INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
Year:2016 | Volume:8 | Issue:2|Papers Count:8

In the present study, the static, buckling, and free vibration of laminated composite plates is examined using a refined shear deformation theory and developed for a bending analysis of orthotropic laminated composite plates.These models take into account the parabolic distribution of transverse shear stresses and satisfy the condition of zero shear stresses on the top and bottom surfaces of the plates.The most interesting feature of this theory is that it allows for parabolic distributions of transverse shear stresses across the plate thickness and satisfies the conditions of zero shear stresses at the top and bottom surfaces of the plate without using shear correction factors. The number of independent unknowns in the present theory is four, as against five in other shear deformation theories. In the analysis, the equation of motion for simply supported thick laminated rectangular plates is obtained through the use of Hamilton’s principle. The accuracy of the analysis presented is demonstrated by comparing the results with solutions derived from other higher order models and with data found in the literature. It can be concluded that the proposed theory is accurate and simple in solving the static, the buckling, and free vibration behaviors of laminated composite plates.

An experimental program and an analytical model using ANSYS program were employed to estimate the structural performance of repaired damaged steel beams using fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials. The beams were artificially notched in the tension flanges at mid-spans and retrofitted by FRP flexible sheets on the tension flanges and the sheets were extended to cover parts of the beams webs with different heights.Eleven box steel beams, including one intact beam, one notch damaged beam and nine notches damaged beam and retrofitted with composite materials, were tested in two point loading up to failure. The parameters considered were the FRP type (GFRP and CFRP) and number of layers. The results indicated that bonding CFRP sheets to both of the tension steel flange and part of the webs, instead of the tension flange only, enhances the ultimate load of the retrofitted beams, avoids the occurrence of the debonding and increases the beam ductility. Also the numerical models give acceptable results in comparison with the experimental results.

The current seismic risk assessment is based on two discrete approaches, actual and probable, validating afterwards the produced results. In the first part of this research, the seismic risk is evaluated from the available data regarding the mean statistical repair/strengthening or replacement cost for the total number of damaged structures (180, 427 buildings) after the 7.9.1999 Parnitha (Athens) earthquake. The actual evaluated seismic risk is afterwards compared to the estimated probable structural losses, which is presented in the second part of the paper, based on a damage scenario in the referring earthquake. The applied damage scenario is based on recently developed damage probability matrices (DPMs) from Athens (Greece) damage database. The seismic risk estimation refers to 750, 085 buildings situated in the extended urban region of Athens.The building exposure is categorized in five typical structural types and represents 18.80 % of the entire building stock in Greece. The last information is provided by the National Statistics Service of Greece (NSSG) according to the 2000–2001 census. The seismic input is characterized by the ratio, ag/ao, where ag is the regional peak ground acceleration (PGA) which is evaluated from the earlier estimated research macro seismic intensities, and ao is the PGA according to the hazard map of the 2003 Greek Seismic Code. Finally, the collected investigated financial data derived from different National Services responsible for the post-earthquake crisis management concerning the repair/strengthening or replacement costs or other categories of costs for the rehabilitation of earthquake victims (construction and function of settlements for earthquake homeless, rent supports, demolitions, shorings) are used to determine the final total seismic risk factor.

In knee braced frames, the braces are attached to the knee element rather than the intersection of beams and columns. This bracing system is widely used and preferred over the other commonly used systems for reasons such as having lateral stiffness while having adequate ductility, damage concentration on the second degree convenience of repairing and replacing of these elements after Earthquake. The lateral stiffness of this system is supplied by the bracing member and the ductility of the frame attached to the knee length is supplied through the bending or shear yield of the knee member. In this paper, the nonlinear seismic behavior of knee braced frame systems has been investigated using incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) and the effects of the number of stories in a building, length and the moment of inertia of the knee member on the seismic behavior, elastic stiffness, ductility and the probability of failure of these systems has been determined. In the incremental dynamic analysis, after plotting the IDA diagrams of the accelerograms, the collapse diagrams in the limit states are determined. These diagrams yield that for a constant knee length with reduced moment of inertia, the probability of collapse in limit states heightens and also for a constant knee moment of inertia with increasing length, the probability of collapse in limit states increases.

The long-term durability of CFRP structural systems applied to reinforced-concrete (RC) highway bridges is a function of the system bond behavior over time. The sustained structural load performance of strengthened bridges depends on the carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates remaining 100 % bonded to concrete bridge members. Periodic testing of the CFRP–concrete bond condition is necessary to sustain load performance. The objective of this paper is to present a non-destructive testing (NDT) method designed to evaluate the bond condition and long-term durability of CFRP laminate (plate) systems applied to RC highway bridges. Using the impact-echo principle, a mobile mechanical device using light impact hammers moving along the length of a bonded CFRP plate produces unique acoustic frequencies which are a function of existing CFRP plate–concrete bond conditions. The purpose of this method is to test and locate CFRP plates de-bonded from bridge structural members to identify associated deterioration in bridge load performance. Laboratory tests of this NDT device on a CFRP plate bonded to concrete with staged voids (de-laminations) produced different frequencies for bonded and de-bonded areas of the plate. The spectra (bands) of frequencies obtained in these tests show a correlation to the CFRP–concrete bond condition and identify bonded and de-bonded areas of the plate. The results of these tests indicate that this NDT impact machine, with design improvements, can potentially provide bridge engineers a means to rapidly evaluate long lengths of CFRP laminates applied to multiple highway bridges within a national transportation infrastructure.

With the increasing interest in vertical ground motions, the focus of this study is to investigate the effect of concurrent horizontal–vertical excitations on the seismic response and collapse fragilities of RC buildings designed according to modern seismic codes and located near active faults. It must be stressed that only mid- to high-rise buildings are of significant concern in the context of this research. The considered structures are categorized as intermediate and special RC-MRFs and have been remodeled using distributed and lumped plasticity computational approaches in nonlinear simulation platforms, so that the utilized NL models can simulate all possible modes of deterioration. For better comparison, not only was the combined vertical and horizontal motion applied, but also a single horizontal component was considered for direct evaluation of the effect of the vertical ground motions (VGMs). At the member level, axial force variation and shear failure as the most critical brittle failure mechanisms were studied, while on the global level, adjusted collapse margin ratios (ACMRs) and mean annual frequency of collapse (k Collapse) using a new vector-valued intensity measure were investigated. Findings from the study indicate that VGMs have significant effects on both local and global structural performance and cannot be neglected.

Early-age cracking can adversely affect strength, serviceability, and durability of concrete bridge decks. Early age is defined as the period after final setting, during which concrete properties change rapidly. Many factors can cause early-age bridge deck cracking including temperature change, hydration, plastic shrinkage, autogenous shrinkage, and drying shrinkage. The cracking may also increase the effect of freeze and thaw cycles and may lead to corrosion of reinforcement. This research paper presents an analysis of causes and factors affecting early-age cracking. It also provides a tool developed to predict the likelihood and initiation of early-age cracking of concrete bridge decks. Understanding the concrete properties is essential so that the developed tool can accurately model the mechanisms contributing to the cracking of concrete bridge decks. The user interface of the implemented computer Excel program enables the user to input the properties of the concrete being monitored. The research study and the developed spreadsheet were used to comprehensively investigate the issue of concrete deck cracking. The spreadsheet is designed to be a user-friendly calculation tool for concrete mixtureproportioning, temperature prediction, thermal analysis, and tensile cracking prediction. The study also provides review and makes recommendations on the deck cracking based mainly on the Florida Department of Transportation specifications and Structures Design Guidelines, and Bridge Design Manuals of other states. The results were also compared with that of other commercially available software programs that predict early-age cracking in concrete slabs, concrete pavement, and reinforced concrete bridge decks. The outcome of this study can identify a set of recommendations to limit the deck cracking problem and maintain a longer service life of bridges.

The effectiveness of tuned mass friction damper (TMFD) in reducing undesirable resonant response of the bridge subjected to multi-axle vehicular load is investigated.A Taiwan high-speed railway (THSR) bridge subjected to Japanese SKS (Salkesa) train load is considered.The bridge is idealized as a simply supported Euler–Bernoulli beam with uniform properties throughout the length of the bridge, and the train’s vehicular load is modeled as a series of moving forces. Simplified model of vehicle, bridge and TMFD system has been considered to derive coupled differential equations of motion which is solved numerically using the New mark’s linear acceleration method. The critical train velocities at which the bridge undergoes resonant vibration are investigated. Response of the bridge is studied for three different arrangements of TMFD systems, namely, TMFD attached at mid-span of the bridge, multiple tuned mass friction dampers (MTMFD) system concentrated at mid-span of the bridge and MTMFD system with distributed TMFD units along the length of the bridge. The optimum parameters of each TMFD system are found out. It has been demonstrated that an optimized MTMFD system concentrated at mid-span of the bridge is more effective than an optimized TMFD at the same place with the same total mass and an optimized MTMFD system having TMFD units distributed along the length of the bridge. However, the distributed MTMFD system is more effective than an optimized TMFD system provided that TMFD units of MTMFD system are distributed within certain limiting interval and the frequency of TMFD units is appropriately distributed.