• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.5
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• pp.645-654
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• 2022

Environmental thermal loads such as vertical and lateral temperature gradients are significant factors that must be taken into account when designing the bridge. Different models have been developed and used by countries for simulating thermal gradients in bridge codes. In most of the codes only vertical temperature gradients are considered, such as Iranian Standard Loads for Bridge code (ISLB), which only considers the vertical gradient for bridge design proposes. On the other hand, the vertical gradient profile specified in ISLB, has many lacks due to the diversity of climate in Iran, and only one vertical gradient profile is defined for whole Iran. This paper aims to get the both vertical and lateral gradient loads for the concrete box girder using experimental analysis in the capital of Iran, Tehran. To fulfill this aim, thermocouples are installed in experimental concrete segment and temperatures in different location of the segment are recorded. A three dimensional finite element model of concrete box-girder bridge is constructed to study the effects of thermal loads. Results of investigation proved that the effects of thermal loads are not negligible, and must be considered in design processes. Moreover, a solution for reducing the negative effects of thermal gradients in bridges is proposed. Results of the simulation show that using one layer polyurethane insulation can significantly reduce the thermal gradients and thermal stresses.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.363-366
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• 1999

This paper describes the behavior of prestressed concrete storage tanks under cryogenic temperatures by thermal stress analysis. In concrete tanks to store up LNG, a thermal shock can occur over a global area resulting from the sudden filling of the outer tank with cryogenic storage contents. Analysis results show that internal surface of concrete tank is cooled down rapidly. Tank is subjected mostly to thermal constraint moment due to temperature gradient across its section. Constraint moment may cause tensile stresses beyond tensile strength in the wall. Problems related with concrete cracking due to temperature gradient have been considered.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2016

In this study, high performance concrete beams and prisms with high content of PFA were heated to various temperatures up to $450^{\circ}C$ at heating rates of $1^{\circ}C/min$, $3^{\circ}C/min$ and $10^{\circ}C/min$. The thermal gradient was found to increase first with the heating time until a peak value was reached and then decrease until the thermal equilibrium was reached, measured as $115^{\circ}C$, $240^{\circ}C$ and $268^{\circ}C$ for the three heating rates. Spalling occurred on some specimens when the heating temperature was over $400^{\circ}C$ for heating rates of $3^{\circ}C/min$ and $10^{\circ}C/min$. The hygric gradient was found to reach its maximum when the thermal gradient reached its peak. This study indicates that spalling of HPC could happen when the heating temperature was high enough, and both thermal and hygric gradients reached their maxima.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.84-90
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• 2008

The occurrence of longitudinal cracking in concrete deck of box girder bridge is affected by many factors, but the most important factors are the shrinkage and thermal gradient of deck slabs. In this study, therefore, the tensile stresses at the bottom of deck were calculated from the experimental data(autogeneous shrinkage, drying shrinkage, and thermal gradient of deck slab). Also, the possibility of longitudinal cracks at bottom of deck was estimated. For this purpose, full-scale box girder segments have been fabricated and tested. The thermal gradients and shrinkage strains of deck slabs were measured after placement of concrete. Also, analytic program was conducted for the evaluation of longitudinal cracking in bridge deck considering differential shrinkage induced from non-uniform moisture distributions in concrete.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.605-616
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• 2017

Concrete filled steel tubular (CFST) composite girder is a new type of structures for bridge constructions. The existing design codes cannot be used to predict the thermal stress in the CFST truss girder structures under solar radiation. This study is to develop the temperature gradient curves for predicting thermal stress of the structure based on field and laboratory monitoring data. An in-field testing had been carried out on Ganhaizi Bridge for over two months. Thermal couples were installed at the cross section of the CFST truss girder and the continuous data was collected every 30 minutes. A typical temperature gradient mode was then extracted by comparing temperature distributions at different times. To further verify the temperature gradient mode and investigate the evolution of temperature fields, an outdoor experiment was conducted on a 1:8 scale bridge model, which was installed with both thermal couples and strain gauges. The main factors including solar radiation and ambient temperature on the different positions were studied. Laboratory results were consistent with that from the in-field data and temperature gradient curves were obtained from the in-field and laboratory data. The relationship between the strain difference at top and bottom surfaces of the concrete deck and its corresponding temperature change was also obtained and a method based on curve fitting was proposed to predict the thermal strain under elevated temperature. The thermal stress model for CFST composite girder was derived. By the proposed model, the thermal stress was obtained from the temperature gradient curves. The results using the proposed model were agreed well with that by finite element modelling.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2016

In this study, different proportions of glass beads used for road marking were added into the concrete samples to reduce the temperature gradient through the concrete pavement thickness. It is well known that decreasing the temperature gradient reduces the risk of thermal cracking and increases the service life of concrete pavement. The extent of alkali-silica reaction (ASR) produced with partial replacement of fine aggregate by glass bead was investigated and compressive strength of concrete samples with different proportion of glass bead in their mix designs were measured in this study. Ideal results were obtained with less than 0.850 mm diameter size glass beads were used (19 % by total weight of aggregate) for C30/37 class concrete. Top and bottom surface temperatures of two different C30/37 strength class concrete slabs with and without glass beads were measured. It was identified that, using glass bead in concrete mix design, reduces the temperature differences between top and bottom surfaces of concrete pavement. The study presented herein provides important results on the necessity of regulating concrete road mix design specifications according to regions and climates to reduce the temperature gradient values which are very important in concrete road design.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.485-501
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• 2015

Cooling by the flow of water through an embedded cooling pipe has become a common and effective artificial thermal control measure for massive concrete structures. However, an extreme thermal gradient induces significant thermal stress, resulting in thermal cracking. Using a mesoscopic finite-element (FE) mesh, three-phase composites of concrete namely aggregate, mortar matrix and interfacial transition zone (ITZ) are modeled. An equivalent probabilistic model is presented for failure study of concrete by assuming that the material properties conform to the Weibull distribution law. Meanwhile, the correlation coefficient introduced by the statistical method is incorporated into the Weibull distribution formula. Subsequently, a series of numerical analyses are used for investigating the influence of the correlation coefficient on tensile strength and the failure process of concrete based on the equivalent probabilistic model. Finally, as an engineering application, damage and failure behavior of concrete cracks induced by a water-cooling pipe are analyzed in-depth by the presented model. Results show that the random distribution of concrete mechanical parameters and the temperature gradient near water-cooling pipe have a significant influence on the pattern and failure progress of temperature-induced micro-cracking in concrete.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.81-88
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• 2023

Numerous factors contribute to the deterioration of reinforced concrete structures. Elevated temperatures significantly alter the composition of the concrete ingredients, consequently diminishing the concrete's strength properties. With the escalation of global CO2 levels, the carbonation of concrete structures has emerged as a critical challenge, substantially affecting concrete durability research. Assessing and predicting concrete degradation due to thermal effects and carbonation are crucial yet intricate tasks. To address this, multiple prediction models for concrete carbonation and compressive strength under thermal impact have been developed. This study employs seven machine learning algorithms-specifically, multiple linear regression, decision trees, random forest, support vector machines, k-nearest neighbors, artificial neural networks, and extreme gradient boosting algorithms-to formulate predictive models for concrete carbonation and thermal impact. Two distinct datasets, derived from reported experimental studies, were utilized for training these predictive models. Performance evaluation relied on metrics like root mean square error, mean square error, mean absolute error, and coefficient of determination. The optimization of hyperparameters was achieved through k-fold cross-validation and grid search techniques. The analytical outcomes demonstrate that neural networks and extreme gradient boosting algorithms outshine the remaining five machine learning approaches, showcasing outstanding predictive performance for concrete carbonation and thermal effect modeling.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.343-350
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• 2020

Concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) members have been widely used in engineering, and their tube diameters have become larger and larger. But there is no research on the thermal field of large-diameter CFST structure. These studies focused on the thermal field of the large-diameter CFST structure under solar radiation. The environmental factors and the actual placement position were considered, and the finite element model (FEM) of the thermal field of CFST members under solar radiation (SR) was established. Then the FEM was verified by practical experiments. The most unfavorable temperature gradient model in the cross-section was proposed. The testing results showed that the temperature field of the large-diameter CFST member section was non-linearly distributed due to the influence of SR. The temperature field results of CFST members with different pipe diameters indicated that the larger the core concrete diameter was, the slower the central temperature changed, and there was a significant temperature difference between the center and the boundary. Based on the numerical model, the most unfavorable temperature gradient model in the section was proposed. The model showed that the temperature difference around the center of the circle is small, and the boundary temperature difference is significant. The maximum temperature difference is 15.22℃, which appeared in the southern boundary area of the specimen. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the influence of SR on the thermal field of the member for large-diameter CFST members in actual engineering, which causes a large temperature gradient in the member.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.469-488
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• 2015

Thermal loads, especially thermal gradients, have a considerable effect on the behaviors of large-scale bridges throughout their lifecycles. Bridge design specifications provide minimal guidance regarding thermal gradients for simple bridge girders and do not consider transversal thermal gradients in wide girder cross-sections. This paper investigates the three-dimensional thermal gradients of arch bridge girders by integrating long-term field monitoring data recorded by a structural health monitoring system, with emphasis on the vertical and transversal thermal gradients of wide concrete-steel composite girders. Based on field monitoring data for one year, the time-dependent characteristics of temperature and three-dimensional thermal gradients in girder cross-sections are explored. A statistical analysis of thermal gradients is conducted, and the probability density functions of transversal and vertical thermal gradients are estimated. The extreme thermal gradients are predicted with a specific return period by employing an extreme value analysis, and the profiles of the vertical thermal gradient are established for bridge design. The transversal and vertical thermal gradients are developed to help engineers understand the thermal behaviors of concrete-steel composite girders during their service periods.