Sharif Digital Repository

Concrete-filled polyethylene (PE) tubes (CFPT) are composite systems using the polyethylene tubes as confinement for the marine structures in the splash zone to extend the service life of structures subjected to harsh environments. However, thermal cycles in marine environments can affect the behavior of such composite systems. This paper evaluates the effect of concrete infill strength (30 MPa and 60 MPa), the number of thermal cycles (50, 100, and 150 cycles) ranging from 25 °C to 60 °C, and thermal cycle type (type A and B) on the compressive and bond response of CFPTs. Characteristics of control and conditioned concrete infill, PE tubes, and CFPTs were obtained by means of compression... 

Welding of severely plastic deformed aluminum sheets, with high stored strain energy, faces a serious concern, which is decrease in strength of weld and heat-affected zone (HAZ) due to instability in microstructure and related grain growth. In this work, two-passes constrained groove pressed (CGPed) Al-1050 sheets were welded via friction stir welding (FSW), without and with addition of a hybrid powder including 50 vol.% α-Al2O3 nanoparticles+50 vol.% graphite micrometric powders (∼1 vol.% of hybrid powders in stir zone). Al2O3 nanoparticles may result in grain refinement in stir zone by grain boundary pinning. Lubricating nature of graphite may reduce welding heat input resulting in lower... 

This paper deals with the effects of three low-carbon steel filler metals consisting of ferritic and austenitic phases on the weld joints of the tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding of Hardox 500 steel. The correlation between the microstructure and mechanical properties of the weld joints was investigated. For this purpose, macro and microstructure were examined, and then microhardness, tensile, impact, and fracture toughness tests were carried out to analyze the mechanical properties of joints. The results of optical microscopy (OM) images showed that the weld zones (WZ) of all three welds were composed of different ferritic morphologies, including allotriomorphic ferrite, Widmanstätten... 

After a significant earthquake, the updated status of the structural elements is usually determined based on a qualitative visual inspection. Although visual inspection provides a prompt assessment of the damaged elements, the output of this subjective method is influenced by the experience and decision of a trained inspector, which may vary from case to case. In this study, an innovative machine learning-based procedure is developed to automate damage state identification of non-ductile reinforced concrete moment frames (RCMFs) utilizing visual indices of crack patterns of the concrete surface. An extensive database including 264 surface crack patterns is constructed corresponding to 61... 

Coating is an effective approach to address the high corrosion rate of biodegradable Mg alloys, as their main challenge toward their extensive use. In this regard, it was tried to control the degradation process of an Mg-4Zn alloy by Ca addition, equal channel angular pressing (ECAP), and hydrothermal coating. The obtained results indicated that excellent grain refinement induced by Ca incorporation and ECAP simultaneously, improved both mechanical strength and corrosion resistance of the Mg-based substrate. The achieved grain refinement resulted in a thicker, more compact and integrated coating, where the ECAP-processed Mg-4Zn-0.5Ca alloy exhibited the best coating quality with no... 

Different heating rates of 200-1200 deg;C/s were utilized during ultra-rapid annealing (URA) up to the temperatures of 730 and 760 °C on the severely deformed low carbon steel. Higher hardness, strength and ductility achieved for the sample heated at 730 °C with 600 °C/s due to formation of bimodal grain size (BGS) microstructure than them for non-BGS samples. The BGS enhancement for the hardness, strength and ductility with respect to those of as received sample was 67%, 80% and 7%, respectively, and, with respect to those of severely deformed one was 16%, 44% and 24%, respectively. URA with the heating rate of 200 °C/s and 1000 °C/s leads to fully recrystallized and non-recrystallized... 

This research studies the effect of glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars as compressive reinforcement in reinforced concrete (RC) beam members. Three singly and six doubly reinforced GFRP-RC beams were tested under a four-point loading configuration. The effect of compressive reinforcement on the load-bearing capacity, ductility, stiffness, and failure mode is determined. Also, the compressive performance of GFRP bars is evaluated by testing GFRP-RC cylinders. According to the results, GFRP bars in compression had a limited contribution to enhancing flexural strength, and the maximum increment in the flexural capacity of doubly reinforced beams compared to singly reinforced specimens... 

Concentrically braced structures are one of the most common resistant systems in steel structures due to their high stiffness and lateral strength. However, when these structures are subjected to moderate and severe earthquakes, their compression member begins to buckle. Also, buckling of compression members in Concentrically Braced Frames (CBFs) decreases ductility and degradation of the hysteresis curve. Numerous studies have been performed to improve the behavior of CBFs. Using steel dampers is considered one of the appropriate ways to improve the behavior of CBFs. Although steel dampers improve the hysteretic behavior of the CBFs, they impose additional costs on structures. Therefore, in... 

The latest research studies on Steel Plate Shear Walls (SPSWs) suggest that the use of large-sized openings in infill plates calls for the use of heavy stiffeners or special measures for ensuring system stability. This study explores the effect of introduction of large unstiffened openings in SPSWs. A number of single story SPSWs with solid infill plates and their corresponding models with unstiffened openings are designed and analyzed numerically. In addition, this study provides a comparison of the experimental and numerical results obtained from the finite element models of SPSWs with openings. The results indicate the acceptable behavior of the specimens even at high levels of drift in... 

The copper/copper (Cu/Cu) interface has an important role in wafer-to-wafer hybrid bonding for 3D integration applications. Reports indicate the possibility of the formation of post-bonding interfacial voids and cracks which must be avoided. Here, we use molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the effect of annealing-induced tensions on the strength and deformation mechanisms of Cu/Cu interfaces. We perform tensile tests on the pristine and defective Cu/Cu interfaces including a prototypical interfacial grain boundary in two defective limits: the presence of a single (isolated) void, and an array of multiple voids. The latter resembles interfacial nanoscale roughness as a result of... 

Austempered ductile iron (ADI) is one of the most widely used types of ductile iron produced by austempering heat treatment. ADI heavy section parts are employed in different industries owing to their unique mechanical properties. Cooling rate in thick parts is significantly low, so heavy section ductile iron parts should have an adequate austemperability for preventing pearlite formation in the middle of the casting. In order to achieve the proper austemperability and fully ausferritic structure, alloying elements like nickel are added to the melt. The objective of this work is to study the role of austempering parameters on nickel alloyed ADI specimens fabricated from 75-mm-thick Y-block.... 

S500MC high strength low alloy automotive steel is exposed to bulk severe plastic deformation (SPD) via constrained groove pressing (CGP) and surface severe plastic deformation (S2PD) via severe shot peening (SSP) and ultrasonic nanocrystal surface modification (UNSM). SSP and UNSM could create a nanocrystallization layer till 50–100 µm away from outmost surface. EBSD investigations showed average nano-grain size obtained via SSP and UNSM was found to be below 100 nm regime. The strength was improved via 1st to 4th pass of CGP, but elongation percentage decreased abruptly. UNSM achieves both strength-ductility improvement with gradient structure. SSP improves the total elongation however a... 

As the experts who have taken for granted the merits of utilizing the concrete as the most common material in the structural industry, there is a need to take affirmative steps to enhance the concrete's weaknesses such as the low ductility and energy absorption capacity. One possible way to improve the mechanical properties of concrete is to add liquid silicone rubber to the concrete. Silicone rubber is an elastomer (rubber-like material) composed of liquid rubber polymer and its hardener which is widely used in voltage line insulators, automotive applications, and medical devices. In order to increase the ductility and energy absorption of concrete, the liquid silicone rubber replaced a... 

The eccentric bracing system equipped with vertical links is capable of providing high levels of stiffness, strength and ductility, and therefore, can be efficiently used for seismic retrofit of existing structures. This study aims to investigate the seismic reliability of steel moment-resisting frames retrofitted by this system using a novel combined series–parallel system approach. The seismic response of 4, 8 and 12-storey steel moment-resisting frames (MRFs) are evaluated under a set of design basis earthquakes (DBE) before and after retrofitting intervention. Adopting an engineering demand parameter approach (EDP-Based) for reliability assessment and development of analytical models for... 

Extensive recent researches have been underway to model the fracture mechanics degradation based on continuum damage mechanics (CDM) technique. CDM theory is a powerful tool for solving problems such as large plastic deformations that the fracture mechanics is unable to solve. This model is derived by means of the thermodynamics internal variable theory and based on the experimental results on material properties. In this paper, the reliability of rectangular plates containing a central circular hole under static tensile load using the CDM approach for ductile fracture has been studied. To investigate the initiation and evolution of damages, anisotropic damage expressed by second order... 

Failure in sheet metal forming can occur by necking, fracture or wrinkling. By using a forming limit diagram (FLD) as a powerful tool to prevent sheets metal failures in the forming process, provides parameters controlling throughout forming. There are different developed methods for predicting FLDs, which estimate sheet metal forming strains limits. Assessment of FLD estimation reveals that there is a dependency between the effect of several factors containing normal stress, shear stress, sheet thickness, mechanical properties, metallurgical properties, yield function, strain path, and bending with formability. In this research, the effects of bending via two finite element models are... 

This study investigates the various effects of Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) on the seismic behavior of steel frames with Steel Plate Shear Wall (SPSW) lateral resisting systems. Nine steel frames with various aspect ratios are studied under multiple seismic hazard levels. The SPSWs are modeled based on the strip model concept, and the Soil-Structure Systems are simulated using the substructure method. The soil beneath the structure is considered as a homogeneous elastic half-space. The Endurance Time method is exploited for nonlinear dynamic analysis of the fixed-base structures and soil-structure systems. Results indicate that use of fixed-base models leads to the significant... 

In this work, similar butt joints of AA6061-T6 alloy prepared by underwater friction stir welding (UWFSW) and friction stir vibration welding (FSVW) processes were examined. The characteristics of joints were compared with the joints obtained by conventional friction stir welding (CFSW). The different kinds of microstructural modifications that occurred during CFSW, FSVW, and UWFSW processes were analyzed. The results are employed to analyze the different behaviors in strength, ductility, weldability, and hardness of the joints in different processes at different traverse speeds, rotational speeds, and vibration frequency. It was found that mechanical vibration decreases the grain size in... 

In this work, similar butt joints of AA6061-T6 alloy prepared by underwater friction stir welding (UWFSW) and friction stir vibration welding (FSVW) processes were examined. The characteristics of joints were compared with the joints obtained by conventional friction stir welding (CFSW). The different kinds of microstructural modifications that occurred during CFSW, FSVW, and UWFSW processes were analyzed. The results are employed to analyze the different behaviors in strength, ductility, weldability, and hardness of the joints in different processes at different traverse speeds, rotational speeds, and vibration frequency. It was found that mechanical vibration decreases the grain size in... 

Surface hybrid in-situ aluminum matrix nanocomposite (AMNC) was fabricated by multi-pass friction stir processing (FSP) and a tool traversing speed of 100 mm/min and rotating speed of 1600 rpm with an objective to enhance mechanical properties. Mischmetal oxide (MMO) powder with an initial size of 50 nm, at a concentration of 8.5 vol% was used as the reinforcing particles. EDS particle analyses revealed in-situ solid-state chemical reactions between the Al matrix and the MMO particles. The reaction products, MM3Al and MM3Al11, were distributed uniformly in the discontinuously dynamic recrystallized nano and UFG microstructure. Increasing pass number improved the particle distribution and...