Mechanical Properties of Full-Scale Prestressed Concrete Beams with Thin Slab after Exposure to Actual Fire

To provide an effective basis and reference for applications of prestressed concrete thin-slab beams after a bridge fire, methods and principles of fire-resistant design, repair, and reinforcement of such beams were discussed. Taking a simple supported and continuous girder bridge of an expressway in service as a sample, appearance testing and nondestructive testing of the internal structure were carried out. Four representative full-scale prestressed concrete beams were selected. Through the comparative test of the ultimate bearing capacity of such beams, the laws of the deflection deformation, strain distribution, crack formation, and crack development were obtained. By combining with the finite element simulation and theoretical analysis, the ultimate bearing capacity, complex mechanical characteristics, and breakage feature and failure mechanism of such beams were studied. It was indicated by the results the following: (1) Prestress loss will cause height reduction of the concrete shear zone, which is one of the main reasons why the bending-shearing failure of such beams happened before the pure bending failure. (2) Under certain operating loads, brittle fracture is more likely to occur on the bottom surface of such beams when directly exposed to fire. (3) The bursting and spalling depth of concrete after being exposed to fire can be used as the characteristic parameters for the rapid identification of the bottom surface of such after-fire beams.

Interfacial Heat Flux Estimation in a Funnel Shaped Mould and Analysis of Solidification Characteristics in Thin Slab Continuous Casting

An inverse heat transfer model based on Salp Swarm optimization algorithm is developed for prediction of heat flux at the hot faces of a mould in thin slab continuous casting. The industrial mould considered in this work is a funnel-shaped mould having complex arrangement of cooling slots and holes. Significant variations of heat flux along the casting direction, as well as across the width are observed. Subsequently, the obtained heat flux profile estimated by the inverse method is used to analyse the fluid flow and thermal characteristics of the solidifying steel strand inside the mould. Three different recirculatory zones are present due to molten steel flow, affecting the thermal and solidification characteristics significantly. The effect of these recirculatory flows on remelting phenomenon, and consequent formation of thinner shell at the mould outlet leading to quality control issues in the casting process have been discussed. Another practical issue of depression in the wide face shell thickness at the mould outlet has been identified, and its cause has been related to the location of the Submerged Entry Nozzle and the high speed of the molten steel inflow.

Optimal Design of the Submerged Entry Nozzle for Thin Slab Continuous Casting Molds

For the purpose of increasing the capacity of an Angang Strip Production (ASP) continuous caster and the surface quality of a medium-thin slab with mold sections of 150 × (1020–1540) mm2, the present work investigated the influences of the submerged entry nozzle (SEN) structure and main operating parameters on the flow characteristic and temperature distribution in the mold by physical and numerical simulations. The results showed that the typical “double-roll” flow and a central jet were formed through the three-port SEN. With the original SEN, the mean wave height exceeded the critical value of 5.0 mm after the casting speed was increased due to the strong upper recirculation flow. By the slight increment of the bottom port area and the side port angle of SEN, the mean wave height was obviously decreased below 4.4 mm due to the depressing of the upper recirculation flow after the casting speed increased. Meanwhile, the temperature distribution was slightly changed by using the optimized SEN. The practical application showed that the breakout rate decreased from 0.349% to 0.107% and the surface defect rate decreased from 0.54% to 0.19% by using the optimized SEN, while throughput reached the new level of 3.96 t/min.