The analysis of rigid pavements is a complex mission for many reasons. First, the loading conditions include the repetition of parts of the applied loads (cyclic loads), which produce fatigue in the pavement materials. Additionally, the climatic conditions reveal an important role in the performance of the pavement since the expansion or contraction induced by temperature differences may significantly change the supporting conditions of the pavement. There is an extra difficulty because the pavement structure is made of completely different materials, such as concrete, steel, and soil, with problems related to their interfaces like contact or friction. Because of the problem's difficulty, the finite element simulation is

The present study experimentally and numerically investigated the impact behavior of composite reinforced concrete (RC) beams with the pultruded I-GFRP and I-steel beams. Eight specimens of two groups were cast in different configurations. The first group consisted of four specimens and was tested under static load to provide reference results for the second group. The four specimens in the second group were tested first under impact loading and then static loading to determine the residual static strengths of the impacted specimens. The test variables considered the type of encased I-section (steel and GFRP), presence of shear connectors, and drop height during impact tests. A mass of 42.5 kg was dropped on the top surface at the m

This research is carried out to investigate the externally post-tensioning technique for strengthening RC beams. In this research, four T-section  RC beams having the same dimensions and material properties were casted and tested up to failure by applying two mid-third concentrated loads. Three of these beams are strengthened by using external tendons, while the remaining beam is kept without strengthening as a control beam. Two external strands of 12 mm diameter were fixed at each side of the web of the strengthened beams and located at depth of 200 mm from top fiber of the section (d_ps). So that the depth of strands to overall depth of the section ratio (d_ps

Tensile strength is a critical property of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) pavements and is closely related to distresses such as fatigue cracking. This study aims to evaluate methods for assessing fatigue cracking in Asphalt Concrete (AC) mixes. In order to achieve optimum density at different binder contents, the mixes were compressed using a gyratory compactor. Tensile strength was assessed using the Indirect Tensile (IDT) and Semi-Circular Bend (SCB) tests. The results showed that the tensile strength measured by the SCB test was consistently higher than that measured by the IDT test at 25 °C. In addition, the SCB test showed a stronger correlation between increasing binder content and tensile strength. For binder contents ranging from 4

In this study the simple pullout concrete cylinder specimen reinforced by a single steel bar was analyzed for bond-slip behavior. Three-dimension nonlinear finite element model using ANSYS program was employed to study the behavior of bond between concrete and plain steel reinforcement. The ANSYS model includes eight-noded isoperimetric brick element (SOLID65) to model the concrete cylinder while the steel reinforcing bar was modeled as a truss member (LINK8). Interface element (CONTAC52) was used in this analysis to model the bond between concrete and steel bar. Material nonlinearity due to cracking and/or crushing of concrete, and yielding of the steel reinforcing bar were taken into consideration during the analysis. The accuracy of t

Two novel demountable shear connectors for precast steel-concrete composite bridges are presented. The connectors use high-strength steel bolts, which are fastened to the steel beam with the aid of a special locking configuration that prevents slip of bolts within their holes. Moreover, the connectors promote accelerated construction and overcome typical construction tolerances issues of precast structures. Most importantly, the connectors allow bridge disassembly, and therefore, can address different bridge deterioration scenarios with minimum disturbance to traffic flow, i.e. (1) precast deck panels can be rapidly uplifted and replaced; (2) connectors can be rapidly removed and replaced; and (3) steel beams can be replaced, while precast