Fire resistance of steel beam to square CFST column composite joints using RC slabs: Experiments and numerical studies

In this paper, experimental investigation and numerical simulation of steel beam to square concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) column composite joints that use reinforced concrete (RC) slabs subjected to localized and global fire conditions are presented. Eight joints were tested under the ISO 834 fire standard, and the effect of different parameters including the load ratio of beams, the beam-to-column ratio of linear stiffness, and different fire scenarios was studied during testing. The failure patterns and the thermal responses of the structural members including the temperature distribution, axial displacement of columns, vertical deflection of the beam ends, and fire resistance of the joints were recorded and discussed. The results show that tube buckling of the square CFST columns, flange buckling of the steel beams, and separation between the top flange of the steel beams and the RC slabs were the primary failure patterns of this type of joint. Moreover, the temperatures of structural members within the connection zone were lower than those in the other regions. Compared with other factors, the load ratio of the beams demonstrated a significant influence on the displacement of the structural members and the fire resistance of the joints. A three-dimensional finite element analysis (FEA) model was built to simulate the fire performance of this type of composite joint. The simulation results were compared to the test results in terms of failure patterns, temperature distributions, displacements, and fire resistances, and good agreement in general was achieved. Finally, the FEA model was adopted to examine the effect of parameters on the fire resistance of the composite joints with axial and flexural constraints applied at the ends of the beam

Behavior of axially loaded circular stainless steel tube confined concrete stub columns

A stainless steel tube confined concrete (SSTCC) stub column is a new form of steel-concrete composite column in which the stainless steel tube without bearing the axial load directly is used to confine the core concrete. It could take the advantages of both the stainless steel tube and the confined concrete columns. This paper presents the experimental investigation of circular SSTCC stub columns subjected to axial load. Meanwhile, comparative tests of the circular concrete-filled stainless steel tubes and circular hollow stainless steel tubes were also conducted. The experimental phenomena of specimens are introduced in detail and the experimental results are analyzed. Through the investigation of axial stress and circumference stress on the stainless steel tube, the interaction behavior between stainless steel tube and core concrete is studied. The experimental results showed that the stainless steel tube provides better confinement to the concrete core, thus results the compressive capacity increased obviously comparing with unconfined concrete. The load-carrying capacity of SSTCC stub columns is higher than that of concrete-filled stainless steel tubes. An equation to calculate the load-carrying capacity of SSTCC stub columns was proposed, the results based on calculation are close to the experimental results

Faulhaber's Theorem on Power Sums

We observe that the classical Faulhaber's theorem on sums of odd powers also holds for an arbitrary arithmetic progression, namely, the odd power sums of any arithmetic progression $a+b, a+2b, ..., a+nb$ is a polynomial in $na+n(n+1)b/2$. While this assertion can be deduced from the original Fauhalber's theorem, we give an alternative formula in terms of the Bernoulli polynomials. Moreover, by utilizing the central factorial numbers as in the approach of Knuth, we derive formulas for $r$-fold sums of powers without resorting to the notion of $r$-reflexive functions. We also provide formulas for the $r$-fold alternating sums of powers in terms of Euler polynomials.Comment: 12 pages, revised version, to appear in Discrete Mathematic

Effect of reinforcement stiffeners on square concrete-filled steel tubular columns subjected to axial compressive load

Eight stiffened square concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) stub columns with slender sections of encasing steel and two non-stiffened counterparts were tested subjected to axial compressive load. Four types of reinforcement stiffeners and steel tensile strips were introduced to postpone local buckling of steel tubes, in which the tensile strip was first used as stiffener in CFSTs. The stiffening mechanism, failure modes of concrete and steel tubes, strength and ductility of stiffened square CFSTs were also studied during the experimental research. A numerical modeling program was developed and verified against the experimental data. The program incorporates the effect of the stiffeners on postponing local buckling of the tube and the tube confinement on concrete core. Extensive parametric analysis was also conducted to examine the influencing parameters on mechanical properties of stiffened square CFSTs

Comparison between the Torquato-Rintoul theory of the interface effect in composite media and elementary results

We show that the interface effect on the properties of composite media recently proposed by Torquato and Rintoul (TR) [Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 4067 (1995)] is in fact elementary, and follows directly from taking the limit in the dipolar polarizability of a coated sphere: the TR ``critical values'' are simply those that make the dipolar polarizability vanish. Furthermore, the new bounds developed by TR either coincide with the Clausius-Mossotti (CM) relation or provide poor estimates. Finally, we show that the new bounds of TR do not agree particularly well with the original experimental data that they quote.Comment: 13 pages, Revtex, 8 Postscript figure

Experimental and numerical investigation on the performance of three-legged CFST latticed columns under lateral cyclic loadings

To evaluate the cyclic performance of composite latticed columns, experiments and numerical modelling of three-legged concrete filled steel tube (CFST) latticed columns under constant axial compressive force and lateral cyclic loadings were conducted. Experiments of eight specimens, including 6 CFST latticed columns and 2 steel latticed columns, were carried out with various axial compression ratio and diameter-to-thickness ratio of the tube section in the limb. The failure pattern, hysteretic behaviour, bearing capacity, initial stiffness and accumulated energy dissipation of the specimens were investigated. The experimental results reveal that, under cyclic loadings, CFST latticed columns have better performance than the corresponding steel latticed columns; however, three-legged CFST latticed specimens show different behaviour in two loading directions owing to the different capacity of the CFST members under tension and compression. A finite element analysis (FEA) model was developed to simulate the performance of three-legged CFST latticed columns under lateral cyclic loadings, and the feasibility of the FEA model was verified by the comparison against test results

IL-33 ameliorates Alzheimer’s disease-like pathology and cognitive decline

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating condition with no known effective treatment. AD is characterized by memory loss as well as impaired locomotor ability, reasoning, and judgment. Emerging evidence suggests that the innate immune response plays a major role in the pathogenesis of AD. In AD, the accumulation of β-amyloid (Aβ) in the brain perturbs physiological functions of the brain, including synaptic and neuronal dysfunction, microglial activation, and neuronal loss. Serum levels of soluble ST2 (sST2), a decoy receptor for interleukin (IL)-33, increase in patients with mild cognitive impairment, suggesting that impaired IL-33/ST2 signaling may contribute to the pathogenesis of AD. Therefore, we investigated the potential therapeutic role of IL-33 in AD, using transgenic mouse models. Here we report that IL-33 administration reverses synaptic plasticity impairment and memory deficits in APP/PS1 mice. IL-33 administration reduces soluble Aβ levels and amyloid plaque deposition by promoting the recruitment and Aβ phagocytic activity of microglia; this is mediated by ST2/p38 signaling activation. Furthermore, IL-33 injection modulates the innate immune response by polarizing microglia/macrophages toward an antiinflammatory phenotype and reducing the expression of proinflammatory genes, including IL-1β, IL-6, and NLRP3, in the cortices of APP/PS1 mice. Collectively, our results demonstrate a potential therapeutic role for IL-33 in AD

A novel downscaling technique for the linkage of global and regional air quality modeling

Recently, downscaling global atmospheric model outputs (GCTM) for the USEPA Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Initial (IC) and Boundary Conditions (BC) have become practical because of the rapid growth of computational technologies that allow global simulations to be completed within a reasonable time. The traditional method of generating IC/BC by profile data has lost its advocates due to the weakness of the limited horizontal and vertical variations found on the gridded boundary layers. Theoretically, high quality GCTM IC/BC should yield a better result in CMAQ. Unfortunately, several researchers have found that the outputs from GCTM IC/BC are not necessarily better than profile IC/BC due to the excessive transport of O3 aloft in GCTM IC/BC. In this paper, we intend to investigate the effects of using profile IC/BC and global atmospheric model data. In addition, we are suggesting a novel approach to resolve the existing issue in downscaling. In the study, we utilized the GEOS-Chem model outputs to generate time-varied and layer-varied IC/BC for year 2002 with the implementation of tropopause determining algorithm in the downscaling process (i.e., based on chemical (O3) tropopause definition). The comparison between the implemented tropopause approach and the profile IC/BC approach is performed to demonstrate improvement of considering tropopause. It is observed that without using tropopause information in the downscaling process, unrealistic O3 concentrations are created at the upper layers of IC/BC. This phenomenon has caused over-prediction of surface O3 in CMAQ. In addition, the amount of over-prediction is greatly affected by temperature and latitudinal location of the study domain. With the implementation of the algorithm, we have successfully resolved the incompatibility issues in the vertical layer structure between global and regional chemistry models to yield better surface O3 predictions than profile IC/BC for both summer and winter conditions. At the same time, it improved the vertical O3 distribution of CMAQ outputs. It is strongly recommended that the tropopause information should be incorporated into any two-way coupled global and regional models, where the tropospheric regional model is used, to solve the vertical incompatibility that exists between global and regional models. doi:10.5194/acp-10-4013-2010 Publisher\u27s note: We have discovered that the previously published paper was not the latest version of the manuscript we intended to use. Some corrections made during the second ACPD reviewing process were not incorporated in the text. As a result, the figure numbers (i.e., figure number below the graph) were not referenced correctly in the manuscript. Therefore, we have decided to re-publish this paper as a corrigendum

A novel downscaling technique for the linkage of global and regional air quality modeling

Recently, downscaling global atmospheric model outputs (GCTM) for the USEPA Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Initial (IC) and Boundary Conditions (BC) have become practical because of the rapid growth of computational technologies that allow global simulations to be completed within a reasonable time. The traditional method of generating IC/BC by profile data has lost its advocates due to the weakness of the limited horizontal and vertical variations found on the gridded boundary layers. Theoretically, high quality GCTM IC/BC should yield a better result in CMAQ. Unfortunately, several researchers have found that the outputs from GCTM IC/BC are not necessarily better than profile IC/BC due to the excessive transport of O3 aloft in GCTM IC/BC. In this paper, we intend to investigate the effects of using profile IC/BC and global atmospheric model data. In addition, we are suggesting a novel approach to resolve the existing issue in downscaling. In the study, we utilized the GEOS-Chem model outputs to generate time-varied and layer-varied IC/BC for year 2002 with the implementation of tropopause determining algorithm in the downscaling process (i.e., based on chemical (O3) tropopause definition). The comparison between the implemented tropopause approach and the profile IC/BC approach is performed to demonstrate improvement of considering tropopause. It is observed that without using tropopause information in the downscaling process, unrealistic O3 concentrations are created at the upper layers of IC/BC. This phenomenon has caused over-prediction of surface O3 in CMAQ. In addition, the amount of over-prediction is greatly affected by temperature and latitudinal location of the study domain. With the implementation of the algorithm, we have successfully resolved the incompatibility issues in the vertical layer structure between global and regional chemistry models to yield better surface O3 predictions than profile IC/BC for both summer and winter conditions. At the same time, it improved the vertical O3 distribution of CMAQ outputs. It is strongly recommended that the tropopause information should be incorporated into any two-way coupled global and regional models, where the tropospheric regional model is used, to solve the vertical incompatibility that exists between global and regional models