• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.2
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• pp.229-237
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• 2020

The steel slit shear wall (SSSW), made by cutting vertical slits in a steel plate, is increasingly used for the seismic protection of building structures. In the domain of thin plate shear walls, the out-of-plane buckling together with the potential fracture developed at slit ends at large lateral deformation may result in degraded shear strength and energy dissipation, which is not desirable in view of seismic design. To address this issue, the present study proposed a new type of SSSW made by intentionally introducing initial out-of-plane folding into the originally flat slitted plate. Quasi-static cyclic tests on three SSSWs with different amplitudes of introduced out-of-plane folding were conducted to study their shear strength, elastic stiffness, energy dissipation capacity and buckling behavior. By introducing proper amplitude of out-of-plane folding into the SSSW fracture at slit ends was eliminated, plumper hysteretic behavior was obtained and there was nearly no strength degradation. A method to estimate the shear strength and elastic stiffness of the new SSSW was also proposed.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.27-44
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• 2022

Gravelly soil is a kind of special geotechnical material, which is widely used in the subgrade engineering of railway, highway and airport. Its mechanical properties are very complex, and will greatly influence the stability of subgrade engineering. To investigate the mechanical properties and failure mechanism of gravelly soils, this paper introduced and verified a new discrete element method (DEM) of gravelly soils in large scale direct shear test, which considers the actual shape and broken characteristics of gravels. Then, the stress and strain characteristics, particle interaction, particle contact force, crack development and energy conversion in gravelly soils during the shear process were analyzed using this method. Moreover, the effects of gravel content (GC) on the mechanical properties and failure characteristics were discussed. The results reveal that as GC increases, the shear stress becomes more fluctuating, the peak shear stress increases, the volumetric strain tends to dilate, the average particle contact force increases, the cumulative number of cracks increases, and the shear failure plane becomes coarser. Higher GC will change the friction angle with a trend of "stability", "increase", and "stability". Differently, it affects the cohesion with a law of "increase", "stability" and "increase".

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.319-336
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• 2024

Ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) has attracted increasing attention in prefabricated steel-concrete composite beams as achieving the onsite construction time savings and structural performance improvement. The inferior replacement and removal efficiency of conventional prefabricated steel-UHPC composite beams (PSUCBs) has thwarted its sustainable applications because of the widely used welded-connectors. Single embedded nut bolted shear connectors (SENBs) have recently introduced as an attempt to enhance demountability of PSUCBs. An in-depth exploration of the mechanical behavior of SENBs in UHPC is necessary to evidence feasibilities of corresponding PSUCBs. However, existing research has been limited to SENB arrangement impacts and lacked considerations on SENB geometric configuration counterparts. To this end, this paper performed twenty push-out tests and theoretical analyses on the shear performance and design recommendation of SENBs. Key test parameters comprised the diameter and grade of SENBs, degree and sequence of pretension, concrete casting method and connector type. Test results indicated that both diameters and grades of bolts exerted remarkable impacts on the SENB shear performance with respect to the shear and frictional responses. Also, there was limited influence of the bolt preload degrees on the shear capacity and ductility of SENBs, but non-negligible contributions to their corresponding frictional resistance and initial shear stiffness. Moreover, inverse pretension sequences or monolithic cast slabs presented slight improvements in the ultimate shear and slip capacity. Finally, design-oriented models with higher accuracy were introduced for predictions of the ultimate shear resistance and load-slip relationship of SENBs in PSUCBs.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.195-203
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• 2016

Shear wall structures have been widely used in high-rise buildings during the past decades, mainly due to their good overall performance, large lateral stiffness, and high load-carrying capacity. However, traditional reinforced concrete wall structures are prone to brittle failure under seismic actions. In order to improve the seismic behavior of traditional shear walls, this paper presents three different metal energy-dissipation shear wall systems, including coupled shear wall with energy-dissipating steel link beams, frame with buckling-restrained steel plate shear wall structure, and coupled shear wall with buckling-restrained steel plate shear wall. Constructional details, experimental studies, and calculation analyses are also introduced in this paper.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.497-505
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• 2019

Biocementation based on the microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) process is a novel soil improvement method. Biocement can improve significantly the properties of soils by binding soil particles to increase the shear strength or filling in the pores to reduce the permeability of soil. In this paper, results of triaxial consolidated undrained (CU) tests and constant shear drained (CSD) tests on biocemented Ottawa sand are presented. In the CU tests, the biocemented sand had more dilative behaviour by showing a higher stress-strain curves and faster pore pressure reducing trends as compared with their untreated counterparts. In the CSD tests, the stress ratio q/p' at which biocemented sand became unstable was higher than that for untreated sands, implying that the biocementation will improve the stability of sand to water infiltration or liquefaction.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.219-229
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• 2019

This paper presents an experimental study on the structural performance of an innovative ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) deck with coarse aggregate of composite bridge under shear force. Test parameters included curing method and shear span-to-height ratio. Test results indicated that more short fine cracks developed beside the existing cracks due to the randomly dispersed fibers, resulting in re-distributing and homogenizing of the concrete stress beside cracks and allowing for the occurrence of more cracks with small spacing compared to normal strength concrete beams. Curing methods, incorporating steam curing and natural curing, did not have obvious effect on the nominal bending cracking strength and the ultimate strength of the test specimens. Shear reinforcement need not be provided for UHPFRC decks with a fiber volume fraction of 2%. UHPFRC decks showed superior load resistance ability after the appearance of cracks and excellent post-cracking deformability. Lastly, the current shear provisions were evaluated by the test results.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.3
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• pp.303-314
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• 2018

Shear walls are a typical member under a complex stress state and have complicated mechanical properties and failure modes. The separated-elements model Genetic Evolutionary Structural Optimization (GESO), which is a combination of an elastic-plastic stress method and an optimization method, has been introduced in the literature for designing such members. Although the separated-elements model GESO method is well recognized due to its stability, feasibility, and economy, its adequacy has not been experimentally verified. This paper seeks to validate the adequacy of the separated-elements model GESO method against experimental data and demonstrate its feasibility and advantages over the traditional elastic stress method. Two types of reinforced concrete shear wall specimens, which had the location of an opening in the middle bottom and the center region, respectively, were utilized for this study. For each type, two specimens were designed using the separated-elements model GESO method and elastic stress method, respectively. All specimens were subjected to a constant vertical load and an incremental lateral load until failure. Test results indicated that the ultimate bearing capacity, failure modes, and main crack types of the shear walls designed using the two methods were similar, but the ductility indexes including the stiffness degradation, deformability, reinforcement yielding, and crack development of the specimens designed using the separated-elements model GESO method were superior to those using the elastic stress method. Additionally, the shear walls designed using the separated-elements model GESO method, had a reinforcement layout which could closely resist the actual critical stress, and thus a reduced amount of steel bars were required for such shear walls.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.211-218
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• 2021

A new type of earthquake resilient reinforced concrete (RC) shear wall structure, installed with replaceable coupling beams and replaceable corner components at the bottom of wall piers, is proposed in this study. At first, the mechanical behavior of replaceable components, such as combined dampers and replaceable corner component, is studied by cyclic loading tests on them. Then, cycling loading tests are conducted on one conventional coupled shear wall and one new type of coupled shear wall with replaceable components. The test results indicate that the damage of the new type of coupled shear wall concentrates on replaceable components and the left parts are well protected. Finally, a case study is introduced. The responses of one conventional frame-tube structure and one new type of structure installed with replaceable components under the wind and the earthquake are compared, which verify that the performance of new type of structure is much better than the conventional structure.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.5290-5298
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• 2013

In order to apply a mechanical deck joint to the prefabricated steel grid composite decks, shear resistance of a joint composed of concrete shear key and high-tension bolt is experimentally evaluated by the push-out test. Shear resistance evaluated by the test is compared with resistance estimated by empirical and design equations based on the shear friction theory. Test results show that joint specimens bonded by epoxy have about 10% more shear resistance than specimens with strengthened shear key by steel plates, but in the case of specimens with strengthened shear key there is smaller resistance deviation than specimens bonded by epoxy. In comparison with resistances estimated by empirical and design equations, the deck joint can be safely designed. But because the existed shear resistance of deck joint is underestimated by the ACI-318, application of the LRFD design equation could be more reasonable.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.19
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• pp.135-145
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• 1999

This thesis is to investigate the sliding behavior of cantilever retaining wall by using the commercially available program of FLAC to simulate its behavior numerically. Cantilever retaining walls with flat base, sloped base and base with shear key, uniform surcharges being applied on the surface of backfill, were investigated to figure out appropriate location of shear key beneath the base of wall and, thus, its applicability to field condition was assessed by comparing the analyzed results to each other. On the other hand, previously performed centrifuge model test results (Eum, 1996) were analyzed numerically with FLAC to compare test results with respect to characteristics of load-settlement of surcharges and load-lateral movement of wall. Based on the failure mechanism observed during centrifuge tests, limit equilibrium method of finding the ultimate load inducing the sliding failure of wall was used to compare with values of the ultimate load obtained from conventional method of limit equilibrium method. Therefore, appropriate location of shear key was determined to mobilize the maximum resistance against sliding failure of wall.