Advances in Structural Engineering

In cold-formed steel structures, such as trusses, wall frames, and portal frames, the use of back-to-back built-up cold-formed steel channel sections for the column members is becoming increasingly popular. In such an arrangement, intermediate fasteners at discrete points along the length prevent the individual channel sections from buckling independently. Current guidance by the American Iron and Steel Institute and the Australian and New Zealand Standards for built-up sections describes a modified slenderness approach, to take into account the spacing of the screws. Limited experimental tests or finite element analyses, however, have been reported in the literature for such sections to understand the effect of screw spacing. This issue is addressed herein. The results of 30 experimental tests are reported, conducted on back-to-back built-up cold-formed steel channel sections covering stub columns to slender columns. A finite element model is then described which shows good agreement with the experimental test results. The finite element model is then used for the purposes of a parametric study comprising 144 models. It is shown that while the modified slenderness approach is in general conservative, for stub columns it can be unconservative by around 10%.

This article tries to contribute to quantify the amount of steel corrosion at the cracking of concrete cover. The amount of steel corrosion when the concrete cover cracks, is a key factor in the life of concrete structures. During the time between steel depassivation and concrete cover cracking, the process of steel corrosion develops in three stages: free expansion of the corrosion products, stress initiation of the concrete cover, and cracking of the concrete cover. A concrete cracking model is presented here to estimate the total amount of steel corrosion at the onset of the cracking of the concrete cover. This model is applied to some test results reported by other researchers. The amount of steel corrosion predicted by the proposed model when cracking of the concrete cover occurs is in agreement with the experimentally observed results.

Fragility analysis constitutes the basis in seismic risk assessment and performance-based earthquake engineering during which the probability of a structure response exceeding a certain limit state at a given seismic intensity is sought to relate seismic intensity and structural vulnerability. In this article, the seismic vulnerability assessment of a subway station structure is investigated using a probabilistic method. The Daikai subway station was selected as an example structure and its seismic responses are modeled according to the nonlinear incremental dynamic analysis procedure. The limit states are defined in terms of the deformation and waterproof performance of the subway station structure based on the central column drift angle and the structural tension damage distribution obtained from the incremental dynamic analysis. Fragility curves were developed at those limit states and the probability of exceedance at the limit states of operational, slight damage, life safety, and collapse prevention was determined for the two seismic hazard levels. Results reveal that the proposed fragility analysis implementation procedure to the subway station structure provides an effective and reliable seismic vulnerability analysis method, which is essential for these underground structural systems considering their high potential risk during seismic events.

A new method of upgrading seismic performance for underground structures is proposed in this paper. Both single-story and double-story underground subway stations are studied. Using the famous single-story Daikai Station model, by which the reliability of the numerical model is verified, seismic efficiency of Shear Panel Damper (SPD) in underground structures is proven. Then, in order to design appropriate and efficient SPDs for underground structures, strength ratio, one of the design parameters, is employed to investigate the seismic performance of structures. The recommended optimum range of strength ratio is given. Afterwards, typical double-story three-span stations with different SPDs layout forms are analyzed to figure out the optimal placement of SPDs. And some interesting conclusions are obtained, which may provide a convenient way to design SPDs in multi-story underground structures.

Vibration measurement is one of the most widely used methods for tension evaluation and condition assessment of stay cables in cable-stayed bridges. In the existing practice, the tension force of a cable is identified from the measured modal frequencies with the use of the taut string theory or empirical formulae, by assuming pre-determined structural parameters (geometric and material parameters) and boundary conditions of the cable. As a result, an inaccurate estimation of the cable tension may be obtained when there is an error in the pre-determined structural parameters and boundary conditions. Moreover, the commonly used empirical formulae are not applicable in the case when the cable is intermediately attached with dampers. In the present study, a method enabling simultaneous identification of cable tension and other structural parameters from the measured modal frequencies is developed. A precise finite element model (FEM) accounting for cable flexural rigidity, sag-extensibility, spatial variability of dynamic tension, boundary conditions, lumped masses and intermediate supports and/or dampers is first formulated as the reference model in parameter identification so that the modeling error is minimized. Then the measured multiple modal frequencies are used together with the FEM to figure out a nonlinear least-square optimization scheme which helps eliminate measurement error and allows for simultaneous identification of the cable tension and other structural parameters. Application of the proposed method to the Dongting Lake Bridge cables from in-situ ambient vibration measurements illustrates high identification accuracy and fidelity of the proposed method.

This article presents a comprehensive and critical review of the structural performances of reinforced recycled aggregate concrete beams and columns based on experimental results reported in the literature. Extensive data sets collected from the literature are categorized to investigate the effects on the local and global structural behavior. First, the flexural and shear response of reinforced recycled aggregate concrete beams is discussed. The structural performances are reviewed focusing on the main geometric and material variables such as the recycled concrete aggregate replacement ratio, the longitudinal reinforcement ratio, the transverse reinforcement ratio, and the shear span-to-depth ratio. Then, the behavior of reinforced recycled aggregate concrete columns under concentric and eccentric compressive loads and the seismic performance under low cyclic loading are discussed. The similarities and the differences between reinforced recycled aggregate concrete and reinforced natural aggregate concrete beams and columns are highlighted. The need for further research is pointed out at the end of the article. The results reported in this review clearly indicate that reinforced recycled aggregate concrete beams and columns with various recycled concrete aggregate replacement ratios have comparable or slightly lower structural performances to the reinforced natural aggregate concrete ones indicating the feasibility of recycled concrete aggregate for structural applications.

Recent earthquakes have highlighted additional losses due to the lack of resilience of damaged structures. Environmental impact, as performance indicator, has also received increased attention within performance-based earthquake engineering. In this article, a combined probabilistic framework is proposed to assess seismic risk, sustainability, and resilience of a non-ductile reinforced concrete frame structure. The framework utilizes three-dimensional inelastic fiber-based numerical modeling approach to develop limit states associated with performance levels. The decision variables (i.e. repair cost, downtime, and equivalent carbon emissions) are quantified at both component level and system level and are compared considering seismic risk, sustainability, and resilience. In addition, the proposed approach considers uncertainties in the building performance and consequence functions of structural and non-structural components. Fast-track and slow-track schemes are utilized as a repair strategy and probabilistic resilience is quantified given the investigated time period. The proposed approach can aid the development of the next generation of performance-based engineering incorporating both resilience and sustainability.

The estimation of the initial stiffness of columns subjected to seismic loadings has long been a matter of considerable uncertainty. This paper reports a study that is devoted to addressing this uncertainty by developing a rational method to determine the initial stiffness of RC columns when subjected to seismic loads. A comprehensive parametric study based on a proposed method is initially carried out to investigate the influences of several critical parameters. A simple equation is then proposed to estimate the initial stiffness of RC columns. The applicability and accuracy of the proposed method and equation are then verified with the experimental data obtained from literature studies.

This paper presents the details of an experimental investigation on the behaviour of axially loaded concrete-filled stainless steel elliptical hollow sections. The experimental investigation was conducted using normal and high strength concrete of 30 and 100 MPa. The current study is based on stub column tests and is therefore limited to cross-section capacity. Based on the equations proposed by the authors on concrete-filled stainless steel circular columns, a new set of equations for the stainless steel concrete-filled elliptical hollow sections were proposed. From the limited data currently available, the equation provides an accurate and consistent prediction of the axial capacity of the composite concrete-filled stainless steel elliptical hollow sections.

This article presents a new form of fibre-reinforced polymer-concrete-steel hybrid columns and demonstrates some of its expected advantages using results from an experimental study. These columns consist of a concrete-filled fibre-reinforced polymer tube that is internally reinforced with a high-strength steel tube and are referred to as hybrid double-tube concrete columns. The three components in hybrid double-tube concrete columns (i.e. the external fibre-reinforced polymer tube, the concrete infill and the internal high-strength steel tube) are combined in an optimal manner to deliver excellent short- and long-term performance. The experimental study included axial compression tests on eight hybrid double-tube concrete columns with a glass fibre–reinforced polymer external tube covering different glass fibre–reinforced polymer tube thicknesses and diameters as well as different high-strength steel tube diameters. The experimental results show that in hybrid double-tube concrete columns, the concrete is well confined by both the fibre-reinforced polymer tube and the high-strength steel tube, and the buckling of the high-strength steel tube is suppressed so that its high material strength can be effectively utilized, leading to excellent column performance. Due to the high yield stress of high-strength steel, the hoop stress developed to confine the core concrete is much higher than can be derived from a normal-strength steel tube, giving the use of high-strength steel in double-tube concrete columns an additional advantage.