Sharif Digital Repository

The 21st century is facing two major obstacles on the way of accessing clean and renewable energies: first, the rapidly increasing need to the energy resources; and second, the limitations - as well as side-effects - of the conventional fossil fuels. Meanwhile, the production of the solar hydrogen, through water splitting, has been proposed as a promising solution to find a clean and effective source of energy. This process occurs in photo-electro-chemical systems with the activation energy that lies within the range of visible light. One approach that herewith comes to mind, is to start the process by utilizing semiconductors to absorb the sunlight. In order to overcome the overpotential... 

Bridges are among the crucial elements of transportation networks and play an important role in facilitating emergency relief efforts following earthquakes. For this reasons, they should have an appropriate performance in earthquakes; Thus, presentation of true design of bridges was necessary. Elastic design of bridges due to the earthquake is uneconomic; hence, during an earthquake, the codes permitted to structures go to their inelastic behavior domain but inelastic analysis of structures are noncommercial and the capability of detail modeling of the inelastic behavior of the material is still impossible. Therefore, designers use response modification factor to consider the inelastic... 

Lateral forces on structures are transferred to braces as tensile and compressive loads. These loads enter the beams and columns through the gusset plates. The gusset connections to the beams and columns must be such that they be able to pass the loads through themselves. So far, five analytical models have been proposed for this connection and only one of them is recommended by AISC. These models estimate the existing forces and moments on the connection. The analytical models are: model 1 (KISS), model 2 (2A-AISC), model 3 (Thornton), model 4 (Ricker) and model 5 (Richard). Among these models, only model 3 is recommended by AISC because the others are more conservative. It should be noted... 

The application of composite systems has rapidly advanced in bridge and building construction. Shear connectors are the most basic parts of the composite systems.The connectors transfer the shear forces between the slab and the beam. They also prevent separation of the slab from the beam.
Therefore researchers have done widespread studies on the behavior of shear connectors and their load carrying capacity. Steel angles are one of the shear connectors that can be used incompositesystems. Only limited number ofstudies has investigated thebehavior of thistype of connector.
The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the behavior of angle shear connectors embedded in solid concrete... 

In this thesis the shear strength of pipe shear connector is investigated experimentally and numerically. The numerical analysis uses a nonlinear finite element model of the push-out specimen. The specimens consist of the pipe shear connector, steel beam, concrete slab and embedded steel rebar for concrete confinement. Eight push-out specimens are constructed with different pipe sizes and concrete strength. The results are used in a finite element parametric study to evaluate the strength of such connectors for all practical ranges of pipe size and concrete strength. It is shown that pipe connectors are more effective in transferring shear forces than angle and channel and stud connectors.... 

According to recent researches, angle-shape shear connectors are appropriate to transfer longitudinal shear forces across the steel-concrete interface. This study investigates the effect of tilted angle on capacity and behavior of angle-shape shear connectors. In this study, we consider two different tilted angles. Push-out tests consisting of eight specimens made of reinforced concrete and different angle-shapes were conducted. Specimens have tilted anglesof 112.5 and 135 degrees between the angle leg and steel beam. Two different failure modes were observed consisting of concrete crushing-splitting and angle fracture. In addition, a nonlinear finite element model of these push-out... 

Cable-stayed bridges are the most economical solution for spans ranging from about 200 to 1000 meters. They have become more popular in recent decades due to their efficiency and appearance. The need to understand their seismic beahvior is apparent and any improvement can be useful. The main purpose of this study is to determine the effect of using three lateral cable arrangement groups namely, cross system, pulley system and spatial lateral cable system with two transversally inclined cable planes on seismic performance of cable-stayed bridges. In this research, the seismic consequences of these arrangements with interactions of key parameters like, the main span length and deck to pylon... 

The shear lag phenomenon is one of the effective factors in determining the tensile capacity of tension members. In this phenomenon, there are various factors including the size and type of the cross-section, the type of connection, the length of connection, thickness of gusset plate, etc. are effective. The previous studies which are the basis of the specification equations, have been conducted on the cross-sections with bolted and riveted connections, while no study has been conducted to determine the effects of some of these factors yet. Using numerical methods, the present study investigates and compares each of the effective parameters on shear lag phenomenon on the single and double... 

The steel-concrete composite beams are increasingly used in bridge and building construction in recent years. A shear connection between the steel and concrete should be provided to effectively transfer the shear force and to make the two materials act as a single unit. The mechanical shear connectors provide this means. They are the essential component of any composite beam system. Many studies have been performed on shear connectors and many different steel shapes have been suggested for connectors. The steel studs and channels are the most popular code accepted connectors. However, economic considerations continue to motivate the development of new products.
Present knowledge of the... 

Numerous research is available in the literature regarding shear walls. These have considered parameters like wall cross-section, Reinforcement configuration, boundary elements, etc. In addition, seismic and wind loading behavior has been discussed. Currently, the software ETABS is used extensively in automatic design of shear walls, The programs design bases are investigated in this thesis in ragards to flexural, shear and boundary elements of shear walls under seismic loading. The attachment of wall elements to frame (column) elements is of particular interest in this study  

Tension-Only Concentrically Braced Frame (TOCBF) incorporates very slender bracing members, such as single angles, that are unable to dissipate much energy in compression due to their negligible buckling strength. Alternating tension yielding and elastic compression buckling of the bracing elements result in rapid strength degradation during strong motions, which translates into deteriorating pinched hysteresis loops. Based on this unfavorable behavior, it is not recommended to employ TOCBF system for medium and high-rise buildings located in active seismic areas. However, as a result of its inexpensivity and simplicity to design, the TOCBF system is used prevalently in low-rise steel... 

It is very common to use moment frame system in earthquake-prone areas in the two main directions of buildings. This system is very popular among architects due to the creation of unobstructed openings between the columns and the possibility of using openings in them.The column is one of the main components in the design of orthogonal moment frame systems and plays an important role in the performance of this system. The columns that are in the two main directions of the intersection of two moment frame systems, due to the existence of the 30-100 rule in seismic design regulations, must be able to withstand 100% of the design earthquake force in one direction and 30% of the same force in the... 

Performance-based design (PBD) has been accepted as one of the most reliable design methods in the past few decades. PBD can overcome inherent deficiencies associated with force-based design (FBD) and has advantages over this traditional method. Various PBD methods have been developed, which Displacement-based design (DBD) has been considered as one of the effective design approaches of the PBD method. In this study, the Displacement coefficient method (DCM) is developed for stub-type integral abutment bridges (IABs). For this purpose, two coefficients are proposed to determine the target displacement of these types of bridges. Validation of this method by nonlinear time-history analysis... 

Nowadays, using perimeter steel moment frames in combination with interior gravity frames have become common practice in structural building design. One of the key benefits of this system is the open space that it provides for the architects. In active seismic regions, special details are required in the design of the seismic force resisting systems to make these frames ductile. However, these details cause excessive displacement for the gravity force resisting system. Although the gravity frames are not designed to endure seismic forces, they collaborate in the system’s response as they are connected to the same floor diaphragm and withstand lateral displacements. Therefore, these systems... 

In order to design buildings such as industrial structures, which use multi-tiered braced frames as their lateral load resisting system, it is required to know seismic performance factors, including the response modification coefficient (R), the overstrength factor (Ω0), and deflection amplification factor (Cd). The main purpose of this study is to assume initial seismic performance factors and evaluate their accuracy based on Fema-P695 methodology. This methodology provides a reliable basis for determining seismic performance factors of different lateral load resisting systems. In this study 8 archetypes have been chosen and designed with initial factors of 6, 2 and 5 as R, Ω0 and Cd,... 

Regarding available structural codes, for designing of buildings with dual lateral force resisting system which includes special moment frames and ordinary concentrically braced frames, we need to determine seismic performance factors. Seismic performance factors embraces of response modification (R), over strength (Ω0) and displacement amplification (Cd) factors. The goal of this research is to evaluate aforementioned factors using the method presented with FEMA P-695. This method represents a reliable framework to assess the seismic performance factors of various kinds of lateral force resisting systems. In this approach, first, archetypes are designed with assuming certain values for... 

This research is studying seismic behavior of bridges with spill-through abutments. There is a lot of studies in the literature about the behavior of piers and different types of them in the field of seismic assessment of bridges. But seismic behavior of abutments has paid less attention. In addition, most researches in this field are about common types of abutments like wall-type or integral abutments and also there are few standards and design guidelines about spill-through abutments.However spill-through abutments had been used by designers, especially they are common in Iran.In this research, a bridge with a spill-through abutment is designed as a benchmark. The benchmark bridge is... 

Purpose of this research is evaluation of response modification factor for integral abutment bridges in longitudinal direction in which substructure and superstructure both act as a unit system in resisting of lateral loads and no expansion joints are used in them. One of the most important challenges in design of IABs, is lack of response modification factor for their seismic design in longitudinal direction. Another challenge in these bridges, is modeling of soil-bridge structure interaction that affects not only abutment and piles’ seismic performance, but deck performance too. The other challenge is lack of adequate knowledge about their behavior and seismic performance which is of great...