In Australia, most of the existing buildings were designed before the release of the Australian standard for earthquake actions in 2007. Therefore, many existing buildings in Australia lack adequate seismic design, and their seismic performance must be assessed. The recent earthquake that struck Mansfield, Victoria near Melbourne elevated the need to produce fragility curves for existing reinforced concrete (RC) buildings in Australia. Fragility curves are frequently utilized to assess buildings’ seismic performance and it is defined as the demand probability surpassing capacity at a given intensity level. Numerous factors can influence the results of the fragility assessment of RC buildings. Among the most important factors that can affect the performance-based seismic assessment of buildings are the building height and the characteristics of the earthquake. Despite this, very few studies accounted for the earthquake characteristics and the influence of height on the vulnerability of buildings in Australia. Consequently, the combined effect of building height and the characteristics of the earthquake were investigated in this study. This was achieved through numerical modeling and time-history analyses of three typical two-, four-, and nine-story RC frame buildings in Australia. Moreover, these buildings were subjected to three different types of ground motions which were: short- and long-duration, and near-fault earthquakes. Fragility analysis was then conducted for the three buildings under all the selected earthquake suites. It was noted from the median values of the fragility curves that the four-story and the nine-story RC buildings were 17% and 18% more susceptible to damage in comparison with the two-story building under short-duration earthquakes. Moreover, it was also noted that the median value of the vulnerability increased by 33%, 40%, and 50% for the two-, four-, and nine-story buildings, sequentially, when subjected to near-fault compared to short-duration earthquakes.
Flexure members such as reinforced concrete (RC) simply supported beams subjected to two-point loading were analyzed numerically. The Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) was employed for the treatment the non-smooth h behaviour such as discontinuities and singularities. This method is a powerful technique used for the analysis of the fracture process and crack propagation in concrete. Concrete is a heterogeneous material that consists of coarse aggregate, cement mortar and air voids distributed in the cement paste. Numerical modeling of concrete comprises a two-scale model, using mesoscale and macroscale numerical models. The effectiveness and validity of the Meso-Scale Approach (MSA) in modeling of the reinforced concrete beams w
... Show MoreA Longitudinal opening is used to construct hollow core beam is a cast in site or precast or pre stressed concrete member with continuous voids provided to reduce weight, cost and, as a side benefit, to use for concealed electrical or mechanical runs. Primarily is used as floor beams or roof deck systems. This study investigate the behavior of six beams (solid or with opening) of dimension (length 1000 x height 180 x width120mm) simply support under partial uniformly distributed load, four of these beam contain long opening of varied section (40x40mm) or (80x40mm). The effect of vertical steel reinforcing, opening size and orientations are investigated to evaluate the response of beams. The experimental behavior based on load-deflection
... Show MoreThis 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 (dps). So that the depth of strands to overall depth of the section ratio (dps
... Show MoreTest results of eight reinforced concrete one way slab with lacing reinforcement are reported. The tests were designed to study the effect of the lacing reinforcement on the flexural behavior of one way slabs. The test parameters were the lacing steel ratio, flexural steel ratio and span to the effective depth ratio. One specimen had no lacing reinforcement and the remaining seven had various percentages of lacing and flexural steel ratios. All specimens were cast with normal density concrete of approximately 30 MPa compressive strength. The specimens were tested under two equal line loads applied statically at a thirds part (four point bending test) up to failure. Three percentage of lacing and flexural steel ratios wer
... Show MoreThe main aim of this paper is studied the punching shear and behavior of reinforced concrete slabs exposed to fires, the possibility of punching shear failure occurred as a result of the fires and their inability to withstand the loads. Simulation by finite element analysis is made to predict the type of failure, distribution temperature through the thickness of the slabs, deformation and punching strength. Nonlinear finite element transient thermal-structural analysis at fire conditions are analyzed by ANSYS package. The validity of the modeling is performed for the mechanical and thermal properties of materials from earlier works from literature to decrea
... Show MoreNon-biodegradability of rubber tires contributes to pollution and fire hazards in the natural environment. In this study, the flexural behavior of the Rubberized Reactive Powder Concrete (RRPC) beams that contained various proportions and sizes of scrap tire rubber was investigated and compared to the flexural behavior of the regular RPC. Fresh properties, hardened properties, load-deflection relation, first crack load, ultimate load, and crack width are studied and analyzed. Mixes were made using micro steel fiber of the straight type, and they had an aspect ratio of 65. Thirteen beams were tested under two loading points (Repeated loading) with small-scale beams (1100 mm, 150 mm, 100 mm) size.
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... Show MoreFour simply supported reinforced concrete (RC) beams were test experimentaly and analyzed using the extended finite element method (XFEM). This method is used to treat the discontinuities resulting from the fracture process and crack propagation in that occur in concrete. The Meso-Scale Approach (MSA) used to model concrete as a heterogenous material consists of a three-phasic material (coarse aggregate, mortar, and air voids in the cement paste). The coarse aggregate that was used in the casting of these beams rounded and crashed aggregate shape with maximum size of 20 mm. The compressive strength used in these beams is equal to 17 MPa and 34 MPa, respectively. These RC beams are designed to fail due to flexure when subjected to lo
... Show MoreThis research studied the effect of magnetized water in concrete preparation and its effect on the presenting of cement in concrete mixtures also to find the ability of reducing the amount of cement in preparing one cubic meter, this is not exceed than 10% in one mixture , The experiments showed the preparation of standard cubes from the concrete which was used two kind of water magnetized water which was prepared by passing the tap water through the systems of different magnetic strength in terms of (6000,9000) Gauss and the ordinary water . The velocity of water through the magnetic field, which gives us the highest value for the compressive strength, was up to 1m/sec. to determine the best magnetic intensity, we examined The comp
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