• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.239-251
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• 2023

The stiffness evaluation of cracked base metal is of great guidance to fatigue crack reinforcement. By carrying out fatigue tests and numerical simulation of typical cracking details in steel box girder, the strain-degradation law of cracked base metal was analyzed and the relationship between base metal stress and its displacement (stiffness) was explored. The feasibility of evaluating the stress of cracked base metal based on the stress field at the crack tip was verified. The results demonstrate that the stiffness of cracked base metal shows the fast-to-slow degradation trend with fatigue cracking and the base metal at 50mm or more behind the crack tip basically lose its bearing capacity. Drilling will further accelerate stiffness degradation with the increase of hole diameters. The base metal stress has a negative linear relation with its displacement (stiffness), The stress of cracked base metal is also related to stress intensity factor and its relative position (distance, included angle) to the crack tip, through which the local stiffness can be effectively evaluated. Since the stiffness is not uniformly distributed along the cracked base metal, the reinforcement patch is suggested to be designed according to the stiffness to avoid excessive reinforcement for the areas incompletely unloaded.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.90 no.4
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• pp.345-356
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• 2024

This paper aims to investigate the seismic behavior of double steel plate and concrete composite shear wall (DSCW) of shield buildings in nuclear power engineering through experimental study. Hence, a total of 10 specimens were tested to investigate the hysteretic performance of DSCW specimens in detail, in terms of load vs. displacement hysteretic curves, skeleton curves, failure modes, flexural strength, energy dissipation capacity. The experimental results indicated that the thickness of steel plate, vertical load and stiffener have great influence on the shear bearing capacity of shear wall, and the stud space has limited influence on the shear capacity. And finally, a novel simplified formula was proposed to predict the shear bearing capacity of composite shear wall. The predicted results showed satisfactory agreement with the experimental results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.225-241
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• 2024

For several reasons, cold-formed steel (CFS) beams are often manufactured with holes. Nevertheless, because of holes, the reduction in the web area causes a decrease in the bending strength. Edge stiffeners are presently added around the holes to improve the bending strength of flexural members. Therefore, this research studies CFSZ-beams with stiffened holes and investigates how edge stiffener affects bending strength and failure modes. Nonlinear analysis was carried out using ABAQUS software and the developed finite element (FE) model was verified against tests from previous studies. Using the verified FE model, a parametric study of 104 FE models was conducted to investigate the influence of key parameters on bending strength of Z- sections. The results indicated that the effect of holes is less noticeable in very thin Z-sections. Moreover, adding edge stiffeners around the holes improves the flexural capacity of Z-beams and sometimes restores the original bending capacity. Because the computational techniques used to solve the CFS buckling mode with stiffened holes are still unclear, a numerical method using constrained and unconstrained finite strip method (CUFSM) software was proposed to predict the elastic distortional buckling moment for a wide variety of CFSZ-sections with stiffened holes. A numerical method with two procedures was applied and validated. Upon comparison, the numerical method accurately predicted the distortional buckling moment of CFS Z-sections with stiffened holes.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.505-516
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• 2000

This paper is a presentation of an experimental study about the elastic-partly plastic behavior of rectangular hollow steel pinned struts subjected to static cyclic axial loading and the evaluation of the compressive strength of retrofitted crooked struts. Retrofitting is achieved by welding stiffening plates along the webs of damaged struts. The material follows a quasi-kinematic hardening hysteresis path as observed from coupon tests. Test results are compared to those of an analytical model showing a good agreement for both standard and retrofitted struts. The comparison of different stiffener plate dimensions shows that more efficient strengthening is achieved by using long thin stiffeners rather than short thick ones.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.15-23
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• 2023

In this work, we deal with the feasibility of structural topology optimization for beam designs using retrofits that optimally allocates the reinforcement to the web under the condition that designers set bolt regions for H-beams of different dimensions. Mean compliance or minimal strain energy is considered for the optimization. Volume fraction is given to the design space to assign appropriate steel material quantities. The purpose of this study is to evaluate optimal shapes of stiffeners with the maximum rigidity that improves the axial and shear performance of the H-beam and to satisfy a given safety design standard of H-beam and stiffeners in case arbitrary load effect and resistances. Finally, the effectiveness of stiffness-based topology optimization on stiffeners is verified with several practical applicable examples.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.793-803
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• 2019

Concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) beam-columns are widely used owing to their good performance. They have high strength, ductility, large energy absorption capacity and low costs. Externally stiffened CFST beam-columns are not used widely due to insufficient design equations that consider all parameters affecting their behavior. Therefore, effect of various parameters (global, local slenderness ratio and adding hoop stiffeners) on the behavior of CFST columns is studied. An experimental study that includes twenty seven specimens is conducted to determine the effect of those parameters. Load capacities, vertical deflections, vertical strains and horizontal strains are all recorded for every specimen. Ratio between outer diameter (D) of pipes and thickness (t) is chosen to avoid local buckling according to different limits set by codes for the maximum D/t ratio. The study includes two loading methods on composite sections: steel only and steel with concrete. The case of loading on steel only, occurs in the connection zone, while the other load case occurs in steel beam connecting externally with the steel column wall. Two failure mechanisms of CFST columns are observed: yielding and global buckling. At early loading stages, steel wall in composite specimens dilated more than concrete so no full bond was achieved which weakened strength and stiffness of specimens. Adding stiffeners to the specimens increases the ultimate load by up to 25% due to redistribution of stresses between stiffener and steel column wall. Finally, design equations previously prepared are verified and found to be only applicable for medium and long columns.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.219-229
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• 2015

An experimental study was performed for thin-walled rectangular concrete-filled tubular (CFT) columns. The present study mainly focused on evaluation of the axial load-carrying capacity of concrete-filled tubular columns using high-strength steel and slender section. The test parameters were width-to-thickness ratio, concrete strength, steel yield strength, and the use of stiffeners. Five specimens were tested under monotonic axial loading. Although elastic local buckling occurred in the slender-section specimens with high-strength steel, the specimens exhibited considerable post-buckling reserve. The test results also satisfied the predictions of a current design code. The specimens strengthened with vertical stiffeners exhibited improved strength and ductility when compared with the un-stiffened specimens.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.12 no.5 s.48
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• pp.463-473
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• 2000

This paper presents the results of the experimental and analytical investigation for the fatigue strength of welded details frequently used in steel bridges, especially for the details with relatively lower fatigue strength. The welded details included four kinds of welded details corresponding to the categories C, D, E and E' which represent the flange attachment details, web attachment details, transverse stiffeners and cover-plate details. Tensile fatigue tests were performed. The test results were compared with other available test results and the fatigue criteria of AASHTO, JSSC and Eurocode specifications. Generally, our test results were well agreed with other test results and satisfied with above-mentioned fatigue design provisions. However, it was found that transversely loaded weld-details showed lower fatigue strength than longitudinally loaded weld-details in transverse stiffener detail, and the test results of those details were not satisfied with AASHTO fatigue provisions. Examining the effect of length of gusset plate attachment details, welded details with longer attachment showed relatively lower fatigue strength, especially for the out-of-plane gusset plate details. It is recommended to perform additional fatigue tests with various loading and detail parameters and to establish the more detailed fatigue categories such as Eurocode or JSSC

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.269-281
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• 1997

The overall buckling mode in a composite steel-concrete beam over an internal support is necessarily lateral-distortional, in which the bottom compressive range displaces laterally and twists, since the top flange is restrained by the nearly rigid concrete slab. An efficient finite element method is used to study elastic lateral-distortional buckling in composite beams whose steel portion is tapered. The simplified model for a continuous beam that is presented herein is a fixed ended cantilever whose steel portion is tapered, and is subjected to moment gradient. This is intended to give an insight into distortion in a continuous beam that occurs in the negative bending region, and the differences between the cantilever representation and the continuous beam are highlighted. An eigenproblem is established, and the buckling modes and loads are determined in the elastic range of structural response. It is found from the finite element study that the buckling moment may be enhanced significantly by using a vertical stiffener in the region where the lateral movement of the bottom range is greatest. This enhancement is quantified in the paper.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.10 no.1 s.34
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• pp.25-35
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• 1998

A moment connection of H beam-to-rectangular tube column with external stiffeners was proposed. A formula to predict the ultimate strength of the connection was derived based on the yield line mechanism. Experimental investigation was performed to determine the applicability of the connection type and the strength formula. The ultimate strengths computed by the formula agreed well with the experimental values.