For structural concrete members that may expose to serious earthquake, overload or accident impact, the design of ductility must be given the same importance as the flexural strength. The aim of this investigation is to study the change in ductility of structural concrete flexural members during their exposure to limited cycles of repeated loading. Twenty full-scale beam specimens have been fabricated in to two identical groups; each group consisted of ten specimens. The first group was tested under monotonic static loading to failure and regarded as control beams, while the specimens of the second group were subjected to ten cycles of repeated loading with constant load interval, which ranged between 40% and 60% of ultimate load. Specimens in each group were categorized as follows: two traditional reinforced concrete specimens with different intensity of tension reinforcement; three partially prestressed specimens with bonded strands; three partially prestressed specimens with unbonded strands; and two fully prestressed concrete specimens. The main variable, which was considered for all specimens was the partial prestressing ratio (PPR). It was observed that, the ductility of reinforced concrete beams was insignificantly increased during subjecting to limited repeated loading. For fully prestressed and partially prestressed concrete beams with high level of PPR, the ductility was significantly enhanced, while, it was decreased for specimens with small level of PPR.
This research is carried out to investigate the behavior of self-compacting concrete (SCC) two-way slabs with central square opening under uniformly distributed loads. The experimental part of this research is based on casting and testing six SCC simply supported square slabs having the same dimentions and reinforcement. One of these slabs was cast without opening as a control slab. While, the other five slabs having opening ratios (OR) of 2.78%, 6.25%, 11.11%, 17.36% and 25.00%. From the experimental results it is found that the maximum percentage decrease in cracking and ultimate uniform loads were 31.82% and 12.17% compared to control slab for opening ratios (OR
... Show MoreThis paper studied the behaviour of reinforced reactive powder concrete (RPC) two-way slabs under static load. The experimental program included testing three simply supported slabs of 1000 mm length, 1000 mm width, and 70 mm thickness. Tested specimens were of identical properties except their steel fibers volume ratio (0.5 %, 1 %, and 1.5 %). Static test results revealed that, increasing steel fibers volume ratio from 0.5% to 1% and from 1% to 1.5%, led to an increase in: first crack load by (32.2 % and 52.3 %), ultimate load by (36.1 % and 17.0 %), ultimate deflection by (33.6 % and 3.4 %), absorbed energy by (128 % and 20.2 %), and the ultimate strain by (1.1 % and 6.73 %). The stiffness and ductility of the specimens also increased. A
... Show MoreThis study aimed at evaluating the torsional capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) beams externally wrapped with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) materials. An analytical model was described and used as a new computational procedure based on the softened truss model (STM) to predict the torsional behavior of RC beams strengthened with FRP. The proposed analytical model was validated with the existing experimental data for rectangular sections strengthened with FRP materials and considering torque-twist relationship and crack pattern at failure. The confined concrete behavior, in the case of FRP wrapping, was considered in the constitutive laws of concrete in the model. Then, an efficient algorithm was developed in MATLAB environment t
... Show MoreThis paper presents ABAQUS simulations of fully encased composite columns, aiming to examine the behavior of a composite column system under different load conditions, namely concentric, eccentric with 25 mm eccentricity, and flexural loading. The numerical results are validated with the experimental results obtained for columns subjected to static loads. A new loading condition with a 50 mm eccentricity is simulated to obtain additional data points for constructing the interaction diagram of load-moment curves, in an attempt to investigate the load-moment behavior for a reference column with a steel I-section and a column with a GFRP I-section. The result comparison shows that the experimental data align closely with the simulation
... Show MoreThe biggest problem of structural materials for fusion reactor is the damage caused by the fusion product neutrons to the structural material. If this problem is overcomed, an important milestone will be left behind in fusion energy. One of the important problems of the structural material is that nuclei forming the structural material interacting with fusion neutrons are transmuted to stable or radioactive nuclei via (n, x) (x; alpha, proton, gamma etc.) reactions. In particular, the concentration of helium gas in the structural material increases through deuteron- tritium (D-T) and (n, α) reactions, and this increase significantly changes the microstructure and the properties of the structural materials. T
... Show MoreThe synthesis of ligands with N2S2 donor sets that include imine, an amide, thioether, thiolate moieties and their metal complexes were achieved. The new Schiff-base ligands; N-(2-((2,4-diphenyl-3-azabicyclo[3.3.1]nonan-9-ylidene)amino)ethyl)-2-((2-mercaptoethyl)thio)-acetamide (H2L1) and N-(2-((2,4-di-p-tolyl-3-azabicyclo[3.3.1]nonan-9-ylidene)amino)ethyl)-2-((2-mercaptoethyl)thio) acetamide (H2L2) were obtained from the reaction of amine precursors with 1,4-dithian-2-one in the presence of triethylamine as a base in the CHCl3 medium. Complexes of the general formula K2<
The impact of exposure to different sizes of particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5, PM7, and PM10) was evaluated in Babylon concrete plant workers who had been exposed to concrete dust for at least 10 years. The effects of these particles on the hematological parameters, malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, and antioxidant enzymes (catalase and glutathione peroxidase ) were examined. The results exhibited that the levels of PM2.5 and PM10 were higher than the acceptable limits approved by the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). The blood parameters, namely white blood cells (WBC), red blood cell (RBC) and platelets counts, demonstrated non-significant differences between workers exposed to the PM as compared to the control gro
... Show MoreCadmium oxide (CdO) thin films were deposited using the sequencing ion layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method. In this study, the effect of the pH value of an aqueous solution of cadmium acetate at a concentration of 0.2 mol of the cadmium oxide film was determined. The solution source for the cadmium oxide film was cadmium ions and an aqueous ammonia solution. The CdO films were deposited on glass substrates at a temperature of 90 ℃. The cadmium oxide film thickness was determined by the weight difference method at pH values (7.2, 8.2). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the size of the crystals increased with the increase in the solution (pH). While the UV-visible spectra of the fil
... Show MoreOne of the most important parameters determining structural members' durability and strength is the fire flame's influence and hazard. Some engineers have advocated using advanced analytical models to predict fire spread impact within a compartment and considering finite element models of structural components to estimate the temperatures within a component using heat transfer analysis. This paper presented a numerical simulation for a reinforced concrete beam’s structural response in a case containing Water Absorbing Polymer Spheres (WAPS) subjected to fire flame effect. The commercial finite element package ABAQUS was considered. The relevant geometrical and material parameters of the reinforced concrete beam model a
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