A novel demountable shear connector for precast steel-concrete composite bridges is presented. The connector uses high-strength steel bolts, which are fastened to the top flange of the steel beam with the aid of a special locking nut configuration that prevents bolts from slipping within their holes. Moreover, the connector promotes accelerated construction and overcomes the typical construction tolerance issues of precast structures. Most importantly, the connector allows bridge disassembly. Therefore, it can address different bridge deterioration scenarios with minimum disturbance to traffic flow including the following: (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, whereas precast decks and shear connectors can be reused. A series of push-out tests are conducted to assess the behavior of the connector and quantify the effect of important parameters. The experimental results show shear resistance, stiffness, and slip capacity significantly higher than those of welded shear studs along with superior stiffness and strength against slab uplift. Identical tests reveal negligible scatter in the shear load-slip displacement behavior. A design equation is proposed to predict the shear resistance with absolute error less than 8%.
The influence and hazard of fire flame are one of the most important parameters that affecting the durability and strength of structural members. This research studied the influence of fire flame on the behavior of reinforced concrete beams affected by repeated load. Nine self- compacted reinforced concrete beams were castellated, all have the same geometric layout (0.15x0.15x1.00) m, reinforcement details and compressive strength (50 Mpa). To estimate the effect of fire flame disaster, four temperatures were adopted (200, 300, 400 and 500) oC and two method of cooling were used (graduated and sudden). In the first cooling method, graduated, the tested beams were leaved to cool in air while in the second method, sudden, water splash was use
... Show MoreThe use of blended cement in concrete provides economic, energy savings, and ecological benefits, and also provides. Improvement in the properties of materials incorporating blended cements. The major aim of this investigation is to develop blended cement technology using grinded local rocks . The research includes information on constituent materials, manufacturing processes and performance characteristics of blended cements made with replacement (10 and 20) % of grinded local rocks (limestone, quartzite and porcelinite) from cement. The main conclusion of this study was that all types of manufactured blended cement conformed to the specification according to ASTM C595-12 (chemical and physical requirements). The percentage of the compress
... Show MoreStraight tendons in pretensioned members can cause high-tensile stresses in the concrete extreme fibers at end sections because of the absence of the bending stresses due to self-weight and superimposed loads and the dominance of the moment due to prestressing force alone. Accordingly, the concrete tensile stresses at the ends of a member prestressed with straight tendons may limit the service load capacity of the member. It is therefore important to establish limiting zone in the concrete section within which the prestressing force can be applied without causing tension in the extreme concrete fibers. Two practical methods are available to reduce the stresses at the end sections due to the prestressing force. The first method based
... Show MoreCurrent design codes and specifications allow for part of the bonded flexure tension reinforcement to be distributed over an effective flange width when the T-beams' flanges are in tension. This study presents an experimental and numerical investigation on the reinforced concrete flanged section's flexural behavior when reinforcement in the tension flange is laterally distributed. To achieve the goals of the study, numerical analysis using the finite element method was conducted on discretized flanged beam models validated via experimentally tested T-beam specimen. Parametric study was performed to investigate the effect of different parameters on the T-beams flexural behavior. The study revealed that a significant reduction in the
... Show MoreThis paper studies the behavior of reinforced Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) two-way slabs under static and repeated load. The experimental program included testing six simply supported RPC two-way slabs of 1000 mm length, 1000 mm width, and 70 mm thickness. All the tested specimens were identical in their material properties, and reinforcement details except their steel fibers content. They were cast in three pairs, each one had a different steel fibers ratio (0.5 %, 1 %, and 1.5 %) respectively. In each pair, one specimen was tested under static load and the other under five cycles of repeated load (loading-unloading). Static test results revealed that increasing steel fibres volume fraction from 0.5 % to 1 % and from 1% to 1.5%,
... Show MoreThis thesis aims to study the effect of addition polymer materials on mechanical properties of self-compacting concrete, and also to assess the influence of petroleum products (kerosene and gas oil) on mechanical properties of polymer modified self-compacting concrete (PMSCC) after different exposure periods of (30 ,60 ,90 ,and 180 days).
Two type of curing are used; 28 days in water for SCC and 2 days in water followed 26 days in air for PMSCC.
The test results show that the PMSCC (15% P/C ratio) which is exposed to oil products recorded a lower deterioration in compressive strength's values than reference concrete. The percentages of reduction in compressive strength values of PMSCC (15% P/C ratio) was
... Show MoreThis study involves the design of 24 mixtures of fiber reinforced magnetic reactive powder concrete containing nano Silica. Tap water has been used in mixing 12 of these mixtures, while the other 12 have been mixed using magnetic water. Nano Silica (NS) with ratios (1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3) % were used. The results showed that the mixture containing 2.5%NS gives the highest compressive strength at age 7 days. Many different other tests were carried out, the results showed that the fiber reinforced magnetic reactive powder concrete containing 2.5% NS (FRMRPCCNS) has the higher bulk density, dynamic modulus of elasticity, ultrasonic pulse velocity electrical resistivity and lesser absorption than fiber reinforced
... Show MoreMulti-carrier direct sequence code division multiple access (MC-DS-CDMA) has emerged recently as a promising candidate for the next generation broadband mobile networks. Multipath fading channels have a severe effect on the performance of wireless communication systems even those systems that exhibit efficient bandwidth, like orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and MC-DS-CDMA; there is always a need for developments in the realisation of these systems as well as efficient channel estimation and equalisation methods to enable these systems to reach their maximum performance. A novel MC-DS-CDMA transceiver based on the Radon-based OFDM, which was recently proposed as a new technique in the realisation of OFDM systems, will be us
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