• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.47-56
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• 2009

The first diagonal cracking and ultimate shear load of reinforced girder made of ultra high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) were investigated in this paper. Eleven girders were tested in which eight girders failed in shear. A simplified formulation for the first diagonal cracking load was proposed. An analytical model to predict the ultimate shear load was formulated based on the two bounds theory. A fiber reinforcing parameter was constituted based on the random assumption of steel fiber uniform distribution. The predicted values were compared with the conventional predictions and the test results. The proposed equation can be used for the first cracking status analysis, while the proposed equations for computing the ultimate shear strength can be used for the ultimate failure status analysis, which can also be utilized for numerical limit analysis of reinforced UHPFRC girder. The established fiber reinforcing theoretical model can also be a reference for micro-mechanics analysis of UHPFRC.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.709-722
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• 2014

Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) is an innovative new material that, in comparison to conventional concretes, has high compressive strength and excellent ductility properties achieved through the addition of randomly dispersed short fibers to the concrete mix. This study presents the results of an experimental investigation on the behavior of axially loaded UHPC short circular columns wrapped with Carbon-FRP (CFRP), Glass-FRP (GFRP), and Aramid-FRP (AFRP) sheets. Six plain and 36 different types of FRP-wrapped UHPC columns with a diameter of 100 mm and a length of 200 mm were tested under monotonic axial compression. To predict the ultimate strength of the FRP-wrapped UHPC columns, a simple confinement model is presented and compared with four selected confinement models from the literature that have been developed for low and normal strength concrete columns. The results show that the FRP sheets can significantly enhance the ultimate strength and strain capacity of the UHPC columns. The average greatest increase in the ultimate strength and strain for the CFRP- and GFRP-wrapped UHPC columns was 48% and 128%, respectively, compared to that of their unconfined counterparts. All the selected confinement models overestimated the ultimate strength of the FRP-wrapped UHPC columns.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.7
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• pp.884-894
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• 2015

Background: Fibers in concrete resist the growth of cracks and enhance the postcracking behavior of structures. The addition of fibers into a conventional reinforced concrete can improve the structural and functional performance of safety-related concrete structures in nuclear power plants. Methods: The influence of fibers on the ultimate internal pressure capacity of a prestressed concrete containment vessel (PCCV) was investigated through a comparison of the ultimate pressure capacities between conventional and fiber-reinforced PCCVs. Steel and polyamide fibers were used. The tension behaviors of conventional concrete and fiber-reinforced concrete specimens were investigated through uniaxial tension tests and their tension-stiffening models were obtained. Results: For a PCCV reinforced with 1% volume hooked-end steel fiber, the ultimate pressure capacity increased by approximately 12% in comparison with that for a conventional PCCV. For a PCCV reinforced with 1.5% volume polyamide fiber, an increase of approximately 3% was estimated for the ultimate pressure capacity. Conclusion: The ultimate pressure capacity can be greatly improved by introducing steel and polyamide fibers in a conventional reinforced concrete. Steel fibers are more effective at enhancing the containment performance of a PCCV than polyamide fibers. The fiber reinforcementwas shown to bemore effective at a high pressure loading and a lowprestress level.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.741-759
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• 2020

Steel plate-concrete composite slabs provide attractive features, such as more effective loading transfer, and more cost-effective stay-in-place forms, thereby enabling engineers to design more high-performance light structures. Although significant studies in the literatures have been directed toward designing and implementing the steel plate-concrete composite beams, there are limited data available for understanding of the composite slabs. To fill this gap, nine the composite slabs with different variables in this study were tested to unveil the impacts of the critical factors on the ultimate strength behavior. The key information of the findings included sample failure modes, crack pattern, and ultimate strength behavior of the composite slabs under either four-point or three-point loading. Test results showed that the failure modes varied from delamination to shear failures under different design factors. Particularly, the shear stud spacing and thicknesses of the concrete slabs significantly affected their ultimate load-carrying capacities. Moreover, an analytical model of the composite slabs was derived for determining their ultimate load-carrying capacity and was well verified by the experimental data. Further extensive parametric study using the proposed analytical methods was conducted for a more comprehensive investigation of those critical factors in their performance. These findings are expected to help engineers to better understand the structural behavior of the steel plate-concrete composite slabs and to ensure reliability of design and performance throughout their service life.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.51-58
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• 2008

This study is to investigate the ultimate shear load of prestressed girder made of Ultra High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC). Nine girders were tested until failure in shear. An analytical model to predict the ultimate shear load was formulated based on the Two Bounds Theory. A fiber reinforcing model was constituted based on the random assumption of steel fiber uniform distribution. The predicted values were compared with the conventional predictions and the test results. The proposed equations for computing the ultimate shear strength can be used for the ultimate failure status analysis, which could also be utilized for numerical limit analysis of prestressed UHPFRC girder. The established fiber reinforcing theoretical model can also be a reference for micro-mechanics analysis of UHPFRC.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.699-710
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• 2020

Pitting corrosion commonly shaped in hull structure due to marine corrosive environment seriously causes the deterioration of structural performance. This paper deals with the ultimate strength behaviors of stiffened ship panels damaged by the pits subjected to uniaxial compression. A series of no-linear finite element analyses are carried out for three stiffened panels using ABAQUS software. Influences of the investigated typical parameters of pit degree (DOP), depth, location and distribution on the ultimate strength strength are discussed in detail. It is found that the ultimate strength is significantly reduced with increasing the DOP and pit depth and severely affected by the distribution. In addition, the pits including their distributions on the web have a slight effect on the ultimate strength. Compared with regular distribution, random one on the panel result in a change of collapse mode. Finally, an empirical formula as a function of corrosion volume loss is proposed for predicting the ultimate strength of stiffened panel.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.459-475
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• 2022

In this paper a model for the prediction of the ultimate axial compressive capacity of square and rectangular Concrete Filled Steel Tubes, based on an Artificial Neural Network modeling procedure is presented. The model is trained and tested using an experimental database, compiled for this reason from the literature that amounts to 1193 specimens, including long, thin-walled and high-strength ones. The proposed model was selected as the optimum from a plethora of alternatives, employing different activation functions in the context of Artificial Neural Network technique. The performance of the developed model was compared against existing methodologies from design codes and from proposals in the literature, employing several performance indices. It was found that the proposed model achieves remarkably improved predictions of the ultimate axial load.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.317-334
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• 2008

Seismic performance of coupling beams not designed for ductility is examined. Eight 1:4 scale coupling beam specimens, with seven reinforced concrete sections and one composite section, were tested under cycles of push-pull action. Characteristics of the specimens include moderate shear span ratio in the range of 2.5-3.5, high main reinforcement ratio at 3-4% and small to large stirrup spacing with 90- degree hooks. All the reinforced concrete specimens failed in a brittle manner. Displacement ductility of specimens with large stirrup spacing (${\geq}$140 mm) is in the range of 3 to 5. Seismic performance of the specimens is also examined using the ultimate drift angle and the amount of energy dissipated. Correlating the test data, an empirical relationship is proposed to estimate the ultimate drift angle of a class of coupling beams considered in the study not designed for ductility.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.465-481
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• 2018

The use of external carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates is one of the most effective techniques existing for the confinement of circular concrete specimens. Currently, several researches have been made to develop models for predicting the ultimate conditions of this type of confinement. As most of the major existing models were developed based on limited experimental database. This paper presents the development of new confinement ultimate conditions, strength and strain models, for concrete cylinders confined with CFRP composites based on a statistical analysis of a large existing experimental database of 310 cylindrical concrete specimens wrapped with CFRP. The database is used to evaluate the performance of the proposed and major existing strength and strain models. Based on the two different statistical indices, the coefficient of determination ($R^2$) and the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), the two proposed confinement ultimate conditions presents a good performance compared to the major existing models except the models of Lam and Teng (2003) and Youssef et al. (2007) which have relatively similar performance to the proposed models.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.147-177
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• 2023

Elliptical concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) column is widely used in modern structures for both aesthetical appeal and structural performance benefits. The ultimate axial load is a critical factor for designing the elliptical CFST short columns. However, there are complications of geometric and material interactions, which make a difficulty in determining a simple model for predicting the ultimate axial load of elliptical CFST short columns. This study aims to propose an efficient adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) model for predicting the ultimate axial load of elliptical CFST short columns. In the proposed method, the ANFIS model is used to establish a relationship between the ultimate axial load and geometric and material properties of elliptical CFST short columns. Accordingly, a total of 188 experimental and simulation datasets of elliptical CFST short columns are used to develop the ANFIS models. The performance of the proposed ANFIS model is compared with that of existing design formulas. The results show that the proposed ANFIS model is more accurate than existing empirical and theoretical formulas. Finally, an explicit formula and a Graphical User Interface (GUI) tool are developed to apply the proposed ANFIS model for practical use.