scholarly journals New directions for reinforced concrete coastal structures

Author(s):  
Steven Nolan ◽  
Marco Rossini ◽  
Chase Knight ◽  
Antonio Nanni

AbstractWithin the last century, coastal structures for infrastructure applications have traditionally been constructed with timber, structural steel, and/or steel-reinforced/prestressed concrete. Given asset owners’ desires for increased service-life; reduced maintenance, repair and rehabilitation; liability; resilience; and sustainability, it has become clear that traditional construction materials cannot reliably meet these challenges without periodic and costly intervention. Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites have been successfully utilized for durable bridge applications for several decades, demonstrating their ability to provide reduced maintenance costs, extend service life, and significantly increase design durability. This paper explores a representative sample of these applications, related specifically to internal reinforcement for concrete structures in both passive (RC) and pre-tensioned (PC) applications, and contrasts them with the time-dependent effect and cost of corrosion in transportation infrastructure. Recent development of authoritative design guidelines within the US and international engineering communities is summarized and a examples of RC/PC verses FRP-RC/PC presented to show the sustainable (economic and environmental) advantage of composite structures in the coastal environment.

Author(s):  
Tomasz Siwowski ◽  
Aleksander Kozlowski ◽  
Leonard Ziemiański ◽  
Mateusz Rajchel ◽  
Damian Kaleta

<p>Technology and materials can help cities get smarter and cope with rapid urbanisation. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is one of the approaches applied in evaluation of material sustainability. Many significant LCA comparisons of innovative and traditional construction materials indicate that fibre- reinforced polymer (FRP) composites compare very favourably with other materials studied. As a proposal for rapid urbanisation, the FRP all-composite road bridge was developed and demonstrated in Poland. The paper describes the bridge system itself and presents the results of research on its development. The output of the R&amp;D project gives a very promising future for the FRP composite bridge application in Poland, especially for cleaner, resilient and more environmentally efficient infrastructure of fast-growing cities.</p>


PCI Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (6) ◽  
pp. 35-61
Author(s):  
Chungwook Sim ◽  
Maher Tadros ◽  
David Gee ◽  
Micheal Asaad

Ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) is a special concrete mixture with outstanding mechanical and durability characteristics. It is a mixture of portland cement, supplementary cementitious materials, sand, and high-strength, high-aspect-ratio microfibers. In this paper, the authors propose flexural design guidelines for precast, prestressed concrete members made with concrete mixtures developed by precasters to meet minimum specific characteristics qualifying it to be called PCI-UHPC. Minimum specified cylinder strength is 10 ksi (69 MPa) at prestress release and 18 ksi (124 MPa) at the time the member is placed in service, typically 28 days. Minimum flexural cracking and tensile strengths of 1.5 and 2 ksi (10 and 14 MPa), respectively, according to ASTM C1609 testing specifications are required. In addition, strain-hardening and ductility requirements are specified. Tensile properties are shown to be more important for structural optimization than cylinder strength. Both building and bridge products are considered because the paper is focused on capacity rather than demand. Both service limit state and strength limit state are covered. When the contribution of fibers to capacity should be included and when they may be ignored is shown. It is further shown that the traditional equivalent rectangular stress block in compression can still be used to produce satisfactory results in prestressed concrete members. A spreadsheet workbook is offered online as a design tool. It is valid for multilayers of concrete of different strengths, rows of reinforcing bars of different grades, and prestressing strands. It produces moment-curvature diagrams and flexural capacity at ultimate strain. A fully worked-out example of a 250 ft (76.2 m) span decked I-beam of optimized shape is given.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 5031
Author(s):  
Wooseok Kim ◽  
Jeffrey A. Laman ◽  
Farzin Zareian ◽  
Geunhyung Min ◽  
Do Hyung Lee

Although integral abutment bridges (IABs) have become a preferred construction choice for short- to medium-length bridges, they still have unclear bridge design guidelines. As IABs are supported by nonlinear boundaries, bridge geometric parameters strongly affect IAB behavior and complicate predicting the bridge response for design and assessment purposes. This study demonstrates the effect of four dominant parameters: (1) girder material, (2) bridge length, (3) backfill height, and (4) construction joint below girder seats on the response of IABs to the rise and fall of AASHTO extreme temperature with time-dependent effects in concrete materials. The effect of factors influencing bridge response, such as (1) bridge construction timeline, (2) concrete thermal expansion coefficient, (3) backfill stiffness, and (4) pile-soil stiffness, are assumed to be constant. To compare girder material and bridge geometry influence, the study evaluates four critical superstructure and substructure response parameters: (1) girder axial force, (2) girder bending moment, (3) pile moment, and (4) pile head displacement. All IAB bridge response values were strongly related to the four considered parameters, while they were not always linearly proportional. Prestressed concrete (PSC) bridge response did not differ significantly from the steel bridge response. Forces and moments in the superstructure and the substructure induced by thermal movements and time-dependent loads were not negligible and should be considered in the design process.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 4563
Author(s):  
Sangpil Ko ◽  
Pasi Lautala ◽  
Kuilin Zhang

Rail car availability and the challenges associated with the seasonal dynamics of log movements have received growing attentions in the Lake Superior region of the US, as a portion of rail car fleet is close to reaching the end of its service life. This paper proposes a data-driven study on the rail car peaking issue to explore the fleet of rail cars dedicated to being used for log movements in the region, and to evaluate how the number of cars affects both the storage need at the sidings and the time the cars are idled. This study is based on the actual log scale data collected from a group of forest companies in cooperation with the Lake State Shippers Association (LSSA). The results of our analysis revealed that moving the current log volumes in the region would require approximately 400–600 dedicated and shared log cars in ideal conditions, depending on the specific month. While the higher fleet size could move the logs as they arrive to the siding, the lower end would nearly eliminate the idling of rail cars and enable stable volumes throughout the year. However, this would require short-term storage and additional handling of logs at the siding, both elements that increase the costs for shippers. Another interesting observation was the fact that the reduction of a single day in the loading/unloading process (2.5 to 1.5 days) would eliminate almost 100 cars (20%) of the fleet without reduction in throughput.


Author(s):  
Xin Li ◽  
Mahmud Ashraf ◽  
Mahbube Subhani ◽  
Paul Kremer

Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is now considered a viable alternative to traditional construction materials both in mid-rise and high-rise structures. The structural response of CLT heavily relies on the type of timber used in manufacturing, and this can vary significantly based on the original source for this naturally grown raw material. Spruce has been widely used in Europe for CLT production, but in Australia, locally available radiata pine is used by XLam for the manufacturing of their CLT panels. Self-tapping screws (STS) are typically recommended by CLT manufacturers and are most commonly used in relevant construction due to their high load carrying capacities and easy installation process. VGS STSs produced by Rothoblaas were used to investigate their composite actions when pulled-out from three-layer XLam CLT panels with thicknesses of 105 mm and 135 mm. VGS screws with 11 mm in diameter were inserted both parallel-to-grain and perpendicular-to-grain on the narrow face of the CLT panels as part of the current study. Typical failure modes as well as critical penetration depths were carefully recorded. Obtained results showed significant increase of pull-out capacity as penetration depths were increased for considered cases. However, experimental results also showed some obvious inconsistencies. These observations clearly demonstrate the challenges associated with working naturally grown fibrous materials and highlights the importance of major research on this field.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
John Olumide Olusanya

In this study, the fatigue life of fiber reinforced composite (FRC) materials system was investigated. A nano-filler was used to increase the service life of the composite structures under cyclical loading since such structures require improved structural integrity and longer service life. Behaviour of glass fiber reinforced composite (GFRC) enhanced with various weight percentages (1 to 5 wt. %) of Cloisite 30B montmorillonite (MMT) clay was studied under static and fatigue loading. Epoxy clay nanocomposite (ECN) and hybrid nanoclay/GFRC laminates were characterised using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). The mechanical properties of neat GFRC and hybrid nanoclay/GFRC laminates were evaluated. Fatigue study of the composite laminates was conducted and presented using the following parameter; matrix crack initiation and propagation, interfacial debonding, delamination and S–N relationship. Residual strength of the materials was evaluated using DMA to determine the reliability of the hybrid nanoclay/GFRC laminates. The results showed that ECN and hybrid nanoclay/GFRC laminates exhibited substantial improvement in most tests when compared to composite without nanoclay. The toughening mechanism of the nanoclay in the GFRC up to 3 wt. % gave 17%, 24% and 56% improvement in tensile, flexural and impact properties respectively. In the fatigue performance, less crack propagations was found in the hybrid nanoclay/GFRC laminates. Fatigue life of hybrid nanoclay/GFRC laminate was increased by 625% at the nanoclay addition up to 3 wt. % when compared to neat GFRC laminate. The residual strength of the composite materials revealed that hybrid nanoclay/GFRC showed less storage modulus reduction after fatigue. Likewise, a positive shift toward the right was found in the tan delta glass transition temperature (Tg) of 3 wt. % nanoclay/GFRC laminate after fatigue. It was concluded that the application of nanoclay in the GFRC improved the performance of the material. The hybrid nanoclay/GFRC material can therefore be recommended mechanically and thermally for longer usage in structural application.


2012 ◽  
Vol 204-208 ◽  
pp. 4119-4123
Author(s):  
Bo Wang ◽  
Ji Cheng ◽  
Xiao Han Zhang

New construction materials are the new generations of construction materials which are on the basis of the traditional construction materials, including the new wall materials, thermal insulation materials, water sealing materials, decoration materials and etc. New construction materials industry is developed with the deeply reforming and opening of China. This paper introduces the basic concepts and characters of the new construction materials, analyzes the development and application of the new construction materials, and then discusses countermeasures and suggestions of the development of the new construction materials.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document