• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.6
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• pp.819-830
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• 2021

To evaluate the performance of concrete load bearing walls in a structure under horizontal loads after being exposed to real fire, two steps were followed. In the first step, an experimental study was performed on the thermo-mechanical properties of concrete after heating to temperatures of 200-1000℃ with the purpose of determining the residual mechanical properties after cooling. The temperature was increased in line with natural fire curve in an electric furnace. The peak temperature was maintained for a period of 1.5 hour and then allowed to cool gradually in air at room temperature. All specimens were made from calcareous aggregate to be used for determining the residual properties: compressive strength, static and dynamic elasticity modulus by means of UPV test, including the mass loss. The concrete residual compressive strength and elastic modulus values were compared with those calculated from Eurocode and other analytical models from other studies, and were found to be satisfactory. In the second step, experimental analysis results were then implemented into structural numerical analysis to predict the post-fire load-bearing capacity response of the walls under vertical and horizontal loads. The parameters considered in this analysis were the effective height, the thickness of the wall, various support conditions and the residual strength of concrete. The results indicate that fire damage does not significantly affect the lateral capacity and stiffness of reinforced walls for temperature fires up to 400℃.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.7
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• pp.2540-2549
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• 2022

For a pressurized water reactor power plant, the reactor coolant pump (RCP) is a kernel component. And for a canned motor RCP, the rotor system's properties determines its safety. The liquid coolant inside the canned motor RCP fills clearance between the metal shields of rotor and stator, forming a lengthy clearance flow. The influence of inlet preswirl on rotordynamic coefficients of clearance flow in canned motor RCP and their effects on the rotordynamic characteristics of the pump are numerically and experimentally investigated in this work. A quasi-steady state computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method has been used to investigate the influence of inlet preswirl. A vertical experiment rig has also been established for this purpose. Rotordynamic coefficients on different inlet preswirl ratios (IR) are obtained through CFD and experiment. Results show that the cross-coupled stiffness of the clearance flow would change significantly with inlet preswirl, but other rotordynamic coefficients would not change significantly with inlet preswirl. For the case of clearance flow between the stator and rotor cans, influence of inlet preswirl is not so significant as the IR is not large enough.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.221-231
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• 2021

A two dimensional model of linearly elastic soil spring used for the settlement analysis of the flexible mat foundation is suggested in this study. The spring constants of the soils underneath the foundation were modeled assuming uniformly vertical load applied onto the foundation. The soil spring constants were back calculated using the three-dimensional finite element analysis with Midas GTS NX program. Variation of the soil spring constants was modeled as a two-dimensional polynomial function in terms of the normalized spatial distances between the center of foundation and the analytical points. The Lysmer's analog spring for soils underneath the rigid foundation was adopted and calibrated for the flexible foundation. For validations, the newly proposed soil spring model was incorporated into a two dimensional finite difference analysis for a square mat foundation at the surface of an elastic half-space consisting of soft clays. Comparative study was made for elastic soils where the shear wave velocity is 120~180 m/s and the Poisson's ratio varies at 0.3~0.5. The resulting foundation settlements from the two dimensional finite difference analysis with the proposed soil springs were found in good agreement with those obtained directly from three dimensional finite element analyses. Details of the applications and limitations of the modified Lysmer's analog springs were discussed in this study.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.865-876
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• 2022

The slit members have lower strength and lower stiffness, which might lead to lower energy dissipation. In order to improve the seismic performance of the slit members, the paper proposes the shear lead damper, which has stable performance and small deformation energy dissipation capacity. Therefore, the shear lead damper can set in the vertical silts of the slit member to transmit the shear force and improve energy dissipation, which is suitable for the slit member. Initially, the symmetrical teeth-shaped lead damper was tested and analyzed. Then the staggered teeth-shaped lead dampers were developed and analyzed, based on the defect analysis and build improvements of the symmetrical specimen. Based on the parameter analysis, the main influence factors of hysteretic performance are the internal teeth, the steel baffles, and the width and length of damper. Finally, the theoretical analysis was presented on the hysteretic curve. And the skeleton curve and hysteresis path were identified. Based on the above theoretical analysis, the design method was proposed, including the damping force, the hysteresis model and the design recommendations.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.29-37
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• 2022

The collapse of reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings is mainly caused by the failure of columns. To prevent brittle failure of RC column, numerous studies have been conducted on the seismic performance of strengthened RC columns. Concrete jacketing method, which is one of the retrofitting method of RC members, can enhance strength and stiffness of original RC column with enlarged section and provide uniformly distributed lateral load capacity throughout the structure. The experimental studies have been conducted by many researchers to analyze seismic performance of seismic strengthened RC column. However, structures which have plan and vertical irregularities shows torsional behavior, and therefore it causes large deformation on RC column when subjected to seismic load. Thus, test results from concentric cyclic loading can be overestimated comparing to eccentric cyclic test results, In this paper, two kinds of eccentric loading pattern was suggested to analyze structural performance of RC columns, which are strengthened by concrete jacketing method with new details in jacketed section. Based on the results, it is concluded that specimens strengthened with new concrete jacketing method increased 830% of maximum load, 150% of maximum displacement and changed the failure modes of non-strengthened RC columns.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.283-294
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• 2022

In this study, a new seismic retrofit scheme of building structures is developed by combining a steel moment frame and steel slit plates to be installed inside of an existing reinforced concrete frame. This device has the energy dissipation capability of slit dampers with slight loss of stiffness compared to the conventional steel frame reinforcement method. In order to investigate the seismic performance of the retrofit system, it was installed inside of a reinforced concrete frame and tested under cyclic loading. Finite element analysis was carried out for validation of the test results, and it was observed that the analysis and the test results match well. An analytical model was developed to apply the retrofit system to a commercial software to be used for seismic retrofit design of an example structure. The effectiveness of the retrofit scheme was investigated through nonlinear time-history response analysis (NLTHA). The cyclic loading test showed that the steel frame with slit dampers provides significant increase in strength and ductility to the bare structure. According to the analysis results of a case study building, the proposed system turned out to be effective in decreasing the seismic response of the model structure below the given target limit state.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-27
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• 2022

Extensive laboratory tests were conducted to investigate the effect of load amplitude, geogrid position, and number of geogrid layers, thickness of ballast layer and clay stiffness on behavior of reinforced ballast layer and induced strains in geogrid. A half full-scale railway was constructed for carrying out the tests, the model consists of two rails 800 mm in length with three wooden sleepers (900 mm × 10 mm × 10 mm). The ballast was overlying 500 mm thickness clay in two states, soft and stiff state. Laboratory tests were conducted to investigate the response of the ballast and the clay layers where the ballast was reinforced by a geogrid. Settlement in ballast and clay, soil pressure and pore water pressure induced in the clay were measured in reinforced and unreinforced ballast cases. It was concluded that the effect of frequency on the settlement ratio is almost constant after 500 cycles. This is due to that the total settlement after 500 cycles, almost reached its peak value, which means that the ballast particles become very close to each other, so the frequency is less effective for high contact particles forces. The average maximum vertical stress and pore water pressure increased with frequency.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.577-589
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• 2023

In this study, on-site testing was carried out to investigate the vibration performance of a cold-formed thin-walled steel floor system. Ambient vibration, walking excitation (single and double persons), and impulsive excitation (heel-drop and jumping) were considered to capture the primary vibration parameters (natural frequencies, damping ratios, and mode shapes) and vertical acceleration response. Meanwhile, to discuss the influence of cement fiberboard on structural vibration, the primary vibration parameters were compared between the systems with and without the installation of cement fiberboard. Based on the experimental analysis, the cold-formed thin-walled steel floor possesses high frequency (> 10 Hz) and damping (> 2%); the installed cement fiberboard mainly increases the mass of floor system without effectively increasing the floor stiffness and may reduce the effects of primary vibration parameters on acceleration response; and the human-structure interaction should be considered when analyzing the vibration serviceability. The comparison of the experimental results with those in the AISC Design Guide indicates that the cold-formed thin-walled steel floor exhibits acceptable vibration serviceability. A crest factor 𝛽_rp (ratio of peak to root-mean-square accelerations) is proposed to determine the root-mean-square acceleration for convenience.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.567-581
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• 2023

Enhanced vertical load capacity of the ground reinforced with the stone columns drew great attention by the researchers as it deals with many of the geotechnical difficulties associated with the weak ground. Recently, it has been found that the stone columns are also prone to fail under the shear load when employed beneath the embankments or the foundations susceptible to lateral loads. In this study, the effect of various encasement conditions on the lateral deflection of stone columns is investigated. A method of dual layers of encasement has been introduced and its the effect on lateral load capacity of the stone columns has been compared with those of the single encased stone column and the un-encased stone columns. Large shear box tests were utilised to generate the shear deformation on the soil system under various normal pressure conditions. The stiffness of the soil-stone column combined system has been compared for various cases of encasement conditions with different diameters. When subjected to lateral deformation, the encased columns outperformed the un-encased stone columns installed in loose sand. Shear stress resistance is up to 1.7 times greater in dual-layered, encased columns than in unencased columns. Similarly, the secant modulus increases as the condition changes from an unencased stone column to single-layer encasement and then to dual-layer encasement, indicating an improvement in the overall soil-stone column system.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.173-184
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• 2023

In this study, the flexural behaviors of one- and two-way reinforced concrete (RC) slabs strengthened with carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips under impact loads were investigated. The flexural strengthening of RC slabs under simulated static monotonic loads has been comprehensively studied. However, the flexural behavior of RC slabs strengthened with CFRP strips has not been investigated extensively, particularly those conducted numerically. Nonlinear three-dimensional finite element models were developed, executed, and verified against previous experimental results, producing satisfactory models with approximately 4% error. The models were extended to a parametric study, considering three geometric parameters: the slab rectangularity ratio, CFRP strip width, and CFRP strip configuration. Finally, the main results were used to derive a new formula for predicting the total deflection of RC slabs strengthened with CFRP strips under impact loads with an error of approximately 10%. The proposed equation reflected the slab rectangularity, CFRP strip width, equivalent slab stiffness, and dropped weight. Results indicated that the use of CFRP strips enhanced the overall impact performance, the wider the CFRP width, the better the enhancement. Moreover, the application of diagonally oriented CFRP strips diminished the cracking zone compared to straight strips. Additionally, the diagonal orientation of CFRP strips was more efficient for two-way slabs while the vertical orientation was found to be better in the case of one-way slabs.