Bridge decks are usually formed from profiled steel–concrete composite slabs, which consist of steel and concrete. Slip occurs at the interface between the concrete and steel, which results in unique mechanical and fatigue properties of the composite slab. The objective of this study is to investigate the mechanical and fatigue performance of profiled steel sheeting–concrete bridge decks subjected

The use of geopolymers has spread over the last 60 years as an alternative to traditional cementitious systems, due to their environmental benefits and mechanical properties for construction. Nowadays, the state-of-the-art on reinforced geopolymer concrete has focused on the micro-scale analysis of the materials, but it has vaguely dabbled into the macro-scale context. This research experimentally

This paper firstly investigates the vibration control performance of eddy current tuned mass damper (ECTMD) on structure considering soil-structure interaction (SSI) subjected to seismic loads, and shaking table tests of a six-story steel frame model equipped with ECTMD in SSI system are conducted. By comparison with the undamped TMD, the effectiveness of eddy current damping is also studied. The experimental

This study presents a methodology to generate probabilistic seismic demand models and hazard curves for steel frames with or without shape memory alloy (SMA) bracing systems under mainshock – aftershock sequences. First, three post-mainshock damage states were defined based on both peak inter-story drift and residual drift ratios. Incremental dynamic analyses (IDA) were performed considering only mainshock

The improved fish-bone (IFB) model for seismic analysis of older and contemporary reinforced concrete frames is proposed by introducing a new procedure for the estimation of parameters of structural elements of the fish-bone model. The procedure makes it possible to approximately account for the importance of structural elements on the seismic response of a frame building and the effect of potential

Collapse behavior of double layer dome space structures depends on different factors such as load pattern, material mechanical properties, and member’s physical characteristics, which have a random nature that makes it difficult to predict accurate behavior of this type of structure. In this paper, in order to comprehensively assess the double-layer dome space structure behavior, different uncertain

The objective of this work is to explore the possibility of corrosion degradation modelling of thin steel plate specimens with the use of random field approach. The mechanical properties are obtained via the nonlinear Finite Element Analysis with the use of an explicit dynamic solver. The fully nonlinear material model is adopted to obtain the proper stress-strain response. Sensitivity analysis considering

Shake table test is one of the most important manners for the performance evaluation of structures under strong earthquakes and for the verification of refined numerical simulation methods. To this end, in the present paper, shake table tests on two concrete shear wall model structures, together with the tests of complete uniaxial compressive constitutive curves of concrete, were carried out. The purpose

In the context of increasingly required evaluation of existing critical concrete infrastructures, prediction of the long-term behaviour can sometimes be very sensitive to the proper consideration of physical phenomena that occur during the first weeks during construction. For the specific example of mass concrete structures, it is important to consider the heat of hydration process and the possible

This research aims at the seismic assessment and understanding of a traditional loadbearing system incorporating horizontal timber elements into earth brick masonry walls. In order to characterize the global behavior of the loadbearing device, an experimental campaign was performed on the constituents (i.e. bricks and mortar) and on masonry samples. Compression tests were carried out on four geometries

Fiber reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM) is emerging as a viable retrofit and confinement technique, in lieu of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) system which suffers from a number of issues related to the use of synthetic binders. While many studies have been conducted on the use of FRCM in shear and flexural applications, few were dedicated to confinement of slender columns, particularly those related

This paper develops vision-based measurement methods for experimental tests of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. The methods can measure deformations and characterize cracks from images of RC specimens. The coordinates of objects of interest (OOIs) in the specimen are measured using a target tracking approach, and then deformation components (e.g., flexural, shear and sliding deformations) of the

Recent seismic events in Italy have emphasized the high vulnerability of masonry buildings in historical centers, which were generally erected in continuity to each other over time, resulting in aggregates of constructions. The study of the seismic behavior of masonry aggregates can turn into a very difficult task, usually because of the difficulties to achieve a complete knowledge of geometrical evolutions

Substantial progress has been made in the last decades to computationally model the structural response of marine structures subjected to collision and grounding accidents. The finite element method stands out as the most reliable and robust technique within other tools for this purpose. However, there are still some complex physical aspects arduous to be modeled numerically. This work presents an

Static nonlinear analysis of frames and plane stress/strain structures via mathematical programming algorithms has been addressed by many researchers. It has been shown that the method of Dissipated Energy Maximization (DEM) is an efficient algorithm for nonlinear static analysis. This study extends the application of DEM method to the nonlinear dynamic analysis of frames considering bending moment-axial

This paper presented a new kind of steel-reinforced engineered cementitious composite (RECC/C) columns, which consisted of a permanent formwork fabricated by the steel-reinforced ECC (RECC) and plain concrete infilled within the RECC formwork. The main objective of this paper was to examine the seismic behavior of the RECC/C columns through experimental and numerical approaches. Six RECC/C composite

More base-isolated tall buildings have been constructed in earthquake- and wind-prone regions in recent years. However, less work has been done on the wind-resistant design of base-isolated tall buildings including the design of isolation system and the modeling of equivalent static wind load (ESWL), especially from the perspective of Chinese load code. This study presents a comprehensive investigation

Several simplified and advanced methods have been proposed to evaluate the behavior of masonrywalls under in-plane loads, but their implementation in standard commercial software remains still an exception. In this paper, a novel 1D approach called Multi-Pier MP method, which has the advantage that can be used in a commercial software and requires only truss elements with a non-linear softening behavior

The bolt–column (BC) joint has enough bending stiffness satisfying large-span single-layer reticulated shell structure well. The hysteretic behavior of BC joints under different in-plane combinations of bending moment and axial force is investigated in this study. Firstly, precise finite element models (FEM) of the BC joints, which considered the material and the geometric and contact nonlinearities

A precast posttensioned concrete wall system with supplemental yielding-based and friction-based energy dissipation is proposed, in which rectangular precast panels are stacked along horizontal joints, and unbonded posttensioning (PT) strands are placed inside ungrouted ducts to connect the panels to the foundation. Specially designed yielding-based and friction-based energy dissipation components

A new numerical formulation includes the behavior of the semi-rigid connection into plastic-zone finite element model for steel plane frames. This Bernoulli-Euler formulation is an expansion and generalization of the slice technique with updated Lagrangian co-rotational system, presented before. Only one spring is placed in the finite element end node to allow the study of plasticity inside the member

Vibration modes with repeated eigenvalues often occur in engineering design and analysis practices due to geometrical symmetries of structural systems such as the cyclic symmetry of bladed disk assemblies of turbomachinery. However, the degeneration of eigenvector space and the resulting discontinuities have prevented useful applications of eigensensitivities to vibration analysis of a wide class of

Precast concrete sandwich wall panels consist of two outer wythes of precast concrete separated by a middle layer of insulation. In recent years, Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) shear connectors have been increasingly used since they have lower thermal conductivity compared to traditional steel shear connectors, which can significantly reduce thermal bridging. However, FRP shear connectors have lower

This paper presents an experimental and analytical programme conducted on a total of seven reinforced concrete (RC) short beams, including one test at ambient temperature and six others at elevated temperatures. This study investigates experimentally the behaviour of RC short beams when subjected to elevated temperatures under the effect of shear-span-to-effective-depth (a/d) ratio and thermal-induced

A composite slab is an efficient modern structural member. Recycled fine and coarse aggregates are alternative green materials for the depleting natural sand and natural gravels in the composite slabs. In recent years, the nonuniform shrinkage occurring in single-side-exposed concrete has been discovered to significantly affect the long-term behaviors of composite slabs, which have been included in

In this study, experimental works on four curved steel-concrete-steel (C-SCS) sandwich shells were carried out to assess their behaviors when subjected to concentrated loading with a 100-mm diameter hemispherical steel hammer through analyzing the failure mode, load–displacement relationship, strain, and deformation. The influences of the concrete and steel plate thicknesses, shear connector spacing

Defect assessment is essential at determination of fitness-for-service of pipelines. While various codes and methods have been developed, none of them focuses on overlapped corrosion defects, especially the investigation of local mechanical-chemical interaction at the overlapped defects. In this work, a finite element-based multi-physics one-way coupling model was developed to simulate and determine

Elastic buckling properties of thin-walled storage rack columns under compression, e.g., critical buckling loads, are often the input parameters for analytical design solutions (e.g., the direct strength method in AISI_S100 2016). This paper deals with the accurate estimation of the elastic buckling properties of Σ-shaped rack sections with patterned holes. The investigation of the elastic buckling

This paper proposes a novel reinforced concrete (RC) frame structure encased with shaped steel to resist the debris flow impact. The corresponding comparative experimental studies of two test models under the impact of debris flow are designed and performed, one of which is a traditional RC frame structure (TRCFS) and the other is a novel RC frame structure encased with shaped steel (NRCFS). After

Resilience of structures is already the new issue and challenge in the field of earthquake engineering. In order to enhance the restorability of concrete wall panels and further use them in steel moment frames, a novel self-centering steel reinforced concrete coupled wall panels with replaceable energy dissipaters is presented in this paper. For this purpose, subassembly tests of the coupled walls

The flag-shaped hysteretic behavior of Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) can be conveniently used for developing efficient isolation systems, providing energy dissipation without implying residual displacements. This work presents a base isolation layout that combines low-friction curved surface sliders (CSSs) with SMA gap dampers (SMAGDs). The proposed SMAGDs are formed by a group of SMA wires placed in

Truss-confined buckling-restrained braces (TC-BRBs) are composed of conventional double steel tube BRBs and additional installation of external truss-confining systems. The truss-confining systems make TC-BRBs fulfil the need of the long-span bracing and enable economic and rational design. The previous experimental and numerical investigation of TC-BRBs suggested that the lower limit of the restraining

Cracking control of reinforced concrete (RC) is of paramount importance to ensure a proper service behaviour on RC structures, during their lifespan, without excessive maintenance costs. Current design codes and recommendations for RC structures provide methodologies for reinforcement design on elements subjected to the independent effects of either external loads or restraints due to imposed deformations

Bridges with 40 m or taller piers are commonly constructed in southwest China that is a region of high seismicity. Since it is common practice that the superstructure of such bridges is directly placed on rubber bearings without additional constraints, sliding between the girders and the bearings may occur in the events of strong earthquakes. With the focus on the bridges with tall piers, this paper

The sections of the precast concrete building elements are, most of the times, weakened due to ‘cut-offs’, for their pleasant appearance and easy dry jointing at construction sites. This paper experimentally and numerically evaluates the bending strength of nine precast concrete dry joints, interconnected as ‘beam-to-beam’ and/or ‘beam-to-column’ connections. The intricate geometries of the tested

Dome structures are often employed for industrial buildings and may be potential targets of terrorist attacks or accidental explosion. Military design manuals that are commonly used for structural design practice are based on the assumption that the blast wave reflects on an infinite or finite flat surface. These semi-empirical formulae ignore the blast wave propagation behaviour on a finite and variable-curvature

Premature failure of bridge expansion joints has been increasingly observed in recent years, and nowadays it becomes a major concern of bridge owners. A better understanding of their performance in service is highly desired. Deterministic linear regression models between bridge temperature and expansion joint displacement have widely been adopted to characterize the in-service performance of bridge

Synchrotron accelerator facilities such as the NSLS II require extreme stability, both transient (short-term) and quasi-static (long-term) to achieve the desired resolution performance. Consequently, even μm-level movements, particularly differential movements between locations in the concrete structure supporting the accelerator electron beam lattice (storage ring) or high sensitivity experiments

This paper reports the results of an analytical, experimental and a numerical study (proof of concept study) on a proposed method for extracting the pseudo-free-vibration response of a structure using ambient vibration, usually of a random nature, as a source of excitation to detect any change in the dynamic properties of a structure that may be caused by damage. The structural response contains not

A lightweight structural timber system is proposed, inspired from traditional Romanian architecture, and adapted to the current needs (wider spaces and increased comfort) and to the local construction market (low skill workforce, poorly controlled material quality, diversity of materials). A good seismic behavior was, also, a target, because Romania is one of the most seismic prone countries in Europe

In recent years, with the rapid development of China's transportation industry, some existing bridges have needed to be demolished and rebuilt. Bridge demolition is a complex process of structural system conversions. During demolition, the prestressed beam performance is not clear after anchorage system failure. Therefore, it is important to carry out research to better understand the behaviour of

The anisotropy and meso-structure of masonry materials bring great difficulty for the numerical modeling of masonry arch bridges. To overcome this problem, a two-phase numerical modeling strategy based on cohesive elements is proposed and used to analyze the failure process of masonry arches in this study. According to the proposed strategy, masonry is assumed to be a two-phase material, which consists

This paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation on the bearing behavior of multi-bolt high strength steel connections in single bolt line. Three grades of high strength steel with nominal yield stress of 550 MPa, 690 MPa and 890 MPa were used to fabricate thirty lap connections with two or three bolts. It is found that the deformation capability of high strength steel plate near bolt

Hurricanes are responsible for approximately $28bn of damage every year in the United States alone, which may reach $151bn by 2075 due to the intensification of climate change according to certain prediction models. Approximately 35% of this damage is estimated to come from anchorage failures of non-structural components (NSCs). Severe exposure of NSCs to the adverse environments (such as elevated

In steel-concrete composite box girders, the concrete slabs are laterally and rotationally restrained by diaphragms, surrounding slabs, and the steel box girder through shear connectors, thus developing compressive membrane action under vertical loading. However, the compressive membrane action in composite box girder bridge decks has rarely been considered, despite its significant effect on the structural

Modern building codes do not cover the use of ultra-high strength concrete (UHSC) in design of composite columns. This paper investigates the structural fire performance of UHSC filled steel tubular (CFST) columns. Experimental studies were carried out on 9 CFST columns with C170/185 concrete under standard ISO fire. The columns were subjected to concentrated or eccentric compressions and then heated

Glass is a brittle material known to possess large scatter in its fracture strength, which is caused by the existence of microscopic surface flaws. Fracture in glass generally originates from stress concentrations around these flaws, which cause the fracture strength to be dependent on the flaw properties and the stress state on the glass surface. The fracture strength is also reported to increase

An H-beam welded hollow spherical joint is a new kind of spatial grid structure. In this study, the eccentric-loaded behavior of H-beam welded hollow spherical joints was studied, and the influential law of material strength, joint size, and stiffening rib on its mechanical properties was analyzed through experimental research and numerical simulation. Parametric analyses were conducted to study the

Submerged floating tunnel (SFT) is a new type of cable-supported structure system for strait crossing. Once the local anchor-cable suddenly fails, it will inevitably cause evident vibration and internal force redistributions of the structure. In order to study the dynamic responses and mechanical behaviors of the SFT subjected to abrupt anchor-cable breakage, a model test is conducted by a set of sensors

It is crucial for highway bridges to remain operational after strong earthquakes as they are critical infrastructures to transport resources. In this study, an innovative seismic-resilient bridge structural system, named controlled rocking dual-fused bridge (CRDFB) system, is proposed. The CRDFB system is designed to dissipate the earthquake energy by the use of replaceable Lead-Extrusion Dampers (LEDs)

Orthotropic steel deck (OSD) in a long-span cable-stayed bridge is vulnerable to fatigue damage at the deck-to-rib (DTR) joints due to excessive vehicle-induced dynamic stresses. A framework for fatigue damage prognosis of OSD in long-span cable-stayed bridges is thus presented in this paper. The main features of the framework include hourly traffic loading simulation and prediction, multi-scale finite

For structural health monitoring, the monitored data is limited to several locations in space. To overcome the measurement incompleteness, many approaches have developed, such as the shape sensing and the dynamic reduction expansion. However, the measurement noise will affect the calculated displacement. Then, the unbiased filtering approaches have developed to estimate the input and to update the

This paper investigates the aerodynamics of a stationary model of an interior railway carriage inside a long-span truss-girder bridge in a wind tunnel. Effects of principle parameters of the truss bridge-girder configuration on the aerodynamics were examined, including bridge wind angle of attack (α), truss bridge-girder solidity ratio (Φ, projected area to envelope area ratio), and aspect ratio (B/D

The experimental investigation presented in this study focused on the static strengths and load-deformation behaviour of cold-formed high strength steel tubular X-joints made up of S900 and S960 steel grades. The X-joints include brace members made up of square, rectangular and circular hollow sections, while chord members were made up of square and rectangular hollow sections. The nominal yield strengths

In post-event reconnaissance missions, engineers and researchers collect perishable information about damaged buildings in the affected geographical region to learn from the consequences of the event. A typical post-event reconnaissance mission is conducted by first doing a preliminary survey, followed by a detailed survey. The objective of the preliminary survey is to develop an understanding of the

This paper presents a Shuttle-Shaped Truss-Confined Buckling-Restrained Brace (SSTC-BRB) that is simply composed of a single steel tube core and a number of shuttle-shaped truss frames sharing a single external restraining tube. The SSTC-BRB, as an innovation in the external restraining system of the BRB, significantly improves the material utilization, and is particularly exposed externally to enhance

The shear behaviour of concrete members has been long investigated; however, there is still no consensus on a single design approach. Shear failures are generally brittle, hence highly undesired. Failure modes are traditionally classified into one-way and two-way (punching) shear. Nevertheless, in concrete slabs intermediate cases are observed when a concentrated load is located close to the supports

This paper proposes a method to characterize bridge foundations using live load dynamic strain and acceleration measurements taken from substructure elements during operational loading. These measurements are used to assemble frequency response functions (FRFs) that describe the load-response behavior of the tested foundation element as a function of frequency. This method only requires that a limited