used in 3D moment resisting frames. For a better understanding of the mechanism and for the prediction of shear capacity of the panel zone, a mathematical model was generated. The various parameters included in the model are the influence of axial load, amount of prestress induced by bolt tightening, anchorage, and the concrete strut action. The study investigates the strength, stiffness, ductility, and energy dissipation characteristics. The results indicate that the seismic resistance is at par with American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) seismic recommendations. The bidirectional bolting and bond effect have got remarkable influence on the performance of joints.

• Computational Structural Engineering
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.139-146
• /
• 1994

In this study, the finite element analysis using joint elements, bolt elements, and shell elements is presented to investigate the behavior of bolted connections. The contact of plates and the high-strength, pretensioned bolts are simply idealized by joint elements and bolt elements, respectively. The initial stiffness is determined through the presented method and the non-linear analysis is archived by a constant-arc-length method based on Newton-Raphson method. The analysis results of a semi-rigid connection(web & flange angles) and a moment connection (shear & moment plates) demonstrate the exactness and applicability of the presented method. And the results indicates that the consideration of slip and 3-dimensional deformation is needed for an accurate prediction of bolted connections.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
• /
• 1997.10a
• /
• pp.145-154
• /
• 1997

The results of optimum design by the deterministic approach adopted in the current design codes depend upon the safety levels of the applied code. But, it is now generally recognized that structural problems are nondeterministic and, consequently, that engineering optimum design must cope with uncertainties. Therefore, it is not an overstatement to affirm that the combination of reliability-based design procedures and optimization techniques is the only means of providing a powerful tool to obtain a practical optimum design solution. In the paper, reliability based optimum design procedure as a rational approach to optimum structural design is presented. The design constraints are formulated based on the ASD, LRFD and reliability theories. The reliability analysis is based on an advanced first-order second moment approach. Uncertainties in the structural strength and loading due to inherent variability as well as modeling and prediction errors are included in failure due to combined bending and shear. For the realistic reliability-based optimization of continuous steel box girder bridges, interactive non-linear limit state model is formulated based on the von Mises's combined stress yield criterion. Comparative results are presented when the ASD criteria are used for the optimum design of a structure under reliability constraints. In addition, this study comparatively shows the results of the optimum design for various criteria of design codes.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.9 no.5
• /
• pp.585-599
• /
• 2015

Laboratory model tests were conducted to investigate the effect of surcharge loading rate on the magnitude of lateral displacement of prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) improved deposit. The test results indicate that under the condition that the system had sufficient factor of safety (FS) ($FS{\geq}1.2$), for the similar model ground under the same total applied surcharge load, the lateral displacement increases with the increase of loading rate. The test results have been used to check the validity of a previously proposed method for predicting the maximum lateral displacement, and it shows that the data points are around the middle line of the predicted range, which supports the usefulness of the proposed method. The basic idea of the prediction method is an empirical relationship between the normalized lateral displacement (NLD) and a ration of load to the undrained shear strength of the deposit (RLS). The model test results offer some modifications of the NLD-RLS relationship: (1) instead of a bilinear relationship, NLD-RLS relationship may be entirely nonlinear; (2) the upper bound value of RLS for the proposed method can be used may be limited to 2.1 instead of the originally proposed value of 3.0.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.453-460
• /
• 2022

It is essential for geotechnical engineers to conduct studies and make predictions about the stability of slopes, since collapse of a slope may result in catastrophic events. The Gaussian process regression (GPR) approach was carried out for the purpose of predicting the factor of safety (FOS) of the slopes in the study that was presented here. The model makes use of a total of 327 slope cases from Iran, each of which has a unique combination of geometric and shear strength parameters that were analyzed by PLAXIS software in order to determine their FOS. The K-fold (K = 5) technique of cross-validation (CV) was used in order to conduct an analysis of the accuracy of the models' predictions. In conclusion, the GPR model showed excellent ability in the prediction of FOS of slope stability, with an R² value of 0.8355, RMSE value of 0.1372, and MAPE value of 6.6389%, respectively. According to the results of the sensitivity analysis, the characteristics (friction angle) and (unit weight) are, in descending order, the most effective, the next most effective, and the least effective parameters for determining slope stability.

• Design & Manufacturing
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.46-51
• /
• 2022

The piercing process of creating holes in sheet metals for mechanical fastening generates high shear force. Real-time monitoring technology could predict tool damage and product defects due to this severe condition, but there are few applications for piercing high-strength aluminum. In this study, we analyzed the load signal to predict the punch's wear level during the process with a piezoelectric sensor installed piercing tool. Experiments were conducted on Al6061 T6 with a thickness of 3.0 mm using piercing punches whose edge angle was controlled by reflecting the wear level. The piercing load increases proportionally with the level of tool wear. For example, the maximum piercing load of the wear-shaped punch with the tip angle controlled at 6 degrees increased by 14% compared to the normal-shaped punch under the typical clearance of 6.7% of the aluminum piercing tool. In addition, the tool wear level increased compression during the down-stroke, which is caused by lateral force due to the decrease in the diameter of pierced holes. Our study showed the predictability of the wear level of punches through the recognition of changes in characteristic elements of the load signal during the piercing process.