Fresh concrete used in 3D printing should ensure adequate yield stress, otherwise the printed concrete layer may suffer intolerable deformation or collapse during the printing process. In response to this issue, an analytical study was carried out to derive the initial yield stress and hardening coefficient of fresh concrete suitable for 3D printing. The maximum shear stress distribution of fresh concrete was calculated using a stress transformation equation derived from the equilibrium condition of forces. In addition, the elapsed time experienced by fresh concrete during the printing processes was estimated and was then substituted into the elapsed time-yield stress function to calculate the yield stress distribution. Based on these results, an algorithm capable of deriving both the initial yield stress and the hardening coefficient required for printing fresh concrete up to the target height was proposed and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses were performed to verify the accuracy of the proposed model.
Available test results and stress–strain models for poorly confined high-strength columns, more specifically for columns with a tie volumetric ratio smaller than 2·0%, are scarce. This paper presents test results loaded in the axial direction for square reinforced concrete (RC) columns confined by various volumetric ratio lateral ties including low volumetric ratio. Test variables include concrete compressive strength, tie yield strength, tie arrangement type and tie volumetric ratio. Local strains are measured using strain gauges bonded to an acryl rod. For square RC columns confined by lateral ties, the confinement effect was improved by changing tie arrangement type from type A to type B. A method to compute the stress in lateral ties at the concrete peak strength is proposed, as well as a new stress–strain model for the confined concrete. The model shows good agreement with stress–strain relationships established experimentally over a wide range of confinement parameters.
Recently, advanced transit systems are being constructed to reduce traffic congestions in metropolitan areas. For these projects, curved bridges with various curvatures are required. Many curved bridges in the past were constructed using aesthetically unpleasant straight beams with curved slabs or expensive curved steel box girders with curved slabs. Therefore, many recent studies have been performed to develop less expensive and very safe precast prestressed concrete (PSC) curved girder. One method of reducing the construction cost of a PSC curved girder is to use a reusable formwork that can easily be adjusted to change the curvature and length of a girder. A reusable and curvature/dimension adjustable formwork called Multi-tasking formwork is developed for constructing efficient precast PSC curved girders. With the Multi-tasking formwork, two 40 m precast PSC box girders with different curvatures were constructed to build a two-girder curved bridge for a static flexural test to evaluate its safety and serviceability performance. The static flexural test results showed that the initial cracking load was 1400 kN, exceeding the design cracking load of 450 kN. Also, the code allowed deflection of 50 mm occurred at a load of 1800 kN, verifying the safety and serviceability of the precast PSC curved bridge constructed using the multi-tasking formwork.
The shear wall system with coupling beams has been known as an effective means for moderate and high rise buildings up to 40 stories, because this structural system can provide the enhanced lateral stiffness compared to individual shear walls. Typical reinforced concrete coupling beams have difficulties in construction due to complicated reinforcing work on site, and steel coupling beams also have disadvantages in economical point of view because of a large number of stiffeners required for its stability under lateral loading. To overcome these disadvantages in existing coupling beam systems, this study developed the prestressed composite coupling beam with discontinuous webs, which have improved constructability, economic feasibility, and reduced sectional size. The reversed cyclic loading test on two prestressed composite coupling beams with discontinuous webs having different shear reinforcement ratios have been conducted to investigate their structural performances, and test results showed that the proposed composite coupling beams had good seismic performances.
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