Impact Behavior of Composite Reinforced Concrete Beams with Pultruded I-GFRP Beam

The present study experimentally and numerically investigated the impact behavior of composite reinforced concrete (RC) beams with the pultruded I-GFRP and I-steel beams. Eight specimens of two groups were cast in different configurations. The first group consisted of four specimens and was tested under static load to provide reference results for the second group. The four specimens in the second group were tested first under impact loading and then static loading to determine the residual static strengths of the impacted specimens. The test variables considered the type of encased I-section (steel and GFRP), presence of shear connectors, and drop height during impact tests. A mass of 42.5 kg was dropped on the top surface at the mid-span of the tested beams from five different heights: 250, 500, 1000, 1500, and 1900 mm. Moreover, nonlinear Finite Element (FE) models were developed and validated using the experimental data. Static loading was defined as a displacement-controlled loading and the impact loading was modeled as dynamic explicit analysis with different drop velocities. The validated models were used to conduct a parametric study to investigate the effect of the concrete compressive strength on the performance of the composite beams under static and impact loadings. For the composite specimen with steel I-sction, the maximum impact force was 190% greater than the reference specimen NR-I at a drop height of 1900 mm, whereas the maximum impact forces for the specimens composite specimens with GFRP I-sction without and with shear connectors were 19% and 77%, respectively, more significant than the reference beam at the same drop height. The high stiffness for the steel I-beams relative to the GFRP I-beam was the reason for this difference in behavior. The concrete compressive strength was more effective in improving the impact behavior of the composite specimens relative to those without GFRP I-beams.

Serviceability of Post-fire RC Rafters with Openings of Different Sizes and Shapes

This study deals with the serviceability of reinforced concrete solid and perforated rafters with openings of different shapes and sizes based on an experimental study that includes 12 post-fire non-prismatic reinforced concrete beams (solid and perforated). Three groups were formed based on heating temperature (room temperature, 400 °C, and 700 °C), each group consisting of four rafters (solid, rafters with 6 and 8 trapezoidal openings, and rafter with eight circular openings) under static loading. A developed unified calculation technique for deflection and crack widths under static loading at the service stage has been provided, which comprises non-prismatic beams with or without opening exposed to flexure concentrated force. Two approaches were used to compute the deflection: The first attempt was conducted by using the moment of inertia for solid non-prismatic beam and reduced for those with openings by the ratio of residual rafter self-weight. The second was performed by using the moment of inertia of transformed cracked sections depending on the segmental rafter method. The crack width was determined using the ACI code's equation. The analytical and experimental results were evaluated and found to be in good agreement.

An Experimental Study into the Behaviour of Tube and Fitting Scaffold Structures under Cyclic Side and Vertical Loads

The United Kingdom and European codes for the analysis and design of tubular scaffold structures assume that the scaffolds are subjected primarily to vertical loads and to horizontal loads at right-angles to the scaffold. The effects of dynamic loading caused by large winds tend to be ignored and the code analyses often only require static loading on the structures to be considered. To investigate side loads, a scaffold frame built according to the UK standard was made and inserted into a testing rig. Five different load combinations were made to determine the behaviour of the scaffold under different side loads, which were varied cyclically to simulate different wind loads, especially when vertical loads were also applied. The results showed that cyclical loads affected scaffold behaviour, especially when the bases of the scaffold standards were not tied to the base at the bottom of the test rig. Changes should be made to the UK and European codes BS EN 74.1, BS 5975 and BS EN 128 11-1 for the design of scaffold structures to increase safety.

Numerical Simulation of Mechanical Characteristics of Roadway Surrounding Rock under Dynamic and Static Loading

Mechanical characteristics of roadway surrounding rock under different stress wave disturbances are the key to design roadway supporting scheme. In this study, the 2802 transportation roadway in Zhangcun Coal Mine is selected as the engineering background. The distribution of stress, displacement, and plastic zone in surrounding rock under the impact of different stress waves is studied. Results show that the stress and displacement of the roof, floor, and coal walls present fluctuating change with time during the stress wave loading process. With the increase of disturbing intensity of stress wave, the resistance ability for stress wave disturbance of the roof is lower than that of the floor, while the resistance ability of two sides is the same. The volume of plastic zone in roadway surrounding rock was calculated by the self-compiled FISH code. The relationship between the plastic zone volume and the stress wave disturbing intensity in different states is explored. The cubic polynomial relationship between the volume and the disturbing intensity in the state of shear_past and tension_past is obtained. Under the simulated condition, the disturbing intensity of stress wave has the greatest influence on the increase of shear_past volume when it equals 11 MPa. While the disturbing intensity of stress wave has the greatest influence on the increase of tension_past volume, it equals 7 MPa. Meanwhile, the relation between stress wave disturbing intensity and surrounding rock stress and displacement is obtained respectively. The achievements provide a theoretical base for roadway surrounding rock support under dynamic and static loading.

Subspace Reduction for Stochastic Planar Elasticity

Stochastic eigenvalue problems are nonlinear and multiparametric. They require their own solution methods and remain one of the challenge problems in computational mechanics. For the simplest possible reference problems, the key is to have a cluster of at the low end of the spectrum. If the inputs, domain or material, are perturbed, the cluster breaks and tracing of the eigenpairs become difficult due to possible crossing of the modes. In this paper we have shown that the eigenvalue crossing can occur within clusters not only by perturbations of the domain, but also of material parameters. What is new is that in this setting, the crossing can be controlled; that is, the effect of the perturbations can actually be predicted. Moreover, the basis of the subspace is shown to be a well-defined concept and can be used for instance in low-rank approximation of solutions of problems with static loading. In our industrial model problem, the reduction in solution times is significant.

Discussion On Failure Behavior of Piping Systems Under Extremely Large Seismic Loads in BDBE

To investigate the failure behavior of piping systems under severe seismic loads considering beyond design basis event (BDBE), an experimental approach to use pipes made of simulation materials was applied. "Simulation material" means the substitute material for steel to realize the structural experiment by the existing testing facilities. The simulation materials adopted in this study were pure lead (Pb) or lead-antimony (Pb-Sb) alloy. Using pipe elbows made of simulation materials, static loading tests on elbows and shaking table tests on simple piping system models composed of one or two elbows and an additional mass were conducted. From the static loading tests, the load-deflection relationship of an elbow under monotonic loading was obtained as well as the fatigue failure modes under cyclic loading depending on the several cyclic displacement levels. From the shaking table tests, several failure modes were obtained, namely, "Collapse by self-weight", "Collapse by a few cycles of input", "Ratchet and subsequent collapse", "Overall deformation", and "No failure". It was considered that the occurrence of these failure modes was affected by the ratio of the input frequency to the specimen's natural frequency, the ratio of additional mass weight to the limit mass weight, the configuration of the specimen, and the input acceleration level. The experimental results indicated that it was crucial to understand the structure's ultimate behavior when treating BDBE, and that the research approach using simulation material is effective to investigate the ultimate behavior of piping systems.

THE GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE EFFECTS ON SLOPES STABILITY AND TUNNELS OF METAMORPHIC ROCKS AT POBOYA GOLD MINE PALU

Poboya area has many geological structures that result in distribution of strength and stress of rocks not evenly distributed, as a result, the rock mass strength becomes disturbed and slopes become unstable. The objective of the study was to determine the geological structure effect on slope stability and tunnel conditions on metamorphic rocks at the Poboya gold mine. The study was conducted in the Mantikulore sub-district, Palu, Central Sulawesi. Lithology composing study area is metamorphic rocks consisting of gneiss and schist, therefore, the analysis was carried out on both locations which have many geological structures. Numerical analysis was performed applying the finite element method with the RS2 program assistance. The findings show that the safety factor value of the existing slope at gneiss and schist location under static loading is 4.6 and 2.72, if there is an earthquake it becomes 1.07 and 0.77. The safety factor value under static loading with the joint is 4.58 and 2.03, while under dynamic loading with joint, it becomes 0.94 and 0.64. The geological structure effect which represented by the joint gave a big impact with a decrease of safety factor at gneiss about 0.43% under static loading and 80% under dynamic loading. Meanwhile, at schist, safety factor decreased 25% under static loading and 76% under dynamic loading. For tunnel stability, the existence of joint will increase the displacement of 65% at gneiss under static loading and 84% under dynamic loading, while at schist, it increases 25% under static loading and 54% under dynamic loading. This illustrates that geological structures under dynamic loading affect significantly slope stability of Poboya gold mine.