جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه "preload" در نشریات گروه "عمران"

Concrete may be loaded at an early age for a variety of reasons. This loading can have negative and sometimes destructive effects on the hardened properties of concrete. Therefore, in the present study, the mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced geopolymer concrete after loading at an early age have been investigated. In the present study, the effect of preload on compressive strength at the ages of 28 and 90 days for geopolymer concrete containing fibers has been investigated. For this purpose, the samples were loaded at ages of 1, 3, and 7 days, equivalent to 30 and 70% of their compressive strength at the same age. The samples were then treated again in a humid environment and subjected to compressive loading at 28 and 90 days of age. The effect of preload on flexural strength as well as energy absorption of geopolymer concrete containing fibers was also investigated. Steel fibers with volumetric percentages of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1 and polypropylene fibers with volumetric percentages of 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75 were used in fabricating laboratory samples. The results demonstrate the positive effect of fibers on reducing the destructive effects of preload on compressive and flexural strength. The effect of fibers on reducing the destructive effects of 1-day preload is higher at higher loading percentage (70% pre-loading), such that the samples containing fibers with preload of 30% at the age of one day experienced a 28.8% increase in 28-day compressive strength, while this increase was 33.2% for the samples with preload of 70%. Samples containing 0.75% polypropylene fibers at 28 and 90 days of age compared to those containing 0.25 and 0.5% polypropylene showed less energy absorption on average due to preloading. In general, the design containing 0.25 polypropylene fiber and 1% steel fiber had the best result of flexural strength among preloaded samples.

Various methods have been developed for the retrofit and strengthening of RC beams. One of the successful methods is the near-surface mounting (NSM) method. In this method, the reinforcing rebar is inserted and glued into the groove in the concrete cover. This groove is created in the tensile face of the beam. The relative protection of reinforcing materials, which are less exposed to mechanical damage, shock and fire loading is an important advantage of this strengthening method. Pre-stressing can close the cracks caused by the weak flexural strength of the member and reduce its excess deflection. The proposed strengthening method in this research was near surface mounting of pre-stressed rebars to enhance the flexural behavior of RC beams. The test program consisted of testing 5 RC beams of 200×200 ×1700 mm. One was the control sample and was tested without strengthening. Four other beams were first pre-loaded to the cracking stage and, after unloading, were strengthened by near surface mounting of the steel bars. The beams were tested under four-point bending. The applied load and the corresponding displacement in the middle of the beam were measured. In the flexural strengthening of the beams by proposed NSM method, end-anchorage and epoxy adhesive, both provided the proper bond. Tightening the end nuts with the aid of a torque meter, was the selective method to pre-stress the reinforcing bar. The results showed that this method was very effective for the flexural strengthening of RC beams, so the final load capacity of beam samples increased about twice as much as the control sample. The proposed method also led to the closure of the bending cracks and the reduction of the samples’ deflection, as well as the increase in energy absorption of the samples.

Strengthening of existing structures is one of the most important issues in the field of structural engineering. Due to avoiding any interruption of service on a structure and economic issues, strengthening process usually occurs when a member is under service loads. On the other hand in the loaded steel columns, it is really difficult to weld plates after unloading the column from existing loads, Therefore one of the important issues being neglected in the redesign process of strengthened columns is the significant axial load existing in the column, caused by service loads before strengthening them. This paper aims at numerically investigating the behavior and ultimate load bearing capacity of in-service strengthened steel box columns with continuous welded plates. Effects of different parameters on the capacity of preloaded strengthened columns are presented and discussed. Included in the result are the effects of initial imperfection; magnitude of preload before strengthening; slenderness ratio of the strengthened column and ratio between cross sectional area of reinforcing plate and unstrengthened column. To investigate the effect of these parameters, each un-retrofitted specimen is exposed to the preloading levels of 0.0, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 of the load carrying capacity of unstrengthened column. Then results of this preliminary analysis are defined as a predefined field for the column of same retrofitted model and ultimate bearing capacity of the strengthened model is calculated using a modified Riks analysis method. The critical load carrying capacity of models without pre-existing axial load was set to the theoretical value presented in ANSI/AISC 360-10 and suitable imperfection for each model was calculated. This is because the main objective of this study is the variation of results with respect to the existing design curves. Based on the results of numerical analysis, application of preload to unstrengthened column magnifies the initial geometric imperfection of the column and consequently decreases the ultimate bearing capacity of strengthened column. Also as the magnitude of axial load existing prior to addition of reinforcing plates increases, the ultimate bearing capacity of the strengthened column decreases with respect to the calculated theoretical value. The maximum amount of this reduction for the preload ratios of 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6, is respectively up to 2%, 5% and 9.5% of the load-bearing capacity of strengthened column. As another result, slenderness ratio is one of the main parameters that affect the bearing capacity of specimens with a specified preload level. This means that at a constant preload level the maximum reduction in bearing capacity occurs for models with median slenderness ratio. Also models with cross sectional ratio of reinforcing plates ranging from 0.4 to 1.0 were studied and it was shown that inside this range the cross sectional ratio of reinforcing plates parameter does not have remarkable effect on the ultimate bearing capacity of column. At the end, an empirical relation is proposed to calculate reduction of ultimate bearing capacity for columns with different slenderness ratios and preload level. Results of this study may be utilized to increase the accuracy of redesigning process during in-service strengthening of steel box columns.