Shear Behaviour of Ligthweight Sandwich Reinforced Concrete Slabs

A new lightweight sandwich reinforced concrete (LSRC) section has been developed using prefabricated autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) blocks as infill in the section where concrete is considered ineffective under bending. This paper presents an investigation into the strength and behaviour of LSRC slabs subjected to shear. Eight tests were conducted on four slabs, one solid and three different types of LSRC slabs. Based on the test results, all LSRC slabs exhibited similar behaviour to the equivalent solid slab and had varying shear capacities depending on the profile of AAC blocks infill. The obtained shear capacities were compared with the design values based on several major design codes and found to be within the safety predictions of the codes. ANSYS was employed to develop nonlinear finite element models of LSRC slabs. The numerical results agree well with the experimental one

Relationship of Stiffness-Based Indentation Properties Using Continuous-Stiffness-Measurement Method.

The determination of elastic modulus (E) and hardness (H) relies on the accuracy of the contact area under the indenter tip, but this parameter cannot be explicitly measured during the nanoindentation process. This work presents a new approach that can derive the elastic modulus (E) and contact depth (hc) based on measured experiment stiffness using the continuous-stiffness-measurement (CSM) method. To achieve this, an inverse algorithm is proposed by incorporating a set of stiffness-based relationship functions that are derived from combining the dimensional analysis approach and computational simulation. This proposed solution considers both the sink-in and pile-up contact profiles; therefore, it provides a more accurate solution when compared to a conventional method that only considers the sink-in contact profile. While the proposed solution is sensitive to Poisson's ratio (ν) and the equivalent indentation conical angle (θ), it is not affected by material plasticity, including yield strength (σy) and work hardening (n) for the investigated range of 0.001 < σy/E < 0.5. The proposed stiffness-based approach can be used to consistently derive elastic modulus and hardness by using stiffness and the load-and-unload curve measured by the continuous-stiffness-measurement (CSM) method

A study on building foundations in Perth CBD

Copyright © 2013 by Research Publishing Services. In the past decade, numbers of high rise buildings in Perth CBD are increasing rapidly and, due to increase in the height, problems associated with foundations have become more apparent than before. The paper will present a study of buildings foundation in the city of Perth which have been designed and built in the recent years. The study focuses on the factors governing the design and the selection of raft, pile and piled raft. In addition, problems encountered during the constructions of foundation of three high rise buildings in Perth CBD will be presented. A comparison of foundation systems amongst these buildings will be made in terms of soil condition, cost and construction features. Based on an estimated cost of the foundations, piled raft foundation is an economical option and addition of limited number of piles will reduce the maximum settlements, differential settlements and the required thickness of the foundation. With constructability issues, it is found that the presence of water, utilities services and the ground anchors from the surrounding buildings are the major problems encountered during the construction of foundations

Study of Strain-Hardening Behaviour of Fibre-Reinforced Alkali-Activated Fly Ash Cement

This paper presents a study of parameters affecting the fibre pull out capacity and strain-hardening behaviour of fibre-reinforced alkali-activated cement composite (AAC). Fly ash is a common aluminosilicate source in AAC and was used in this study to create fly ash based AAC. Based on a numerical study using Taguchi's design of experiment (DOE) approach, the effect of parameters on the fibre pull out capacity was identified. The fibre pull out force between the AAC matrix and the fibre depends greatly on the fibre diameter and embedded length. The fibre pull out test was conducted on alkali-activated cement with a capacity in a range of 0.8 to 1.0 MPa. The strain-hardening behaviour of alkali-activated cement was determined based on its compressive and flexural strengths. While achieving the strain-hardening behaviour of the AAC composite, the compressive strength decreases, and fine materials in the composite contribute to decreasing in the flexural strength and strain capacity. The composite critical energy release rate in AAC matrix was determined to be approximately 0.01 kJ/m 2 based on a nanoindentation approach. The results of the flexural performance indicate that the critical energy release rate of alkali-activated cement matrix should be less than 0.01 kJ/m 2 to achieve the strain-hardening behaviour

Silo quake response spectrum of iron ore train load out bin

Silo quaking is a very complex industrial phenomenon and is often occurred in silo structures during discharge. There are three variants of the silo quaking phenomenon such as silo honking, silo shock and silo pulsation. Accelerometers are often used in practice to measure the responses of the structure. The accelerations generated by the silo structure during discharge are of non-linear and non-stationary nature. Therefore traditional algorithm, such as Fast Fourier Transform, which was designed to analyse linear and stationary signals and often used to analyse the collected acceleration data, is not suitable for signals generated by the silo structure during discharge. In the present research, Hilbert-Huang Transform and Hilbert Marginal Spectrum created by Norden Huang, a mathematician at NASA to analyse non-linear and non-stationary signals, were used to analyse the accelerograms collected from the experimental silo. The results revealed the existence of a silo quake spectrum which lays a solid foundation for further research into the silo quaking phenomenon and especially structural design methods to mitigate the effects of silo quaking on the silo structure

Second-order elastoplastic analysis of semirigid steel frames under cyclic loading

The evolutive second-order geometry elastoplastic analysis of flexibly connected planar structures is performed to investigate their cyclic behavior under quasistatic loading conditions. The formulation is cast as a mathematical programming problem, involving so-called &quot;complementarity&quot; constraints. A &quot;fictitious force&quot; concept, that preserves static-kinematic duality, is used to describe geometric nonlinearity. A second-order approximation, deemed sufficiently accurate for practical structures, is adopted. A semirigid connection is idealized as a zero-length elastoplastic element attached to either or both ends of a beam element. Inelasticity is captured through the familiar generalized plastic hinge concept, and a piecewise linear approximation of the nonlinear plastic capacity domain is used to represent the yield condition. A number of examples concerning realistic structures and benchmark cases is provided to check the validity and applicability of the proposed method and to study the cyclic behavior of flexibly connected planar frames

Recommendations for designing reinforced concrete beams against low velocity impact loads

This study investigates the behaviors of simply supported reinforced concrete (RC) beams subjected to impact loads. A numerical model of RC beams has been calibrated and a total of 18 RC beams with varying longitudinal reinforcement, transverse shear reinforcement, span and effective depth are investigated, subjected to different input impact energy. It is found that inertia force plays an important role in resisting an impact load at the starting time. The slenderness of the beam can cause increased downward reaction force and also amplifies the upward reaction force. Based on the numerical results, recommendations are made for designing RC beams under low velocity impact load. A formula is derived to predict the maximum mid-span deflection under low velocity impact load with respect to the kinetic energy and static bending capacity. The maximum spacing and the diameter of stirrups are also recommended so as to avoid the brittle failure under impact load

Transversely isotropic elastic-plastic properties in thermal arc sprayed Al–Zn coating: a microporomechanics approach

The transversely isotropic behaviour of thermal sprayed aluminium and zinc coating has been investigated based on a combination of nanoindentation experimental data and microporomechanics theory. A recently developed strength homogenisation approach comprises of the solid and porous medium is adopted to investigate the morphology properties of thermal sprayed aluminum and zinc coating. The finding of this paper demonstrates that the individual aluminum and zinc phases in the coating have a characteristic packing density close to the theoretical highest spherical packing ratio for face-centred cubic and hexagonal close packed. Also, the plasticity properties of solid particles in both aluminum and zinc are found to have a significant transversely isotropic condition, while the elasticity properties are close to isotropic. These findings led to the conclusion that the anisotropic condition of the coating is dominantly affected by the plasticity properties, in terms of cohesion and friction coefficient

Cohesive-strength homogenisation model of porous and non-porous materials using linear comparison composites and application.

An estimation of the strength of composite materials with different strength behaviours of the matrix and inclusion is of great interest in science and engineering disciplines. Linear comparison composite (LCC) is an approach introduced for estimating the macroscopic strength of matrix-inclusion composites. The LCC approach has however not been expanded to model non-porous composites. Therefore, this paper is to fill this gap by developing a cohesive-strength method for modelling frictional composite materials, which can be porous and non-porous, using the LCC approach. The developed cohesive-strength homogenisation model represents the matrix and inclusion as a two-phase composite containing solids and pores. The model is then implemented in a multiscaling model in which porous cohesive-frictional solids intermix with each other at different scale levels classified as micro, meso and macro. The developed model satisfies an upscaling scheme and is suitable for investigating the effects of the microstructure, the composition, and the interface condition of the materials at micro scales on the macroscopic strength of the composites. To further demonstrate the application of the developed cohesive-strength homogenisation model, the cohesive-strength properties of very high strength concrete are determined using instrumented indentation, nonlinear limit analysis and second-order cone programming to obtain material properties at different scale levels