Sharif Digital Repository

Since the main weight of structures comes from the weight of floor systems, it is desirable to use tin and light floor system in order to reduce gravity and seismic force induced in the structure. However architectural aspects limit the application of short spans in the structural system. The objective of this work was to analyze the adequacy of a design method widely used in the modeling of waffle slabs interaction with steel columns as its supports in steel frames, and to verify if it represents the slab behavior satisfactorily. A real scale waffle slab was laid on a steel column and submitted to service loads. Subsequently it was analyzed with FE method for measuring specific stress,... 

Dynamic behavior of space structures are of great complexities. On the event of severe earthquake these structures exhibit high resistance and on the other hand, their high rigidity and small deformation makes it necessary to pay attention to their dynamic behavior, especially when combined with other types of structural systems. Also due to lack of sufficient codes and references, their dynamic behavior is still unknown to a great extend. Among these kinds of structures, reinforced concrete double curvature shells, and especially funicular shells, are much more important than others. In this thesis, dynamic response of these kind of structures, especially reinforced concrete domes, in... 

A total of twenty-four reinforced concrete arches with dimensions of 110 × 30 × 10 cm were casted, fabricated and tested. There are three variables, including: height to span ratio, longitudinal reinforcement ratio and arrangement and number of FRP layers.Based on results, with increasing height to span ratio, the efficiency of FRP strengthening method decreases. It is due to the fact that FRP materials inherently behave better in tension. From another point of view, in lower arches (L group) extrados bonding technic has better effect on increasing peak load of the arches, while in higher ones (H group) intrados bonding is discerned as the best method of strengthening. This paradoxical... 

Many reinforced concrete frame buildings with masonry partitions have been built all around the world. Observations from past earthquakes show that the partitions can endanger the life of buildings occupants and lead to significant damage and loss. Failure of the partitions can be caused by dynamic vibrations and in-plane and out-of-plane loads/displacements. The interaction between in-plane and out-of-plan behaviors and location of partitions, nonlinearity and higher modes of the structures could affect the out-of- plane seismic demands on partitions. Therefore, there is a need for a comprehensive assessment in order to limit the loss in buildings with masonry partitions. This research... 

Many of the major structure over coastal waters in the Kish Island due to the aggressive condition are showing signs of reinforcement corrosion. Recent advances in the development of anodes make it practical to use zinc galvanic cathodic protection to protect this structure in this area. Five anode systems were tested on several samples as, (1) zinc metal spray applied by arc-spraying on the concrete, (2) a zinc foil with conductive adhesive backing, (3) a system of zinc mesh and grout jacket, (4) a system of zinc mesh and compression panels, and (5) a bulk zinc. These anodes are set up to comparison the effects of potential and current over the zinc galvanic cathodic protection during 4... 

The use of concrete and steel composite structural systems has been extensively studied both numerically and experimentally. Composite concrete and steel beams consist of a steel beam on which the concrete slab is constructed using shear connections. The performance of concrete slabs and steel beams in steel composite concrete structures is generally provided by welded shear connectors on the upper flange of the steel beam. In this study, a more accurate model in numerical form will be conducted to investigate the effect of shear connectors installed in the composite beam in the critical area of beam to column connection, which is considered as a protected zone. The main objective of this... 

Wall systems are an essential part of the buildings and their capacity should be properly considered in their design. However, the seismic behavior of building systems with in-filled walls and their interaction is a very complex issue, yet to be understood. Using the in-filled walls in the buildings without including them in the design process changes the whole behavior of the structural system as well as their failure mechanism under earthquake excitations. On the other hand, there have been extensive researches on rehabilitation of the structures with in-filled walls or designing them as the main or one of the lateral load carrying systems against seismic input. In this research, first the... 

Even though a considerable amount of research has been conducted on composite wall system during past years, very limited research has been reported on shear walls strengthened by steel plates. In 2008, the composite shear wall, which consisted of reinforced concrete wall, retrofitted by steel plates, attached to both sides of RC walls using mechanical connectors in form of shear studs, bolts or lateral ties tested under axial load and lateral force. In this research, seismic behavior of RC shear walls strengthened by vertical strips of steel plates is going to be studied. The result will be compared with RC shear wall which fully covered by steel plates. The behavior of RC shear wall will... 

In recent years, composite systems comprised of reinforced concrete columns and steel beams, have taken consideration. This system took its own advantages both from steel and concrete systems. Joints of this system categorized into through-beam-type and through-column-type. In this research, after reviewing past studies, two kinds of the joints were modeled in ABAQUS finite element program and seismic performance of these two joints were evaluated. These two selected joints were tested by Chin-Tun Chen and Cheng-Chih Chen ( ) and also Hiroshi Kuramoto and Isao Nishiyama ( ). After verifying the finite element model with the experimental studies, a parametric study were conducted on the steel... 

Steel structure with saddle connections constitutes a portion of the old steel structures in Iran. During past strong ground motions such as Manjil and Bam earthquakes, these structures were vulnerable and experienced significant damages. These structures were widely used due to their easy installation. However, according to their unpromising behavior, they need an appropriate lateral force-resisting system. A concrete shear wall is one of the suitable lateral force resisting systems that can improve the behavior of steel frames with saddle connections. To find the coefficients of seismic performance factors including response modification factor, overstrength factor, and deflection... 

Performance of reinforced concrete frames is highly dependent on detailing of the joint connections between its members, such as beams and columns. To have a good structural behavior, joints must show ductile behavior and designed based on the philosophy of strong column-weak beam. In the case of sever lacking ductility, strength or even rigidity of the connections, or having a weak column-strong beam, in the existing structures, there is a need for seismic upgrading of the connection. There are several ways for seismic upgrading of this type of connections.In this research, using steel plates for seismic upgrading of Concrete Beam-Column connections subjected to axial and cyclic loads has... 

A brief overview of the proposed research, its aims, engineering relevance and applications; as well as expected achievements compared to the present state of the art:The plastic hinge length and ultimate drift calculations of frames are required in the performance based design of reinforce concrete structure. FRP-confinement increases the column’s shear resistance and ductility. FRP-confinement prevents concrete cover from spalling and increases the inelastic deformability of concrete in the potential plastic hinge region. GU et al. 2012 [24] studied the existing experimental results of confinement effects on the plastic hinge length. Mortezaei and Ronagh, 2012 [25], studied the plastic... 

This research proposes a damage assessment framework based on the visual features of a damaged reinforced concrete shear wall, such as crack pattern distribution, crushing areal density, aspect ratio, and the presence of the boundary condition. The study contains two parts: identifying the performance level of the damaged walls (i.e., Immediate Occupancy, Life Safety, and Collapse Prevention) and estimating the residual strength and drift ratio of the walls. The research database contains 236 images of 72 reinforced concrete shear walls tested in the laboratory under the quasi-static cyclic loadings at various drift ratios between 0.0 to 4.0. To identify the performance level of a damaged... 

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the stiffness and strength of damaged rectangular reinforced concrete shear walls after an earthquake using surface crack patterns. Assessing the damage severity of buildings after an earthquake is an important part of the emergency inspection operation of buildings. Expert inspectors tag buildings into two categories of safe or unsafe that are usually affected by subjective decisions, which may result in catastrophic events reported in previous earthquakes. In this research, an extensive database on the images of damaged rectangular reinforced concrete shear walls (RCSWs) is collected and used to develop predictive equations for updated stiffness and... 

Composite systems consisting of concrete columns and steel beams are introduces as structural systems in recent years. These structural systems enjoy merits of both steel and concrete frames by efficiently combining the advantages of them. This study is allocated to lateral force resistance system using armed concrete and structural steel. Advantages of composite structures rather to those of two other conventional ones are among performance characteristics under ultimate loads, economical conservation, and higher speed of construction.In this research the aim is to study these frame under earthquake induced loads. The seismic performances of these composite frames with through column beams,... 

In recent years, the development of the plate bonding repair technique has been shown to be applicable to many existing strengthening problems in the building industry. This technique may be defined as one in which composite sheets or plates of relatively small thickness are bonded with an epoxy adhesive to, in most cases, a concrete structure to improve its structural behaviour and strength. The sheets or plates do not require much space and give a composite action between the adherents. The old structure and the new bonded-on material create a new structural element that has a higher strength and stiffness than original one. According to the available methods of analysis and design for... 

The rehabilitation of old structures holds a lot of importance, as many structures with a life span of over 30 years are prone to severe damage and even collapse. To overcome this problem, the use of FRP sheets to strengthen structures is suggested. RC-arches have been used in many structures such as bridges and require specific consideration in terms of strengthening. So far, the influence of the number of FRP layers and location, the height of arch and percentage of reinforcement on strengthened arch behavior have not been investigated. In this research, reinforced concrete arch members strengthened with GFRP and CFRP were investigated. A total of 28 Specimens, including four... 

Retrofitting and strengthening existing structures is one of the most important concepts of structural and earthquake engineering. Strengthening of structures could be due to changes in application and applied load, errors in calculation, mistakes in construction, weakness of old codes, structural height increases and changes in environmental conditions. Different methods for increasing the flexural strength and ductility of reinforced concrete beams, as one of the major structural components, have been presented. This research presents an experimental study on the strengthening of reinforced concrete beams by reinforced concrete jackets (classical method) and Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP)... 

In practice, structures made of concrete are full of cracks. The strength of concrete is mainly determined by the tensile strength, which is about 10% of the compressive strength. As long as cracking in concrete is unavoidable, we have to try to minimize their detrimental effects. This objective can be achieved by resisting (or limiting) propagation of existing cracks. Because of this, reinforcement (mostly steel) is used to increase the carrying capacity of the material and to control the development of cracks. Concrete structures that fail, already shows a large number of large and small cracks before their maximum carrying capacity is reached. The failure of concrete can be characterized... 

In building construction, a rigid vertical diaphragm is capable of transferring lateral forces from exterior walls, roofs and floors to the ground foundation in a direction parallel to its planes.[1] Refractory elements against lateral forces contain moment frames, shear walls or a combination of them. In this research, shear walls are discussed. Nowadays, in cities having old contexture, some of the buildings should be destructed. Thus, modern buildings should be built. Due to the limitation of adequate space and lack of symmetrical plan, buildings must be built in asymmetrical form. To design the structures with asymmetrical plan, it is necessary to study buildings with presence of...