Structural response of reinforced concrete columns during and after exposure to non-uniform heating and cooling regimes

In addition to the immediate life safety concerns during building fires, uncontrolled fires within buildings have the potential to cause extensive structural damage. Current design guidance for structures in fire focuses exclusively on the life safety of the occupants within buildings. With regard to the structure this is generally achieved by specifying a defined fire resistance period during which structural integrity must be maintained and fire spread must be prevented. This is to ensure that the building's egress routes are not compromised until all occupants have escaped from the building and fire-fighting operations have been completed. Designers are not typically required to explicitly consider the residual post-fire effects on structures. Particularly in relation to concrete structures which tend to perform well in fire and can often be reinstated, this raises questions about whether the post-fire effects are important from a life safety perspective. This thesis explores the applicability of some of some simple models to reflect the complex behaviour observed when symmetrically reinforced concrete columns are subjected to non-uniform heating regimes. An experimental test series was designed to provide an extensive data bank of the performance of a single reinforced concrete column subjected to many combinations of different loading and heating conditions. To this end 46 geometrically identical reinforced concrete columns were subjected to a combination of loading and heating conditions and both the thermal and mechanical response were monitored during both the heating and cooling phases of the experiments. All surviving columns were destructively tested to determine their residual performance 24 hours after cooling back to ambient temperature conditions. A sectional analysis model is presented to determine the load-moment interaction of a reinforced concrete column after exposure to elevated temperatures. This has been aided with the use of non-destructive testing of each of the columns with the aim of helping practitioners determine the post-fire properties and to aid in the residual analysis of a concrete structure exposed to elevated temperatures. In comparing the results to the current design guidance available it would be expected that each experiment would react in an identical fashion as the design of each of the columns and the external heat source is identical in each case. This experimental test series has concluded that this is not necessary the case. From a post-fire residual structural performance standpoint, this raises a number of questions regarding how practitioners can approach the assessment and analysis of reinforced concrete structures in the future. Given the findings of this work, and the one of a kind data bank that has been created as regards to the performance of reinforced concrete columns subjected to non-uniform heating and cooling regimes, fire engineering modellers now have the capability to validate Finite Element models against a series of 46 reinforced concrete columns through the full range of heating, cooling and post-cooling structural performance. The results of which have profound implications for the current design methodologies recommended. This data bank can now be used to validate such models and inform future design methodologies

Effects of a travelling fire on a concrete columns - Tisova Fire Test

The Tisova Fire Test was a large fire test conducted in the Czech Republic in January 2015 inside of a 4-storey concrete frame building, with concrete and composite deck floors. The test compartment was on the ground floor and the fire compartment had a total area of ca. 230m with a height of 4.4m. The fire compartment included four columns from the original 1958 concrete construction, one of which was instrumented for temperatures, chosen due to its higher likelihood of observable structural response both during and after the fire. This paper presents selected results of the test, concentrating on the thermal environment around the column showing the variability of temperatures through the compartment height. The paper also present the columns thermal response, as well as a post-fire assessments of the columns visual condition

Recommendation report for the implementation of research data management policy and for a sustainable research data management service at the University of Exeter

This is the Open Access and Research Data Management Policy Task and Finish Group's recommendation report for the implementation of research data management policy and a sustainable research data management service at the University of Exeter.JIS

American Thoracic Society 2019 Pediatric Core Curriculum

The American Thoracic Society Pediatric Core Curriculum updates clinicians annually in pediatric pulmonary disease in a 3 to 4 year recurring cycle of topics. The 2019 course was presented in May during the Annual International Conference. An American Board of Pediatrics Maintenance of Certification module and a continuing medical education exercise covering the contents of the Core Curriculum can be accessed online at www.thoracic.org.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152541/1/ppul24482_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152541/2/ppul24482.pd

Extensive Gene-Specific Translational Reprogramming in a Model of B Cell Differentiation and Abl-Dependent Transformation

To what extent might the regulation of translation contribute to differentiation programs, or to the molecular pathogenesis of cancer? Pre-B cells transformed with the viral oncogene v-Abl are suspended in an immortalized, cycling state that mimics leukemias with a BCR-ABL1 translocation, such as Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Inhibition of the oncogenic Abl kinase with imatinib reverses transformation, allowing progression to the next stage of B cell development. We employed a genome-wide polysome profiling assay called Gradient Encoding to investigate the extent and potential contribution of translational regulation to transformation and differentiation in v-Abl-transformed pre-B cells. Over half of the significantly translationally regulated genes did not change significantly at the level of mRNA abundance, revealing biology that might have been missed by measuring changes in transcript abundance alone. We found extensive, gene-specific changes in translation affecting genes with known roles in B cell signaling and differentiation, cancerous transformation, and cytoskeletal reorganization potentially affecting adhesion. These results highlight a major role for gene-specific translational regulation in remodeling the gene expression program in differentiation and malignant transformation