The behaviour of reinforced concrete slabs in fire

In this paper a robust model is presented based on the previous layer procedure developed by the author to also take into account the effects of concrete spalling on the behaviour of concrete slabs under fire conditions. In this study, a detailed analysis of a uniformly loaded reinforced concrete slab subject to different degrees of concrete spalling under a standard fire regime is first carried out. Further, a series of analysis of floor slabs with different degrees of concrete spalling is also performed on a generic reinforced concrete building. A total of 16 cases have been analysed using different degrees of spalling on the slabs, with different extents and positions of localised fire compartments. It is clear that adjacent cool structures provide considerable thermal restraint to the floor slabs within the fire compartment. And it is evident that the compressive membrane force within the slabs is a major player in reducing the impact of concrete spalling on the structural behaviour of floor slabs in fire. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

A Hybrid Model to Predict Localised Cracks of Reinforced Concrete Slabs in Fire

This paper presents a robust hybrid finite element procedure for predicting the large individual cracks within reinforced concrete floor slabs at elevated temperatures. For modelling the cracks formations and propagations within the floor slabs, the smeared crack model is used for modelling early stages of crack evolution, and then the ‘delayed extended finite element method (D-XFEM) is proposed for capturing individual big cracks within the floor slabs. The new model has been validated against previous fire test results. A series of parametric studies has been conducted on a composite floor to understand the influences of different protection conditions of the support steel beams on both global responses and cracking patterns of the composite floor under fire conditions

Mobility Aware Optimization in the Metaverse

Metaverse applications that incorporate Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) provide mixed and immersive experiences by amalgamating the virtual with the physical world. Notably, due to their multi-modality such applications are demanding in terms of energy consumption, computing and caching resources to efficiently support foreground interactions of participating users and rich background content. In this paper, the metaverse service is decomposed and anchored at suitable edge caching/computing nodes in 5G and beyond networks to enable efficient processing of background metaverse region models embedded with target AROs. To achieve that, a joint optimization problem is proposed, which explicitly considers the user physical mobility, service decomposition, and the balance between service delay, user perception quality and power consumption. A wide set of numerical investigations reveal that, the proposed scheme could provide optimal decision making and outperform other nominal baseline schemes which are oblivious of user mobility as well as do not consider service decomposition

Jamming Transition of Point-to-Point Traffic Through Cooperative Mechanisms

We study the jamming transition of two-dimensional point-to-point traffic through cooperative mechanisms using computer simulation. We propose two decentralized cooperative mechanisms which are incorporated into the point-to-point traffic models: stepping aside (CM-SA) and choosing alternative routes (CM-CAR). Incorporating CM-SA is to prevent a type of ping-pong jumps from happening when two objects standing face-to-face want to move in opposite directions. Incorporating CM-CAR is to handle the conflict when more than one object competes for the same point in parallel update. We investigate and compare four models mainly from fundamental diagrams, jam patterns and the distribution of cooperation probability. It is found that although it decreases the average velocity a little, the CM-SA increases the critical density and the average flow. Despite increasing the average velocity, the CM-CAR decreases the average flow by creating substantially vacant areas inside jam clusters. We investigate the jam patterns of four models carefully and explain this result qualitatively. In addition, we discuss the advantage and applicability of decentralized cooperation modeling.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figure

Modelling the bond between concrete and reinforcing steel in a fire

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Engineering Structures. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier B.V.A non-linear procedure is presented for modelling the bond characteristic between concrete and reinforcing steel for reinforced concrete structures in a fire. The accuracy and reliability of the model are demonstrated by the analysis of one pull-out test and one beam test at ambient temperature and four full-scale beams tested under two fire conditions. The model is clearly capable of predicting the response of reinforced concrete members and structures in a fire with acceptable accuracy. The bond-link element has been found to have good computational stability and efficiency for 3D analysis of reinforced concrete structures in fires. It is shown that the bond condition between the concrete and reinforcing steel bar has an important influence on the fire resistance of reinforced concrete structures, especially when the temperature of the reinforcing steel bar is high (more than 500 °C). Hence, the current assumption of a perfect bond condition for analysis of reinforced concrete structures under fire conditions is unconservative

Modelling localised fracture of reinforced concrete structures

This paper presents a robust finite element procedure for simulating the localised fracture of reinforced concrete members. In this new model the concrete member is modelled as an assembly of plain concrete, reinforcing steel bar and bond-link elements. The 4-node quadrilateral elements are used for 2D modelling of plain concrete elements, in which the extended finite element method is adopted to simulate the formation and growth of individual cracks. The reinforcing steel bars are modelled by using a 3-node beam-column element. 2-node bond-link elements are employed for modelling the interaction between plain concrete and reinforcing steel bar elements. It is evident that the nonlinear procedure proposed in this paper can properly model the formation and propagation of individual localised cracks within the reinforced concrete structures. The model presented in this paper enables the researchers and designers to access the integrity of reinforced concrete members under extreme loading conditions by using mesh independent extended finite element method.The support of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of Great Britain under Grant No. EP/I031553/1

A simplified model for modelling flexible end-plate connection in fire

In this paper a simplified robust 2-noded connection element has been developed for modelling the flexible end-plate connections at elevated temperatures. In this model, the two stage behaviours of flexible end-plate connection are considered. The model has the advantages of both the simple and component-based models. It is computationally efficient and has very good numerical stability under static solver conditions. A total of 14 tests are used to validate the model, demonstrating that this new connection model has the capability to accurately predict the behaviour of the flexible end-plate connections at elevated temperatures. The model can be used to simulate the flexible end-plate connections in real performance-based fire resistance design of steel-framed composite buildings