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In this paper, the effects of geopolymer adhesive, the number of CFRP layers and the width of pre-crack on the flexural performance of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with CFRP were studied, and the flexural capacity of strengthened beams was calculated theoretically.

Reinforced concrete beams were strengthened with CFRP by geopolymer adhesive, and flexural load tests were conducted to observe the reinforcement effect. Based on the method of calculating the flexural capacity of reinforced concrete beams, a theoretical calculation model on the flexural capacity of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with geopolymer adhesive bonded CFRP was established.

The test data shown the flexural capacity of epoxy resin adhesive CFRP strengthened reinforced concrete beams is 7.76% higher than that geopolymer adhesive is used. The flexural capacity of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with three layers of CFRP is 1.86% higher than that two layers are adopted. The mean ratio of the test data and the calculation results of the flexural capacity is 0.973, and the mean square error is 0.008. It can be seen that the test data are in good agreement with the theoretical value.

This paper provides data support for the popularization and application of the new environment-friendly reinforcement technology, contributes to the cause of environmental protection, and provides a new method for strengthening reinforced concrete beams.

This paper employs a textile reinforcement strain comparison to study the response of Textile Reinforced Mortars (TRM) strengthened reinforced concrete one-way slab members in flexure using the finite element method. Basalt TRM (BTRM) is a relatively new composite in structural strengthening applications. Experimental data on BTRMs are limited in the literature and numerical analyses can help further the understanding of this composite. With this notion, Abaqus finite element software is utilised to create a numerical method to capture the mechanical response of strengthened slab members instead of time-consuming laboratory experiments.

A numerical method is developed and validated using existing experimental data set on one-way slabs strengthened using Basalt TRMs from the literature. An explicit solver is utilised to analyse the finite element model created using calibrated Concrete Damage Plasticity (CDP) parameters according to the experimental requirements. The generated model is applied to extract load, deflection and rebar strains sustained by strengthened reinforced concrete slabs as observed from the experimental reference chosen. The applicability of the developed model was studied beyond parametric studies by comparing the generated finite element tensile strain by the textile fibre with available formulae.

CDP calibration done has shown its adaptability. The predicted results in the form of load versus deflection, tensile and compressive damage patterns from the numerical analysis showed good agreement with the experimental data. A parametric study on various concrete strength, textile spacing and TRM bond length obtained shows TRM’s advantages and its favourability for external strengthening applications. A set of five formulae considered to predict the experimental strain showed varied accuracy.

The developed numerical model considers strain sustained by the textile fibre to make results more robust and reliable. The obtained strain from the numerical study showed good agreement with the experiment results.

A numerical simulation of the test beam was carried out with Abaqus and compared with test data to ensure that the modeling method is accurate. An analysis of the effects of the angle between the U-hoop and horizontal direction, the pre-crack height, the pre-crack spacing, and the strength of the geopolymer adhesive on the cracking load and ultimate load of the reinforced beam is presented.

Load tests and finite element simulations were conducted on carbon fiber reinforced polymer-reinforced concrete beams bonded with geopolymer adhesive. The bond-slip effect of geopolymer adhesive was taken into account in the model. The flexural performances, the flexural load capacities, the deformation capacities, and the damage characteristics of the beams were observed, and the numerical simulation results were in good agreement with the experimental results. An analysis of parametric sensitivity was performed using finite element simulation to investigate the effects of different angles between U-hoop and horizontal direction, pre-crack heights, pre-crack spacing, and strength of geopolymer adhesive on cracking load and ultimate load.

Under the same conditions, the higher the height of the pre-crack, the lower the bearing capacity; increasing the pre-crack spacing can delay cracking, but reduce ultimate load. By increasing the strength of the geopolymer adhesive, the flexural resistance of the beam is improved, and crack development is also delayed; the angle between the u-hoop and horizontal direction does not affect the cracking of reinforced beams; a horizontal u-hoop has a better effect than an oblique u-hoop, and 60° is the ideal angle between the u-hoop and horizontal direction for better reinforcement.

According to the experimental study in this paper, Abaqus was used to simulate the strength of different angles between U-hoop and horizontal direction, pre-crack heights, pre-crack spacings, and geopolymer adhesives, and the angles' effects on the cracking load and load carrying capacity of test beams were discussed. Since no actual tests are required, the method is economical. This paper offers data support for the promotion and application of environmentally friendly reinforcement technology, contributes to environmental protection, and develops a new method for reinforcing reinforced concrete beams and a new concept for finite element simulations.

Recently, the repairing of reinforced concrete (RC) structures attracted great research attentions, but the research interests were mainly concentrated on common repairing types. To this end, in this paper, a repairing of pre-loaded RC beams strengthened by aramid reinforcement polymers (AFRP) is presented. Furthermore, the purpose of this paper is to study the behavior of pre-loaded RC Deep beams under sustained load. The AFRP has many advantages such as controlling stresses distribution around the openings, controlling failure modes, and enhancing the structural capacity of pre-cracked RC beams.

Four specimens were experimentally tested: one specimen without strengthening, which is considered as control specimen, one strengthened specimen using AFRP without pre-cracking and two specimens subjected to pre-cracking load before prior to AFRP application. Furthermore, after validation of experimental data by using ANSYS software, a parametric study was conducted to investigate the effect of pre-damage level on shear capacity of RC beams. For pre-cracked beams, loading was first applied until the cracking stage, followed by specimen repairing with epoxy injection, and then the specimens were loaded again until failure point.

The result showed that pre-damage level and AFRP strengthening have great influence on the ultimate strength and failure mode. In addition, the results obtained from experimental tests were compared with those from numerical validation with ANSYS and showed good agreement.

Based on ACI guidelines, an analytical equation for calculating the shear strength of strengthened RC beams with openings subjected to pre-damage was then proposed, and the calculated results were compared with those from the tests, with differences not exceeding 10%.

In this paper, to obtain shear and bending performance of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP)-strengthened beams bonded by geopolymers, the effects of impregnated adhesive types, strengthened scheme, CFRP layer and pre-cracked width are investigated, and the performance of CFRP-strengthened beams is validated by the establishment of Finite Element Models (FEMs).

In this paper, static loading test and finite element analysis of epoxy-CFRP-strengthened (ECS) and geopolymer-CFRP-strengthened (GCS) were carried out, and the bearing capacity and stiffness were compared, the results show that GCS reinforced concrete (RC) beam is feasible and effective.

The bearing capacity, crack distribution and development, load–deflection curves of GCS RC beams with different pre-crack widths were investigated. The reinforcement effect of geopolymer achieves the same as epoxy, effectively improving the ultimate bearing capacity of the beam, with a maximum increase rate of 28.9%. The failure mode of CFRP is broken in the yield failure stage of GCS RC beam with reasonable strengthening form, and the utilization rate of CFRP is improved. CFRP-strengthened layers, pre-cracked widths significantly affect the mechanical properties, and deformation properties of the strengthened beams.

Compared with ECS RC beams, the bearing capacity and stiffness of GCS RC beams are similar to or even better, indicating that GCS RC beam is feasible and effective. It is a new method for CFRP-strengthened beams, which not only conforms to the concept of national ecological civilization construction, but also provides an economical, environmentally friendly and excellent performance solution for structural reinforcement.

Considering the “size effect” and the properties degradation of building materials on the strengthened engineering, in this paper, the technology of pasting steel plate was adopted to shear strengthen a 16 m prestressed concrete hollow slab, which had serviced 20 years in cold regions. The shear properties of shear strengthen beams are analyzed.

Shear loading test of the shear strengthened beam and the contrast beam was conducted. Then the mechanical characteristics, failure mechanism, the mechanical response and shear capacity of shear strengthened beam and contrast beam had been discussed.

The failure mode of shear strengthened beam and contrast beam was shear compression failure, and the bond failure between concrete and prestressed reinforcement happened in both of test beams. The shear strengthening method of pasting steel plate can effectively improve the mechanical response for the shear strengthened beam. Compared with the contrast beam, the cracking load and failure shear capacity for the shear strengthened beam can be effectively increased by 12.2 and 27.6%, respectively.

The research results can be a reference for the detection and evaluation of shear strengthened bridges, which are strengthened by pasting steel plate. Engineers can refer to the shear strengthening method in this paper to strengthen the existing bridge, which can guarantee the safety of shear strengthened bridges.

With the rapid development of transportation and the continuous increase of traffic volume and load level, some bridges cannot meet the use requirements, and the demand for bridge strengthening is growing. Furthermore, bridges are affected by factors such as structure and external environment. With the increase of service time, the deterioration of bridges is also increasing. In order to avoid the waste caused by demolition and reconstruction, it is necessary to strengthen the bridge accurately and effectively to improve the bearing capacity and durability, eliminate the hidden dangers, and ensure the normal operation of the bridge. It is of great significance to study the strengthening methods. Compared with traditional strengthening methods, the advantages of using new materials and new technology to strengthen bridges are more obvious. This paper introduces a new method for bridge active strengthening, called modified polyurethane cement with prestressed steel wire rope (MPC-PSWR).

Relying on the actual bridge strengthening project, five T-beams of the superstructure of the bridge are taken as the research object, and the T-beams before and after strengthening are evaluated, calculated, and analyzed by finite element simulation and field load test. By comparing the numerical simulation and load test data, the strengthening effect of modified polyurethane cement with prestressed steel wire rope on stiffness, strength, and bearing capacity is verified, which proves that the strengthening effect of MPC-PSWR is effective for strengthening.

MPC-PSWR can effectively reduce deflection, cracks, and strain, thereby significantly improving the flexural capacity of existing bridges. Under the design load, the deflection, crack width, and stress of the strengthened beams decrease in varying degrees. The overall performance of the beams strengthened by MPC-PSWR has been improved, and the flexural performance meets the requirements of the code.

MPC-PSWR is an innovative bridge-strengthening method. Through the analysis of its MPC-PSWR effect, the MPC-PSWR method with reference to significance for the design and construction of similar bridges is put forward.

This study aims to present comprehensive nonlinear material modelling techniques and simulations of reinforced concrete (RC) beams subjected to short-term monotonic static load using the robust and reliable general-purpose finite element (FE) software ANSYS. A parametric study is carried out to analyse the flexural and ductility behaviour of RC beams under various influencing parameters.

To develop and validate the numerical FE models, a total of four experimentally tested simply supported RC beams are taken from the available literature and two beams are selected from each author. The concrete, steel reinforcements, bond-slip mechanism, loading and supporting plates are modelled using SOLID65, LINK180, COMBIN39 and SOLID185 elements, respectively. The validated models are then used to conduct parametric FE analysis to investigate the effect of concrete compressive strength, percentage of tensile reinforcement, compression reinforcement ratio, transverse shear reinforcement, bond-slip mechanism, concrete compressive stress-strain constitutive models, beam symmetry and varying overall depth of beam on the ultimate load-carrying capacity and ductility behaviour of RC beams.

The developed three-dimensional FE models can able to capture the load and midspan deflections at critical points, the accurate yield point of steel reinforcements, the formation of initial and progressive concrete crack patterns and the complete load-deflection curves of RC beams up to ultimate failure. From the numerical results, it can be concluded that the FE model considering the bond-slip effect with Thorenfeldt’s concrete compressive stress-strain model exhibits a better correlation with the experimental data.

The ultimate load and deflection results of validated FE models show a maximum deviation of less than 10% and 15%, respectively, as compared to the experimental results. The developed model is also capable of capturing concrete failure modes accurately. Overall, the FE analysis results were found quite acceptable and compared well with the experimental data at all loading stages. It is suggested that the proposed FE model is a practical and reliable tool for analyzing the flexural behaviour of RC members and can be used for performing parametric studies.

This paper aims to present nonlinear numerical simulations using the versatile finite element (FE) analysis tool ANSYS and theoretical analysis based on code provisions to assess the load-carrying capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) beams under two-point monotonic static loadings.

Four quarter-size FE models with load and geometry symmetry conditions were constructed, the load-bearing capacity and associated mid-span deflections at critical points are verified against the full-scale experimental RC beams available in the literature. These developed FE models incorporated the tension stiffening effects and bond–slip behaviour. Theoretical analyses based on Indian standard code IS: 456–2000 and ACI 318–19 were also carried to verify the experimental and numerical predicted moments at critical loading points.

The load-deflection curves predicted through FE models exhibit closer corroboration with the experimental curves throughout the loading history. The contour plots for deflections, concrete principal stresses, reinforcement yield stresses are satisfactorily predicted by the FE models, which reveal the complete information of nonlinear behaviour of RC beams. The developed model well captured the initial and progressive crack patterns at each load increments.

The FE modelling is an efficient, valid and economical tool that is an alternative to the expensive experimental program and can be used to explore, analyse and fully understand the nonlinear response of RC beams under static loadings.

The ultimate moment capacity evaluated based on ACI 318–19 code provision show a better correlation with the experimental data as compared to the IS: 456–2000 code provision. The ultimate loads and associated centre-span deflections predicted by RN-2, RN-3, RB-12 and RB-16 FE model show a discrepancy of 1.66 and –0.49%, –4.68 and –0.60%, –9.38 and –14.53% and –4.37 and 4.21%, respectively, against the experimental results, which reveals that the developed ANSYS FE models predict consistent results and achieved a reasonable agreement with the experimental data.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate a dissipative reinforced concrete structural wall that can improve the behavior of a tall multi-storey building. The main objective is to evaluate the damage of a dissipative wall in comparison with that of a solid wall.

In this paper, a comparative nonlinear dynamic analysis between a dissipative wall and a solid wall is performed by means of SAP2000 software and using a layer model. The solution to increase the seismic performance of a reinforced concrete structural wall is to create a slit zone with short connections. The short connections are introduced as a link element with multi-linear pivot hysteretic plasticity behavior. The behavior of these short connections is modeled using the finite element software ANSYS 12. In this study, the authors propose to evaluate the damage of reinforced concrete slit walls with short connections using seismic analysis.

Using the computational model created in the second section of the paper, a seismic analysis of a dissipative wall from a multi-storey building was done in the third section. From the results obtained, the advantages of the proposed model are observed.

A simple computational model was created that consume low processing resources and reduces processing time for a dynamic pushover analysis. Unlike other studies on slit walls with short connections, which are focussed mostly on the nonlinear dynamic behavior of the short connections, in this paper the authors take into consideration the whole structural system, wall and connections.