• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.635-645
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• 2018

Beam-column joints play a significant role in static and dynamic performances of reinforced concrete frame structures. This study contributes a numerical approach of topologically optimal design of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) to retrofit existing beam-column connections with crack patterns. In recent, CFRP is used commonly in the rehabilitation and strengthening of concrete members due to the remarkable properties, such as lightweight, anti-corrosion and simplicity to execute construction. With the target to provide an optimal CFRP configuration to effectively retrofit the beam-column connection under semi-failure situation such as given cracks, extended finite element method (X-FEM) is used by combining with multi-material topology optimization (MTO) as a mechanical description approach for strong discontinuity state to mechanically model cracked structures. The well founded mathematical formulation of topology optimization problem for cracked structures by using multiple materials is described in detail in this study. In addition, moved and regularized Heaviside functions (MRHF), that have the role of a filter in multiple materials case, is also considered. The numerical example results illustrated in two cases of beam-column joints with stationary cracks verify the validity, benefit and supremacy of the proposed method.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.433-441
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• 2019

The aim of this research is reinforcing of concrete with variety of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) configurations and investigates the load capacity and ductility of these connections using an experimental investigation. Six scaled-down RC exterior joints were tested under moderately monotonic loads. The results show that, the shape of the FRP had a different effect on the joint capacity and the connection ductility coefficient. The greatest effect on increasing the ductility factor was seen in the sample where two reinforcement plates were used on both sides of the beam web (RCS5 sample). For the sample with the presence of FRP plates at the top and bottom of the beam (RCS3 sample), the ductility factor was reduced even the load capacity of this sample increased. Except for the RCS3 sample, the rest of the samples exhibited an increase in the ductility factor due to the FRP reinforcement.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.329-334
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• 2019

Traffic flow capacity of some old road bridges is insufficient due to limited deck width. In such cases bridge deck widening is a common solution. For multi-girder reinforced concrete (RC) bridges it is possible to add steel-concrete composite girders as the new outermost girders. The deck widening may be combined with bridge strengthening thanks to thickening of the existing deck slab. Joint action of the existing and the added parts of such bridge span must be ensured. It refers especially to the horizontal plane at the interface of the existing slab and the added concrete layer as well as to the vertical planes at the external surfaces of the initially outermost girders where the added girders are connected to the existing bridge span. Since the distribution of the added concrete is non-uniform in the span cross-section the structure is particularly sensitive to the added concrete shrinkage. The shrinkage induces shear forces in the aforementioned planes. Widening of a 12 m long RC multi-girder bridge span is numerically analysed to assess the influence of the added concrete shrinkage. The analysis results show that: a) in the vertical plane of the connection of the added and the existing deck slab the longitudinal shear due to the shrinkage of the added concrete is comparable with the effect of live load, b) it is necessary to provide appropriate longitudinal reinforcement in the deck slab over the added girders due to tension induced by the shrinkage of the added concrete.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.185-197
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• 2019

Considering the increasing use of tubular profiles in civil construction, this paper highlights the study on the behavior of welded connections between square hollow section column and I-beam, with emphasis on the assessment of the joint stiffness. Firstly, a theoretical analysis of the welded joints has been done focusing on prescriptions of the technical literature for the types of geometries mentioned. Then, a numerical analysis of the proposed joints were performed by the finite element method (FEM) with the software ANSYS 16.0. In this study, two models were evaluated for different parameters, such as the thickness of the cross section of the column and the sizes of cross section of the beams. The first model describes a connection in which one beam is connected to the column in a unique bending plane, while the second model describes a connection of two beams to the column in two bending planes. From the numerical results, the bending moment-rotation ($M-{\varphi}$) curve was plotted in order to determine the resistant bending moment and classify each connection according to its rotational capacity. Furthermore, an equation was established with the aim of estimating the rotational stiffness of welded I beam-to-RHS column connections, which can be used during the structure design. The results show that most of the connections are semi-rigid, highlighting the importance of considering the stiffness of the connections in the structure design.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.8
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• pp.2755-2770
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• 2022

The need for Dissimilar Welded Joint (DWJ) in the power plant components arises in order to increase the overall efficiency of the plant and to avoid premature failure in the component welds. The Activated-Tungsten Inert Gas (A-TIG) welding process, which is a variant of Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welding, is focus of this review work concerning the DWJ of nuclear grade creep-strength enhanced ferritic/martensitic (CSEF/M) steels and austenitic steels. A-TIG DWJs are compared with Multipass-Tungsten Inert Gas (M-TIG) DWJ based on their mechanical and microstructural properties. The limitations of multipass welding have put A-TIG welding in focus as A-TIG provides a weld with increased depth of penetration (DOP) and enhanced mechanical properties. Hence, this review article covers the A-TIG welding principle and working parameters along with detailed analysis of role played by the flux in welding procedure. Further, weld characteristics of martensitic and austenitic steel DWJ developed with the A-TIG welding process and the M-TIG welding process are compared in this study as there are differences in mechanical, microstructural, creep-related, and residual stress obtained in both TIG variants. The mechanics involved in the welding process is deliberated which is revealed by microstructural changes and behavior of base metals and WFZ.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.465-481
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• 2022

This paper presents a comprehensive integrity assessment of welded structural components, including uniform high- and low-cycle fatigue assessment of welded plate joints and fatigue-induced fracture assessment of welded plate joints. This study reports a series of fatigue and fracture tests of welded plate joints under three-point bending. To unify the assessment protocol for high- and low-cycle fatigue of welded plate joints, this study develops a numerical damage assessment framework for both high- and low-cycle fatigue. The calibrated damage material parameters are validated through the smooth coupon specimens. The proposed damage-based fatigue assessment approach describes, with reasonable accuracy, the total fatigue life of welded plate joints under high- and low-cycle fatigue actions. Subsequently, the study performs a tearing assessment on the ductile crack extension of the fatigue-induced crack. The tearing assessment diagram derives from the load-deformation curve of a single-edge notched bend, SE(B) specimen and successfully predicts the load-crack extension relation for the reported welded plate joints during the stable tearing process.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.107-116
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• 2022

This paper presents results of numerical studies completed on unreinforced and doubler plate reinforced Elliptical Hollow Section (EHS) T-joints subjected to axial compressive loading on the brace member. Non-linear finite element (FE) models were developed using the finite element code, ABAQUS. Available test data in literature was used to validate the FE models. Subsequently, a parametric study was carried out to investigate the effects of various geometrical parameters of main members and reinforcement plates on the ultimate capacity of reinforced EHS T-joints. The parametric study found that the reinforcing plate significantly increases the ultimate capacity of EHS T-joints up to twice the capacity of the corresponding unreinforced joint. The thickness and length of the reinforcing plate have a positive effect on the ultimate capacity of Type 1 joints. This study, however, found that the capacity of Type 1 orientation is not dependent on the brace-to-chord diameter ratio. As for type 2 orientations, the thickness and length of the reinforcement have a minimal effect on the ultimate capacity. A new design method is introduced to predict the capacity of the reinforced EHS T-joints Type 1 and 2 based on the multiple linear regression analyses.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.207-220
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• 2022

Structural health monitoring (SHM) plays a vital role in the maintenance and operation of constructions. In recent years, autonomous inspection has received considerable attention because conventional monitoring methods are inefficient and expensive to some extent. To develop autonomous inspection, a potential approach of crack identification is needed to locate defects. Therefore, this study exploits two deep learning-based segmentation models, DeepLabv3+ and Mask R-CNN, for crack segmentation because these two segmentation models can outperform other similar models on public datasets. Additionally, impacts of label quality on model performance are explored to obtain an empirical guideline on the preparation of image datasets. The influence of image cropping and label refining are also investigated, and different strategies are applied to the dataset, resulting in six alternated datasets. By conducting experiments with these datasets, the highest mean Intersection-over-Union (mIoU), 75%, is achieved by Mask R-CNN. The rise in the percentage of annotations by image cropping improves model performance while the label refining has opposite effects on the two models. As the label refining results in fewer error annotations of cracks, this modification enhances the performance of DeepLabv3+. Instead, the performance of Mask R-CNN decreases because fragmented annotations may mistake an instance as multiple instances. To sum up, both DeepLabv3+ and Mask R-CNN are capable of crack identification, and an empirical guideline on the data preparation is presented to strengthen identification successfulness via image cropping and label refining.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.697-713
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• 2022

In the context of the finite elements method, the dynamic behavior of porous functionally graded double wishbone vehicle suspension structural system incorporating joints flexibility constraints under road bump excitation is studied and analyzed. The functionally graded material properties distribution through the thickness direction is simulated by the power law including the porosity effect. To explore the porosity effects, both classical and adopted porosity models are considered based on even porosity distribution pattern. The dynamic equations of motion are derived based on the Hamiltonian principle. Closed forms of the inertia and material stiffness components are derived. Based on the plane frame isoparametric Timoshenko beam element, the dynamic finite elements equations are developed incorporating joint flexibilities constraints. The Newmark's implicit direct integration methodology is utilized to obtain the transient vibration time response under road bump excitation. The presented procedure is validated by comparing the computational model results with the available numerical solutions and an excellent agreement is observed. Obtained results show that the decrease of porosity percentage and material graduation tends to decrease the deflection as well as the resulting stresses of the control arms thus improving the dynamic performance and increasing the service lifetime of the control arms.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.175-176
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• 2023

The masonry structure is constructed by cement mortar binding material of brick objects and uses reinforced hardware(connected hardware or wall tie) together when building. However, over time, the corrosion of reinforced steel and the deterioration of joint mortar as well as bricks cause the risk of collapse. In particular, when the externally decorated brick wall is installed on the concrete girder for each floor, the angle bracket is not constructed or corroded, the full-layer weight load is applied to the wall of 0.5B, which is an example of full-scale or collapse. As a result of the evaluation, it was confirmed that the performance was improved compared to the existing bracket, and we plan to carry out a real-life test and long-term performance review of the building using the bracket in the future.