Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Nuclear Containment Structures Subjected to Tri-Directional Shear Stresses

Author(s):  
Moheb Labib ◽  
Yashar Moslehy ◽  
Ashraf Ayoub
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 174-194
Author(s):  
Luís Bernardo ◽  
Saffana Sadieh

In previous studies, a smeared truss model based on a refinement of the rotating-angle softened truss model (RA-STM) was proposed to predict the full response of structural concrete panel elements under in-plane monotonic loading. This model, called the “efficient RA-STM procedure”, was validated against the experimental results of reinforced and prestressed concrete panels, steel fiber concrete panels, and reinforced concrete panels externally strengthened with fiber-reinforced polymers. The model incorporates equilibrium and compatibility equations, as well as appropriate smeared constitutive laws of the materials. Besides, it incorporates an efficient algorithm for the calculation procedure to compute the solution points without using the classical trial-and-error technique, providing high numerical efficiency and stability. In this study, the efficient RA-STM procedure is adapted and checked against some experimental data related to reinforced concrete (RC) panels tested under in-plane cyclic shear until failure and found in the literature. Being a monotonic model, the predictions from the model are compared with the experimental envelopes of the hysteretic shear stress–shear strain loops. It is shown that the predictions for the shape (at least until the peak load is reached) and for key shear stresses (namely, cracking, yielding, and maximum shear stresses) of the envelope shear stress–shear strain curves are in reasonably good agreement with the experimental ones. From the obtained results, the efficient RA-STM procedure can be considered as a reliable model to predict some important features of the response of RC panels under cyclic shear, at least for a precheck analysis or predesign.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 2292
Author(s):  
Alaaeldin Abouelleil ◽  
Hayder A. Rasheed

Nonlinear analysis of structural members is vital to understand the behavior and the response of reinforced concrete members. Even though most design procedures concentrate on the ultimate stage of response towards the end of the post-yielding zone as the decisive design criterion, the structural members usually function at the service load levels within the post-cracking zone. Therefore, cracking is a critical aspect of concrete behavior that affects the overall response of reinforced concrete beams. The initiation and the propagation of the cracks are affected directly by the tension and shear stresses in the beam. In flexural beams, the tensile stresses dominate the crack onset and its growth. Cracks in reinforced concrete flexural beams leave non-cracked regions in between the cracked sections. In order to apply a consistent analysis strategy, the smeared crack approach averages the behavior of these different cracked sections and uncracked in between regions to generate an accurate global response of the entire beam. This study presents a numerical constitutive tensile model that captures the complete tensile response of the reinforced concrete flexural member, in terms of averaged/smeared crack response. As a second step, this model was examined against a large pool of experimental data to validate its accuracy. Overall, the main objective of this study is to develop a representative constitutive tensile model for reinforced concrete flexural members and validate its accuracy against experimental results. The full nonlinear sectional response is analytically realized, based on the assumed trilinear moment–curvature response and the assumed trilinear moment–extreme fiber compressive strain response. This is considered as the secondary outcome of the present study.


2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (11) ◽  
pp. 1068-1081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitra Noghreh Khaja ◽  
Edward G. Sherwood

Beam tests are conducted to investigate the effect of the reinforcement ratio, ρ, and the shear span to depth ratio, a/d, on the shear strength of reinforced concrete beams and slabs without stirrups. The a/d ratio is shown to have a very significant effect on shear strength at both low values of a/d (where failure is governed by strut-and-tie mechanisms) and large values of a/d (where failure is governed by breakdown in beam action). Increases in ρ associated with increases in a/d such that the strain, or M/ρVd ratio, is kept constant will result in constant failure shear stresses. Shear design methods that do not account for a/d (e.g., ACI Committee 440) cannot predict the observed experimental behaviour, whereas the general method of the CSA A23.3 code can. Using the ACI 440 equation for Vc may reduce the economic competitiveness of fibre-reinforced polymer reinforcement versus steel reinforcement.


2006 ◽  
Vol 324-325 ◽  
pp. 1325-1328
Author(s):  
Cheol Woo Park ◽  
Jong Sung Sim ◽  
Sung Jae Park

Various types and forms of FRP materials have been applied for structural strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) beams. When CFRP plates are used, however, a premature failure used to occur before strengthening effect appears adequately. This is primarily due to the rip-off of CFRP plate attached on RC beams. Despite of numerous studies on the rip-off failure of externally strengthened RC beams, the failure mechanism is not clearly explained yet. Investigations from the literatures have shown that the rip-off failure is dependant on vertical and shear stresses at the level of main reinforcements in RC beams. This study suggests an analytical model to investigate the ripoff failure load based on the stresses at the level of main reinforcements. The proposed model is relatively simple and produces very comparable results to the test data. Therefore, it is anticipated that the proposed model can be successfully used to provide further information on the rip-off failure mechanisms and its prevention.


2015 ◽  
Vol 769 ◽  
pp. 107-111
Author(s):  
Ivana Veghova

In the design of multi-storey frame structures, there is a question of a proper evaluation of the stiffness of reinforced concrete frame joints. This problem is very important especially in the case of structures subjected to seismic load, where the forces act repeatedly. Concrete is able to carry the compression stresses and partially the shear stresses. The tension stresses can reach only low level. The maximum tension stresses (tension strength) obtained from simple tension test of the concrete are not the same as the maximum tension stresses in the reinforced concrete. The shear stiffness is the matter of the width of the concrete cracks. To improve the knowledge in this field, the experimental verification of the reinforced concrete frame joint had been arranged.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ima Tavakkoli Avval

The main objective of the current study is to investigate the response of an internally pressurized nuclear power plant containment structure at pressure values higher than design pressure, and is focused on the response of prestressed concrete containment to ultimate global structural failure. The containment structure consists of a prestressed concrete cylindrical perimeter wall, with a prestressed concrete tori-spherical dome, prestressed concrete ring beam, and conventionally reinforced concrete base slab. The finite element program ANSYS is used to predict the non-liner behaviour of the containment structure. Different techniques available in ANSYS program to model steel reinforcements for reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete is estimated to define a more suitable approach to model prestressing system. The approach proposed here is capable of incorporating parameters such as variation in tendon layout and non-uniform prestress losses in comparison to those done by other researchers. It is concluded that the design criteria for the containment structure are fully satisfied. No through crack was observed at design pressure. The first through crack develops in the dome at a pressure of 2.1 times the design pressure. There is no damage to be expected to the reactor systems up to a pressure well above design pressure. It is observed that the containment structure subject of this study meets the design requirement of the current standards and behaves linearly in excess of 1.5 times the design pressure. The response of the internally pressurized containment structure including the major openings is investigated. It is concluded that presence of openings does not have a significant effect on the pressure capacity of the containment structure. The minor differences in the responses are at pressure values beyond the linear limit and are less than 5%. The response when openings are included are very similar to those without openings, except at the immediate neighboring of the equipment airlock opening. It is concluded that to predict the pressure response of containment structure, including the openings can be ignored. In case of need for a more exact response, only the equipment airlock can be included in the model


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