Shrinkage movement analysis of reinforced concrete floors constructed in stages

A.K.H. Kwan,P.L. Ng 사단법인 한국계산역학회 2009 Computers and Concrete, An International Journal Vol.6 No.2

Reinforced concrete floors constructed between movement restraints often crack seriously due to shrinkage after completion. One common mitigation measure is to construct the concrete floors in stages to allow part of the shrinkage movement to take place before completion. However, shrinkage movement analysis of concrete floors constructed in stages is quite cumbersome, as the structural configuration changes during construction, thus necessitating reanalysis of the partially completed structure at each stage. Herein, a finite element method for shrinkage movement analysis of concrete floors constructed in stages is developed. It analyses the whole structure, including the completed and uncompleted portions, at all stages. The same mesh is used all the time and therefore re-meshing and location matching are no longer necessary. This is achieved by giving negligibly small stiffness to the uncompleted portions, which in reality do not exist yet. In the analysis, the locked-in strains due to increase in elastic modulus as the concrete hardens and the creep of the hardened concrete are taken into account. Most important of all, this method would enable fully automatic shrinkage movement analysis for the purpose of construction control.

Packing density and filling effect of limestone fines

Kwan, A.K.H.,McKinley, M. Techno-Press 2014 Advances in concrete construction Vol.2 No.3

The use of limestone fines (LF) in mortar and concrete can in certain ways improve performance and thus has become more and more commonplace. However, although LF is generally regarded as a filler, it is up to now not clear how much filling effect it could have and how best the filling effect could be utilized. Herein, the packing density and filling effect of LF were studied by measuring the packing densities of LF, (LF + cement) blends and (LF + cement + fine aggregate) blends under dry and wet conditions, and measuring the performance of mortars made with various amounts of LF added. It was found that the addition of LF would not significantly increase the packing density of (LF + cement) blends but would fill into the paste to increase the paste volume and paste film thickness, and improve the flow spread and strength of mortar.

Stochastic response analysis of visco-elastic slit shear walls

Kwan, A.K.H.,Tian, Q.L.,Cheung, Y.K. Techno-Press 1998 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.6 No.4

Slit shear walls an reinforced concrete shear wall structures with purposely built-in vertical slits. If the slits are inserted with visco-elastic damping materials, the shear walls will become viscoelastic sandwich beams. When adequately designed, this kind of structures can be quite effective in resisting earthquake loads. Herein, a simple analysis method is developed for the evaluation of the stochastic responses of visco-elastic slit shear walls. In the proposed method, the stiffness and mass matrices are derived by using Rayleigh-Ritz method, and the responses of the structures are calculated by means of complex modal analysis. Apart from slit shear walls, this analysis method is also applicable to coupled shear walls and cantilevered sandwich beams. Numerical examples are presented and the results clearly show that the seismic responses of shear wall structures can be substantially reduced by incorporating vertical slits into the walls and inserting visco-elastic damping materials into the slits.

Modelling dowel action of discrete reinforcing bars for finite element analysis of concrete structures

A. K. H. Kwan,P.L. Ng 사단법인 한국계산역학회 2013 Computers and Concrete, An International Journal Vol.12 No.1

In the finite element analysis of reinforced concrete structures, discrete representation of the steel reinforcing bars is considered advantageous over smeared representation because of the more realistic modelling of their bond-slip behaviour. However, there is up to now limited research on how to simulate the dowel action of discrete reinforcing bars, which is an important component of shear transfer in cracked concrete structures. Herein, a numerical model for the dowel action of discrete reinforcing bars is developed. It features derivation of the dowel stiffness based on the beam-on-elastic-foundation theory and direct assemblage of the dowel stiffness matrix into the stiffness matrices of adjoining concrete elements. The dowel action model is incorporated in a nonlinear finite element program based on secant stiffness formulation and application to deep beams tested by others demonstrates that the incorporation of dowel action can improve the accuracy of the finite element analysis.

A minimum ductility design method for non-rectangular high-strength concrete beams

F. T. K. Au,A. K. H. Kwan 한국계산역학회 2004 Computers and Concrete, An International Journal Vol.1 No.2

The flexural ductility of solid rectangular reinforced concrete beams has been studied quite extensively. However, many reinforced concrete beams are neither solid nor rectangular; examples include T-, Γ-, Π- and box-shaped beams. There have been few studies on the flexural ductility of nonrectangular reinforced concrete beams and as a result little is known about the possible effect of sectional shape on flexural ductility. Herein, the effect of sectional shape on the post-peak flexural behaviour of reinforced normal and high-strength concrete beams has been studied using a newly developed analysis method that employs the actual stress-strain curves of the constitutive materials and takes into account the stress-path dependence of the stress-strain curve of the steel reinforcement. It was revealed that the sectional shape could have significant effect on the flexural ductility of a concrete beam and that the flexural ductility of a T-, Γ-, Π- or box-shaped beam is generally lower than that of a solid rectangular beam with the same overall dimensions and the same amount of reinforcement provided. Based on the numerical results obtained, a simple method of ensuring the provision of a certain minimum level of flexural ductility to non-rectangular concrete beams has been developed.

Post-peak behavior and flexural ductility of doubly reinforced normal- and high-strength concrete beams

Pam, H.J.,Kwan, A.K.H.,Ho, J.C.M. Techno-Press 2001 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.12 No.5

The complete moment-curvature curves of doubly reinforced concrete beams made of normal- or high-strength concrete have been evaluated using a newly developed analytical method that takes into account the stress-path dependence of the constitutive properties of the materials. From the moment-curvature curves and the strain distribution results obtained, the post-peak behavior and flexural ductility of doubly reinforced normal- and high-strength concrete beam sections are studied. It is found that the major factors affecting the flexural ductility of reinforced concrete beam sections are the tension steel ratio, compression steel ratio and concrete grade. Generally, the flexural ductility decreases as the amount of tension reinforcement increases, but increases as the amount of compression reinforcement increases. However, the effect of the concrete grade on flexural ductility is fairly complicated, as will be explained in the paper. Quantitative analysis of such effects has been carried out and a formula for direct evaluation of the flexural ductility of doubly reinforced concrete sections developed. The formula should be useful for the ductility design of doubly reinforced normal- and high-strength concrete beams.

Study on a seismic slit shear wall with cyclic experiment and macro-model analysis

Jiang, Huanjun,Lu, Xilin,Kwan, A.K.H.,Cheung, Y.K. Techno-Press 2003 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.16 No.4

The concept of the seismic slit shear wall was proposed in the early 1990's. A series of experimental and theoretic studies on the wall with reinforced concrete short connecting beams cast in the slit were carried out. In this paper another type of slit shear wall is studied. It is one with vertical slit purposely cast within the wall, and the rubber belt penetrated by a part of web shear reinforcement as seismic energy-dissipation device is filled in the slit. Firstly, an experiment under cyclic loading was carried out on two shear wall models, one slit and the other solid. The failure mechanism and energy-dissipation capacity are compared between the two different models, which testifies the seismic performance of the slit wall improved significantly. Secondly, for engineering practice purpose, a macroscopic analytical model is developed to predict the nonlinear behavior of the slit shear wall under cyclic loading. The mechanical properties of each constituent elements of this model are based on the actual behavior of the materials. Furthermore, the effects of both the axial force and bending moment on the shear behavior are taken into account with the aid of the modified compression-field theory. The numerical results are verified to be in close agreement with the experimental measurements.

Maximum axial load level and minimum confinement for limited ductility design of high-strength concrete columns

J.Y.K. Lam,J.C.M. Ho,A.K.H. Kwan 사단법인 한국계산역학회 2009 Computers and Concrete, An International Journal Vol.6 No.5

In the design of concrete columns, it is important to provide some nominal flexural ductility even for structures not subjected to earthquake attack. Currently, the nominal flexural ductility is provided by imposing empirical deemed-to-satisfy rules, which limit the minimum size and maximum spacing of the confining reinforcement. However, these existing empirical rules have the major shortcoming that the actual level of flexural ductility provided is not consistent, being generally lower at higher concrete strength or higher axial load level. Hence, for high-strength concrete columns subjected to high axial loads, these existing rules are unsafe. Herein, the combined effects of concrete strength, axial load level, confining pressure and longitudinal steel ratio on the flexural ductility are evaluated using nonlinear moment-curvature analysis. Based on the numerical results, a new design method that provides a consistent level of nominal flexural ductility by imposing an upper limit to the axial load level or a lower limit to the confining pressure is developed. Lastly, two formulas and one design chart for direct evaluation of the maximum axial load level and minimum confining pressure are produced.

Flexural ductility of prestressed concrete beams with unbonded tendons

F.T.K. Au,K.H.E. Chan,A.K.H. Kwan,J.S. Du 사단법인 한국계산역학회 2009 Computers and Concrete, An International Journal Vol.6 No.6

Based on a numerical method to analyse the full-range behaviour of prestressed concrete beams with unbonded tendons, parametric studies are carried out to investigate the influence of 11 parameters on the curvature ductility of unbonded prestressed concrete (UPC) beams. It is found that, among various parameters studied, the depth to prestressing tendons, depth to non-prestressed tension steel, partial prestressing ratio, yield strength of non-prestressed tension steel and concrete compressive strength have substantial effects on the curvature ductility. Although the curvature ductility of UPC beams is affected by a large number of factors, rather simple equations can be formulated for reasonably accurate estimation of curvature ductility. Conversion factors are introduced to cope with the difference in partial safety factors, shapes of equivalent stress blocks and the equations to predict the ultimate tendon stress in BS8110, EC2 and ACI318. The same equations can also be used to provide conservative estimates of ductility of UPC beams with compression steel.

Nonlinear behavior of deep reinforced concrete coupling beams

Zhao, Z.Z.,Kwan, A.K.H. Techno-Press 2003 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.15 No.2

Six large scale models of conventionally reinforced concrete coupling beams with span/depth ratios ranging from 1.17 to 2.00 were tested under monotonically applied shear loads to study their nonlinear behavior using a newly developed test method that maintained equal rotations at the two ends of the coupling beam specimen and allowed for local deformations at the beam-wall joints. By conducting the tests under displacement control, the post-peak behavior and complete load-deflection curves of the coupling beams were obtained for investigation. It was found that after the appearance of flexural and shear cracks, a deep coupling beam would gradually transform itself from an ordinary beam to a truss composed of diagonal concrete struts and longitudinal and transverse steel reinforcement bars. Moreover, in a deep coupling beam, the local deformations at the beam-wall joints could contribute significantly (up to the order of 50%) to the total deflection of the coupling beam, especially at the post-peak stage. Finally, although a coupling beam failing in shear would have a relatively low ductility ratio of only 5 or even lower, a coupling beam failing in flexure could have a relatively high ductility ratio of 10 or higher.